GSA, General Services Administration (External) sent this bulletin at 05/02/2024 01:02 PM EDT
Coming Soon! - Big Improvements to OA Approval Process
Since PBS OASIS went live in late 2023, the OA approval process for GSA’s federal agency customers has proven to be challenging. To address many of these issues and streamline the OA approval process, we are working on some major enhancements to the system. Among the improvements:
Adding a new “View Only” role
A better, simplified approval workflow with no more action items
Addressing the issues that currently cause “stuck” OAs and missing approval buttons
Enabling all users in an agency to see who in their organization is actively reviewing an OA
Improving notifications and emails for the customer
All these exciting changes will be implemented in June 2024. The rollout will include live training and an updated user guide. We’ll have more updates along the way as details are finalized.
In the interim, see below for information on reporting “stuck” OAs.
How to Find and Rescue “Stuck” OAs
A “stuck” OA is one that is with an agency and is marked as “Review in Process” in OASIS but does not have the required buttons for Ordering Officials to approve or reject the OA. These “stuck” OAs come in a few different forms.
The Action Item Buttons are completely missing (“approve”, “return”, “request clarification”)
No action occurs after selecting “approve” or “return”
The OA review was reassigned but got lost during the transition
Your user account was deactivated while the OA was with you for review
This will all be fixed in the customer approval rebuild (coming June 2024), but until then if you have an OA that you think is stuck, please email pbsoasis@gsa.gov. Please include the OA number and a short description of the issue. We will remove the OA from your queue, and the region will resubmit it to you. This should resolve the problem, and we thank you for your patience as we countdown to the approval rebuild.
Tenant Improvements on the OA
Our Tenant Improvement (TI) sections got a bit of a cyclical refresh with the debut of OASIS, and we’ve gotten a few frequently asked questions about the new look.
Q: The start and end date aren’t on the OA Summary Report anymore. Why is this? A: When an OA is created, we’re at the award stage. We know how much the principal, interest, and term are going to be, but the start date may be less firm as it sometimes slips due to buildout delays. Therefore, the TI on the official OA Summary approval doesn’t specify the start or end date in order to allow it to adjust as needed. You can always see those dates by looking at the OA records PAYMENT tab to see the TI effective and expiration dates.
Q: Why do General and Custom TI no longer appear as separate lines on the rent bill? A: General and Custom TI are considered when setting your allowance based on your tier and deciding on RWA funds. This is shown on the Client Planning Agreement (CPA) and project documents. Once it gets to the OA however, there is no difference between the two classifications. The bill combines them into a single monthly amount.
Q: Why does rate over square foot no longer appear on the OA? A: The prior OA Tool converted everything to a rate per square foot. TI doesn’t really fit this model. The total principal spent (plus interest) is divided over the term to come up with a monthly amount. The rentable square feet and rate weren’t part of that calculation and caused confusion when there were slight fluctuations in sq ft. We removed those data elements that were not part of the calculation.
Q: Will my monthly TI amount ever change? A: Your monthly TI will change if you add additional TI, pay off TI during a partial release, or if the total term of the amortization period changes. Adding additional TI will result in a new OA approval, but paying down TI and changing the term are handled through the release process.
PBS OASIS Client Enrichment Series - Responses to Q&As are LIVE
On April 11, the OASIS team presented a live, virtual Client Enrichment Series session to review current system status, address user concerns, and discuss future system improvements. The session recording and Q&A are now available to view and share with colleagues.
OASIS will be offline and inaccessible on Thursday, May 16 to ensure billing is fully completed. The lockout is expected to last the full day, but if all goes well we are hoping to have OASIS access around 2 PM EST.
Training, Links, and Resources
Visit the PBS OASIS Website for links to the Customer User Guide, Training Videos, and more.
You can also email pbsoasis@gsa.gov with any questions or to report specific system issues or reach out to your regional team to discuss specific billing questions.
