BidtallyYour E-rate bid evaluation, right before you sign.
Drop your bid sheet, or type 3 to 8 bids in. Bidtally checks the 28-day wait, makes sure price is the primary factor, scores every bid and writes the memo you sign. Nothing is uploaded.
Drop the spreadsheet you keep your bids in. Bidtally reads your Form 470 dates from USAC's open data, checks the 28-day wait and your bid due date, makes sure price weighs more than any other factor, scores every bid with your evaluation matrix and flags what a PIA reviewer will question. Then it writes the evaluation memo, works out your discount and Category Two budget, and fills the FRN worksheet. Your bids never leave your computer.
From $594$990 a year per applicant (BEN) with FOUNDING40 until 30 Nov (regular $990) · one payment · card, purchasing card or PO
Founding price $594 instead of $990 a year: FOUNDING40 is applied automatically at checkout until 30 Nov 2026.
- Runs 100% in your browser
- Form 470 dates from USAC open data
- 17/17 USAC examples and records
- Discount and C2 budget
- Memo ready to sign
- $990/yr per applicant
- Bids stay on your PCNothing is uploaded. Load the app, switch off Wi-Fi, run it.
- Paddle is the sellerPaddle.com is merchant of record: invoice, tax, receipts.
- 14-day refundFull refund if it does not work for your bids.
- Support by emailsupport@atesensoftware.com, same business day.
- Built on the rule text47 CFR 54.503, 54.505 and 54.516, cited in every memo.
Why now
The FY2027 bidding season is open, and bidding is where funding is lost.
In FY2025 USAC denied 370 funding requests from 205 applicants, worth $50.7 million before discounts, with reasons that cite the price factor, competitive bidding, the 28-day wait or the Form 470. Every applicant must wait 28 days after posting, weigh price more than any other factor, pick the most cost-effective bid and keep the evidence for ten years. The applicant makes the evaluation, even when a consultant files the forms.
FY2027 Form 470s open. 1,337 were certified in October alone.
Allowable contract date: the earliest day to select a provider or sign.
Evaluate every bid with price as the primary factor; write it down.
Usually January to March; USAC announces the FY2027 dates.
Keep the Form 470, every bid, the scoring and the contract (54.516).
Sources: USAC open data (FRN Status and Form 470 datasets, read 30 October 2026); 47 CFR 54.503(c), 54.516 (eCFR, in force 1 October 2026); USAC "How to construct an evaluation".
How it works
Three steps. No upload, no install, no project.
Your Form 470
Type the Form 470 number: your browser reads its public record from USAC's open data (certification date, allowable contract date, RFP uploads). Add the bid due date, any RFP amendment and the disqualification requirements you announced.
Bids and matrix
Drop your bid sheet (CSV or Excel, our template or your own columns), or type the bids straight into the app: 3 to 8 bids take a few minutes. Start from one of USAC's example matrices or your own weights, and score each bid 0–10 on your other factors. Add your school list for the discount and the Category Two budget.
Fix, sign, file
Fix what is marked Fix before you sign. Then download the evaluation workbook, the memo to sign, the problem list, the FRN worksheet for your Form 471 and the document retention checklist.
What it checks
The rules that are easy to get wrong in a spreadsheet, applied to every bid.
- The 28-day wait: the allowable contract date from the Form 470, restarted by a later RFP upload or amendment; a bid due date before it; a selection or contract signed before it.
- Price is the primary factor: the price of eligible products and services must weigh more than any other single factor, across all rounds; ineligible costs in their own, lighter factor.
- The right winner: every qualified bid scored the same way; the selected bid must be the highest score; a winner that is not the lowest price is explained on the scoring sheet.
- Disqualifications: only for requirements announced on the Form 470 or RFP, met or not met; everything else is scored.
- The records a reviewer asks for: late bids, a single bid, no bids, bidders without a SPIN, bids without an eligible price.
- Discount: district-wide NSLP percentage (CEP schools at 1.6 × ISP), non-instructional facilities left out, rural only when more than half the schools are, Category One and Two matrices.
- Category Two budget: FY2026–FY2030 at $201.57 per student or $5.43 per library square foot with the $30,175 floor, less what is funded or pending.
- What it cannot know: your State and local procurement rules, and whether the bids describe the same service. Bidtally applies the federal E-rate rules to what you enter.
The rules in detail, with USAC's example matrices: E-rate bid evaluation matrix: price as the primary factor.
What you get
Real output from the made-up Example Valley sample.
8 bids for 3 services: the RFP amendment on 2026-11-09 moves the allowable contract date to 2026-12-07, so the bid due date of 2026-12-01 is too early and the Wi-Fi contract signed on 2026-12-03 is early; the board's preferred Wi-Fi bidder is not the best score. 3 problems to fix in all; discount 70% / 70% (46% NSLP, rural); funding requested $106,610. Computed by the same engine the app uses.
| Rank | Wi-Fi bidder | Eligible price | Price points (of 30) | Other factors (of 70) | Total | Found |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cobalt Integrators | $79,900 | 30.0 | 52.0 | 82.00 | Best score |
| 2 | Delta Networks | $92,300 | 26.0 | 53.5 | 79.47 | Selected, but not the best score Signed before the allowable contract date |
| 3 | Brightline Systems | $86,400 | 27.7 | 49.0 | 76.74 | — |
Compared
The bid evaluation, without a consulting contract.
