Version 2007

Enhancements for all versions of the 2007 Client Software:

The following is a summarized version of new options, modifications and enhancements.  The online Help system provides detailed instruction, including pictures of actual screens and reports.  For the most detailed information view the 2007 Help system and look for the topic "What's new for 2007".

1.  ADD/EDIT DEBTORS:

• Data Entry lengths extended: No longer are we restricting local governments from the lengths that the Department of Revenue allows us to send them.

  a) First Name:25 characters, previously 10

  b) Last Name: 25 characters, previously 15

  c) Street Address: 35 characters, previously 15

  d) Street Address #2: 35 characters, previously 0 (NEW)

  e) City: 25 characters, previously 11

  e) Zip: 9 characters (Zip+4), previously 5

• Merge Date - date that notification letter merge process occurred displays on the main Add/Edit Debtor screen.  Provides valuable information as to when the notification letter was sent.
• Debts - changed the order so that Compliance Date appears before Expiration Date. This makes since to have the beginning date before the ending date. Sample below:

2.  REPORTS:

• Import Status Report - a report that lists the results of a file transmitted to the Clearinghouse as done by the . A sample report:

3.  TOOLS:

• Export Setoff Data - additional fields were added. An ASCII file can be created that is identical to the layout that the Clearinghouse uses for its import can be created. The additional fields added:

  a) Address

  b) City

  c) State

  d) Zip

  e) Phone

  f) Account Number

  g) Compliance Date

  h) Expiration Date

  i) Unique ID

   

• Systems Settings - created Account Number options that allow for report page breaks on a specified number of characters to begin the Account Number. This allows for creating a Setoff Report with separate pages for each department which simplifies the deposits for the Finance Director and any data entry that needs to be done on any other external billing system
• Account Code Setup - allows for the creation of the codes and the departments as explained above for the page breaks of Setoff Report
• File Downloads - eliminates the need to sign on to https://setoff.fivestarcomputing.com by automatically connecting to that website folder, displaying all available files and the ability to download one or all to your workstation and/or file server. Some of the files available through option are: Import Status Error report (Error-C999-000.dat), Excel Setoff file (C999.xls), Rejected from Department of Revenue (C999-000-RejectedbyDOR.dat). As others are created they will also be available for download

Enhancements for all versions 2005:

1.  NEW REPORTS:

• The Compliance Report prints a list of all Debtors that have one or more debts that meet either of these two criteria:

1) The Debt is prior to February 1, 2003. This is the first date that debts became complaint after the legislative change of January 1, 2003 that charged the $15.00 transaction fee to the debtor, rather than the local governmental entity and required notification letters to be sent to all debtors giving them a 30-day notice before being submitted to the Department of Revenue. Therefore, the first possible compliance date for any debt is February 1, 2003.  Debts with a Compliance Date prior to this date will not be submitted to the Department of Revenue.  If this date is changed by the local governmental entity and resubmitted to the Clearinghouse for processing it will be submitted to the North Carolina Department of Revenue.

2) The Compliance Date is a date that has not yet lapsed, even by one day.  (However, once that date has passed, the Clearinghouse will submit the debt to the North Carolina Department of Revenue, if the debt is greater than $50 and the Expiration Date has also not yet lapsed.

• The Expiration Report prints a list of all debtors that have one or more debts that have an Expiration Date prior to today’s date.   Debts with an Expiration Date that have passed will not be submitted to the Department of Revenue unless this date is changed by the local governmental entity and resubmitted to the Clearinghouse for submission to the North Carolina Department of Revenue.  Therefore, if the Expiration Date is changed to a date into the future and the Compliance Date criteria are met th Clearinghouse will submit the debt to the North Carolina Department of Revenue.  

• The Audit Report prints a list of all debtors and debts based on a selected date range.  This provides valuable information on the individuals and the debts in your database.

  AUDIT REPORT OPTIONS:

  1. Include All Debtors  - all debtors regardless of date added or edited

  2. Include Debtors Added Between Dates – debtors and their associated debts added within a specific date range

  3. Include Debtors Edited Between Dates - existing debtors edited (any modification) within a specific date range.  Could have been a demographic update such as an address change.

