8.1.23 Release Notes

New Features

Released to Clients on 6/18/2015.

This release includes the following additions and modifications to functionality:

Appraisal

ARB Values on Split-Merge

We recently modified ARB value processing for the purpose of maintaining ARB values. This release includes additional functionality relating to ARB values when performing a split or merge.

When a property is split:

• A notification will display to the user that an ARB value exists on the property, ARB property and segment values will NOT be retained after split is complete and values should be reviewed once changes are made. Similar to the warning added for property, improvement and land changes in 8.1.20.
• ARB values will be set to cost on originating property once the split is complete.
• ARB value will be set to cost on any created property once the split is complete.
• A NEW column displays ARB Values in the Split Wizard for Improvements and land segments

When a property is merged:

• A notification will display to the user that an ARB value exists on the property, ARB property and segment values will NOT be retained after merge is complete and values should be reviewed once changes are made. Similar to the warning added for property, improvement and land changes in 8.1.20.
• ARB values will be set to cost on originating property once the merge is complete.
• ARB values will be set to cost on any created property once the merge is complete.
• A NEW column displays ARB Values in the Merge Wizard for Improvements and land segments

BPP Appraisal Card

Per a client request, in order to make working the BPP segments easier and to verify changes, the BPP Appraisal Card and the Asset Manager should display the segments in the same order. This will allow for them to look at the printed card and easily compare it to the Asset Manager Screen.

The Appraisal Card can now be set to sort personal property sub-segments in the same order as the Asset Manager dialog. To do this, open the Appraisal Card Settings dialog with the menu item:

Tools->System Settings-> Set Default Appraisal Card

• The dialog has a new Personal Property Segment Sort Order group containing radio buttons labeled Default, Data Entry Order, Year Acquired, and Type Code. The Default setting is the original Appraisal Card sort order.
• This dialog changes the appraisal card sort order for all users on the system. In addition, if the user selects one of the new sort orders it sets the default sort order for the Asset Manager dialog to sub-segments.
• The user can choose the sub-segment sort order displayed in this dialog from the combo box in the lower right corner. This sort order is not saved. It reverts to the system wide default setting the next time the dialog opens.

The Asset Manager dialog has not been changed.

Commercial Equity Grid

There is new functionality available to make the commercial equity grids static. The commercial grids now use the same framework to generate and maintain as existing residential grid functionality. Users will notice slight differences in the grid buttons displayed at the bottom of the commercial equity grid. Each button will be enabled or disabled based on the type of grid created/viewed and the user rights assigned.

At the grid level:

• Chart & Detail Summary-these are used for commercial equity but the buttons will display on each grid, disabled for non-commercial girds
• Make Static-now available in commercial grids, consistent with residential
• Edit Comp-label changed from ‘Edit Sales’ as previously displayed in the commercial grids, to match the residential grids

Creating grids in mass, previously this was available for Residential grids only:

Effective Tax Rate Assumption

For the Effective Tax rate Calculation, when the entity increases an original exemption, the “Taxable Value Lost because Property First Qualified for an Exemption” is increased by the difference between the original exempted amount and the increased exempted amount. Value lost due to Freeport or goods-in-transit exemptions is not considered. PACS does not currently report the value lost to an exemption where the amount was increased by the entity.

Currently the following types of Totals reports have the option to include Effective Rate Assumption section. On these reports, a new Increased Exemptions sub-section will be added when the Print Effective Rate Assumption option is checked.

• Certified
• Preliminary
• Adjusted
• Levy Total
• This new section will not appear in Captured ARB Submission Totals.

The increased exemption amount will calculate for only the following exemptions:

• DP DISABILITY
• DPS DISABLED Surviving Spouse
• HOMESTEAD
• OV65 OVER 65
• OV65S OVER 65 Surviving Spouse

where the entity exemption details has changed for the current year for properties where:

• the exemption is not new for the current year
• ownership is the same for current and prior years
• the property is active in the current and prior years

EXAMPLES:

(Current Year Exemption applied to Current Year Market Value)

(Prior Year Exemption applied to Current Year Market Value)

• Full Increase reported

• Increase reported due to low value

The New Exemption Report will now include an Increased Exemptions section below the New Exemptions section for each entity.

