Note All of the issues below have been resolved in this or a prior release or patch related to 8.1.18.
Updates
Help STAR
Description of Update
130334
When exporting levy roll, a run time error occurred and PACS would shut down.
130457
When printing a tax statement for current or prior years that have a Qtrly option on it, it was moving the box down. (From a property, create new property > Print as Corrected Tax Statement).
130801
The Appraisal Import from a client’s County Appraisal District into a client’s Tax office failed. (In pacs_oltp_tax, select File > Import > Appraisal Data Import > Right-click and select New Appraisal Data Import > Map the files accordingly > Click Import).
This release includes the following additions and modifications to functionality:
Appraisal
Add any File Types as an Image in PACS
It is now possible to add additional file types as images in PACS, such as .pdf, .doc, and .xls. File types other than the existing .jpeg and .tiff cannot be viewed with the PACS image viewer. Text will display, prompting the user to preview the image in the appropriate file viewer. The PACS image buttons will be disabled for these image types.
The file image viewer should be used for the disabled actions. The new image types cannot be selected as the main image. Due to the nature of the additional file types, it will be possible for a user to open the image, edit it, and save the edited file.
Note There is currently no limitation on the file types that can be added. Care should be taken not to add .exe, .dll, or .bat file types.
Appraisal Data Export
The appraisal data export now includes a separate file for Mobile Home information. A record will be created in this file when on a property the improvement type indicates mobile home (i.e. improv_type.mobile_home is equal to “Y”, “T” or “1”) and there is information in any one of the following fields on an improvement record:
Make
Model
Serial Number (3 fields)
HUD Number (3 fields)
Title Number
If that criteria is not met, a mobile home record will be not be created.
Copy Rows to Clipboard
You can now copy rows from any PACS Search Results. From the Search Results list, right click to open the context menu. You will have two new options:
Copy All Rows To gives the user the option to copy all rows in the results list to the clipboard or to Excel.
Copy Selected Rows To gives the user the option to copy the selected row(s) to the clipboard or to Excel.
GIS V2.0
PACS has greatly expanded its GIS functionality. New features have been included in GIS Viewer and GIS Appraiser, along with creating the new GIS Analyst Module. GIS Analyst incorporates all the features in GIS Viewer and GIS Appraiser, but also includes new features of Spatial Analysis, Advanced Symbology, and Mass Maintenance from Spatial Information.
Each user is required to register their computer with the corresponding GIS Module license. Once the client purchases the license(s), TA will set that amount in the client’s database. You will then be able to assign a license to a computer.
Important The new GIS V2.0 will not be included in the GA 8.1.18.x release, but will be available following the initial release.
New Features included in GIS Viewer, Appraiser, and Analyst Modules
Maps can be set to public or private. This comes in handy when working in a particular area, or saving your functions and bookmarks that you do not want edited by other users. This was existing functionality in GIS Appraiser, but now it is included in GIS Viewer and GIS Analyst.
The user now has the ability to invoke the GIS Viewer from the following locations in PACS:
Personal Property Link – When opening GIS from a Personal Property account, GIS will zoom and select the real property account that is linked to it.
MH Link– When opening GIS from a Mobile Home account, GIS will zoom and select the real property account that is linked to it.
The Add Data button on the GIS toolbar gives the user the ability to add several types of data to the map, such as Shape files, Rasters, MPK files, Geodatabases, SDEs, etc.
You now have ESRI Basemaps – online map services provided by ESRI. You can choose from two different basemaps:
World Topography – This map includes administrative boundaries, cities, water features, physiographic features, parks, landmarks, highways, roads, railways, and airports overlaid on land cover and shaded relief imagery for added context.
World Imagery – This map includes one meter or better satellite and aerial imagery.
Single Symbology gives the user the ability to change the layer and legend properties that will be used for all the features for a given layer. Currently, you can change the symbol colors, outline width, outline color and make the layer transparent. Now, the user is able to change the layer name and set the opacity of the layer.
The user has the ability to indicate if a parcel layer is in the current year or prior certified year.
