The Children's Storefront: Entity Number 208919 this page last updated: 2/6/10

ERate Essentials and Summmary

Defintion of BEAR: using this erate method, the customer (Storefront) pays the vendor full price per month for services. Several months after the end of the contract year which is generally July 1 to June 30, the customer needs to complete a BEAR form to recover the money due (for us 90%). We generally do this in October and then the BEAR checks come in during the next 5 months. You can read more about the BEAR method (Billed Entity Applicant Reimbursement) by clicking here.

Definition of SPI: using this erate method, the customer (Storefront) gets billed just 10% of the the total for services per month and USAC (the government) gets billed the other 90% per month. You can read more about the SPI method (Service Provider Invoice) by clicking here.

From Greg Lowry (our e-rate consultant) 2/21/2010:

Using the SPI method, the service providers will issue a 90% credit directly on your invoices. It's possible to receive credits for multiple invoices that you've already paid since the service starts on July 1, and sometimes all of the paperwork is not approved before then. The credits will always be for what you actually spend, not what you request, so don't worry about getting too much back. The invoices should have a line item with the credited amount. What they call it may vary but it should say something like "E-rate credit." I can't help with how you deal with this in terms of accounting. I would think that you continue to enter the total billed amount as an expense, and then the credit from e-rate as a separate line item but I don't know what to call it. Remember the BEAR Form is issued AFTER you've paid the total amount due to the providers. I know that you were holding back the 90% for Paetec but that's not really the intention of the program since approval is not final until you go through all of the applications including the Form 486.

Vendors

• ADTI
• AT&T
• Paetec
• Piping.com
• Promenet
• ISPnet
• Time Warner
• Verizon Wireless
• Verizon NY
• Verizon Select

Links and Summary Info

• Click here for USAC site

• Easiest way to see summary related to Storefront is click here using a browser like Firefox not Safari, then click on STATE tab then use our BEN of 208919 to get a live chart. You can then see the vendors and disbursements per year. Below is a screenshot of a chart from 2/6/10.

Steve Bergen