Some schools and libraries work with a consultant to help them through the application process. If you have one, you can link their account to your organization, which will allow them access to your profile and other information.

How to add a consultant

Adding a consultant in EPC is a three-step process:

1. Link the consulting firm to your organization through the “Manage Organization Relationships” link.
2. 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.
3. Assign user rights to the individual consultant using the “Manage User Permissions” link.

You can watch a video or review the Managing Users guide for specific details on adding a consultant.

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, and update profile information.
• 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 your account administrator

Schools and libraries can only link consultants to their organization. Do not create an account for the consultant through the school/library.

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.

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.

Next week, we’ll be talking about competitive bidding, which is the process you must follow before selecting a vendor for your E-rate Program services.