For those clients that have True Automation as their GIS vendor: Every year at certification, the GIS team will take a snapshot of the GIS data of how it looks on that date. Then that layer will be will be loaded into GIS. We anticipate that we’ll have multiple layers in the TOC, such as Parcel Layer 2012, Parcel Layer 2011, etc.
If you have a prior year parcel layer loaded in GIS, the user has the ability to open a property in the prior year, which invokes GIS to open in the prior year. If you’re viewing a property for 2009 year, when GIS is launched from that view, the GIS map layer will be set up for 2009.
The Advanced Search button on the GIS Toolbar allows you to retrieve a specific set of data from the system. You can specify search criteria as follows:
Property data, such as a block, a neighborhood, situs information, and geo or reference ID.
Owner data, such as an address and exemptions.
Land data, such as price, acreage, square footage, and ag or timber use.
Improvement data, such as the class code and year built.
Sale data, such as the sale date, sale price, and sales ratio.
Building Permit data, such as permit number, permit type, and status. The user can see all the building permits that were generated for that city this year.
Appraiser data, such as last appraiser, last inspection date, and next inspection date.
Other data, such as property group codes, tax area, and effective acres group. For example, if there are eight tracks that make up a farm, the user can now select them to verify they are all the same.
We have enhanced our Measuring tool dramatically. It allows you to measure using the following options:
PolyLine allows the user to draw a line, much like the existing functionality.
Polygon allows the user to draw a shape.
Radius allows the user to measure a radius area on the map.
Area Unit and Distance Unit allow the user to choose which unit of measurement that want to use, depending on which feature you’re using mentioned above.
The Navigation Wheel has been added in all GIS Modules. It gives the user the ability to:
Zoom in/out of the map.
Rotate the map clockwise or counter clockwise.
Reset the map to true north after you have rotated.
Move the map in North, South, East or West.
Zoom out to the Full Extent of the map.
Bookmarks allow you to save the current extent of the map so that you may quickly retrieve that part of the map at a later time. All bookmarks are saved into a Manage Bookmarks list, as shown below. From here, you can select a bookmark to zoom to on the map, remove a bookmark, or remove all bookmarks.
The Layout tab allows you to preview the current area of the map and gives the user full printing control. The following lists all the features that are available from the Layout tab:
Printer – Not only can you print to a printer, but now can print to a plotter.
Page Size – Designate the page size from a list of available page sizes that appear in the dropdown list.
Orientation – Designate the page orientation: portrait or landscape.
Show Scale Bar – Places the Scale Bar on the map. You can reposition it anywhere you’d like.
Show Legend – Places the Legend on the map. You can reposition it anywhere you’d like.
Show Direction – Places the directional key on the map.
Add Text – Adds text, such as a title and any other text you want to see on the printed map. You can reposition it anywhere you’d like.
Border – Set borders on one or more sides of the map.
Print – Print the map via the Print button.
New Features included in GIS Appraiser and Analyst Modules
The user now has the ability to invoke the GIS Viewer from the following locations in PACS:
Neighborhood Profile
Split Wizard dialog – The wizard is also pre-populated. Inversely, you can also launch the Split Wizard through the right click context menu option on the map after selecting a property in the GIS Module.
Merge Wizard dialog – The wizard is also pre-populated. Inversely, you can also launch the Merge Wizard through the right click context menu option on the map after selecting a property in the GIS Module.
Land and Improvement detail information, along with existing Property and Image details, can be accessed in PACS from a parcel on the map.
The Property Note button allows you to enter in a note that can appear on a specific property, such as “Contested property part of another case”. You may also use this field as a way of communicating with TA’s GIS Department in order to make a correction on GIS data.
We have greatly tightened the integration between PACS and Pictometry. Because of this, you will notice that GIS 2.0 functions much better at reflecting the image and direction as the user makes these changes in the Pictometry session. We’ve also enhanced the functionality that allows the user to exit the Pictometry session without locking their PACS session in GIS 2.0.
New Features only included in GIS Analyst
Advanced Symbology gives the user the ability to symbolize parcels based on PACS data. This can be done through Categories, which are non-numeric fields, and Quantities, which are values and quantities.
Spatial Analysis, also called Geoprocessing, gives the user the ability to take a layer of data and manipulate it spatially (across the region of that layer) or take two layers to create a third layer. The following options are available:
Buffer – The user can input a certain distance to create a buffer around input features to a specified distance.
