8.1.16 Release Notes

Released to Clients on 03/06/2013.

PACS Appraisal 8.1.16.17 (GA)

New Features

This release includes the following additions and modifications to functionality:

Online Appeals: Acceptance of Taxpayer Evidence

• The taxpayer now has the ability to present evidence through the online appeals website. Evidence provided should support the taxpayers/agents opinion of value, indicate condition of property or support other reasons for protest.
• Set new Protest Evidence Settings to indicate how evidence should be stored and copied to PACS by choosing Activities > Online Appeals > Website Configuration.

  

  The Enable Taxpayer Uploads checkbox will enable the selections for how evidence is copied into PACS. The first option will allow uploaded evidence to be automatically copied to the protest record by the Online Appeals staging job. The second option will notify the PACS Appraisal user that a taxpayer has uploaded evidence for a particular protest. Upon opening the “Evidence” tab of the ARB protest, a dialog will be presented to the end user that there are evidence files that will be copied to the PACS file structure.

  The Website Evidence Directory field and Browse button will display the evidence directory. The new field will display the current location of the directory for the Online Appeals website to store uploaded evidence. It will also open a network shared dialog, rather than the standard Open File dialog.

  The evidence section will also contain a new field, Virus Scanning Command (Optional), which can be used to enter the virus scanning software command in order to scan individual files.

• There is a new Event Object setting for evidence file storage. The Online Appeals web application will write the files to the shared file location that the user selects. To set this, go to Tools > Event Object Maintenance > Server/File Location in order to set the event objects location.

  

• A new checkbox labelled Allow Upload will be added within the Evidence section of the protest’s General tab. This checkbox will allow the appraiser to indicate that a taxpayer can upload to the website. Enabling evidence upload is currently only allowed per protest. A new user right will be added to restrict whether or not a user will be able to select the checkbox on a protest.

  

  Note If protest settings allow both protests created within PACS and protests online to display through the online portal, then protests created online and within PACS will be allowed to upload evidence through the Online portal.

• The Online Appeals website has been modified to allow evidence upload if configurations allow. The new Evidence menu option has sub-menu items of Evidence & Letters and Upload Evidence. The Evidence & Letters option is generated from and published by the CAD; the Upload Evidence option is from the taxpayer.

  Note Taxpayer evidence will not be available to open and view from the Online Appeals site once uploaded to the site. The file information should be sufficient for the taxpayer to reference.

• Once the evidence is copied to PACS, based on configuration settings, the file will display in the property protest new Taxpayer Submitted Evidence grid. The file will be available for the user to view. The grid also allows the user to add files manually that may have been delivered by alternate methods to the CAD, i.e. mail, office visit.

  

Online Appeals: Publishing Default Evidence Packets in Mass

• Default evidence packets can now be published for multiple protests from the Protest search results. Previously, an evidence packet could only be published individually from the protest record. Publish represents posting the evidence documents to the online appeals website where the taxpayer can access and view. Also, a new user right exists to allow mass publishing of default evidence packets.

  

• From the Protest search results, a new menu option of Generate and Publish Default Files for Evidence Packets is available. In a single step, this will allow the user to generate and publish default evidence packets for selected protests.

  

• Once selecting Generate and Publish, the user will be prompted to validate.

  

• A dialog will display the progression in the process for Generate and Publish Evidence Packets. Two new messages will be displayed for the Generate and Publish Evidence Packets only.
• For each Packet the process will perform the Generate and Publish function for the packet indicated on the top process bar. First creating the comp grid, and then creating selected letters, it will package all the evidence files and publish the packaged evidence on the Online Appeals site. As each Generated Default Evidence Packet is published, the Generating and Publishing message line will change from Packet 1 of 5 to Packet 2 of 5 and will progress until all packets have been completed.

  

  

• Once published, the evidence will be available for the taxpayer from the Online Appeals website under the Evidence menu.

Electronic Appraisal Notices

HB 3216 amends Sec. 1085 of the Tax Code to provide that notices, renditions, application forms, and completed applications may be exchanged electronically by or between chief appraiser, CADs, ARBs, property owners, agents, and any combination. PACS now allows the Chief Appraiser to enter into an agreement to provide Appraisal Notices in electronic format. This will utilize the online portal (formerly used only for online appeals) to allow the user access to appraisal notices online.

The existing PACS appraisal notice process is used to allow appraisal notices to be published electronically to the Online Portal. A taxpayer may view the notice from the Online Portal.

Note TA must be notified if a CAD is planning to utilize Electronic Notices in order to configure the online portal.

• A new user right has been added to configure the Electronic Appraisal Notice Viewable Days. This represents the 30 day expectation that the taxpayer will view the notice. If the taxpayer does not access the online portal and view the electronic notice, the CAD is required to mail the notice by standard methods. This is a configurable setting by going to Tools > System Settings > Set Electronic Appraisal Notice Viewable Days.

  

• A new option of Set Event Objects Location dialog box must be set to one of four new options (APPRNOTICE, MULTNOTICE, PUBLISHAN, PUBLISHMN) with the correct location path where each one will be saved. The path should look similar to this: \\servername\oltp\pacs_oltp\APPRNOTICE. Choose APPRNOTICE for Appraisal Notice, setting the path ending in APPRNOTICE, MULTNOTICE for Multi-Notice, setting the path ending in MULTNOTICE, PUBLISHAN for Publish Appraisal Notice, setting the path ending in PUBLISHAN, or PUBLISHMN for Publish Multi-Notice, setting the path ending in PUBLISHMN.

  

• Tracking the electronic agreement is now available on the Taxpayer and Agent accounts. A new tab of Electronic Communication has been added where the appraisal notice agreement can be indicated, with an Effective and Expiration Date.

  

• From the notice run listing, the user can access Print Appraisal Notices. This is where the new functionality for publishing electronic notices has been implemented. Selecting Publish Online with Active Agreement will generate an electronic copy of the appraisal notice and publish through the Online Portal.

  

• A new column has been added to the Appraisal Notice run listing to account for electronically generated notices within a run.

  

  Note An appraisal notice run where electronic notices have been published cannot be un-done.

• A new menu option of Unviewed Electronic Appraisal Notices exists from the Appraisal Notice run listing to allow for standard printing of appraisal notices which have not been viewed within a certain number of days.

  

  

  From the Unviewed Electronic Appraisal Notices dialog, clicking Print will open the print dialog and allow standard print methods.

  

  Note Generating a second electronic notice will not be allowed.

• Once the electronic notices have been published, the taxpayer can access via the online portal. Below is the modified website for CADS’s utilizing electronic communication:

  

  Note If a taxpayer has already registered for Online Appeals, no further action is needed to view the appraisal notice. The new appraisal notice access point does not require re-registration.

• Click Appraisal Notices to view the list of available notices online. This list is dependent on the properties associated with the user along with the configurations set by the CAD. Once the user accesses the appraisal notice, PACS will recognize that the notice has been viewed. This will represent ‘delivery’ for satisfaction of the Tax Code.

  

What’s New in Documentation

• Online Appeals (new)
• Appraisal Notices (new)

Updates

PACS Appraisals

Tax Ceiling Certificate

PACS Collections 8.1.16.17 (GA)

Updates

PACS Collections

Escrow