October Billing Instructions
TO MassBilling
Open TOMassBilling. Log in. Select the Server and current tax Database for the billing. Click OK.
Click the Mass Statements button.
Step 1. Select an Existing Billing or Create a New Billing
This step will allow you to either create a new Mass Billing or work with an existing Mass Billing. Begin by creating a new billing. There are at least two separate billings required in October. Create an October Single Owner billing (for Owners without Fids) and an October Fid billing. If an informational copy is necessary for those owners with Fids, create a third billing as well.
Best practice, create one billing and complete all steps. When complete, create the second billing and complete all steps.
Click Next.
Step 2: Set the Billing Type as October Mailing
Select Billing Type “October Mailing”. A pop-up will appear. This warning is to alert the user that this is a special billing type that contains a hard coded penalty and interest schedule specific to the October billing. If this message pops up in later months, please reset your billing type. Click OK and continue.
Select Statement Type “Current”. Make sure that the Year is the tax year to be billed. The Statement Date defaults to the current date. When all is satisfactory, click Next.
Step 3: Load List of Account to be Billed
Generally, for the October Billing, two billings are created. One billing is for Owners with no fids on the account, and the other is for the Fids. (A third may be required if an informational copy is sent to an owner with a fid.) Each time, highlight All Accounts. Click Load Billing Records. A popup appears to confirm the internal settings. Click Select Accounts.
Once the accounts have been loaded, the popup will disappear. Check the Accounts in Account List. Please confirm that this number is reasonable for the billing! If All Accounts was selected and the number does not seem to make sense, make sure that the load was done correctly. If it has and the number is still not right, please call Support at Spindlemedia. This example has 3 accounts loaded for demo purposes only. At this point the Accounts in Account List should reflect the number of accounts pulled for the billing.
The View/Edit Billing Records button on the right will display the list of accounts included. (Note: for this demo only, the accounts are for 2009. The Account Year should display the current year.
Click the View/Edit Excluded Accounts. For this demo, there should be no excluded accounts at this point. If certain accounts need to be excluded, enter the account and year, and then hit enter while the cursor is in the year box. The account will then list in the main box.
Step 4: Specify Statement Recipients
This step allows selection of the billing recipients. At this point no filters are on the account list.
Generally, two billings are required for the October Statements, a single owner billing and a fid billing. First, click Send Statements to Owner for Single Owner Accounts. Click Next and continue through the billing. When that billing has been completed, reopen MassBilling, load all accounts, and create the second billing by selecting the Send Fiduciary statements.
If an “information only” copy is required for owners with fids, create a third billing and proceed through all steps as outlined, but at this point, select the Send statements to Owner for Fiduciary Accounts (“Informational Copy”).
For the second billing, select Send Fiduciary statements
If an informational copy is needed for a third billing, select this.
Definitions of the selections:
Send statements to Owner ONLY for All accounts (even accounts with Fids)
Every tax payer with a balance due gets a statement.
Sent statements to Owner for Single Owner Accounts
Only tax payers that do not have a Fiduciary associated with their account who send in their own payments will get a statement.
Send Fiduciary statements
All accounts that are cross referenced to a Fiduciary in TaxClient will be included. All fiduciaries in the system will be included, and the statements will be sent to the fiduciaries listed on the accounts.
Send Fiduciary statements for a single Fiduciary
Select this, enter the Fiduciary Number in the box. Statements will be created for all accounts associated with this Fiduciary. They will be sent to the Fiduciary.
Send statement to Owner for Fiduciary Accounts (“Informational Copy”)
All accounts associated with a Fiduciary in TaxClient will receive a courtesy
statement.
*****Please note that a remark must be added in step 6 or 7 to alert the taxpayer that this is an informational copy only. Please insure the comment is in place, or duplicate payments may appear from the taxpayer as well as the Fiduciary.
Use Advanced Recipient options
Special instructions exist for this option. Please discuss with Support before using this option.
Send Owner Number Statements
At this writing, this function is not in use.
Step 5: Pre-Process the Accounts
This step allows the exclusion of several different kinds of account.
