v10.75 changes & enhancements vcs personal property

1

V10.75 Changes & Enhancements

VCS Personal Property Document Updated: 8/5/2012 This document lists all the major enhancements to VCS Personal Property V10. You can see by the summary below there have been numerous changes over the years. Vanguard is committed to making its VCS Personal Property the “best” personal property software money can buy. All of us at Vanguard Appraisals thank you for your ideas and suggestions. Definition & Summary of Changes:

• Enhancements (Client Requested): An enhancement that was specifically requested by a client. • Enhancement: An enhancement that was made to the program that was not user suggested. • NEW: Added something totally new to the program and may or may not have been user requested.

Total Changes to Date: V2.00 – V10.75

Version V10.00 Year Released: 2012

Version V9.00 –9.75 Year Released: 2011

Version V8.00 – V8.75 Year Released: 2010

Version V7.00-V7.75 Year Released: 2009






Enhancements (Client Requested): 191Enhancements: 164New Items: 46TOTAL CHANGES 401

Enhancements (Client Requested): 19Enhancements: 15New Items: 2





Enhancements (Client Requested): 22Enhancements: 29New Items 8




2

V10.75 1) Enhancement {Client Requested} – The “Delete Status” on the account search screen now shows the delete

reason. This eliminates the need to go inside the account to see the reason or having to click on the Status Tab.

2) Enhancement {Client Requested} – The PIN field has been moved on the account search screen to make room for the Township/City field. This will really help those counties that are a township county.

3

3) Enhancement – The Auto-Complete Select Master Tax District screen has been updated. Along with the counts, it can now show the dollar values for each of the master districts. Accounts marked active completed add-on and not deleted are shown.

4) Enhancement {Client Requested} – Added a 3rd printer option when printing Court Order Receipts. Now you can print one for your records, then print one directly to the collector, and finally on for the clerk or additional office.

4

5) Enhancement {Client Requested} – There is a new Business M&E Depreciation calculator that can be used when entering business information on the Court Order screen.

1st, Just fill in the acquisition year, the full acquisition amount, click the calculator button, and the Depreciation Calculator will appear. In this example (2011 Depr Chart): Acquisition Year = 2005 Acquisition amount = $1000 2nd, Select the life of the item and if you want the 33.33% deducted and see the new depreciated amount is shown. 3rd, Click “Apply” and the program will replace the $1000 item value/acquisition amount with the new depreciated amount.

5

6) Enhancement – There is a new that can be utilized Shortcut for those clients who have a VCS Personal Property Website. By simply turning on the new feature called “Link Program to PP Website”, you can quickly jump directly from the account you are viewing straight to the same account on the personal property website. This option is nice when answer questions at the counter or to help verify what someone may have seen on the website. Note: This option works for both the old and dew personal property websites and utilizes the VCS Personal Property Internet browser.. Screens below show the Shortcut option and where you click on the Account Maintenance to go to the same account on the website.

6

V10.50 7) Enhancement – There is a new feature under the Help section of the Personal Property Main Menu called “Recent

Program Changes”. Just like the Windows shortcut that may or may not be on your computer desktop screen, this new menu option will show the recent changes for the VCS Personal Property program. Every time you get a new version of personal property, please review these changes. You can not only view the recent changes, but you can print them. Please refrain from making changes to the file, because the file is updated quite often and any changes you make may be overwritten.

Important: The option does require that your computer have Microsoft Word or compatible document viewer installed on your computer.

7

8) Enhancement {Client Requested} – The Master Tax District can now be optionally shown or hidden, whichever you prefer, on the Account Maintenance Wild Card Search Results screen. By using the options, you can put a check mark to hide the column or clear the checkmark to show the column. This option is set per each individual workstation and not for everyone.

Example: Showing wild card search for Situs name “Miller”.

