Consultant Registration Numbers
A consultant is defined as any non-employee of the entity applying for funding that assists in filling out the application materials for a fee. Consulting firms, for purposes of being identified in the E-Rate Productivity Center (EPC), may be organizations with one or more employees or they may be individuals.
A consulting firm must obtain a Consultant Registration Number (CRN), a unique eight-digit identification number assigned by USAC. Employees of a consulting firm do not obtain individual CRNs; instead, they use the CRN of the consulting firm that employs them.
Applicants that use the consultant’s services must identify the consultant by entering the consulting firm’s CRN in the applicant’s EPC account profile, and adding individual consultants within the consulting firm as existing users.
How to Obtain a Consultant Registration Number (CRN)
To request a CRN or to change information linked to an existing CRN, a consultant should call the Customer Service Center (CSC) at (888) 203-8100 and be prepared to provide the following consultant information:
- Consulting firm name
- Consulting firm street address, city, state, and zip code
- Consulting firm telephone number
- Consulting firm email address
Provide the following information for the person who should be assigned as the consultant firm’s account administrator in EPC:
- Account administrator’s name
- Account administrator’s job title
- Account administrator’s address
- Account administrator’s telephone number
- Account administrator’s email address
If the firm already has a CRN on file and if there are no changes to any of the contact information, USAC will provide the CRN over the phone.
If there is no CRN on file, USAC will create a new record. If there are changes required to an existing record, please call CSC at (888) 203-8100 or open a customer service case in EPC.
How to Add a Consultant to Your EPC Account
- Link the consulting firm to your organization through the Manage Organization Relationships link.
- Add the individual consultant (the employee of the consulting firm who is working with you) to your organization as a user through the Add or Remove Users link.
- Assign user rights to the individual consultant using the Manage User Permissions link.
Permission Levels for Consultants
When you assign user rights to your consultant, you can choose from three permission levels:
- Full rights: They can complete and certify forms on your behalf, update profile information, and receive all communications regarding this BEN from USAC on the E-Rate program.
- Partial rights: They can complete (but not certify) forms, and update profile information.
- View-only rights: They can review (but not update) forms and profile information.
Consultants Cannot Be an Applicant’s Account Administrator
It is especially important that the school/library does not make their consultant the “account administrator.” For security purposes, the account administrator must be an employee of the school or library.
Schools and libraries can only link consultants with accounts in EPC to their organization. Do not create an account for the consultant through the school/library.
Instead, the consultant needs to create their account through their consulting organization (which has its own, separate EPC account), and then ask the school/library to link them to the school/library organization.