Note that if an account is excluded from the October Billing, no correspondence will be set on the account. The October load differs from other billing types in that the Delinquent date of 2/1/2011 is set on all certified load accounts during the loading process. Since the date is already in place, no date will have to be set after the billing has been checked. (Billings done later in the year will place dates on the accounts, as in 33.07’s. If the account is excluded, these dates are not placed.) If the defaulted settings are not those desired, click Clear All then select only those items that need to be excluded from the billing.
If any accounts were entered into the Excluded List by way of the View/Edit Excluded Accounts button referenced in Step 3, check the Filter Accounts in Excluded List box. Note: These accounts will be ignored unless the box is checked.
Check the Substitute Alternate Address in Owner File if desired.
If no statements are to be sent with either a total balance or levy of less than a certain amount, fill in those amounts. Again, opting to exclude these accounts means that no correspondence will be set.
For special exclusions and advanced sorting options, please contact Spindlemedia for support.
When all of Step 5 has been set, click the Pre-Process Accounts button. When Pre-Processing is complete, this pop-up will appear.
At this point the numbers have filled in for the Total/Distinct/Included Accounts in MassBilling Table. For this demo, there are a total of 3 account records included, there are 3 different accounts included (this may be lower if there are multiple account records for an specific account to be included). An exclusion has been applied to one account, so only two remain in the list.
If any changes are made to the billing, please remember to Pre-Process again. If this step is omitted for a redone billing, the original filters will be in place.
Reports
To verify the Record counts, click Reports (above the Record counts block), then click Exception Reports.
This box opens up.
Click Select All, the output desired, and then click Run Report.
The accounts included in the billing appear first. These accounts are those selected in Step 3 that have not been filtered out by any selections made to this point.
There are several exception reports for specific exclusions. If the account was excluded by one of these, it will appear on the specific exclusion report.
Step 6: Generate Statements
This step combines the filtered and sorted information with the template. At this point, it is possible to add extra statements to the statement. This step defaults to unchecked options and blank statement lines. These entries are for the demonstration only.
Once the desired statements have been added, click the Generate Statements button. When this is complete, this popup appears.
The number of statements to be printed is listed in the last line of the Record counts block now shows the number of Statements in the Statement Tables. The demo contains two statements.
Note: If it is necessary to return to previous steps and make changes, please remember to repeat clicking the Generate Statements button or the output will not change regardless of settings.
Step 7: Print or Export Statements
To Print Statements, click the Print Statements button.
Click the desired settings for the print job. Add an Extra Remark if necessary.
The Statement Range allows the job to be printed in one large or several smaller lots. Depending on the output printer, the job can be divided. Print 1 – 500, then print 501 – 1000. Be careful not to skip or duplicate statements. Select 1 – 3 for use in setting the Label position.
The Label Position allows the address to be moved up or down, and side to side to fit the window envelope. Top 2, Left 10 fits most window envelopes.
Print Options allows for duplex printing if the output printer allows for this.
Finally, the output allows for a Preview to inspect statements. Use this before wasting paper. Exporting the statements is another good way to inspect them. Select Printer or Export after the inspection of the Preview.
Click Print Statements when all settings are in.
The History should display on the back.
Export the File
Click the Export Statement To File.
This window opens. Browse to the output file.
Click the Browse button […] Browse to the folder and save name the output.
Select the file type. Please ensure that you have created the file specific to your location. Flat file is a data file, Flat file (KPT) displays data in statement layout, and the Image File saves images of the statements.
Click Finish. The file resides in the folder. Name the folders and files per local policy.
The Billing Is Not Complete Until the Correspondence is Set!
Once the billing has been thoroughly checked, don’t forget to set the Correspondence records on the accounts. This is a separate step so that only one correspondence is created per billing even if the billing has been repeatedly pre-processed and generated. Click the Create Correspondence button.
Check the Dates and Billing name. Click the Create Correspondence button.
This pop-up allows an exit if necessary.
When the correspondence records are in place, this pop-up appears.
This billing is now complete. These records appear on each account included in the billing.
Make sure to repeat this process and set correspondence for each of the billings necessary for this time of year.