FL Certification – Preliminary

Backup of Data

Ensure that you have a good backup before you begin your process. While it is not anticipated that you will have issues, it is a highly recommended best practice to back up your data before any major tax event.

Please visit with your internal IT to have this completed. If you have an IT Services Contract with Harris Govern, please notify our IT Support Team by entering a TeamSupport ticket and/or call the IT Support Team.

Verify the PACS Version

Before running a major tax calendar event, in many case, we require you to be on a specific version to ensure you have the correct legislative changes. To verify that the newest PACS is loaded, click the PACS Application button and choose Help>About. This will list the current PACS version.

PACS Mobile

All PACS Mobile clients shall notify support before continuing with the certification process. Please note that client should NOT MOVE FORWARD with certifying the roll until this step is fully completed.

At a minimum, the following must occur:

• • Pending Changes Marked as Complete:  These must be QC ‘Approved’ OR, if the changes are not wanted in PACS, ‘Reject’ the accounts individually or in bulk.
  • CAUTION: Pending Changes 24 + Hrs:   These Must be ‘Marked as Complete’ and QC ‘Approved’, OR they may be set as ‘Reviewed’ in Bulk and then ‘Rejected’ if none of the changes are wanted in PACS.
  • CAUTION: Unsynced Changes (Approved):  If accounts are in this list, please notify Support in order to help sync these accounts to PACS.
  • Sync Failed = Yes:  If there are any results returned in this filter, please enter a ticket with the title ‘Certification – Sync Failed account(s)’.

Important: If there are any Sync Failed accounts, notify support. You ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT certify with sync failed properties.

• • • If you’ve been transferred to DCS Support to support the mobile application, please open a FreshDesk with Data Cloud Solutions.
    • If you have not been transferred to DCS Support to suppor the mobile application, please open a TeamSupport ticket with Harris Govern.

Recalculating the Properties

Browse to the PACS Action button>Activities > Mass Maintenance (Property) > Mass Recalculation to recalculate all properties.

Resolve any recalculation errors before continuing. You can use the Recalculation Error report (Reports > Recalculation Errors Report) as a reference.

Note: You may need to complete this step multiple times. Recalculating properties should be completed after making any value changes in your roll.

Recalculation Error Report

To review the properties that have the Recalculation Errors, browse to PACS Action Button>Reports>Recalculation Error Report.

Preliminary Certification – Once the property appraiser is ready to send out Trim Notices the year will move into a Preliminary Certifications state. This represents the timeframe where the property appraiser’s office has sent out Trim Notices and is defending values both informally and formally through the VAB. The user will be required to set a DOR change code on any property that has a Just Value change. The “Preliminary Certification Process” will change the state of a year from Certification Preparation to Preliminary Certification.

Preliminary Roll Certification takes place around 3rd week of June into August and consists of the following:

• Submission of the Assessment Roll to the DOR
• Preliminary Notification of Values to the Tax Districts
• Trim Notice Mail Out to Taxpayers
• Initial data exchange with the Tax Collector

Purpose

Run this procedure to complete the Preliminary Roll Certification

Procedure

1. Click PACS Application Button>Activities>Administration>Certification>Preliminary Certification>Prelim Certify.  The menu item will only be available if (1) User must have Preliminary Certification User Rights and (2) The current appraisal year in Certification Preparation (when an appraisal year is first created)
2. System will prompt with the message “Are you sure you want to set the Current Year to Preliminary Certification?”
3. Click Yes. The process run time typically runs 35-40 minutes.
4. The system will display a message “Preliminary Process Complete”

   Result: The system will recalculate all property for the current appraisal year, capture data and store it in a manner where it can be associated with the Preliminary Certification for a specific year and be accessed at a later date by state reporting, and set current appraisal year tate (mode) to Preliminary Certification. The System will create a system event that contains the date run, appraisal year, and the process description, comments, event type, user, and execution time of process.

   NOTE:   With the Preliminary Roll Certification Process complete, when the user opens a property, a visual indicator will display when the user opens a property for the current appraisal year that the property /year is in Preliminary Certification. If change is necessary, the user must choose a DOR Change Code to continue.

   

Purpose

Run this procedure if user desires to undo the Preliminary Certification Process.

Procedure

1. Click Action Button>Activities>Administration>Certification>Preliminary Certification>Undo Prelim Certify

Purpose

Use this procedure if user makes changes to the property after the Preliminary Certification process is run.

Procedure

1. Open Property
2. User makes desired changes on property
3. Select Values Panel
4. Select one of the DOR change code from the dropdown selection
   • 01 – VAB Change
   • 02 – Court required change
   • 03 – Revised Addition Info (with VAB)
   • 04 – Revised Additional Infor (without VAB)
   • 05 – Revised Continual Analysis (with VAB)
   • 06 – Revised Continual Analysis (without VAB)

Recalculation error message “A value change has occurred since preliminary certification and the DOR change code is not set” will be generated if a property is determined to have a change in just value during preliminary certification phase and a DOR Change code is not on the property.

Purpose

Run this procedure if user would like selected users or all users locked out of the system. The result will be that no changes can be made on a property for current uncertified appraisal year.

Procedure

1. Click PACS Application Button>Activities>Administration>Lock System>Lock

   NOTE:   Menu will only be available if the user has the Lock System user right and the current appraisal year is not certified

2. Select the user to lock out or select all users.
3. Message will render “Are you sure you want to lock the current appraisal year for the selected years?” Respond Yes or No.

Result will be

• Users that are locked out will have “read only” access for the current appraisal year regardless of user rights”
• The Lock System option will immediately lock users out of the system.

Purpose

The Track Value Change report provides a report of changes made during a specified time frame. Selections include taxing authority, tax area, date range, value option and difference.

Procedure

1. PACS Application button > Reports > Certification > Track Value Change Report.

   

   

Purpose

The property appraisers’ assigned DOR contact has been given a list of parcels from the DOR that will require additional review.

Procedure

1. User searches for the property and opens  the property
2. System presents the property summary screen
3. User selects the Appraisal Info parcel
4. Select the In-Depth Review Checkbox. This option is only enabled if the user has the Edit In-Depth Review Parcel user right.
5. Select the Save option.

Purpose

Use this procedure if user desires to include In Depth properties in Mass Recalculation.

Procedure

1. Click PACS Application Button>Activities>Mass Maintenance (property)>Mass Recalculation