Clip – The user can extract input features that overlay the clip features.
Intersect – The user can show only layer information for selected properties. This functionality extracts information where two layers intersect.
Union – The user can combine two layers together. It combines the parcels and attributes that are selected and display the layers that are touched by those properties.
Mass Maintenance from Spatial Information is now available. This feature includes:
Mass Update
Timber Application Requirements
In the past, the Open Space Ag and Timber state forms were combined into one PACS report, generally mapped to AG2 Ag Application. Now, the Comptroller has requested that the Open Space Ag and Timber state forms be separated into two forms. The existing report forms of ag_application2 and ag_application2_duplex should no longer be used.
Users can now map a new Timber report file to the new AGT Ag Timber Application from Tools > Code File Maintenance > General > Reports.
Users can access the new form to preview and print from the following locations:
Property > Print Property Applications > Select AGT Ag Timber Application from the Application Type field
Activities > Print Property Applications > Select AGT Ag Timber Application from the Application field
Users have the option to generate an event for the property, similar to the current Print Application function. A sample description could be Printed Timber Application.
The following changes have been made in PACS Collections to the Levy Roll process in order to incorporate the new Electronic Tax Statement functionality:
The Taxpayer and Agent records have been updated to accept email addresses and Electronic Tax Statement Agreement information.
Note Please contact True Automation in order to have the Electronic Tax Statement Agreement information visible on the Taxpayer and Agent forms.
There are four new user rights that enable the user to use the new functionality:
Regenerate Owner/Agent PIN
Mass Create Owner/Agent PIN
Set Electronic Tax Statement Viewable Days
Edit Online Tax Website Config
PACS Collections now has new functionality related to the Online Web Portal. Open Activities > Online Portal:
Mass Generation of Online PINs gives the user the ability to create PINs. This can also be done from PACS Appraisal.
Electronic Tax Statements are printed through a postscript printer driver to a file and then converted to PDF. To set this feature, click on Tools > Configure Workstation > Set Postscript Printer button.
The user can set the number of days the Electronic Tax Statements can be viewed by the taxpayer. This is done by going into Tools > Set Electronic Tax Statement Viewable Days. A setting in PACS will count the number of calendar days until the taxpayer views the document via the online portal.
Website Configuration gives the user the ability to:
Enter in the name of the Tax office
Assign the Online Portal URL, which is the web site where taxpayers and agents file protests
Assign the PACS Appraisal Property Access URL, if your district uses it
Enter a return email address for outgoing mail
Show a Detail link for each property
Allow Electronic Correspondence with taxpayers, agents or both
You can also edit:
Contact information
Email Agreement
User Agreement
Reset User Agreement allows you to delete existing user agreement text or renew the agreement text for the new year by using
To set the Event Objects Location, select Tools > Event Object Maintenance > Server/File Location. The following dialog appears. The user can set paths for object types of PUBLISHTS and TAXSTMNT.
When printing, Electronic Tax Statements are generated before the regular statements are printed or exported. The user will now see a separate progress dialog.
Once this information is applied, a confirmation email stating that your office has accepted their agreement, will be sent to the email address listed on the Taxpayer record. There is a checkbox by each one, which states that it has been accepted. If it isn’t checked, it hasn’t been accepted.
The Electronic Tax Statements are printed through a postscript printer driver to a file and then converted to PDF. This, along with configuring Event Object Paths, will need to be set up. Detailed instructions will be included in the updated user guide.
The Levy Statements and the Supplemental Statements list view contain three new columns:
Electronic Stmnts lists the number of valid statement IDs.
Published Stmnts lists the number of statements published to the web portal.
Unviewed Stmnts lists the number of statements the taxpayer has not viewed through the web portal by the deadline.
From the Levy Statements view, two new items have been added to the context menu:
View Electronic Statement List lists all the electronic statements in the run.
View Electronic Corrected Statement List shows all the corrected electronic statements in the run.
