Eliminating “Weekend” Invoice Deadline Dates:
As noted in last week’s newsletter, there had been a problem in USAC’s online BEAR system over the previous weekend because the system was showing the invoice deadline for FY 2015 non-recurring services as 01/28/2017. This date had apparently been calculated — mathematically correctly — as 120 days after the September 30, 2016, service delivery deadline. But the system did not take into account that January 28th was a Saturday; the actual invoice deadline should have been advanced to the following business day, Monday, January 30th. The impact of the error had one potential problem and one real problem, both of which have or are being corrected by USAC.
- The potential problem was that invoices submitted on January 29-30 by the real deadline might be treated as late invoices and be denied. Fortunately, the BEAR system accepts “late” filings, so these BEAR filings can be treated as timely.
- The real problem was that the system was denying Invoice Deadline Extension Requests (“IDERs”) submitted on January 29-30. Fortunately, the BEAR system does capture IDER attempts, so USAC plans to reach out to those applicants who were incorrectly denied and, if appropriate, retroactively approve their IDERs. The appeal process may have to be used to address applicants who tried to file multiple IDERs, but who were discouraged after first getting some denials.
Upon further analysis, USAC found that the 120-day weekend problem found on January 28th was not an isolated case. It applied to other 120-day situations as well. As an example, those who requested a 120-day invoice extension of what should have been the January 30th deadline were assigned a new deadline of May 28th. This was problematic in two ways. First, May 28th is a Sunday. Second, the 120 days was calculated from the incorrect January 28th date, not from January 30th. The correct date should be May 30th.
The good news is that USAC is at work actively correcting all these invoice deadlines. As of Friday, we found that many invoice dates had been changed from the weekend to the following business day, albeit not yet consistently, across all reporting platforms available to the public including the online BEAR system itself, the DRT and FRN Status Tool, and the FRN Extension Table.
For the do-it-yourselfers, the best way to calculate a 120-day deadline period is to use a 3-step process.
- Make sure that the starting date is correct. This is actually a little tricky. June 30th, for example, is the last day of the funding year, regardless of the day of the week. Invoice deadlines, however, from which new invoice extension deadlines are determined, must fall on a business day.
- To calculate 120 days exactly, open an Excel sheet. Enter the start date in cell A1. Enter the formula “=A1+120” in cell A2.
- Reference a calendar to make sure the date in cell A2 is not a weekend or federal holiday. If it is, use the next business day.
Update on the New Version of the Form 479:
As also noted in last week’s newsletter, a new version of the Form 479 (dated December 2016) was introduced in January, replacing the old version (dated December 2013) whose OMB approval had expired December 31, 2016. Because consortia may already have been in the process of collecting Form 479s from their members, using the now-expired version, there was a question of the validity of any old Form 479s signed in 2017. Absent guidance, we had recommended recirculating the new version to any members who had not signed by the end of 2016.
More good news: USAC announced an agreement with the FCC last week that the old version of the Form 479 would be accepted for FY 2017. Written documentation of this guidance, which could be useful in an audit, is expected to follow.