This release includes the following additions and modifications to functionality.
Appraisal Notices
Intelligent Mail ® barcodes can now be printed on appraisal notices and tax statements.This 65-bar code is used by the USPS to sort and track letters, and can be applied on automation-rate First-Class Mail ®, Standard Mail ®, and various other mail pieces. The barcode consists of a maximum 31-digit number that includes the following codes:
Tracking Codes
Barcode Identifier (2 digits)
Service Type Identifier (3 digits)
Mailer Identifier (6 or 9 digits)
Serial Number (9 or 6)*
Routing Code
Delivery point ZIP Code (0, 5, 9, 11 digits)
* The length of the Serial Number depends on the length of the Mailer Identifier.
After being assigned an Intelligent Mailer ID by the USPS, users assigned the Intelligent Mail Barcode: Mailer ID user right may set the number in PACS Appraisal by choosing Tools > System Settings > Set Intelligent Mail Barcode Mailer ID and in PACS Collections through Tools > Set Intelligent Mail Barcode Mailer ID.
After the Intelligent Mailer ID has been set in the system, select Include Intelligent Mail Barcode when navigating the Print Appraisal Notices dialog box (Activities > Appraisal Notices > Appraisal Notice Maintenance, right-click and choose Print Appraisal Notices) and in the Print Levy Statements Wizard (Activities > Assessment > Levy Functions > Levy Statement Maintenance, right-click and choose Print Levy Statements):
The applicable Barcode Identifier and Service Type Identifier are selected after clicking Print, or by clicking Finish while Print is selected under Print Options in the Print Levy Statements Wizard. These options are hard-coded in the system.
The Barcode Identifier is typically 00, except in the case of flat mail bundles with an optional endorsement line. The following Service Type Identifier options are available:
700 – First-Class Mail (incl. reply mail)
702 – Standard Mail
704 – Periodicals
706 – Bound Printed Matter
708 – Business Reply Mail or Qualified Business Reply Mail without any services
Please note that the Intelligent Mail® barcode option does not display when printing a single statement (Property > Create New Tax Statement) because a minimum number of mail pieces must be generated in order for the barcode cost savings to be applicable. In previews, a generic barcode is displayed. Barcode information is not exported.
ARB Protests
When the result of an informal settlement involves a significant change in value, PACS Appraisal can now be configured to substitute the routine settlement letter with an alternative letter featuring supervisory approval of the value change. Access the configuration by choosing Tools > ARB Maintenance > System Settings, then select the ARB Options – Letters tab in the ARB Options – Global dialog box. From here, set the minimum change in value–either by dollar and/or percentage change–and designate the settlement letter and substitute letter.
This configuration only applies when printing the ARB settlement letter from the ARB Protest record Letters view. When the protest settlement meets or exceeds the configured change in value amount, and the user attempts to print the designated settlement letter, a warning is displayed notifying the user that the alternative letter featuring supervisory approval is being substituted in its place. The warning can be customized; the default warning is the following:
(substitute letter name) will be printed instead of (selected letter name) because the change in value meets the Alternate Letter criteria for Appraiser Assigned Value.
Important This configuration does not apply when printing ARB letters from locations other than the ARB Protest record Letters view.
Certification & Compatibility
PACS is now compatible with Marshall & Swift 64-bit.
PACS Letter Processing features and Signature Processing features are now certified to run with Microsoft Office 2010.
Property Access
Property Access has been enhanced as of this release. First, Property Use Code and Property Use Description data now displays under the Property tab in the Account section.
Second, an Economic Unit Links tab has been added; this tab only displays when the opened property is already associated with active income valuation properties. The property IDs displayed there are property links.
PTD Electronic Appraisal Roll Submission
PTD forms have been modified per state requirements issued March 2011.
The version numbers have been updated, and lines for the Effective Tax Rate and Rollback Tax Rate have been added. Values for these fields are not generated by PACS.
The School Tax Limitation Report form and version number have been added; the text and calculation for line 12 has been modified to match the state’s calculation of levy lost; furthermore, lines 13 and 14 have been removed.
