$0.00-Funded BEARs (Form 472s) and What To Do
Message Posted November 5, 2010
~Also, be sure your vendor certified your Online BEAR ~
Did you receive a BEAR (Form 472) Notification Letter and the amount of reimbursement approved was $0.00? If so, please read this message carefully. If you received your BEAR Letter and did not review it detail, please review it now to make sure it doesn't say $0.00-funded. Likewise, if you filed a BEAR online, be sure that your vendor actually certified it (you would have received a confirmation e-mail). If you're unsure, go online and track your BEAR in the online BEAR system. If the status says "pending validation" it means that the vendor did not certify the online BEAR (usually because they don't have an E-rate PIN and cannot certify online). If it was not certified by the vendor, you must apply for an invoice deadline extension and after it's granted, then submit a PAPER BEAR to USAC.
The $0.00 approved amount does not mean that your E-rate funding has been denied. It just means that there was a simple clerical error made on your BEAR and you need to submit a corrected BEAR.
What should you do if you were $0.00-funded or forgot to file a BEAR? ... Follow these steps:
1) Because the deadline for filing Funding Year 12 (2009-2010) BEARs was October 28, 2010, you first must request an invoice deadline extension in order to submit or resubmit your BEAR. Simply fill-in the attached Invoice Deadline Extension Request (IDER) example and fax to the SLD ASAP. It's difficult to know when the extension approval will be granted, but it usually takes 2-3 months.
2) The next step is to determine what the error was on your BEAR. The BEAR letter should provide the reason for the $0.00 funding. If it doesn't, the most common denial reasons are: incorrect 471 or FRN numbers, customer billed date issues (listing 07/2010 instead of 07/2009) or math/discount errors.
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, you can resubmit your BEAR for approval. If you resubmit your BEAR before the invoice deadline extension has been approved, it will result in another rejection of the BEAR.
4) Correcting a BEAR: There's no way to correct an Online BEAR, so you'll need to start over. But if you filed a paper BEAR, you can simply correct the error on the original paper BEAR and resubmit.
If you have any questions about this message, please don't hesitate to email me at jtschell@comcast.net.
-Julie
717-730-7133 - o
717-730-9060 - f
jtschell@comcast.net
www.e-ratepa.org
Penn*link
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