9.0.45 Release Notes

New Features

Agent Maintenance

Clients were seeing issues with agent maintenance between the Assessor and Treasurer offices. Removing an agent from the current assessment year didn’t clear col_agent_id as expected. Some clarifications:

• A User can add only one ‘collection Agent’ from PACS. Multiple ‘property Agents’ can exist.’
• ‘Collection Agent’ is not year specific. If there is a collection agent assigned to the property, it will be displayed in any property layer. If the user changes/removes the ‘collection Agent’, property.col_agent_id is updated regardless of Property Year Layer.
• There will be only one record in agent_assoc per property with authority for entity mailings (ent_mailings = ‘T’), which indicates that this is the ‘collection Agent’ for the property. Any changes to the ‘collection Agent’ will be done to this record. Owner_tax_yr will not be relevant for this record.
• Existing Data where there are multiple ‘collection Agent’ associations in agent_assoc will be corrected in the release.
• There is no change for the agents added in assessor role, as the records are year specific.

The following changes have been made:

Assessor Side:

Notes:

• The changes indicated below are assumed to be in the current assessment year. Adding, changing or removing an agent in a prior year should have no effect on the collection agent.
• If an agent is removed from the current assessment year, the collection agent (col_agent_id) will NOT be updated if an agent exists in a prior assessment year.

Instances:

• When an agent is added in the current assessment year AND has the authority assigned to receive entity mailings, the agent becomes the ‘collection agent’.
• When an existing agent has entity mailings selected, the agent becomes the ‘collection agent’.
• When an existing agent has entity mailings de-selected, remove the ‘collection agent’.
• When an agent with entity mailings is removed, remove the agent and remove the ‘collection agent’. The agent is no longer associated to the property and is no longer the ‘collection agent’.

Treasurer Side:

Instances:

• When an agent is added, the agent becomes the ‘collection agent’ in the current assessment year assigned the authority for entity mailings. No other agent mailing types or authorities are assigned.
• When an agent is removed but the agent has additional authorities assigned in the current assessment year, remove the authority for entity mailings. The agent is no longer the ‘collection agent’.
• When an agent is removed and has ONLY the authority for entity mailings, remove the agent and remove the ‘collection agent’. The agent is no longer associated to the property and is no longer the ‘collection agent’.

Billing Export – Owner ID

The Billing Information file is used to process payments through lockbox and credit card vendors. Many of these payments/checks reference the owner id (OID) and not the property ID (PID). In order to process payments, the processor needs to be able to attempt a match on OID if the search by PID, plus amount does not return a result. Right now, all unmatched payments are sent to the client office for further review and posting. The expectation is that the billing information file provides as much detail as needed to process payments.

The owner ID has been added to the end of the billing information file layout. The layout should be provided to all vendors who reference the layout, as soon as possible.

See below or contact Client Services

DOR Valid Sales Report

Land Only Sales

The valid ratio report produced inaccurate sales ratios for vacant properties which were improved following the sale. The report would display a Sales Ratio over 300% where the current improved market/assessed value was used in determining the sales ratio.

The change was made to use the land value as the assessed value on the reports when the ‘Land Only’ flag is selected.

This impacts 3 reports:

Assessor: PACS -> Reports -> DOR -> DOR Sales, Valid Sales Report Option

Assessor: PACS -> Reports -> DOR -> DOR Sales, Invalid Sales Report Option

Assessor: PACS -> Reports -> DOR -> DOR Sales Check

The summary, property counts and averages on the reports are unaffected.In addition the impacted properties on each of these reports will be marked with a * which in turn references the note “* Indicates Land Only Sale” above the header of each report. This allows the user to know which properties are using the LAND value.

Split after Sale

The valid ratio report produced inaccurate sales ratios for properties which were split/segregated following the sale. The resolution implemented for a previous ticket affected sales based on the new ability to copy sales information in the split process.

In that ticket, a System Configuration setting was added to PACS.Admin which allows the user to control whether to copy deed history to child properties during a split. If the setting was set to true:

1) The properties created from the split were added to the original Sale ID associated to the parent property

2) This registers as a multiple property sale when it should not be identified as a multiple property sale

The SPLIT process has been modified so that when the “SPLIT COPY OWNERSHIP” configuration is set to true the deed information will be copied to each of the newly created properties as a unique change of ownership.

NOTE: THESE NEW PROPERTIES WILL NOT COPY FORWARD ANY EXISTING SALE OR EXCISE INFORMATION FROM THE ORIGINAL SOURCE PROPERTY

Example of Previous System:

• Property#1000 has an ownership transfer #1234 that has SALES and EXCISE info
• Property#1000 is split in to two properties
• Each of the two new properties are linked to ownership transfer #1234 and all of its data
• This includes the SALES and EXCISE info

Example of New System:

• Property#1000 has an ownership transfer #1234 that has SALES and EXCISE info
• Property#1000 is split in to two properties
• Each of the two new properties will create a *NEW* ownership transfer #1235 and $1236
• The ownership transfer data from Property#1000 will copy forward EXCEPT for the SALES and EXCISE info which are removed
• Each of these two new properties can edit and maintain their unique ownership transfer
• This includes assigning SALES and EXCISE as appropriate

Mass Update Bill Codes (33388)

Activities>Mass Maintenance Bills>Mass Update Bill/Fee Codes

The system should only update the bills matching the specified criteria. We are finding in testing that it updates ALL bills for the year specified for the properties selected.

Entered Bill fee Code of LID, Tax Years = 2015, Property Level Special Assessment = LKW. Expectation: to code all 2015 bills that are special assessment bills for LKW with a LID bill Fee Code.

What happens is ALL 2015 unpaid bills are coded within the properties selected that have a LKW bill for 2015 with an LID Bill code.

It is not ONLY update the assessment agency of LID it is updating all unpaid bills on the property.

MH Movement Certificate New Fields

Client request to have the Transporters WUTC Permit and DOT Permit numbers added to the Tax Certificate for Mobile Home Movement.

Payment Import – Description

This is a request to add the file name to the grid for payment runs that have been imported so clients can see easily which ones have been imported. The current method is view the import by dollar amount.

A new field ‘Description’ is created for the payment import at 50 characters long. The Import Payment dialog and Import Payment Run List are modified to accommodate new changes. If a user enters a description then it will store the description into the run, otherwise the filename is stored.

Receipting – Partial Voids

When part of a payment is voided, the search results do not clearly indicate that a portion of it has been voided.

The column ‘Is Voided’ on the payment search result grid will now display, ‘Yes’, ‘No’ or ‘Partial’ where partial indicates that the payment has voided transactions.

Split Wizard – Legal Description Maintenance

Previously, the Split wizard allowed a User to change the Legal Description even when the Auto Build Legal was active for the property. When the Split Wizard finished processing, the property view was refreshed but the Auto Build Legal process executed and replaced the user’s entered legal description.

In this release, if Auto Build Legal is set to ‘T’ and the user changes the legal description through the Split Wizard, the user will be notified that changing the legal description will set the Auto Build Legal to ‘F’. The User can choose to continue with changes or cancel to retain the Auto Build legal. The User can later change Auto Build Legal on the property, as required.

Helpstar Defect Corrections

Helpstar ID                        Description of Update