August 8, 2016

Update on Invoicing and Payment Processes for FY2016

Applicants and service providers can now submit invoices for FY2016, and USAC can review, process and pay them.

• Previously, while service providers have been able to submit an FCC Form 474, Service Provider Invoice (SPI) Form, online and electronically for FY2016, USAC held all submitted SPI Forms until the review and payment processes were in place for FY2016.
• Applicants were unable to submit an FCC Form 472, Billed Entity Applicant Reimbursement (BEAR) Form, online for FY2016. Applicants can now submit BEAR Forms for FY2016, and the review and payment processes are in place as well.

USAC continues to process invoices for FY2015 and previous funding years using our legacy system. However, for the FY2016 submission, review, and payment processes to work successfully, information from the E-rate Productivity Center (EPC) had to be migrated into the legacy system. That process has now been fully implemented.

As a reminder, applicants filing BEAR Forms for FY2016 must have certified – and USAC must have successfully processed – an FCC Form 498, Service Provider and Billed Entity Identification Number and General Contact Information Form.

• After the applicant certifies this form, USAC must verify the banking information. Please respond promptly to the request from USAC so that the review process can be completed.
• Make sure you put your bank routing number and your bank account number in the correct fields.
• If you make a change to your FCC Form 498, you must re-certify the form or we cannot process it.
• For questions, call us at (888) 641-8722 and choose Option 5 (FCC Form 498) and then Option 1 or 2 (questions about the form).

Submitting an invoice to USAC

• To submit a SPI Form online, service providers can navigate to the Forms page (the second entry under the "Resources and Tools" menu on the left-hand side of any Schools and Libraries web page) and click "File Online" in the FCC Form 474 row of the table of forms.
  • To file SPI Forms electronically, service providers must first set up electronic invoicing. You can find the appropriate instructions on the Electronic Invoicing guidance document. (You can also locate this document by navigating to STEP 5, Invoicing, under the Service Provider Process banner on the main page.)
• To file a BEAR Form online, applicants navigate to the Forms page and click "File Online" in the FCC Form 472 row.
• Remember that invoice forms can no longer be submitted on paper for any funding year.

We will include more detailed guidance about completing the FCC Form 498 review process in this Friday's SL News Brief.

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