| Bidtally | E-rate consultant | E-rate portals | Spreadsheet + USAC sample | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where your bids go | Nowhere: checked in your browser | Emailed to the consultant | The vendor's cloud | Stays on your PC |
| Price-primary and 28-day checks | Automatic, with the reason | By the consultant | Deadline reminders | By hand |
| Evaluation memo and FRN worksheet | Generated from your bids | Yes | Not the evaluation | No |
| Who decides | You, with the evidence | You (consultants may not evaluate bids for you) | You | You |
| Price seen in public records | $990 a year per applicant | $5,000–$9,860 a year; one firm bills $4,000 extra for evaluating vendor responses | $270–$16,200 a year (funding and deadline tracking) | Free |
Sources read on 30 Oct 2026: Newark Unified (CA) agreement with RDV Consulting, 2024 (BoardDocs); Gila County (AZ) and Springfield SD 186 (IL) board items, 2026; erate.support/pricing. Bidtally does not file forms or certify anything for you.
Pricing
One payment, 12 months, unlimited Form 470s and runs.
Run the sample and check your own bids free: every problem, score and number shows on screen. Buy when you want the workbook, memo, problem list and FRN worksheet for your own data. Prices in USD; Paddle adds sales tax or VAT where it applies and shows the total before you pay.
Single applicant
- 1 applicant (billed entity, BEN)
- Unlimited Form 470s, bids and runs
- Workbook, memo, FRN worksheet
- Updates when the rules change
Multi-applicant
- Up to 10 applicants (BENs)
- Consortia, education service agencies, library systems
- One file set per applicant
- Everything in Single applicant
Consultant
- Unlimited client applicants
- E-rate consultants and state E-rate offices
- Priority email support
- Everything in Multi-applicant
FOUNDING40 (40% off the first payment, until 30 Nov 2026) is applied automatically in the Paddle checkout. Your license key appears on screen right after payment with a Copy button: paste it on any computer your team uses. Lost it? Reply to your Paddle receipt and we resend it the same business day. Your invoice comes from Paddle.com, our reseller and Merchant of Record. Pay by card, purchasing card or purchase order.
- Paying: Paddle.com is the merchant of record: card or purchasing card, charged in USD, invoice and receipt from Paddle, sales tax handled by Paddle.
- Purchase order: email the PO to support@atesensoftware.com and we send a Paddle invoice for it the same business day, payable net 30 by bank transfer or card. Tax-exempt district: send your exemption certificate with it. Quote PDF, Paddle's W-9 and a sole-source letter: procurement page.
- Data: bids, prices and student counts never leave the computer, so there is no upload to review. The optional Form 470 lookup reads only USAC's public record of the number you type.
- E-rate: Bidtally is software, not an E-rate service: it does not need to be bid on your Form 470, and it is not E-rate eligible.
FAQ
Questions tech directors, librarians and business offices ask
Is Bidtally approved by USAC or the FCC?
No. It applies the published rules (47 CFR 54.502, 54.503, 54.505, 54.516) and USAC's guidance to the data you give it, and every time it opens it reproduces 17 of USAC's own examples and published records (example matrices, discounts of real FY2026 applications, FY2026–FY2030 Category Two budgets and allowable contract dates): 17/17 today. USAC reviews your application; your State and local procurement rules still apply.
Are our bids uploaded anywhere?
No. Your files are read by your browser and processed by JavaScript in the tab. To confirm: open the app, let it load, switch off your network, run your bid sheet and download the results. The only optional call is the Form 470 lookup, which asks USAC's public open data (opendata.usac.org) for the public record of the number you type. Our server only sees page requests and, when you buy, the Paddle transaction ID and checkout email used to issue the key.
Which files can it read?
Our bid sheet template, or any CSV or .xlsx with one row per bid: service, bidder, eligible price, and a column per scored factor (0–10). Columns are matched by name and you can change any match. The school list is optional: name, BEN, students, NSLP count or CEP percentage, urban or rural.
Our consultant files our forms. Can they use it?
Yes: the Consultant license covers any number of client applicants. The FCC's rules still make the applicant responsible for the evaluation and the choice; Bidtally gives you the scoring and the memo to review and sign. Consultants: what the Consultant license covers.
What does "price is the primary factor" mean in numbers?
The price of the eligible products and services must weigh more than any other single factor (USAC's example: price 30%, prior experience 25%, personnel 20%, management 15%, environmental 10%). Ineligible costs may be scored only in a separate factor weighted less than price. In a multi-round evaluation the price points of all rounds are added up.
What changes for FY2028?
The FCC has moved bidding into a USAC portal from FY2028 (FCC 26-30): bids, evaluations and contracts will be uploaded there. The rules on price and the wait stay; Bidtally's memo and workbook are the evaluation record you upload.
Our purchasing office needs paperwork.
Paddle.com is the merchant of record: you get a proper invoice and receipt and can pay by card, including a purchasing card. Paying by purchase order? Email the PO and we send a Paddle invoice, net 30, by bank transfer or card. The procurement page has the seller details, Paddle's W-9, a quote PDF and a sole-source letter. For a security questionnaire or vendor registration, email support@atesensoftware.com; we reply within one business day. The security note covers data flow and checksums.
What if it does not work for our bids?
Run your own bid sheet first: the free check shows every problem, score and number. If you buy and it still does not work for you, ask within 14 days for a full refund.
See your bids checked before you sign.
Free sample and free check in your browser. Files from $990. Founding offer: $594 with FOUNDING40 until 30 Nov.