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Getting
Your Discounts Once your funding commitments have been approved, you must still complete some paperwork before you can receive your e-rate discounts. Form 486 Applicants who are notified of funding commitments and have received their Funding Commitment Decisions Letter use Form 486 to inform SLD that the services that were approved have been provided by a vendor. Electronic versions of Form 486 and Form 486 Instructions can be accessed via the Web at: http://www.sl.universalservice.org/form We recommend that these forms be sent by express delivery or U.S. Postal Service Return Receipt Requested. SLD-Form 486 c/o Ms. Smith 3833 Greenway Drive Lawrence, KS 66044-5444 Form 500 When the FCC tried to simplify the Form 486 in the summer of 2000, it transferred some of its tasks to a new form, the Form 500. Most e-rate applicants will not have to file a Form 500. However, your situation may fit one of these cases in which you will have to use it: You needed to extend a contract to take advantage of an extension in the installation period. In the first two years of the e-rate program, the FCC decided to extend the deadline by which applicants could complete their one-time installations to Sept. 30, instead of the usual June 30 end to the e-rate funding year. In some cases, applicants may have reported on their Form 486 that their contract expired before Sept. 30. Thus, to take advantage of the deadline extension, they would need to extend their contract and report that extension to the SLD. The Form 500 lets you do that. You decide you will not need a particular funding commitment, or you will not need as much money as you originally requested. In the e-rate program's first year, the SLD committed several hundred million dollars that applicants never ended up using. It was felt that if applicants would notify the SLD that they would no longer need a funding commitment, it could be freed up for someone else. This notification is not required, but may help other e-rate applicants. However, once you relinquish funding, you cannot reclaim it in that funding year. Beginning in Year 3, the SLD changed the rules about when a Form 486 could be filed. If an applicant received a funding commitment letter before the start of the funding year, and thought it would start receiving services in July, the first month of the funding year, it could file its Form 486 early. The Form 500 provides a mechanism through which the applicant can let the SLD know that it made a mistake and that it did not actually receive its services in July, as it had said on its Form 486. The Form 500 and instructions for completing it are available by clicking here. BEAR Forms and Discounted Invoices After you have filed a Form 486, the SLD must still receive additional paperwork before it will process e-rate discounts. You can either be reimbursed for bills you have already paid or your vendor can send the SLD a form to receive the government's portion of the purchase price. You will need to work out with your vendor which payment method will be used. However, in Year 3, once you begin using a particular method for a particular funding request, you must continue to use that method for the rest of the year. The BEAR Form (Form 472) The Billed Entity Applicant Reimbursement Form, otherwise known as the BEAR form or the Form 472, is used in cases where an applicant has already paid a vendor. This approach may be necessary if you begin receiving services before you receive your funding commitment letter. Sometimes applicants prefer this method because they feel it gives them greater leverage over their provider's performance, or because it is easier to recapture the savings for the technology budget. You can obtain a copy of this form and instructions for completing it at: http://www.sl.universalservice.org/form. You must file a BEAR form for each service provider that you have paid. Before you file the form, you must get the provider's signature on the fourth page. The SLD will permit you to fax this page to your provider and get it returned via fax. In the case of 3Com, BEAR forms should be faxed to Denise Cano at 408-326-7285. Her telephone number is 408-326-5884. Once a BEAR form has been completed and your vendor has signed the fourth page, the whole form should be mailed or sent by express delivery or U.S. Postal Service Return Receipt Requested to: SLD-BEAR Form c/o Ms. Smith 3833 Greenway Drive Lawrence, KS 66044-5444 When the SLD has reviewed and approved your BEAR form, it will notify you by letter. It will then notify the Universal Service Administrative Company to send a check for the approved amount to your vendor. The vendor is supposed to cut a check, or credit your account, within 10 days of receiving the check from USAC. The Service Provider Invoice Form (Form 474) If you would prefer to pay only your portion of the cost of the e-rate eligible services, you can ask your service provider to provide you with a discounted invoice. In this case, the provider sends you its standard invoice for the undiscounted portion of the price (for instance, 20 percent of the price if you qualified for an 80 percent discount). The provider then completes a Service Provider Invoice Form (Form 474) and submits it to the SLD. The SLD is supposed to review the form within 20 days and send it on to USAC, which then sends the payment to the vendor. You can obtain a copy of this form and instructions for completing it at: http://www.sl.universalservice.org/form. |
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