E-rate Form 472 (BEAR) - FY2015 (July 1, 2015 - June 30, 2016)

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At the conclusion of Funding Year 2015 (as of June 30, 2016) and the payment of the final monthly bill for discounted services, libraries must submit a Billed Entity Applicant Reimbursement (BEAR) Form, known also as Form 472. To complete this form, you will need a copy of all bills paid for the service provided from July 1st, 2015 through June 30th, 2016. You should have the Form 471 and Funding Commitment Decision Letter (FCDL) for FY 2015, and your PIN for certifying the form electronically. You can no longer certify this form on paper.

Beginning July 1, 2016, E-rate applicants who have opted to use the BEAR reimbursement process (in lieu of discounted bills) will receive their BEAR reimbursement payments directly from USAC instead of being passed through the service provider. The payments will be electronically transferred from USAC to the applicant's bank account. In order for USAC to know where to transfer the funds, all BEAR-users must complete the Form 498 in order to provide USAC with their bank account and bank routing information. Downloadable instructions for completing the Form 498 can be found here.

Note: these instructions are for public libraries who are only receiving E-rate discounts for telephone service. If you receive discounts for more than one service (such as a smartphone data plan) and these services are from different providers, you will need to submit a separate BEAR form for each service.

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Download the Form 472 instructions. [PDF, 290 KB]

View the Form 472 E-rate training video on Youtube.

  1. Go to Apply Online and click BEAR Online.
  2. Enter your Billed Entity Number (BEN), PIN, email, and last name, then click Login.
  3. Click New BEAR Form.
  4. The Applicant Form Identifier is a number you create for your own record-keeping purposes.
  5. In Block 1, confirm the information in numbers 1, 2, 4 and 5. Enter in the SPIN from your FCDL into number 3.
  6. Complete Block 2, numbers 7 and 8 with information from your FCDL.
  7. Type 7/1/2014 into Block 2, number 10. Skip number 11.
  8. Add up the total of all paid bills, and enter the sum into Block 2, number 12. The discount will be automatically calculated.
  9. Check boxes A, B, C, D and E in Block 3.
  10. Check Block 4, box 15, and complete all information in Block 4, numbers 17 through 20.
  11. Number 27, Applicant Remittance Information, is the person and address to which the reimbursement check is sent.
  12. Click Save, print a copy of the form for your records, then click Certify and Submit.
  13. Using your assigned PIN, you will be able to electronically certify your form from here.
  14. You can check back after a few days to check the status of the BEAR. Use the Track Form in the navigation, enter the Invoice ID from your printed copy and look to the far right under Status.