Below is a screenshot of the new View Electronic Levy Statements dialog:
When you select the View Electronic Corrected Levy Statements from the context menu, the new Corrected Statement Year dialog appears. It allows the user to choose the corrected tax statement year.
space
A new View Electronic Corrected Levy Statements dialog appears after you choose the corrected tax statement year. If any are overdue, the Print Overdue button will be enabled. When the user clicks this button, the overdue electronic tax statements will be printed.
A new Publish Electronic Tax Statements checkbox has been added to the second page of the Print Levy Statements Wizard dialog. This checkbox will publish Electronic Tax Statements for accounts that have an agreement, in effect to the web portal. This will directly affect the total shown in the Publish Statements column on the Levy Statements view.
A new Electronic Multi-Property Tax Statements progress dialog replaces the Crystal Reports progress dialog. As it’s generating PDF files, the user will see the Time Elapsed, Estimated Time of Completion, progress bar, and Statement Count updating. When it is finished, the dialog automatically closes and the print or export begins.
A new Publish Electronic Tax Statement checkbox has been added to the Create New Tax Statement dialog. If electronic tax statements have been enabled for PACS Collections, this checkbox will be enabled. If the user checks it, and the recipient has an active electronic tax statement agreement, then the corrected tax statement will be published to the web portal. The usual email will go to the recipient. The statement will appear on the web portal with YYYY Corrected Tax Statement as the link text. The Print button will be disabled after user clicks it once, to prevent multiple statements being generated and published or printed.
Tax Statements are now available through the Web Portal.
What’s New in Documentation
The User Guides mentioned below will be available the day of the 8.1.18.x GA Release:
Certified Appraisal Data Import (new)
GIS (new)
Levy Roll & Tax Statement (modified)
Updates
Note All of the issues below have been resolved in releases directly related to 8.1.18.x Builds.
Help STAR
Description of Update
82924
98001
On properties with an Overpayment, it was specified to apply as a refund and then the ZRFND Bill was selected. However since the 2009 ZRFND bill was not created before the refund was applied, it was not taking the amount into refunds. In essence, when escrow was applied to bills with zero amount due, PACS was not generating a refund.
86530
When a property has taxes due with some $0.0 bill for non default refund entity, the $0.0 bill should not be listed as a bill to which OPR can be applied in the Bill List dialog. Previously, one could select such a bill to receive the OPR, but it would not generate a pending refund on Tax Due panel. In essence, escrow applied to 0 bills due wasn’t reflecting a refund due afterward (refund was disappearing).
99975
When working in an arbitration with multiple properties, PACS displays an error and does not calculate the sum of individual values correctly on the Value Summary screen.
102908
The Appraisal Information Export was not appending Mobile Home Serial and Hud Number information when there was a second improvement with that same information. Instead, it was replacing the first Improvement with the last one populated on the property.
109549
When taxes for a single bill are greater than 999,999.99, the alignment on the tax statement export is off. This causes the print vendors to drop characters when printing the statements. The fields have now been adjusted.
109887
PACS was not correctly handling billion dollar values in Personal Property Segments and Sub Segment value fields. (Personal Property > Personal Property tab > Segment Detail View > Asset Mgmt button > double click on a Segment > Value fields on the Appraised Value tab and Sub Segments tab in the Detail Segment dialog). These fields will now accept billion dollar values.
110469
When applying escrow in mass as well as at the property level, several escrow payments duplicated the application of the escrow. The resulting payments were seemingly more when the amount of escrow was more than the taxes due. Also, a dialog appears so that the user can assign the entities their portion of the refund.
115550
121346
When an original tax statement was printed, the P&I Rate column was only displaying the rate of Penalty and Interest due and not including the Attorney Fee percentage. (Activities > Assessment > Levy Functions > Right click on Levy Statement Maintenance > Create New Tax Statements). To resolve the issue, a footnote has been added underneath the P&I box of values on the Tax Statements: Total Tax Due may include Additional Penalty up to 20% incurred on April 1 or July 1 of the year of delinquency [Tax Code Section 33.11] or Additional Late AG Penalty of 10% [Tax Code Section 23.54].
118578
When attempting to run different Crystal Reports using properties with large values, such as in the billion dollar amounts, said reports was reported as locking processes in PACS. We have modified these reports in order to eliminate the lockups, as well as increased performance. These reports include: Preliminary Roll, Certified Roll, Statement Roll, Levy Roll, Supplement Roll, Delinquent Tax Roll, Tax Statement, Tax Certificate, Statement of Account, and Tax Receipt.
