Audit your Form 471 before USAC does.
Before you certify, every FRN on your Form 471 should be able to answer one question: does the complete record behind it hold up? Form 471 Check audits your application and the entire competitive bidding record behind it: the establishing Form 470, the RFP and addenda, the bids, the evaluation, the contract, the Category 2 budget. Every error and every potential denial reason, called out while you can still fix it. Not a form review. A record review.
The denial reasons, checked
Real applications are denied for remarkably consistent reasons. A service on the 471 that the establishing 470 never requested: the single most common fatal error. A contract signed before the 28-day window closed. Price not the most heavily weighted factor in the evaluation. A request that exceeds the remaining Category 2 budget. Form 471 Check tests every FRN against the full range of documented denial reasons, across the whole record: the bidding, the evaluation, the contract, the costs, the eligibility, the budget. Each finding shows you where it is, why it matters, what real denials for the same pattern say, and what to do about it.
The argument behind the check is simple, and it is the same one we make in our guide to why E-Rate Form 471 applications get denied: denials are procurement-record failures far more often than form typos.
Know exactly how ready you are.
Every finding rolls up into one honest picture of your application: what holds up, what needs evidence, and what to fix before you certify. Walk into PIA review, or an audit years later, already knowing what a reviewer will find, because you looked first.
Works however you got here
Did everything in ErateSync? The record is already connected and the check runs on it. Did everything off-platform, with a consultant, in Word and Excel and EPC? Upload the contract, the bids, and your evaluation matrix; ErateSync retrieves the establishing Form 470 from USAC data automatically, even one posted years ago for a multi-year contract, and runs the same check. However your district procures, the check meets the record where it is.
If you want to catch problems even earlier, the Form 470 Check reviews the document that establishes the whole process, and the Competitive Bidding Agent connects every stage into one record. See how it all fits together for schools and libraries.
Already certified? Check it anyway.
Most problems found after certification are cheapest inside the correction windows. Form 471 Check keeps watching after you file: it scans your certified 471 as USAC data updates, flags issues while there is still time to act, and tells you the likely correction path, such as a RAL correction or a ministerial and clerical fix, always with the honest caveat: likely correctable, confirm with USAC. A problem you find in review season is a correction. The same problem found by PIA can be the funding year.
Your decision, on the record
Every finding can be resolved, or overridden with your reasoning recorded. The check advises. Your district decides. And either way, your record shows a district that looked.
Where Form 471 Check fits
Questions districts ask
Does it certify or file for us?
Never. All certification and filing happen in EPC, by you or your consultant. ErateSync prepares, checks, and tracks the record; it never files, amends, or certifies anything in your EPC account.
Do we need to have used ErateSync for the 470?
No. Form 471 Check pulls your posted forms from USAC data, so it retrieves the establishing Form 470 automatically, even one posted years ago for a multi-year contract, and runs the same check on your record.
When should we run it?
Before certifying, and again after. The filing window opens in January, and the earlier a problem surfaces, the cheaper it is to correct.
Does it predict funding decisions?
No. It verifies your record against documented denial patterns from real USAC decisions. No one can promise an outcome, and you should not trust anyone who does.
See it on your own data.
Every demo runs on your district's actual USAC records. If there is money sitting on the table or a gap in your record, you will see it on the first call.
Book a Demo →Ask a question about your own E-Rate data.