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E-rate Productivity Center (EPC) The E-rate Productivity Center (EPC) is the new account and application management portal for the Schools and Libraries (E-rate) Program that will replace the current online processing system. Applicants, consultants, and service providers participating in the E-rate Program will use this tool to manage program processes and to submit questions. Instead of creating online forms directly from the SLD home page, E-rate applicants must log into their portals and create their forms from within each applicant portal. This means that applicants log into their portal and become familiar with the new system in order to be able to successfully file forms online. The FY 2016 Form 470 and Form 471 will be submitted inside the EPC portal. SLD has advised that by July 2016 all E-rate forms such as Form 486 and BEAR Form 472 will also be submitted from within the portal. Each applicant’s portal must be initially set up by an account administrator. USAC used the name of the person who certified each organization’s Form 471 in FY 2015 as the account administrator. An invitation email was then sent to the account administrator in July 2015 to request that they create a password, log into EPC and accept the EPC Terms and Conditions. Once the account administrator has logged in, that person may create new users, and/or assign the account administration responsibility to someone else. If you are not sure whether your organization’s EPC portal has been set up, contact the Client Service Bureau at 888-203-8100 to ask them. The next document in this training manual contains the specific instructions for how to set up your EPC portal including how to request being designated as the account administrator for your organization.
Logging into E-rate Portal for the First Time All entities that have filed or appeared on an E-Rate Form 471 are required to have an EPC Portal Account.
School districts have an EPC account that is supposed to list their member schools including NIFs (non-instructional facilities).
Independent schools or schools that do not belong to a school district also have an EPC account. Schools that are the only school in their school district may be listed in EPC as the school rather than at the school district level.
Libraries and library systems that file separate E-rate applications must also have an EPC account.
To set up the account administrator for your billed entity's EPC account, you will need to email a written request to USAC.
If sending the request from the email address of the account administrator: The email address of the account administrator must include their name and the entity’s email domain e.g. [email protected] If sending the request from another email account: You must make the request on entity letterhead and include the signature of the authorized person who should be set up as the account administrator.
Steps to Establish an EPC Account Administrator 1. Create a new email to the recipient [email protected] 2. Copy the text below either into the body of the email message or onto entity letterhead
Please establish the EPC account administrator for [BILLED ENTITY NUMBER] - [BILLED ENTITY NAME] as indicated below. 1. Name of Account Administrator: [NAME] 2. Job Title: [TITLE] 3. Mailing Address: [ADDRESS], [CITY], [STATE], [ZIP] 4. Phone Number: [PHONE]
5. Email Address: [EMAIL]
(Note that since the EPC user account will act as an authorized
signature, USAC requires the email address to contain the account
administrator’s name. It cannot be a generic email address such as [email protected].)
3. Fill in the [ ] fields with the appropriate information for the account administrator
4. If you are using letterhead, obtain the signature of the authorized person, scan and save the signed letter to
your computer, and attach the document to the email message 5. Send the email to [email protected]
If you prefer, you can FAX it instead to 1-888-276-8736 6. The account administrator will receive an email invitation from [email protected]
with the subject “USAC EPC-Account Creation”
7. Follow the steps below to set the first password: __________________________________________________________________________________________
STEP ① - Click on the link in the invitation email or navigate to the URL for the EPC Portal at https://portal.usac.org/suite/
__________________________________________________________________________________________
STEP ② - An informational screen will display
__________________________________________________________________________________________
STEP ③ - The login screen will display
A Enter the username (the
account administrator’s full email address. NOTE: email must be in all lowercase.)
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Click on the link to the EPC Portal
B Click on the
“Forgot Password” link
Click on the “I Agree” button to proceed
__________________________________________________________________________________________
STEP ④ - The Request Password Reset screen will display
__________________________________________________________________________________________
STEP ⑤ - The EPC system will send an email to the account administrator with a temporary link (Note: the link is only active for 15 minutes)
__________________________________________________________________________________________
STEP ⑥ - The browser will load the Enter New Password screen
A
Enter the username
B Enter
the desired password twice: once in the “New password” text box and once in the “Re-enter new password” text box
C Click on the “Reset Password” button
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Click on the link in the email or navigate to the URL in a browser window
B Click on
the “Request Password Reset” button
A Enter the
username
__________________________________________________________________________________________
STEP ⑦ - The system will display a screen stating that your password has been reset and that you may now log in to EPC
__________________________________________________________________________________________
STEP ⑧ - The login screen will display
__________________________________________________________________________________________
STEP ⑨ - The news page for the EPC account will display with a welcome message
__________________________________________________________________________________________
STEP ⑩ - A task to complete the Terms and Conditions will display
__________________________________________________________________________________________
STEP ⑪ - The terms and conditions will display
A Read the terms and conditions listed
B Scroll to the bottom of the page
C Click on the “Accept” button
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Click on the link to log in using the new password
Click on the task
Click on the link in the message
C Click on the “Sign In” button
A Enter the username
B Enter the new password
EPC Account Administrator Responsibilities Once an Account Administrator has been set up in an EPC Account, the AA is responsible for the following:
1. Assign the AA’s permission rights to a full right’s user 2. Add EPC users and assign them their user rights (view only, partial or full)
o View only = can look but not make changes o Partial = may data enter information but cannot submit form o Full = may data enter information and submit form which also includes the certification
Note: Forms inside EPC no longer have a separate certification requirement. Once a form is submitted it is automatically certified.
