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$0.00-Funded BEARs (Form 472s) and What To Do
Message Posted November 20, 2006
I have received numerous e-mails in the last 2 weeks from applicants who received BEAR (Form 472) Notification Letters and the amount of reimbursement approved was $0.00. If you have received such a response, please read this message carefully. If you received your BEAR Letter and did not review it detail, doublecheck to see if you, too, received the $0.00 amount.
The $0.00 approved amount does not mean that your E-rate funding has been denied. It typically means that there was a simple clerical error made on your BEAR. But unlike previous years where such errors were corrected via an e-mail or call from the SLD, this year, the SLD is zero-funding the BEAR and requiring you to resubmit a corrected BEAR.
What should you do if you were $0.00-funded? ... Follow these steps:
1) Because the deadline for filing Funding Year 8 (2005-2006) BEARs was October 30, 2006, you first must request an invoice deadline extension in order to resubmit your BEAR. It's very simple to do and all requests (especially for this reason) are approved. Simply follow these steps:
1. Go to “Submit a Question” feature on the SLD Web Site: http://www.slforms.universalservice.org/EMailResponse/EMail_Intro.aspx
2. Click “Continue” button.
3. Under “Topic Inquiry,” (the second box), select “Invoice Deadline Extension Request” and click “Go.”
4. Select “Other” and click “Continue.”
5. Complete the next screen, by providing your contact information as requested on the screen. Click “Continue.”
6. In the text box, provide the following information:
-- Form 471 Application Number
-- Funding Request Number (FRN)
-- Service Provider Name and SPIN
-- Amount of BEAR (if known)
-- Reason for Invoice Deadline Extension request: "My FY 2005 BEAR was $0.00-funded and I need additional time to resubmit."
2) The next immediate step is to determine what the error was on your BEAR. Sometimes (although rarely in recent months), the BEAR letter provides the reason for the $0.00 funding. If it doesn't, here's a list of possible reasons that you may have been $0.00 funded: http://www.universalservice.org/sl/providers/step09/invoice-error-codes.aspx. The most common errors are incorrect 471 or FRN numbers, or customer billed date issues.
If your BEAR letter doesn't provide the reason and you can't determine what it is yourself, call the SLD at 888-203-8100 and ask them to research it for you.
3) After your BEAR invoice deadline extension is approved (hopefully within 30 days), you can resubmit your BEAR for approval. Doing so before the invoice deadline extension has been approved will simply result in another rejection of the BEAR.
If you have any questions about this message, please don't hesitate to email me at jtschell@comcast.net.
-- Julie
Julie Tritt Schell
717-730-7133 - o
717-730-9060 - f
jtschell@comcast.net
www.e-ratepa.org
Penn*link
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