Form 471 Filing Tips – C1, C2 and General

April 10, 2020

~ 20 days until filing deadline ~

# PA Entities Filed: 632

# FRNs:  1373

# in Wave Ready Status:  722 (53%)

Form 471 Deadline:  Wednesday, April 29

For those of you who haven’t yet filed, this is a friendly reminder that the Form 471 deadline is less than 3 weeks away.  To help with your filings, I’ve taken the questions that you’ve sent (this year and prior years) and compiled these 24 helpful filing hints, organized into 3 sections – Category 1, Category 2, and General.  At the bottom are direct links to the Guides.  Please let me know if you have any questions or if I can provide assistance in any way.

CATEGORY 1 FILING HINTS

1. For Internet and Data FRNs, Answer the Yes/No Questions This Way:

    • Answer 2nd Question first (is this for a WAN?)
    • If the answer to the 2nd Question is Yes, then the answer to 1st question is No
    • Internet FRNs should always answer No/Yes.
    • There is a small exception for consortia backbone applications where they would answer No/No.

2. Creating FRN Line Items – Breaking Out Circuit Costs

Although it’s easy to figure out how to “Add an FRN,” creating the Line Items under that FRN to actually describe the services/equipment and specify the amount of funding requested is a little confusing.  After you’ve created an FRN, click on the FRN number in blue (it’s hyperlinked) and a page will appear asking if you want to “Add New FRN Line Item.”  Continue adding Line Items for that FRN until you’ve built your FRN.  For example, if you’re requesting funding a Lit Fiber WAN, if you have 1 – 10 GB connection, 6 – 1 GB connections, and taxes, you will have 1 FRN with 3 FRN Line Items, identifying the unique speed, costs and recipients of each Line Item; and the total taxes for the entire service.

3. Handing Contract Amendments in EPC

Unfortunately, there’s no way to modify or add additional documents to your existing Contract Record in EPC.  If you amended your contract (perhaps to upgrade bandwidth), PIA may reach out to you to ask why the requested services/amounts are different than what are contained in your original contract in which case you’ll simply send them the contract amendment.  Do not create a new contract record simply because a contract was amended.

4. Have Written Documentation if Extending a Contract

If you have a contract that includes voluntary extensions, and you are exercising one of those extensions for FY 2020, be sure to have something in writing to or with the service provider.  This can be as simple as an e-mail to the service provider indicating that you intend to exercise one of the extensions in your contract, pursuant to the terms of the original contract.  PIA will see that your Contract Expiration Date is a year later than last year and will require you to submit proof that you extended the contract.  Such documentation to or with the service provider must be dated on or before the date you submitted your Form 471.  It’s also a good idea to mention in the FRN Narrative box that you are extending the contract.  There is no way to upload this with your original Contract Record and you should not create a new Contract Record.

5. Have Documentation of Taxes/Surcharges

If your invoices include vendor taxes/surcharges, be sure to include those amounts on a separate FRN Line Item.  PIA is asking for proof of those amounts again this year, so be prepared to provide a copy of a vendor invoice or contract that shows these amounts.  If you have signed a new contract with a vendor and don’t yet know the taxes/fees, REQUIRE YOUR SERVICE PROVIDER TO PROVIDE YOU WITH THIS INFORMATION.  For most transport services, vendors charge the 5.25% PA Gross Receipts Tax (at a minimum), and many also charge the Universal Service Fee (currently 19.6%).  Most Internet invoices do not include taxes/surcharges.

6. Don’t Select Month-to-Month if Your Have a Contract

When creating a FRN, the form asks if you’re purchasing from a contract, month-to-month (MTM) or tariff.  In this case, MTM doesn’t mean that you’re paying vendors on a monthly basis.  It means that you don’t have a contract with a vendor.  All Category 2 FRNs must have contracts, and most Category 1 FRNs now have contracts (since voice is no longer eligible).  Be sure to create your Contract Record in EPC prior to starting the 471, then select Contract when you get to this question on the FRN.  The system will then ask you to link to the appropriate Contract Record for the services or equipment in that FRN.

CATEGORY 2 FILING HINTS

1. How to Allocate Category 2 Budgets for Shared Equipment

If a piece of Category 2 equipment is utilized by two or more schools, the cost of the equipment must be allocated from the C2 budgets of the schools sharing the equipment – regardless of where the equipment is physically located.  Core switches, firewalls, and wireless controllers are good examples of shared equipment.  After you enter the costs in the FRN Line Item and identify the schools utilizing the equipment, the 471 will ask “Are the costs shared equally among all of the entities?”.   How you answer this question is important because it will determine how much of each school’s Category 2 budget will be allocated to used.  Be sure to review this page when deciding how to answer this question: https://e-ratepa.org/?p=32295.

