USDA Rural Utilities Service Borrower’s Guide: A How-to for water and wastewater loans from USDA Rural Development

Important notice that pertains to Section 2 of this guide (namely CCR registration for borrowers)>CCR is Going Away — What to Expect (UPDATE)

At the end of July 2012, the Central Contractor Registration (CCR) system is going away. CCR, along with Federal Agency Registration (FedReg), the Online Representations and Certifications Application (ORCA), and the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS), will be migrated into the new System for Award Management, or SAM.

For those of you familiar with this effort, you know it will reduce the number of passwords you need to remember, reduce the number of systems you need to enter and interact with, and reduce data redundancy by sharing the data across the award lifecycle. To help you better understand how this will work, SAM training will be available online in early May. Please visit SAM.gov for more information.

What does the transition to SAM mean for you? Here are answers to a few of your most pressing concerns.

I have a current CCR registration.

What do I do?
You do not need to do anything right away. When it is time to renew your current CCR registration, you will do it in SAM.

What will happen to my data?
Your data will be migrated from CCR into SAM. It will be in SAM when you are ready to access it. When it is time to renew your registration, you will go to SAM.gov, create a simple SAM user account, and follow the online instructions to validate and update your information.

When do I need to register for a user account in SAM?
You only need to register for a user account in SAM when it is time to begin updating your current registration. You do not need to do anything right away.

What is the timeline for the CCR transition to SAM?
The transition to SAM will be at the end of July. We will provide more information as that date approaches.

Wasn’t SAM scheduled to ‘go-live’ on May 29, 2012? What does the delay mean for me?
Yes. The delay means we will continue with business as usual with CCR/FedReg, ORCA, and EPLS until the end of July. You will continue to manage your registration in CCR. There will be no change until the end of July.

Where can I find more information about SAM?
Some training material is already posted to SAM.gov and will be updated closer to the implementation date. System overview briefings are there now. Please visit SAM.gov to learn more.

The above announcement was taken directly from the CCR News and Announcements section on the CCR website. You can visit that site for updates as they are given.

Links to forms that you may use for financial reporting are in the table below (same forms that are provided on the CD that accompanies the guide)
Summarizes the managerial and financial requirements for communities that are receiving U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Utilities Services (RUS) loan funds for their water or wastewater utility. Focuses on the requirements for submitting management reports and financial statements and walks borrowers through the steps of completing the forms and submitting the reports and statements. Comes with a CD with blank forms that are easy to fill in. Also provides ways communities can monitor the financial health of their utilities.

You can find the instructions in section 3A, page 32 in the guide.

You can find the instructions in section 3A, page 37 in the guide.

You can find the instructions in section 3B, page 43 in the guide.

Tips for using the forms

Do not submit a sample file as any part of your reports to USDA Rural Development.

You will need two forms (RD 442-2 and RD 442-3) for all of the reports you will need to file. Form RD 442-2 in particular has various pages that are used for various requirements and at various times. Therefore, this form is provided in only one place on this CD. In other words, it is not necessary for you to fill out separate copies of the same form. You can add data to it the first time, save it, and use the same form for other reporting requirements and for reporting on later financial periods.

The PDF versions of the forms perform automatic calculations on figures that you enter—the totals will populate automatically.

Using the PDF versions of both of these forms comes with a major limitation: You are not able to save a copy of the filled-in PDF (the data you entered) on your computer. If you use these PDF forms for your reporting requirements, be sure to print out two hard copies—one to send to USDA RUS and one for your files.
An alternative to the PDF versions of the forms are their exact re-creations in Excel. The Excel spreadsheet versions of the forms are saved in folders that correspond to the guide’s subsections on reporting (3A, 3B, and 3C). Using the Excel versions of the forms will allow you to save them on your computer. To submit the required reports, you can just print them (and don’t forget to sign them before you send them!). Then, with the saved copies, you can do further work on them later, updating them each quarter for the quarterly management reports, for example.

Use the Excel spreadsheet forms smartly as you would the PDF forms—don’t duplicate your work, in other words. As the guide says in the instructions for completing quarterly management reports: “Much of the groundwork was done with your completion of the annual budget.” The form you fill in first for the line-item budget (Section 3A) can be saved and used again later, with additional columns filled in to complete quarterly management reports (Section 3C).

This material is based upon work supported under a grant by the Utilities Programs, United States Department of Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Utilities Programs. All materials pertain to the original 2011 printing. Materials have not been updated since that time.

 

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