February 5, 2018<\/p>\n
Attached:\u00a0Form 471 Category 2 Filing Guide FY 2018<\/a><\/p>\n ~ PIA already reviewing submitted 471s \u2013 including C2! ~ CATEGORY 2 FILING GUIDE<\/strong><\/p>\n Category 2 is the E-rate funding mechanism designed to fund networking equipment and infrastructure within<\/strong> a school or library building.\u00a0 All eligible requests that have followed the proper bidding rules will be funded, regardless of E-rate discount, up to a building’s 5-year pre-discount cap.\u00a0 Attached you will find the FY 2018 Category 2 Form 471 Filing Guide, containing 108 slides, walking you through three funding requests as follows:<\/p>\n WHAT\u2019S NEW RELATED TO CATEGORY 2 FORM 471 FILINGS FOR FY 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n HELPFUL HINTS FOR FILING THE FORM 471<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. Multi-Year Product Licenses Eligibility<\/strong><\/p>\n Product licenses are E-rate eligible and should be requested as Internal Connections on the 471.\u00a0 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\u2019s C2 budget.\u00a0 Request the license as if it is the piece of equipment belonging to the license, and then list the license SKU in the \u2018Model\u2019 field.\u00a0 That way the PIA reviewer will know it is for a license and not the actual product.<\/p>\n 2. Basic Maintenance Services Are Not Considered Licenses<\/strong><\/p>\n Be careful not to mistaken maintenance services as product licenses.\u00a0 Also, E-rate rules do not permit the requesting of multi-year maintenance services in a single year \u2013 these must be amortized and requested in the funding year for which the service covers.<\/p>\n 3. Ignore the \u201cView Category 2 Budget Information\u201d in the Form 471<\/strong><\/p>\n On the Main FRN Page of the Form 471, there is a link in the top right corner of the page \u201cView Category 2 Budget Information\u201d.\u00a0 The data contained in that link is inaccurate and will only confuse you.\u00a0 A more accurate tool is available at: https:\/\/sltools.universalservice.org\/portal-external\/budgetLookup\/<\/a> except that it does not contain the updated enrollments you listed in EPC during the FY 2018 Admin Window.<\/p>\n 4. Have Structured Cabling Contracts be Single Priced<\/strong><\/p>\n For structured cabling, try to have your vendor contracts be for a single price, by building \u2013 not broken down by widget.\u00a0 Then just create 1 FRN Line Item in the Form 471.\u00a0 Vendor invoices, therefore, also should have just a single price, by building \u2013 not broken down by widget.<\/p>\n 5. Break Out All Components into Separate FRN Line Items \u2013 Including Switches<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 For example, a common mistake applicants make is to request just a single FRN Line Item for switches, with a single SKU.\u00a0 Then during USAC invoicing, the invoices are denied because the individual components were not listed\/approved on the Form 471.<\/p>\n 6. Break Out Ineligible Costs of Firewalls<\/strong><\/p>\n Firewalls often have ineligible components, such as the anti-virus, anti-spam, and filtering modules\/software, and the costs of these ineligible items cannot be included on the FRN.\u00a0 If the firewall is sold as a bundled package from the manufacturer, the vendor must give you a % eligibility for the bundle to account for the ineligible components\/features bundled with the eligible equipment.<\/p>\n 7. Category 2 Contract Requirement<\/strong><\/p>\n All Category 2 purchases require a signed contract prior to submitting the Form 471.\u00a0 This can be as simple as signing\/dating the vendor contract, and including the contract term and any funding contingencies.\u00a0 Before starting your Form 471, upload the signed contract into EPC. \u00a0Landing Page > Name of District > Contracts > Manage Contracts.\u00a0 The Contract Module Guide can be found at: https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/?p=24081<\/a>. \u00a0The PEPPM Contract Module Guide can be found at: https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/?p=24161<\/a>.<\/p>\n 8. Wisely Allocate C2 Budgets for Shared Equipment<\/strong><\/p>\n If a piece of Category 2 equipment is shared by two or more schools, the cost of the equipment must be allocated from the C2 budgets of the schools sharing the equipment (core switches and wireless controllers are good examples of shared equipment).\u00a0 Deciding which cost allocation method to choose \u2014 and making sure you do so correctly on your Form 471 \u2014 is important. \u00a0You can either 1) allocate the costs equally (the same amounts) from each school\u2019s C2 budget that is using the equipment, or 2) allocate the costs on a weighted basis.\u00a0\u00a0 The second option requires some off-line math to be done, but it allocates more funding from the schools that have larger C2 budgets which may be advantageous to you.\u00a0 Here is a Guide to help you figure out the cost allocation guidelines\/math for shared equipment – https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/?p=12651<\/a>.<\/p>\n 9. Caution if Using \u201cCopy FRN\u201d Feature<\/strong><\/p>\n I\u2019ve recently worked with several applicants having trouble submitting their FY 2018 Form 471s and the commonality seems to be whether they used the Copy FRN Feature.\u00a0 Therefore, starting now, I won\u2019t recommend that applicants use this feature when creating their Form 471 FRNs for FY 2018.\u00a0 Note: If you\u2019ve already created an FRN using the Copy FRN feature, and if you encounter a problem, delete the FRN and start over.<\/p>\n 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<\/a>.<\/p>\n Happy 471 Filing!<\/p>\n — Julie<\/p>\n Julie Tritt Schell penn*link<\/p>\n\n
\n~ Bulk Upload Guide Coming Next ~
\n~ Be Sure to Read Helpful Hints below ~<\/p>\n\n
\n
\nPA E-rate Coordinator
\n717-730-7133 – o
\n717-730-9060 – f
\njtschell@comcast.net<\/a>
\nwww.e-ratepa.org<\/a><\/p>\n