3. Change AA to another person 4. Link your billed entity to a consortium* 5. Link your billed entity to a consultant* 6. Review schools and NIFs to ensure all buildings are associated with your district/library* 7. Update entity information, student enrollment and NSLP information*
*The four tasks with an asterisk are supposed to be added to the functionality that a full user has, by the end of October 2015. The following guide is based on the EPC system as it exists in mid-October 2015.
1. Assign the AA’s permission rights to a full right’s user
A. From your landing page, select your billed entity.
B. Select Related Actions from the left column. NOTE that this column only appears with all of these options for the Account Administrator. Other users don’t have these choices.
C. Select Manage User Permissions.
D. Assign the AA full user rights and then select Submit.
2. Add EPC users and assign them their user rights (view only, partial or full) A. From your Landing Page, Go to Related Actions and then select Create a New User.
Christy is the AA. She will select FULL rights option from drop
down box.
B. Provide all information for User Details (Required field are noted with an *).
C. Also on the same page, assign the level of rights that the new user will have – view only, partial or full – and then select Continue. View only = user may look at forms and information but cannot make any changes Partial = user can data enter information but cannot submit forms Full rights = user can data enter information and submit/certify forms
3. Designate another user to be the Account Administrator Note: The new AA must be set up as a user in the EPC profile.
A. From your Landing Page, go to Related Actions and then Select Modify Account Administrator.
B. Uncheck the current AA and check the box next to the new AA and select Continue. Double check to make sure you have made the changes you want and then select Submit. The new AA is automatically designated and will receive a notification in their News Feed of this change.
These are the boxes to check/uncheck for changing the AA.
4. Link your billed entity to a consortium A. From your Landing Page, select Related Actions and then choose Manage Organization Relationships.
B. Select Sign up for a Consortium
C. Search consortium by one of the search terms. State is probably the easiest method to search.
D. Select the consortium you want to join in the Add Relationships section, check the box, and then select Submit.
5. Link your billed entity to a consulting firm A. From your Landing Page, select Related Actions and then choose Manage Organization Relationships.
B. Select Add a Consulting Firm
C. Search by name of your consultant or by state if you know what state the consultant is registered in.
D. Select the consulting firm you want to associate with your billed entity, and then select Submit. E. Go back to the Related Actions Page (Landing Page>Select Billed Entity) and then select Add or Remove Existing Users
F. Enter search criteria for the consultant that you want to add. Press submit.
The results should include the new consultant user and then you must assign view only, partial or full rights to the consultant and select Submit. Note that you will probably want to assign either partial or full rights to the consultant.
6. Review schools and NIFs to ensure all buildings are associated with your district/library
A. From your Landing Page, select Related Entities.
B. All of the entities (buildings) that are part of your district should appear here. If there is a school or non-instructional facility (NIF) missing from this list, create a Customer Service Case and request that the missing entities be added to your EPC portal.
C. To create a Customer Service Case, go back to your Landing Page, select your billed entity and then select Related Actions (Landing Page>Billed Entity>Related Actions).
D. Complete all fields, request the entities to be associated with your billed entity.
Create your own nickname.
Request the entities to be added in this narrative. Provide entity names
and numbers.
Choose from drop down box options.
Select case contact from drop down box of users.
7. Update Entity information, student enrollment and NSLP information A. From your Landing Page, select your billed entity and then select Related Entities. Then select the particular building that you want to review.
C. Then select Manage Organization from the next page
D. In the next page, the information about the entity will appear and you can make corrections and updates to this information –
Correct the entity’s address, phone number, etc.
Update the enrollment and NSLP information for each entity. Very important: make these revisions in EPC prior to starting your Form 471 application. This information will be imported automatically into your Form 471 application.
Pittston Area Intermediate Center
The changes are required to be approved by SLD CSB and these requests are processed rapidly. You should receive a notification in your news feed once the changes have been approved.
Very important: You must update the student enrollment and NSLP #s in EPC before you start your Form 471
application.
All of these fields can be modified
and updated.
All of these fields can be modified
and updated.
PITTSTON AREA INTERMEDIATE CENTER
Creating Contracts in EPC
Prototype - Subject to Change
See Contracts from School District’s record
Add New Contract from Drafts
Add Basic Information about Contract
Upload Copy of Contract
Contract Detail Questions
Associate FCC Form 470 with Contract
Associate Service Provider with Contract
Contract Dates
Contract Extensions
Pricing Confidentiality
After confirmation by User, Contract Now Appears in EPC Portal Profile