2. How to Handle Schools with Too Little (or no) Remaining Category 2 Budgets

As I’ve said previously, never ever request more funding than is available in a school’s C2 budget.  If you find that a school with no remaining C2 budget, here’s what to do:

Shared Equipment:  If two or more schools/libraries will be sharing a piece of equipment, list the total amount of the equipment, then list the amount that is over the C2 budget as ineligible.  Then allocate the remaining eligible amount to the schools sharing the equipment, according to your cost allocation calculations (or an equal allocation).  Do not include the impacted “no C2 budget” schools as Recipients of Service as the system does not allow $0 to be entered on the Recipients of Service Page.

Site Specific Equipment:  If a school doesn’t have a C2 budget available to pay for equipment, don’t list that piece of equipment on the application.  If they have some C2 budget available, reduce the quantity of items to come in under their C2 budget.

3. Remove These Ineligible Items

Often, equipment is eligible, but some of the components/features are not.  Here are a few of the most commonly overlooked ineligible items that you should be sure to remove from your Form 471 funding request, or list as ineligible:

Firewalls:  Only the actual appliance and basic software are eligible.  Anti-virus, anti-spam, filtering, and DDOS features/software are not eligible and must be removed or cost-allocated.  If it’s a bundled package, your vendor should provide you with the accurate eligibility percentage.

UPSs:  Network Cards are not eligible and must be removed from your funding request.  Also, don’t forget that only eligible equipment may be connected to the UPSs.

4. Multi-Year Product Licenses Eligibility

Product licenses are E-rate eligible and should be requested as Internal Connections on the 471.  The full cost of a multi-year license may be requested upfront in the year it will be purchased, even if the number of license years exceeds the number of years remaining on a school’s C2 budget.  List licenses under the subcategory of “license” and not the type of equipment it’s a license for.  In other words, if it’s a wireless controller license, select ‘License’ and not ‘Wireless Data Distribution’.

5. Basic Maintenance Services Are Not Considered Licenses

Be careful not to mistake maintenance (support) services as product licenses.  Also, E-rate rules do not permit the requesting of multi-year maintenance (support) services in a single year – these must be amortized and requested in the funding year for which the service covers.

6. Break Out All Components into Separate FRN Line Items – Including Switches

If your Category 2 request contains multiple components, you must create a separate FRN Line Item for each component (model), and then show the # of units, the cost per unit, and which schools will be using the equipment.  For example, a common mistake applicants make is to request just a single FRN Line Item for switches, with a single SKU.  Then during USAC invoicing, the invoices are denied because the individual components were not listed/approved on the Form 471.

7. Including Installation on Category 2 FRNs

Create an Internal Connections FRN and the FRN line items for the equipment being installed.  Then create another FRN Line Item and for “Type of Internal Connection,” select > Miscellaneous > Installation from the drop down options.  Then select the Product Type (switches, wireless APs, etc), then the Make and Model of the equipment being installed.

8. Have Structured Cabling Contracts be Single Priced

For structured cabling, try to have your vendor contracts be for a single price, by building – not broken down by widget.  Then just create 1 FRN Line Item in the Form 471.  Vendor invoices, therefore, also should have just a single price, by building – not broken down by widget being installed.  On the Form 471, create an Internal Connections FRN.  Then create a single FRN Line Item and for “Type of Internal Connection,” select > Miscellaneous > Installation from the drop down options.  Then select the ‘Cabling’ for the Product Type > ‘Other’ for the Make > Type in name of the vendor contracted to do the installation > type “structured cabling installation” for the Model.

9. Use C2 Bulk Upload Tool for Large FRNs

When creating Internal Connections FRNs with multiple FRN Line Items or multiple Recipients of Service, applicants can use a Bulk Upload feature where a Template is created off-line and then uploaded into the FRN.  It’s a true lifesaver for some applications!   For more details about the Bulk Upload feature and to view the Guide, see: https://e-ratepa.org/?p=32213.

10. PIA Reviews for UPSs

During PIA review, applicants requesting UPSs will receive a series of PIA requests asking about what specific equipment will be plugged into each UPS in order to ensure that only E-rate eligible equipment can be attached.  In order to be              prepared with answers, please review the questions at: https://e-ratepa.org/?p=32332.

