_posts/2015-05-12-announcing-the-calc-tool.md
---
title: "Announcing the CALC tool: Making pricing research easier in federal procurement"
date: 2015-05-12
layout: post
authors:
- brethauer
tags:
- procurement
- general services administration
- acquisition services
- calc
- agency work
- product launch
excerpt: "Today, 18F and the General Services Administration (GSA) launched a powerful new labor category and pricing research tool to help the federal contracting community make smarter, faster buying decisions."
description: "Today, 18F and the General Services Administration (GSA) launched a powerful new labor category and pricing research tool to help the federal contracting community make smarter, faster buying decisions."
image: /assets/blog/calc-announcement/calc_homepage.jpg
hero: false
---
Today, 18F and the General Services Administration (GSA) launched a [powerful new labor category and pricing research tool](https://calc.gsa.gov) to help the federal contracting
community make smarter, faster buying decisions.
Contract Awarded Labor Category (CALC) allows contracting officers to
conduct market research and price analysis for professional labor
categories across a database of contract awarded prices for 48,000 labor
categories from more than 5,000 recent GSA contracts.
Before CALC, contracting officers had to sift through paper contracts or
comb through GSA Advantage files to stitch together a picture of fair
and reasonable hourly labor rates.
CALC helps contracting officers determine the range of pricing — at the
highest level — for a specific labor category. For example, a search
for “Senior Engineer” will return comparable labor categories and their
rates, which can be further narrowed by filtering for associated
criteria such as years of experience, education level, etc.
This comparison is an important piece of information that contracting
officers can use to inform their decision about which contracts should
receive Requests for Quotations (RFQs), and in turn ensure the
government is spending taxpayers dollars wisely and in the most
efficient way.
## More details on the data
CALC searches *awarded* ceiling prices (at the master contract level) on several of GSA’s professional services schedules, including Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services (MOBIS), Environmental, Logistics Worldwide (LOGWORLD), Professional Engineering Schedule, Language, Advertising and Integrated Marketing
Schedules (AIMS), and the Consolidated Schedule.
## What’s next?
Future releases for CALC are likely to include the ability to input a
proposed price for a particular labor category to see where it falls
against comparable rates, as well as additional ways to control,
visualize, and export results.
## In federal acquisition? You can help!
To get involved in shaping and advancing this tool (and other
procurement-related tools), please get in touch with us at
[calc-18f@gsa.](mailto:calc-18f@gsa.gov)[gov](mailto:calc-18f@gsa.gov).
## Other digital tools
CALC is one of the numerous digital tools including [OASIS Discovery](https://discovery.gsa.gov/), PM/CPI Prices Paid Visualization, and the Statement of Work Library available on the [Professional Services Category Hallway](https://hallways.cap.gsa.gov/) that support and improve how the federal community acquires professional services.