Wisconsin Potato and Vegetable Growers Association

Change to USDA Billing Policy for Specialty Crops Audit Services

We would like to make you aware of a recent change in our billing policy. In order to make sure our auditees are fully prepared and aware of the need to create a billing account with USDA, we have announced on our website that, effective April 1, 2019, all USDA GAP participants must complete and submit an SC-430 New Vendor Form before scheduling an audit.

BILLING POLICY. Effective October 1, 2018, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) amended the fee structure for its voluntary Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) audit program. The change was implemented to fully recover the costs associated with administering the USDA GAP Program and to ensure the program continues to meet the needs of our stakeholders.

Under the amended fee structure, if you are audited by a Federal-State cooperator, you will receive two bills for your USDA GAP audit:
The first bill will be from the State Department of Agriculture that performed your audit. This bill covers the time and associated travel costs for our trained and licensed Federal-State cooperator to conduct the audit.
The second bill will be from USDA. This bill covers the time required for AMS to review, approve, issue certification, and, if requested, post your audit report on a commercial database used by buyers to manage their supplier audit reports (e.g., Azzule or iCiX). If you chose a USDA Harmonized GAP Plus+ audit, your bill also will include a Global Food Safety Initiative certification fee.
If you are audited by a Federal auditor, you will receive only one bill from USDA for the entire audit.

BILLING PROCESS. All USDA GAP participants must complete and submit an SC-430 New Vendor Form before scheduling an audit. The USDA’s National Finance Center, which administers billing for the USDA GAP program, uses the information on the form, including your company’s contact and billing information, to set up your billing account. The SC-430 form and instructions are posted on the AMS website at: https://www.ams.usda.gov/resources/sc430.

You may submit your completed SC-430 form by email (preferred), fax, or mail, using the information listed below.

a) Email to [email protected]

b) Fax to 866-230-9168

c) Mail to:

USDA, AMS, SCI, ASB
1400 Independence Avenue, SW
Stop 0247, Room 0707-S
Washington, DC 20250-0247

If you do not submit your SC-430 New Vendor Form, you will not be able to schedule USDA GAP audit.

If you have any questions, please contact the Audit Services Branch at 202-720-5021 or [email protected].

SC-430 Completion Instructions
SC-430 New Vendor Form

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