8

9) NEW - There is a new module available called Account Management Module. This new module incorporates the current PP Import Module and now includes Address Tracking. So, the program not only tracks when a new address is imported from a printing company for NCOA corrections, but it also track every address change made to an account. The new Address Tracking allows you to see all the previous addresses on the account. In fact, you can quickly and easily go back to a previous address with the click of a button and there is no limit to the number of addresses the program tracks for each account.

Account Management Module Summary: Tracks every address change made to an account. No limit to the number of previous addresses per account. A previous address can be use to replace a current address. The program tracks and keeps record of all address types (Site, Mailing, Land, etc). Includes the Address Import Module for NCOA corrections provided by your reporting form printing

company (EJ Rice and Peregrine Printing). All clients that currently have the PP Import Module will get the new Account Management Module FREE. As always, the yearly service fee guarantees you will receive all enhancements and additions to the module.

Account Search Screen allows you to view previous addresses

9

Account Maintenance allows you to view and replace address with a previous address

Clicking the “Select” button in “Show Past Address” screen, allows you to replace the current address with a past address.

10

V10.25 10) Enhancement {Client Requested} – A new feature was added to the Item Maintenance screen called “Pinning”.

This new feature looks like a push pin you would see on a bulletin board. When clicked, the program stays on the same item description until you change it, instead of always defaulting to Autos. This works great when entering repetitive items like Business M&E.

11) Enhancement –A new feature was added to show clients if a particular item will be “Live Exported”. Typically, all items are always exported when you do the “Live Export”. However some tax systems require only the items that have changed be sent. This can greatly complicate things. So, this new message/feature will help those who only export changes. If you do not see this message, then don’t worry. Instead, be thankful, because your Tax System does not require only sending items that have changed.

Green = Sending item information. Red = Information not sent.

11

12) Enhancement –The Live Export View List button has been added to the Edit Prior Item screen. It works just like the View Button on the Account Maintenance History Tab. Please note that the prior historical item you are editing may not be in the View List. It is usually added to the list when you click the “Ok” button to save your changes.

Screen Showing NEW “View” button on the Prior Items Screen

Screen showing “Views” button on the Account History Tab

12

13) Enhancement – There is a new List Report called “Top 10 Accounts”. Just by clicking one button, the “Query Button”, the program will search the database for the top 10 highest valued accounts in your system. The report is broken down into: Residential/Personal accounts, Commercial/Business accounts, over all highest accounts, then finally by individual school districts.

14) Enhancement {Client Request} – You now can hide the page numbering, “Page [1] of [x]”, on the reporting forms.

13

15) Enhancement – Posting items from the current information into history has become quite a challenge for the program to determine a price. So, a new feature was added to help find the historical price more accurately. Now, when adding items into history, the program looks at 2 things when trying to find a value for the item in the pricing guides.

a. 1st, looks at the 6 digit pricing code. If it can find the code then it will use the associated price. b. 2nd, if it cannot locate a matching 6 digit code it will look to a matching Make, Model, Body.

As before, the program will add 5% to the price for each newer pricing guide the program searches through. Below, see V10.00 Enhancement #13 for more information.

16) Enhancement – Is your VCS Personal Property database getting to be very large? We have discovered a way to compress the images without having a reduction in quality. The procedure has been tested at 11 sites (like Lincoln, Franklin, Perry, Atchison, and Callaway). These 11 counties have seen a reduction of more than 60% in the size of their personal property database. By compressing the images, the accounts will load faster and your backup time will greatly decrease. The process can take several hours, so it is recommend that the process be performed during a weekend. If you would like your personal property database documents compress, please email [email protected] to schedule this process.

14

17) Enhancement {Client Requested} – If you have a VIN number already in an item, the program will now ask if you want to replace it instead of assuming you want to replace it. Please remember, that VINs change based on the Make, Model, Body and Year. If you change any of these you probably need to verify the VIN is correct.