GENERAL FORM 471 FILING HINTS

1. Finding Contracts Records to Select After Clicking Search

When you create an FRN in the 471, the system asks if it’s based on a contracted service or MTM service.  If you choose Contract, the system will ask which contract you want to associate with that FRN.  If you forgot to create your Contract Record in the EPC Contract Module prior to starting the 471, no worries – add them now.  In a separate tab, go to your Landing Page > Name of your District > Contracts > Manage Contracts > Add a Contract.  Then create a Contract Record for each separate contract you have (both C1 and C2).  Reminder, you’re not required to upload copies of your contracts, but I strongly suggest you do so because PIA will likely ask you for them anyway.  If you use the Copy FRN feature, your contract will still be linked from last year and doesn’t need linked again. (For help creating Contract Records, see https://e-ratepa.org/?p=32156.)

2. Returning to the Main FRN Page (and stop adding FRN Line Items)

When you’re in the FRN Line Item page, instead of clicking on the green “Add New FRN Line Item,” click on the “Continue” button at the bottom right of the page.  That will take you back to the Main FRN page where you will find all of the FRNs you’ve created.  To get back into the FRN Line Item(s) for a single FRN, click on the blue FRN number (it’s hyperlinked).

3. Getting Back Into the 471

If you click on something that takes you out of the 471, or if you deliberately leave the 471, it’s easy to return where you left off.  Simply go to your EPC Landing Page by clicking on the USAC Logo, and then under “My Tasks” click on the appropriate “FCC Form 471 – #20xxxxxxxx {Nickname You Gave the Form}.”

4. Clicked on “Review Form 471” and I’m Lost

This is truly one of the most confusing pieces of filing the 471.  After you click “Review FCC Form 471,” the screen goes blank for a second, and then returns you to EPC.  YOU HAVE NOT YET SUBMITTED YOUR FORM.  Wait 15 seconds, refresh your browser, and under “My Tasks” on your EPC Landing Page you will see a task entitled “Review PDF for FCC Form 471 – #20xxxxxxxxx {Nickname You Gave the Form}.  Click on this task, and you will be taken back to the 471 and given the opportunity to review a PDF of your draft 471.  If you have no changes, check the small certification box, then “Continue to Certification.”  If you do have changes, click on “Edit Form” in the bottom left corner of the screen to return to the 471.

5. Clicked on “Save and Share” and Lost My 471

Whenever possible, don’t click this button!  The draft 471 is then taken from your EPC profile and a message is sent to all other “users” associated with the organization asking if they want to “accept the task.”  Only ever use the “Save and Share” feature if you truly want to “pass the ball” to another user to finish or certify the application.

6. Changing/Updating Enrollment & NSLP Data

Although it’s too late up update your EPC Profile (the Admin Window closed on January 13), if you find that you forgot to update your data or found inaccuracies, you can still make corrections.  After the 471 is submitted, submit a RAL Modification and follow the steps using this Guide:  https://e-ratepa.org/?p=32266.

7. How to Answer Questions on the Certification Page

Yes/No Questions: On the final Certification Page, there are two questions asking if you received any funds from a service provider or if a service provider has helped you locate funds.  The answer to both of these questions should be NO.  Essentially, they are asking if a service provider has waived any of your non-discounted amounts (your fair share), or given you funds to offset those amounts. Don’t be confused by the meaning of these questions or pause in anyway.  The answers should always be NO.  If a vendor does offer to waive your share or give you funds to cover it, cancel your contract with that vendor and go to the next lowest bid.

Technology Budget Question:  The forms asks for “Total budgeted amount allocated to resources not eligible for E-rate support.”  Here they want you to take your entire technology budget and subtract the amount  you’re spending on E-rate purchases.  In reality, if you enter the estimated amount of your technology budget, that’s fine.  Just don’t list $0.

8. How to Locate PIA Inquiries After Receiving E-mail from PIA

Finding how to respond in EPC to a PIA inquiry can be a little challenging.  The initial PIA reviewer’s e-mail will have a subject line that says “201010xxx – E-rate Review Information” which doesn’t appear to be requesting information, but that’s exactly what it’s doing.  In the body of the message, click on the hyperlinked “Click here to respond to inquiries” which will take you into the EPC page where the Inquiry can be found.  Then in the upper right corner of the page, click on “Respond to Inquiries”, and then the ‘Outreach Type’ will become an active hyperlink.  The most common Outreach Types are:  Eligibility of Products and Services, Requested Discount, Eligibility of Entities, and Category 2 Budget.  Click on the Outreach Type and then proceed to answer the questions, upload the requested invoices, etc.  Don’t click Submit until the entire Inquiry has been completed.  If you need more time to respond, click “Request Extension” located at the top right corner of the page.

Topic-Related Guides and Additional Guidance:

If you have any questions as you’re working through your Form 471, please don’t hesitate to e-mail me at jtschell@comcast.net.

Stay safe and healthy, my E-rate family!

— Julie

Julie Tritt Schell
Pennsylvania E-rate Coordinator
717-730-7133 – o
jtschell@comcast.net
www.e-ratepa.org

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