• Each of the sections will have a Subtotal and Total at the entity level as show in the screen shots below.
• Additional formatting changes were made, the verbiage in the footer was modified and the entity name was moved to the top of each page.

PTD Breakdown-Income

An issue was reported regarding the PTD categorization for properties valued by the Income method where multiple state codes exist on the property. The PTD Value was reported with the entire account’s value assigned to the State Code that has the most property value attributed. This appears to have been reporting this way for years and has gone unnoticed as a problem. The new PTAD categorization has initiated a change to this reporting.

All State codes will be reported with the associated property value regardless of the value method.

Previous breakdown when valued by Income:

Change to breakdown (matches all other value methods):

Reset Exemptions

End of Year processing has been modified with a NEW option to remove HS exemptions when it is in combination with a special exemption. When checked, this will reset exemptions only on properties that have the reset flag set plus a Homestead exemption plus one or more special exemptions.

Activities -> End of Year Processing -> Reset Exemptions…

Sale Import Characteristics

We have modified the functionality of the Sale tab Summary fields.

Upon sale Import which includes the import of imp and land details (this is expected to happen after the initial sale information is created), the Summary fields are updated to reflect the imported details. THE SUMMARY FIELDS SHOULD NOT UPDATE FOR A RECALC ONLY.

Modify existing notification when user clicks to import to indicate that the Summary data will also be replaced.

Additionally INDICATE summary fields on SALE INFORMATION, IMPROVEMENT, and LAND will be replaced

Imp Summary fields:

• Actual Year Built
• Total Living Area
• Base Price per SQFT
• Dominant Class

Land Summary (fields will display when relevant to the land appraisal method):

• Acres
• SQFT
• Front Feet
• Depth
• Unit Price
• Land Type

Information fields (also update on import):

• State Code
• School
• City
• Class
• Sub Class

Collections

Payment Import Set Posting Date from Override

The Payment Import process has been modified to automatically set the posting date to the selected override for each payment in the file. This will have the same effect as if the user set the post date from Activities > Change Posting Date… Once the import completes, the posting date will be set back to the user’s previous setting.

Example:

1. User posting date is February 2, 2015
2. Receive a payment import file

1. Payment is for 2014 bills
2. Paid Date should reflect January 1, 2015

3. File -> Import -> Payment File…

4. Prepare the run

1. Payment Run -> Pay Run
2. Check the override checkbox and change the date to January 15, 2015

5. Payment Run->Prepare Run

6. Expected Result:

1. PACS uses January 15 as the payment date and no penalty or interest is assessed for current year bills.
2. User posting date returns to February 2, 2015

Tax Statements

Tax statements should now include the quarterly statement payment grid and verbiage for properties that have a DV exemption. Currently this displays for properties with an OV65 and DP.

Print quarterly display for DV#, DV#S, DVHS, DVHSS, DVCH, DVCHS, and MASSS properties in addition to OV65 & DP. Since DV exemptions can be applied to personal property PP tax statements are affected, as well.

PACS already allows quarterly pay on any property but this defect affects the tax statement display.

NOTE: legislation is specific to OV65/DP (11.13) and DV# exemptions (11.22), DVCH and MASSS (11.132), though DVHS and DVHSS are not mentioned, we are including them (11.131).

