Ensuring Schools/NIFs Are in EPC and Profile Data is Accurate
February 7, 2016
The EPC Portal and all subsequent E-rate forms are designed as building blocks, with the foundation being the data you’ve established for your organization’s profile. If your foundation is not set up correctly, no future form, discount calculation, invoice, etc. will be accurate. Even though some data currently exists in your initial EPC profile, we are finding that some buildings are missing, data is incomplete, building addresses are inaccurate, rural/urban status are missing, and entity types is not accurately depicted. Therefore it’s important that you review all of the data in your EPC Portal and each school’s profile to ensure the data is accurate, make modifications if needed, and contact USAC to add any schools or admin buildings that are missing from your EPC Portal. To conduct that analysis, review these steps and attached screenshots.
1) Ensure the person reviewing this data has Full Rights Permissions
If the person designated as the Account Administrator (AA) does not wish to manage the account, they can either make another User the AA, or they can designate this responsibility to another Full Rights User that they’ve previously established in EPC. Only AAs can create new Users and assign User Permissions. (If you need to change your AA, contact USAC at 888-203-8100 and have them create a case #. Then e-mail sldpr@gdit.com from the school or library’s e-mail account, using that case # in the subject line, with required information for the new AA.)
2) Ensure all school or library buildings are in your EPC profile (including and especially all non-instructional/admin facilities)
When USAC created your EPC account, they tried to pre-populated it with Block 4 building data from your FY 2015 Form 471, Block 4. Unfortunately, no NIFs (non-instructional facilities) were loaded, and some entities are finding out that school or library buildings are missing as well. Therefore, it’s important for you to review closely the entities that are in your EPC portal. If you find that entities are missing, you cannot add them yourself, but instead must call or submit a request to USAC to add them to your EPC profile.
Where you can you check for these buildings? The easiest place is from your Landing Page where you will see them listed five-to-a-page. You can scroll through these pages to determine if any buildings are missing. Please pay careful attention to whether your Non-Instructional Facilities (NIFs or Admin Buildings) are missing. If any entities are missing, call USAC at 888-203-8100 and give them the building entity numbers that should be added to your Organization’s EPC Portal. USAC can add and remove these buildings over the phone and it’s much faster than Creating a Case and waiting for their reply (there’s currently a backlog). There is no way to add or remove a building into your portal yourself.
3) Ensure that each school or library’s addresses and attributes are accurate
Click on a school/library or admin building’s name and you will see the data that is currently stored for that building. The most important data to check for accuracy is the building’s address, the Applicant Type, and the School Sub-Type. To make changes to any of this data, click on the Manage Organization button on the top right side of the page and all of those field will become editable, including the Enrollment and NSLP data fields (if you want to take care of this now).
If you receive a “Permission Not Granted” error, it is most likely due to the fact that the school is associated with a different “parent” in EPC, and it’s mostly likely your IU. The EPC system is designed so that each building can only belong to one parent. If you’re seeing this error, you must call USAC at 888-203-8100 and have them fix the problem. Explain to them the error you received, and that the EPC system is identifying this school (or schools) as being with the wrong parent. Make sure they fix the problem while you’re on the phone and link these schools to your BEN.
4) Go to each school by returning to the Landing Page
To get to the Landing Page from anywhere in the EPC Portal, you must click on the USAC Logo in the top left side of the page.
If you have any questions, please contact me at jtschell@comcast.net. Unfortunately, I do not have access to your EPC portals and cannot make changes, so any specific issue with your account should go to USAC at 888-203-8100. They’re open from 8 – 8 M-F.
– Julie
Julie Tritt Schell
PA E-rate Coordinator
717-730-7133 – o
717-730-9060 – f
jtschell@comcast.net
www.e-ratepa.org
penn*link