Workbench reads USAC's public data every night and keeps only the 470s you could win, each with its incumbent and the district's remaining C2 budget.
Built on USAC Open Data: Form 470 filings, FRN status, Form 471 line items, entity profiles and student counts, refreshed every night. Nothing is scraped from EPC, and Workbench never needs your EPC login.
Seven days of Pro, with 3 quote checks and 3 exports. A card is required to start. Sign in with your work email; there's no password to set.
A Form 470 has to sit 28 days before a contract can be signed. Workbench is built around that clock: find the filing early, size it up, decide, and follow it to the award.
Set your bases, how far you'll travel and what you sell. Every new Category 2 filing in your states is measured against them overnight.
Today opens on what needs a decision: how many 470s are waiting on you, the first allowable contract date, and every ACD in the next 28 days on one line. Bid, ask first or no-bid straight from the list.
The same matches arrive as a morning email at the time you choose, with what the screen dropped and why. Up to ten people on your team can get it.
Each match shows who holds the work today and how much Category 2 budget the district has left this cycle, worked out from its student count and what it has already drawn. When the budget is spent, you see it before you write a quote.
Flags tell you the rest at a glance: RFP attached, email-only bidding rules, and a clock on the 28 days to the allowable contract date.
Add keepers to the pipeline, mark outreach sent, then Bid, Hold or No-bid. Every card counts down to its allowable contract date. Quotes start from your own price book, imported by CSV from a template, so the board shows real margin and a win estimate.
Pricing Research shows the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile of what USAC actually funded, by state and product class, and looks up any applicant's incumbent and past awards by BEN. Check a quote against the awarded band before it goes out.
Once your bid is in, the award watch finds every FRN that names your SPIN and tracks it through PIA review and the funding commitment, then lists the invoicing deadlines that follow.
The Provider Setup tracker walks you through SAM.gov, your FCC Registration Number, Form 498 for a SPIN, the EPC account and the annual SPAC, then the policies a provider needs, from lowest corresponding price to gift rules and document retention. Each step has a place to record its confirmation. You can watch 470s while the paperwork clears.
Workbench started as the monitor and bid pipeline Mars Network Services built for its own E-Rate bids. The screens, the flags and the order of the steps come from working real filings.
Every plan includes nationwide access: watch Form 470s in any state. Every trial starts on Pro: 7 days, with 3 quote checks and 3 exports, and a card to start. Subscriptions run for 12 months, billed annually or monthly; paying annually gets you 12 months for the price of 11.
| Feature | StarterOne bidder working one region | RecommendedProA small bid team across several states | Coming soonTeamLarger bid teams, several offices |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $1,200a year, or $109 a month | $3,000a year, or $273 a month | $5,800a year, or $527 a month, when Team launches |
| Users included | 1 | 3 | 10 |
| Nationwide: Form 470s from every state | Included | Included | Included |
| 470 Monitor and morning digest | Included | Included | Included |
| Incumbent and C2 budget on every match | Included | Included | Included |
| Pipeline, quotes and price book | Included | Included | Included |
| Provider Setup tracker | Included | Included | Included |
| Pricing Research by state and product class | Not included | Included | Included |
| Awards & 471 watch on your SPIN | Not included | Included | Included |
| Extra users | $415 a year or $38 a month each, on every plan | ||
Recommended
$3,000 a year, or $273 a month
A small bid team across several states. Everything in Starter, plus Pricing Research by state and product class and the Awards & 471 watch on your SPIN.
$1,200 a year, or $109 a month
One bidder working one region. 470 Monitor and morning digest, incumbent and C2 budget on every match, pipeline with quotes and price book, Provider Setup tracker.
Coming soon
$5,800 a year, or $527 a month, when Team launches
Larger bid teams and several offices. Everything in Pro.
Every plan includes nationwide access. Extra users are $415 a year or $38 a month each, on every plan.
USAC Open Data, the public datasets USAC publishes for Form 470s, FRN status, Form 471 line items, entity profiles and student counts. Workbench refreshes them every night. It never logs in to EPC.
No. It's an independent tool for service providers that reads USAC's public data. USAC's systems remain the official record.
No. Without one, the workspace opens on the Provider Setup tracker and the monitor runs from day one. Add your SPIN when it's issued and the award watch starts.
You add a card when you start the trial. When the 7 days are up, your subscription starts on that card. To cancel before then, email support@erateworkbench.com. Your bases, rules, price book and pipeline carry straight over. The details are in section 3 of the Terms.
Today your price book and quotes come in by CSV, with a template to start from. Direct connections to quoting and PSA tools are planned and not yet available.
Only the people you invite. Owners handle billing, settings and the team; bidders make decisions and build quotes; viewers can read without changing anything. Your data never feeds another company's benchmarks.
No. Outreach is copy-and-send from your own email in this release, and bids, 471s and certifications are filed by you with USAC.
Setup takes about five minutes, and the monitor back-fills the last 60 days of postings so your first morning isn't empty.