119823
When properties have more than one Mobile Home Improvement type designated, neither Mobile Home improvement information is being exported into the file.
119828
When supplementing any properties that have the restricted use Timber code filled in, and put the property into supplement, the supplement is removing this information and has to be re-entered.
121455
The parent Improvements for Mobile Homes were not being exported onto child properties.
121805
When P&A sends an import that contains an ECO exemption, they send a special file that accompanies it. This file includes the taxable value for the properties with the ECO exemption. The ability to import that file has been added in PACS.
122355
Mass Application of Escrow to Current Year Bills is not reflecting all properties with escrow balances on them with current year bills due. PACS is also choosing properties that do not have current year bills due but do have escrow on the properties to display in the wizard menu.
123121
An exception message was being generated when the clients were attempting to print Sales Confirmation Letters. (Activities > Sales > Sales Confirmation Letters > Enter a Begin Date and End Date > click Print).
124629
126913
PACS generates an error message when trying to run a custom report (Reports > Custom Reports > right click and choose Report > select Run Report).
126013
When attempting to do a new mineral import, PACS cannot locate the file on the server with the online clients. PACS is adding the date and time to the front of the file name and then saying it cannot be opened because it cannot fine the path specified.
127113
The PTAD State Code of EX-XA exemption is now available.
127191
When printing sales ratio from the ARB Protest, an exception error was being generated.
127337
When capturing arb submission values, an error was being generated. (Activities > Appraisal Notices > Capture Arb Submission Values > Capture Values Select All Properties> Select All types).
127408
When printing a preliminary roll, a property with a value (assessed, taxable, appraised, land_hstd, imprv_hstd, etc.) in the billions was too large for the data type it was assigned to (i.e., an integer), and a numeric out of range error was being generated.
127755
Some owners were not able to upload evidence. They were receiving a Not Eligible prompt, even though they had been setup with the “Allow Upload” function on their account.
128536
When trying to run PTD Exports for prior years, PACS was not populating the reports or the state codes. (Activities > Certify Appraisal Roll > PTD > Generate Certified PTD Submission).
128617
The School Stratification Report through Activities > Certify Appraisal Roll > PTD > Generate Certified PTD Submission was not running.
128694
A script error of “Invalid use of Null” Line:6002 was being generated when a user went to Activities > Certified Appraisal Roll > PTD > Generate PTD Submission > select “Uncertified” 2013, sup 0 > run. Not all of the different entities were set up with tax codes for the PTD export.
128749
When printing the Certified Roll to PDF, the process acted like it was trying to print one PDF file per record and then it caused PACS to crash with an exception error.
128807
After the certified import is brought into PACS Appraisal, the new EX exemptions were not being displayed on the totals pages that print off the Collections side.
129166
When opening a property for prior year and attempting to copy back and supplement to another year where it does not exist, PACS will in some cases throw an error.
129700
The Copy to Clipboard function was not working in the search results for comparables on the commercial and residential comparable search results screen.
129702
129733
When attempting to access GIS, an error message appeared stating “A map for this year does not exist”.
129707
129748
Cannot print appraisal cards from the property level or from the Activities menu. (First scenario: Open a property > select the Print an Appraisal Card button > Nothing happens. Second scenerio: Activities > Appraisal Cards > select any option).
129730
When adding an SDE layer to the map, the user needs the ability to specify the port and version for their ArcSDE service connection.
129743
129915
PACS was crashing on Windows XP machines when that machine is added to any GIS Module.
129744
Any user can make changes or delete the system default map, regardless of having the GIS Manager user right.
129748
When attempting to access appraisal notice events, because it uses an .ocx, it was not displaying. (Open an account that received a notice > double click on the system event to display the notice or select Details button).
129781
The Collection Export was not pulling anything up. (File > Export > Collection Export).
130227
From a property, the user clicked on the GIS panel and the GIS button was greyed out. The user was not able to launch the GIS Viewer.
The new GIS V2.0 will not be included in the GA 8.1.18.x release, but will be available following the initial release.
