There are 29 days remaining in the FY 2018 Form 471 filing window and most of you are at the stage where you have conducted your bid evaluations and obtained board approval.\u00a0 Congratulations!\u00a0 It\u2019s now time to sign your Category 2 contracts, upload them into EPC, and file the Form 471.\u00a0 Below are more than a dozen helpful hints to make your Category 2 Form 471 filings and subsequent PIA reviews as painless as possible (and the FY 2018 C2 Filing Guide is attached).\u00a0 Please be sure to read this message before filing your C2 applications.<\/p>\n
Category 2 Budget Amounts for FY 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n The FCC has just announced the inflation factor for the FY 2018 E-rate funding cap and, although they haven\u2019t been officially announced yet by USAC, we expect the C2 budget amounts for FY 2018 to be as follows:\u00a0 $156.23\/student, $5.21\/sq. foot(Libraries with IMLS Locale Codes 11, 12, or 21), or <\/strong>$2.39\/square foot (all other libraries).<\/p>\n Don\u2019t Exceed Your Category 2 Budgets!<\/strong><\/p>\n Whatever you do, don\u2019t request more Category 2 funding for a school than what remains in their budget.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Your application will likely be moved to the end of the PIA review list, and PIA will just make you reduce your funding request anyway.\u00a0 And while this sounds easy to do, it\u2019s not because you will have to explain exactly which component from which FRN Line Item must be removed in order to come in under budget.\u00a0 If a school\u2019s C2 equipment costs exceed the school\u2019s available C2 budget, you have two choices:\u00a0 1) list the amount that is \u201cover budget\u201d as ineligible on the FRN and then explain this in the narrative, or 2) remove components or reduce the cost of the components from the FRN entirely to come in under budget.<\/p>\n Calculating Remaining Category 2 Budgets<\/strong><\/p>\n To determine the amount remaining in each school\u2019s C2 budget, cautiously use this tool:\u00a0 https:\/\/sltools.universalservice.org\/portal-external\/budgetLookup\/<\/a>.\u00a0 I say \u201ccautiously\u201d because only the \u201cApproved Pre-Discount\u201d (green arrow) amount is 100% accurate.\u00a0 This figure includes the pre-discount committed amount for FY 2015, 2016 and 2017, minus any approved Form 500\u2019s that returned commitments or cancelled funding. \u00a0Unfortunately, the \u201cC2 Budget\u201d figure (red arrow) is faulty for 2 reasons:\u00a0 it is based on your FY 2017 enrollment, not the enrollment you entered into the EPC profiles during the FY 2018 Admin Window, and USAC has not yet adjusted the budget for the FY 2018 inflation factor.<\/p>\n So do the offline math as follows:\u00a0 (FY 2018 School Enrollment in EPC * $156.23) \u2013 \u201cApproved Pre-Discount\u201d Amount<\/strong> (green arrow).\u00a0 Remember:\u00a0 C2 budgets are calculated by building, not by district.<\/p>\n 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 Remove These Ineligible Items<\/strong><\/p>\n Often, equipment is eligible, but some of the components\/features are not.\u00a0 Here are 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:<\/p>\n Firewalls:\u00a0 Only the actual appliance and basic software are eligible.\u00a0 Anti-virus, anti-spam, filtering, and DDOS features\/software are not eligible and must be removed or cost-allocated.\u00a0 If it\u2019s a bundled package, your vendor can provide you with the accurate eligibility percentage.<\/p>\n UPSs:\u00a0 Network Cards are not eligible and must be removed from your funding request.\u00a0 Also, don\u2019t forget that only eligible equipment may be connected to the UPSs.<\/p>\n FRN Line Items Bulk Upload Tool<\/strong><\/p>\n 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.\u00a0 It\u2019s a true lifesaver for some applications!\u00a0 \u00a0For more details about the Bulk Upload feature and to view the Guide, see:\u00a0 https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/?p=24491<\/a>.<\/p>\n 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 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 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 Including Installation on Category 2 FRNs <\/strong><\/p>\n Create an Internal Connections FRN and the FRN line items for the equipment being installed.\u00a0 Then create another FRN Line Item and for \u201cType of Internal Connection,\u201d select > Miscellaneous > Installation from the drop down options.\u00a0 Then select the Product Type (switches, wireless APs, etc), then the Make and Model of the equipment being installed.<\/p>\n 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 being installed.\u00a0 On the Form 471, create an Internal Connections FRN.\u00a0 Then create a single FRN Line Item and for \u201cType of Internal Connection,\u201d select > Miscellaneous > Installation from the drop down options.\u00a0 Then select the \u2018Cabling\u2019 for the Product Type > \u2018Other\u2019 for the Make > Type in name of the vendor contracted to do the installation > type \u201cstructured cabling installation\u201d for the Model.<\/p>\n 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 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 recommend that applicants NOT 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 Please let me know if you have any questions!<\/p>\n Happy Filing!<\/p>\n Julie Tritt Schell Penn*link<\/p>\n\n![\"cat_2_budget_stats2\"](\"https:\/\/e-ratepa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/cat_2_budget_stats2.jpg\")
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\nPA E-rate Coordinator
\n717-730-7133 – o
\n717-730-9060 – f
\njtschell@comcast.net<\/a>
\nwww.e-ratepa.org<\/a><\/p>\n