USAC is just completing the initial roll-out of its new online E-rate portal system, the “E-rate Productivity Center” or “EPC” (pronounced “Epic”). By today, July 6th, USAC should have sent emails to most applicants, service providers, and consultants, urging them to login to establish their accounts. As indicated in our newsletter of June 22, 2015, the EPC portal will ultimately be used for all electronic E-rate news, contacts, and filings. Most immediately, as discussed in USACs Special Edition News Brief of July 2nd, discussed below, the EPC must now be used by all applicants seeking to file Form 470s for FY 2016. It is important, therefore, for applicants (and their consultants) to get their EPC accounts established as soon as possible.
Additional EPC information is available from USAC and E-Rate Central in:
USAC’s initial EPC login emails were sent to specific individual email addresses as follows:
- Applicants: The authorized signers of FY 2015 Form 471 applications.
- Service Providers: General contacts associated with the firms’ Form 498s.
- Consultants: Contacts associated with the Consultant Registration Numbers (“CRNs”).
To access the system for the first time:
- Instructions are included in the email from EPC.Application.Administrator@usac.org.
- Enter the username provided in the email message.
- Select the “Forgot Password” link on the login screen.
- Follow the instructions to “reset” the password.
- Click on “Tasks” in the navigation tool bar to agree to the “Terms and Conditions.” We suggest that you print out the “EPC Access Agreement” because future logins require the acceptance of only an abbreviated version.
Initially, only the individual sent the invitational email can set up a user account. That individual will be the account Administrator. Once the account is established, additional users, with different types of permissions, can be added. Account users may be assigned one of the following four levels of rights:
- Only one user can be the account’s main Administrator. If, for example, a school district superintendent signed the FY 2015 application, but is not going to be in charge of the day-to-day E-rate process, the superintendent will have to first establish the account, and add at least one other user who can be reassigned the Administrator function. A consultant cannot be an applicant’s account Administrator.
- Full rights give a user the ability to create and submit, sign, and certify forms. Submission of a form includes the electronic signature and certification. PINs will no longer be required for forms submitted through the portal. Note, as a result, that it will no longer be possible to submit a form at one time, and certify it later. This limitation is discussed further below.
- Partial rights give a user the ability to create, but not submit, forms.
- View-only rights are self-explanatory.
Now for some complicating details:
- An individual user is identified in a specific account by a specific email address. If an individual applicant is associated with two or more applicant accounts, for example, different email addresses must be used for each.
- An educational service agency (“ESA”) receiving E-rate services for itself and acting as a consortium lead, will require two billed entity numbers (“BENs”), each linked to an EPC portal account.
- A service provider, with multiple SPINs, will likewise require multiple EPC portal accounts. Common employees linked to these accounts will require discrete email addresses.
- An applicant Form 471 signer, associated with multiple BENs using the same email address, will receive only one EPC invitation to set up an account. To become an Administrator under another BEN contact USAC’s Client Service Bureau (“CSB”). Provide full contact information, including an alternate email address.
- An applicant using a consultant should not add the consultant as an applicant user. Doing so will create a user identity problem (and tie up the consultant’s email address) that at the moment is difficult to correct. To give a consultant access to an applicant account, the applicant’s Administrator must first add the consulting firm. As a second step, the Administrator must authorize a specific consultant (by name and email address). If the consultant is to have more than view-only rights in the account, a third step is necessary to upgrade the account providing full or partial rights to the consultant. For an overview of this entire three-step process, see E-Rate Central’s Illustrated Guide to Adding Consultants to Applicant Accounts. If more than one individual consultant is working with an applicant, each such consultant must be added separately to the applicant’s account.
- Applicants, service providers, and consultants who need to set up EPC accounts, but who have not received enabling emails from USAC by today, July 6th, should contact CSB.