April 23, 2021

TIP OF THE WEEK: The Category Two Budgets page on the USAC website has been updated with information for the first full budget cycle (FY2021-FY2025). This page also has a link to a PDF document that contains the guidance for the six-year test period (FY2015-FY2020).

Commitments for Funding Year (FY) 2020 and FY2021

FY2021. USAC released FY2021 Wave 2 on April 22. As of April 23, FY2021 commitments total over $743 million.

FY2020. USAC released FY2020 Wave 52 Funding Commitment Decision Letters (FCDLs) on April 21. As of April 23, FY2020 commitments total over $2.37 billion.

On the date that USAC issues FCDLs, you can access your FCDL notification from the Notifications section of your landing page in the E-Rate Productivity Center (EPC).

Invoicing Dataset Posted

USAC has posted the E-Rate Invoices and Authorized Disbursements (FCC Forms 472 and 474) Dataset in the Open Data section of the USAC website, along with a data glossary, an E-Rate Invoice Disbursements Data Lookup Tool, and an instructional video.

Below are some notes on each of these new features:

E-Rate Invoices and Authorized Disbursements (FCC Forms 472 and 474) Dataset

This dataset provides information on invoice line items for all funding years that were completed on or after July 1, 2016. "Completed" line items are those that USAC has reviewed and issued a payment decision. On these line items, the status is "Sent to USAC." The dataset currently contains over 1.8 million records (individual invoice line items).

In addition to data on each invoice line item, this dataset will include the applicant 498 ID and some information from the associated FCC Form 471.

Pending and canceled invoice line items are not included in the dataset.

Note that it may take several business days after an invoice line item's completion date for funds to be posted to the recipient's bank account. Here is the customary schedule for payment processing:

• USAC creates and batches payment files on Mondays and Thursdays.
• The Open Data invoicing dataset is updated one day later – on Tuesdays and Fridays.
• These dates may shift if the payment file creation date is near the end of a month or a federal holiday.
• The U.S. Treasury then processes the payments.
• After the U.S. Treasury sends a payment to the recipient's bank, the posting and availability of the funds depends on the bank's deposit procedures.

You can use this dataset to find the status of one or more completed line items, including the reason for a reduction or denial if the line was not paid in full. You can also find a list of invoice decision codes and plain language descriptions of those codes on the USAC website to assist you.

• Some descriptions will appear identical. This is because some line items are rejected during automated review, and others are rejected for the same reason but only after a manual review.

The landing page for each Open Data dataset includes a Featured Content section with helpful links to specific information, an About this Dataset with general information, and a Columns in this Dataset with a list of the columns (fields) in the dataset and a short description of each. You can also find a data glossary if one is available, either under Featured Content or About this Dataset. (You may have to click the "Show More" link at the bottom of the section to get to the related attachments.)

Data Glossary

The data glossary contains additional information on the data in the dataset: the Field Name, the Field Description, and the Field Completeness.

• The Field Name is the name assigned to the field in the dataset. This may not be the same name as the related field that appears on the invoice form or the source of the related data.
• The Field Description is a detailed description of the information in the field. This will contain more information than the short description in the Columns in this Dataset section of the landing page.
• Field Completeness indicates how often there is a value in the field, expressed as a percentage. Data may be missing because an entry in the field is not required or the field is not applicable.

USAC provides the data glossaries in a PDF format on the Open Data platform so you can print or save them for reference.

E-Rate Invoice Disbursements Data Lookup Tool

To assist users who are not ready to start creating their own queries, reports, and visualizations in Open Data, we have posted a lookup tool.

• Applicants can search for invoice line items that feature their Billed Entity Number (BEN).
• Consultants can search for their clients' invoice line items that feature their Consultant Registration Number (CRN).
• Service providers can search for invoice line items that feature their Service Provider Identification Number (SPIN).

You can also set specific parameters to limit your search results, such as a specific time period during which the invoice lines were completed.

We have posted an instructional video on the USAC website that demonstrates how to use the tool to perform the searches described above and to download the information.

Although the tool is designed to allow you to create specific reports, you can also create your own account in Open Data and learn how to set up your own reports by watching the stock training videos on the Open Data Video Guides web page and the Open Data Platform section of the Videos page. The advantage of creating and saving your own reports is that they will automatically update each time new data is available.

Questions?

As a reminder, each dataset has a button you can use to contact the dataset owner. The dataset owner can help you with general questions about the dataset and the information available in the dataset. You can also use this link to provide feedback on the dataset.

If you have questions about the E-Rate program or want more information on reductions or denials of specific invoice line items, you can open a customer service case in EPC or call the Client Service Bureau (CSB) at (888) 203-8100. Because you now have access to the completed invoice line item numbers, please include those on your request. CSB can also provide information on invoice line items that USAC has not yet reviewed and/or issued a payment decision on (and therefore do not appear in the lookup tool).

Register for the Upcoming E-Rate Invoicing Dataset and Tool Demos

We are conducting two webinar events on Wednesday, May 5, 2021. During the events, we will discuss the new E-Rate invoicing dataset and demonstrate how to use the E-Rate Invoice Disbursements Data Lookup Tool.

• The first webinar will cover the tool itself. You will learn how to locate information about the invoicing dataset and how to use the tool to search for and export invoice line item details for your BEN, CRN, or SPIN as described above.
• The second webinar will go into more detail about creating custom dataset views, applying filters (including relative date filters), creating chart tools, and aggregating measures. We strongly suggest that you attend the first webinar or watch the instructional video before attending this webinar.

The schedule below includes the time, topic, recommended audience, and E-Rate experience level for each event. Click the links below to register today.

As with our regular webinars, we will give preference to questions about the topic under discussion.

Please visit our Webinars page to register for other upcoming events.