Helpstar ID Description of update

85242	The SQL Query was corrected to contain the correct derived tables.
86632	A configuration in Special Lot Pricing was causing issues. This has been resolved.
113753	Installment Agreement payments were not showing at the installment agreement level. This is no longer an issue.
114195	When capturing property information for a sale, the Dominant class field in the Improvement sale tab would not update.This has been corrected.
122913	UDI parent properties were mass updated, a message appeared implying that the property IDs were not valid because they are deleted.
123286	Paid fees would not display on the Fee Tax Collections Activity Report. This is no longer an issue.
123353	Escrow Collections Activity reports were not picking up some property IDs. This issue has been resolved.
125879	An error message was thrown when ‘selecting all’ sale type codes for comparable sales. This is no longer an issue.
134939	When prorated full EX exemptions are put on accounts along with other exemptions, PACS would not calculate the exemption totals correctly. This is no longer an issue.
135377	End of Year processing would not remove homestead exemptions when in combination with a special exemption. This is no longer an issue.
136782	The ability to copy rows to clipboard or excel was grayed out. This has been corrected.
137707	Comp grids could not be created when situs street featured apostrophes. This has been corrected.
138114	Land Only sales were summing the homestead and non-homestead land values from the change-of-owner record. This is no longer an issue.
138486	The PTD value in EARS exports were incorrect when an account featured multiple state codes and an income value method. This issue has been resolved.
139627	Running certified totals caused CPU server to peg maximum. This is no longer an issue.
139836	Collections clients could not configure the online portal website. This is no longer an issue.
140293	PACS was displaying incorrect payments on installment agreements. This has been corrected.
141427	PACS did not measure the value lost to an exemption where the amount was increased by the entity. This has been corrected.
142195	Installment Agreement payments were not showing at the installment agreement level. This is no longer an issue.
143305	When giving the user View Only Rights, users still had access to the Land and Improvement Matrix tables. This has been corrected.
143835	When calculating exemptions, PACS calculated 364 days instead of 365. This has been corrected.
144865	Payment imports were not displaying the correct updates. This is no longer an issue.
146036	PACS Server ran slow when preliminary totals were run. This issue has been resolved.
146146	Future Year Layer user rights were not behaving correctly. This is no longer an issue.
147228	Freeze totals pages were not populating and displaying blank. This issue has been resolved.
147289	The email type –PROT_FINAL_VAL was not sending the customized text set by the client or populating the protest email history with the Email Type. This is no longer an issue.
147568	The Mineral/Industrial Capitol Import did not insert or update new Improvements. This is no longer an issue.
147607	Capitol XML Mineral import did not update real property improvement values. This issue has been resolved.
147627	GIS 2.0 was not displaying values for the fields land_mkt_acre, land_mkt_sqft & land_adj_codes. This has been corrected.
147687	Equity Grids Commercial grids printed zeros for some fields. This is no longer an issue.
147818	PTD Error occurred on properties with Income Value. This issue has been resolved.
147869	ARB values were not distributed correctly. This is no longer an issue.
147984	Preliminary totals were running slowly. This is no longer an issue.
148017	Protest creation was causing a spike in PC usage. This is no longer an issue.
148032	The ‘ARB Approved’ heading was placed back on the preliminary totals pages.
148047	Exporting from PACS to Truth-in-Taxation resulted in an error. This has been corrected.
148032	Based on review of the crystal report, the “ARB Approved Totals” heading is displayed only on a Certified Totals or an Adjusted Certified Totals report and appraisal_total.arb_status is ‘C’. It is working as designed.
148136	The formula for the cap rate adj% was missing a 100.0 section. This was added.

Changes in the release are related to Legislative SB 1 & SJR 1 and include:

Creation of Pre-SB1 Freeze Ceiling capture process in order to capture the freeze information prior to the 2015 HS exemption increase to $25,000.

• Client will browse to Activities>Freeze Ceiling Maintenance
• Right Click; this will open a new menu
• Select Pre-SB1 Freeze Ceiling Wizard.

A new PACS_Config item, TaxStatement:  2015ProvisionalTextOFF, was added to turn OFF the provisional text, as a date field.

• The default date is 11/3/2015 inclusively. If statements are printed on or before 11/3/2015, the text will print.
• For clients who DO NOT want to print the provisional text (example, the office does not collect for the school district), the date can be altered so that the text will not print on your statement.

Addition of provisional text to 2015 Tax Statement to print as a third page.

• The Tax Statement provisional text will print, as long as the date is valid in reference to the pacs_config setting above, with the following criteria:
• Statements that do not report tax for an ISD will not print the provisional  text.
• Statements with no homestead value will not print the provisional text.
• Non-real properties will not print the provisional text.
• Statements where the tax has not changed will not print the provisional text.

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Helpstar ID Description of update

148469	There was an SQL error when opening land tables from the land detail dialog. This is no longer an issue.
148464	The ARB value button was not checked for closed BPP protests. This has been corrected.