  4. Include Debts Added Between Dates - debts added within a specific date range. This would include existing debtors with additional debt(s) added.

  5. Include Debts Edited Between Dates - debts edited (any modification) within a specific date range. This would include payments, partial or paid in full debts at your location.

2.  IMPORTS:

• The ASCII File Import option allows a file to be loaded from an external billing or accounting system.  Rather than re-entering external data, it is possible to import your data directly into the Client system.  This option will be enabled on a per entity basis following the submission of a successful ASCII test file.   

Additional fields added to the ASCII Import:

1. Department Number - Optional alphanumeric field for use by the local governmental entity

2. Base Debt Amount -  Amount used for calculating monthly interest calculations.  This is the original debt amount with no interest, penalties or fees.  This amount will be used to calculate the interest amount by multiplying it against the Interest Rate (i.e. 0.0075%).  (Calculating interest on the Debt Amount would calculate interest on principal plus interest, therefore this Base Debt Amount is necessary)

3. Base Debt Interest - The total amount of interest, penalties and fees that has already been added to the original debt amount

• The EXCEL File Import utility has been disabled.  This option has been removed from the software effective in release 2003.01D (May 13, 2003).  It was initially created for local governmental entities to import existing data into the Clearinghouse database.  However, multiple imports caused corruption to the Unique Keys field. 

3. DATES:

• The Merge File Date Global Update is an option that will modify every debtor in your entire database.  Rather than editing each debtor, this option saves time if you desire to set all Merge File Dates to one single date, i.e. today’s date.  Note: once done you cannot restore to the previous date, so be sure this is what you desire. 

  The Merge File Date Global Update is used in the creation of an export file that can be used to create notification letters to your debtors.  This file can be merged with a Word Processing merge document in Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect.

   

• The Add/Edit Date Global Update is an option that will modify the Dates Added and Dates Edited fields for every debtor and debt transaction in your entire database to the same date.  This is useful for those entities that use the ASCII Import.  These dates are important when running the Audit Reports. 

4. TOOLS:

• The Create Letter/Label File option allows you to create an export file of the debtors for importing into a word processing package (Microsoft Word or Corel WordPerfect).  Then you can do Letters, Labels, Envelopes, etc. for correspondence as required by the legislation.  This process can be created as often as necessary and at any time.

  OPTIONS:

•  Order of Records:

o    Zip Code Order: in ascending (low to high) Zip Order, helpful for Postal Rate discounts

o     Name Order: alphabetical by Last Name then First Name

o     SSN Order:  in ascending (low to high) Social Security Number order  

•  Include Records:

o    Only Non Zero Balances: selects only debtors with a current Debt Amount greater than zero

o    All Debts: selects all debtors in the database, regardless of current Debt Amount, even 0.00 debts

•  Selection Options:

o    Include All Debtors:  selects debtors regardless of the Merge Date or Date Added to the database

o    Debtors who have not received notification: selects only debtors with an empty Merge Date

o    Debtors Added between these Dates:  selects only debtors who were added to the database in the starting and ending date range.  Enter a Start Date and an End Date

o    Debtors Merged between these Dates:  selects only debtors who were recently exported using the starting and ending date range.  Used in the event the file was deleted, damaged, etc. in the word processing merge process and needs to be recreated. Enter a Start Date and an End Date

•  Record Options:

o    One Record Per Debt: will print a record for each person and each of their debts.  For example, if one person had five debts then five records would be created for that debtor.

o    Sum the Records: will consolidate all the debts for each debtor so each debtor has one record in the merge file

• Account Information displays the assigned setup information for your local governmental entity. Periodically, the Clearinghouse will contact you to change your Smart Password.   A nine character Smart Password is the recommended level for maximum software protection. Information displayed and which may be edited:

  •  User ID

  •  Reserved (for future use)

  •  Smart Password

  •  Local Government Entity Name