The EARS verification report has been modified to include specific messages when appropriate regarding Total Exemptions and DVHS Exemptions.
Record Searches
The ability to select multiple properties in a property search results list has been extended to the following situations:
When copying an image to properties from the Images tab of a property record (click Copy, select Copy Images from the Current Property and click Next in the Copy Image Wizard, select image and click Next, then click Search)
When searching for properties from the Quick Image Scan dialog box (Activities > Quick Image Scan > Quick Image Standard) and from the Quick Image Scan – Rendition Received dialog box (Activities > Quick Image Scan > Quick Image Rendition Received)
When adding properties to an event through the Events tab of a property record (select an event and click Details, then select the Properties tab of the Event for Property dialog box and click Add)
When adding properties to a sale record in the Deeds – Sales tab of a property record (select a record in the Ownership History grid and click Insert or Details, then select the Properties tab in the Ownership History dialog record, then click Add in the Properties section)
When selecting properties to link to an existing property through the SplitMerge-Lnk tab (click Add in the Property Links section of the SplitMerge-Lnk tab, then click Search in the Property Links Property Wizard)
What’s New in Appraisal and Collections Documentation
Because some owner names were longer than the system’s print setup allowed, an unexpected error occurred when attempting to print Appraisal Cards from the Comparable Sales/Property Results List (open the Comparable/Property Search dialog box, enter criteria and click Search, then highlight required Prop IDs in the results list, right-click and choose Print > Appraisal Cards – Selected Items). The length of fields accommodated in the print setup has been increased, correcting this issue.
Appraisal Notices
92769
The Preliminary Totals could not be printed from the preview screen (Reports > Preliminary > Preliminary Totals). A setting in Crystal has been changed to allow for printing from the preview.
ARB
102804
ARB letters could not be removed from the Letters view of e-file protests. Unpublished letters may now be deleted, correcting the issue.
104597
The Process button on the Notice of Protest Forms Processing dialog box is now disabled after being clicked to prevent multiple protests from being unexpectedly added to a property (File > New > ARB Protest).
97208
Inactivated panel members did not display on the Hearing Minutes view of ARB Protest records. A second method for identifying and displaying members has been added, correcting the issue.
103515
A pre-existing bug was discovered during alpha testing: Input Arbiter Values did not display as expected in the ARB Protest Cases section of the Value Summary view of a Protest record with multiple opinions of value. The Arbiter Values column displays the read-only Taxpayer Values unless the Override option is selected.
103574
The date entered for Evidence Packet Requested Date displayed as the evidence Delivered date when creating a new Protest record (File > New > ARGB Protest). The correct date is now called on and displayed as expected.
Exemption Processing
73735
The CH Exemption can now be prorated. The effects of proration are reflected in the Appraisal Export.
96768
Although a property had an exemption that had a $0 local option exemption amount, the standard HS exemption amount was not applied. The following rules now apply:
If the property has a DP/DPS/OV65/OV65S exemption with state/local amount then that exemption is applied as normal;
If the property has only a DP/DPS/OV65/OV65S exemption with no state/local amount, then no change to the taxable value occurs;
If the property has a DP/DPS/OV65/OV65S exemption with state/local amount and a HS exemption, then the DP/DPS/OV65/OV65S exemption is applied as normal, and the HS exemption does not apply.
If the property has a DP/DPS/OV65/OV65S exemption with no state/local amount and a HS exemption, then because the DP/DPS/OV65/OV65S exemption causes no change to the taxable value, the HS exemption is applied
If, for any reason, a DP/DPS/OV65/OV65S exemption subtracts nothing from a property’s taxable value (i.e., the exemption has a 0% allocation factor), and the property is eligible for the HS exemption, then the HS exemption applies.
98455
Because of a previous modification made to allow for both legal size and letter size printing, unexpected errors displayed in succession when attempting to print a series of HS applications in one run (Activities > End of Year Processing > Print Exemption Applications). The printing action in the application has been modified to accommodate the generation of multiple applications; the change affects printing of HS, DV, and AG applications. The reports themselves have not changed.
General
90273
On personal property segments, the Percent Good field now accommodates values up to 999.99%. Percent Good on personal property sub segments is still limited to 100%.
92623
When an image is deleted, an event is now recorded in the change log (Reports > Change Log > Change Log Report).
103571
An unexpected error occurred during a mass update. To resolve the issue, a slight modification related to change log functionality was made to allow the system to work with SQL Server 2000 databases. Testing ensured that this change does not affect SQL 2005 & 2008.
GIS
97016
Deed Date has been added to the list of available GIS component attributes listed under Parcels in the GIS Viewer/Appraiser.
Images & Documents
1003001
After scanning an image via Forms Processing, and attempt to open the image from the Images view of the ARB Protest caused an unexpected error (Activities > Forms Processing; open a property record, choose the ARB Inquiry tab, highlight a protest and click Details, choose the Images view). A previous change prevented the image’s file location from being recorded. This issue has been corrected.
103985
After scanning a rendition image, the system displayed an unexpected file extension (Activities > Quick Image Scan > Quick Image Rendition Received) . The dialog now assigns the expected and required file information. In addition, the newly scanned image is now automatically selected and the Preview button is enabled immediately after scanning.
Income Module
90908
Property merges created extraneous, orphaned income records (Activities > Merge Properties). When temporary data is deleted following a successful merge, leftover income data is also erased.
Land
85286
Effective acres groups still included the acreage from member properties after those properties were inactivated/deleted. The association between group and property is now broken when a property is inactivated/deleted.
Litigation
95579
Changes to the application in response to a previous user request to render closed lawsuit records uneditable unexpectedly resulted in users no longer being able to add events or images to closed lawsuit records. The ability to add events and images to closed lawsuit records has been restored.
95586
An unexpected error occurred when attempting to add a property to a lawsuit record (in the General view of a lawsuit record, click Add in the Properties section). The error displayed when the property being added did not have an associated appraiser. Properties without an associated appraiser can now be added without error, as expected.
Marshall & Swift
17714
Windows Server 2008 could not connect with the Marshall and Swift database. An update within PACS has corrected this issue.
Mass Maintenance
55250
After adding six or more rows to the Mass Update Details dialog box grid, the scrollbar hid values in the # Items column (Activities > Mass Maintenance, click Add). The grid area has been expanded and adjusted to prevent the scrollbar from obscuring data, correcting the issue.
Penpad
95022
An unexpected error occurred when using a query to check out properties to Penpad (Activities > Penpad > Penpad Maintenance, right-click and choose New Checkout, then select Query). Query validation has been modified to account for upper and lower case.
Property Access
79573
Deed Number has been added to the Deed Summary tab.
Rendition Processing
14411
A note reminding users to attach additional paperwork if necessary displayed more than once on Personal Property Rendition application pages for Schedule B and Schedule C (open a personal property record then choose Property > Print Property Applications, select PP from the Application Type drop-down list and click Print or Preview). The redundant statements have been removed.
Sales Data
100375
Because calculations produced results greater than what the system was prepared for, an unexpected error occurred when attempting to export sales submission records (Files > Export > Sales Submission). A modification has been made, and this issue has been resolved.
Because of unexpected variations in how exemptions were coded, some DVHS exemptions did not translate after an appraisal data import (File > Import > Appraisal Data). The system is now more flexible when looking for the exemption, resolving the issue.
Delinquent Notice Processing
97607
Because of problems processing missing agent information, an unexpected error occurred when attempting to print Delinquent Notices (Activities > Assessment > Delinquent Tax Functions > Print Delinquent Notice). The system’s method for updating agent information has been modified to improve performance and solve this issue.
75938, 89429
The formatting of the Delinquent Notice included an unexpected amount of blank space (Activities > Assessment > Delinquent Tax Functions > Print Delinquent Notice). This was a result of previous changes to the delinquent notice export file. Formatting in the Delinquent Notice has been restored, while corrections to the export file remain.
Fee Processing
99332
Bills were not adjusted as expected when a previously supplemented property was supplemented a second time to remove an entity. This was caused by a conflict with how the owner IDs behaved when supplemented. The rendition penalty calculation and bill creation processes have been modified to prevent owner ID comparisons between previous supplements and bill creation records.
Fiscal Year Processing
83788, 92608, 92620
When executing the Fiscal Year Rollover procedure, values for M&O and I&S did not balance to those displayed in the Collections Transfer Totals report (Activities > Year End Procedures > Fiscal Year Rollover, select the required entities, choose the Rollover Month and Rollover Year and click OK; to generate the Collections Transfer Totals report, choose File > Export > Collection Data). To correct this issue, the Export Collection Data process now excludes bills for which M&O and I&S values are 0.
Import & Export
91623
The Collections Data Export excluded litigation suit numbers (File > Export > Collections Data). These numbers are now located in columns 935-984 of the exported file.
96587
Freeze information failed to transfer over in the appraisal import when the CAD ran the freeze/refreeze process prior to exporting (File > Export > Appraisal Information). The export and import processes have been modified to ensure transfer information is imported and merged in the collections database as required (File > Import > Appraisal Data). The changes affect Southwest and P&A imports. Furthermore, a decimal-to-percent conversion issue on Southwest imports has been corrected.
97131
Percent Ownership values were not updated as expected after importing appraisal data (File > Import > Appraisal Data). The import procedure now interprets 0% as 0% instead of 100%, resolving this issue.
Levy Roll & Tax Statement Procedures
95456
The Fiscal Month to Date Recap and Fiscal Year to Date Recap reports displayed incorrect totals (choose Activities > Month End Procedures > Month End Reports, select Report Types options Print Fiscal Month to Date Recap and Print Year to Date Recap). When an entity did not have a tax rate for a given year, report calculations used the last available tax rate for entities, but did not include that rate’s year when calculating the total for delinquent years. This calculation issue has been corrected in both reports.
97115
The Prepare System for Bill/Tax Statement Creation process set the late ag loss value to 0 on imported properties with no land detail records (Activities > Assessment > Levy Functions > Prepare System for Bill/Tax Statement Creation). The process has been modified and no longer sets ag loss to zero in these cases.
Payment Processing
98965, 100108
The system allowed Quick Post users to process payments for statements that included bills with refunds due (Activities > Quick Post (All Items)). Now, when such a statement is entered in the Quick Post Post Payments dialog box search field, a message informs the user that the statement includes bills with amounts less than zero due, and that these should be paid from the property level.
98245
The system displayed incorrect refund amounts after the following two overpayment refund transactions: (1) After voiding a discounted payment, the user changed the posting date, resulting in a different discount percent for the OPR transaction; (2) after previously processing a full payment, the user adjusted the bill, increasing the taxes due. Then, the additional payment was processed as an OPR transaction.
The calculation errors resulting in these transactions occurred because the refund discount amount was determined prior to any refunds being generated as the result of bill adjustments that lower the taxes due. Now, refund discount amounts may only apply after bill adjustments, resolving the issue.
Reports
85480
The Special Inventory Sales Statement displayed duplicate sales records for properties that had more than one situs address; additionally, the Grand Total Escrow Total Paid value was incorrect because penalties and fines were added to rather than subtracted from the total paid value (Reports > Escrow & VIT > Special Inventory Sales Statement). The report query has been modified to call on only the primary situs, and the calculation error has been corrected.
Supplement Processing
93451
Generating corrected tax statements unexpectedly deleted all data from events associated with previous statements (open a property in the required year and choose Property > Create New Tax Statement). It is now possible to view previous tax statements through their associated events.
98547
Because of a conflict with previously existing bills remaining after the undo bill creation process, an unexpected error occurred on attempting to create bills for the supplement group (choose Activities > Assessment > Supplement Functions > Supplement Group Maintenance, select the required supplement group, right-click and choose Undo Create Bills for Supplement Group). Subject supplement bills are now deleted during the undo bill creation process.
This configuration does not apply when printing ARB letters from locations other than the ARB Protest record Letters view.