18) Enhancement – As you know, retired items were loaded into the 2012 V10 of Personal Property with the same price as last year. This was done to help prevent re-entering 1000’s of vehicles. Some assessors want the value to go down just a bit for the 2012 valuation year. So, a new depreciation was added to reduce the value of Retired Vehicles. This new option can be found under Shortcuts | Depreciate Retired Guide Items. It works on the Value Guide and the My Guide retired vehicles.

Note: Vehicles that are 1- 10 years old will be depreciated 5% and vehicles older than 10 years will depreciate 10%.

15

19) Enhancement – As you probably have noticed, many values were left out of the 2012 Value Guide. So, in order to help our clients with these missing values, the Ultimate Guide calculations have been added to the Value Guide. This option is only available for those clients who have the My Guide. The Personal Property program will actually track and show you each price that has been calculated during the Ultimate Value Guide process (highlighted in BLUE below). Tips:

• The Ultimate Pricing can be performed on a single vehicle or on an entire Category like “Autos” or “Boats”

• The Ultimate Pricing can be performed on Current and Retired vehicles.

Screen shot showing new Ultimate Value Guide Pricing

16

Remember: • When the Ultimate calculations are performed on the Value Guide, values will increase/decrease a value by

5% or $1000, whichever is less. • Vehicles must have a minimum of 2 values in order to start the Ultimate calculation process, otherwise the

vehicle is skipped. • The vehicle values must descend in price as the vehicle gets older, otherwise the vehicle is skipped. • Works on Autos, Pickups/SUVs, Trailers, Boats, Heavy Trucks, RVs, Motors, Motorcycles, and Campers –

basically all items in the Value Guide. • Copy Test-To-Main and perform a Batch | Recalculation to apply the new values to the accounts. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• Re-run your “Items with Zero Value” under List Reports.

17

20) Enhancement {Client Requested} – For those clients who use the Shortcut “Set Account Status Date”, you can now edit the Account Status Date when the status is not Inactive.

21) Enhancement {Client Requested} – You can now edit historical years older than 5 years.

18

22) Enhancement {Client Requested} – If you have Extended Networking activated, then you can now use Main Menu | Extras | Document Processor, even when you need to do a recalculation. Please note, you will still receive the Recalculation warning as you enter the Document Processor.

19

V10.00 23) Enhancement {Client Requested} – The buttons on the optional Penalty Warning screen have changed. Per client

request, there now is a “Cancel & Stay” button. This button allows you to stay in the account and make additional changes if needed.

24) Enhancement – There is a new feature on the Account Search screen called Info and is located in the Master District Field. This button will display a breakdown of the Tax Levies applied to the account. Always remember that the tax information shown is an estimate, as it relies on the tax levies you enter form year to year.

20

25) Enhancement {Client Request} – A new option that allows you to print a mailing/reporting form for the same account multiple times has been added. Please note, a maximum of 100 is the number of times any single form can be repeatedly printed.

26) Enhancement {Client Request} – A new option was added to the Form 11a report called “(Complete Detail (Grouped By Master Tax District) “ This option is similar to an option in the Form 11 report, which shows individual accounts in their respective Form 11a categories (Auto, Boat, Camper, etc) grouped by Master District. It makes the report quite long and should satisfy the watchful eye of Collector in your life.

21

27) Enhancement {Client Request} – There are two new search filters on the Account Maintenance screen: Filter by Account Class and Filter by Other Status. These two new filters can work separately or in conjunction with the other filters available.

28) Enhancement {Client Request} – Added an option in the Document Processor to skip past a specific number of digits in an account number. This option was added to assist printing companies who may print your account number in a format that would have been inconsistent with VCS Personal Property.

22

29) Enhancement {Client Request} – Added an option in the Document Processor which will automatically clear the Delete and/or Hold status on accounts. Please note that just because you clear the Delete/Hold status, no penalty is automatically applied. After all, if an account is on delete/hold and person did not report last year and then decided to report this year, you may or may not need to apply a penalty for last year.

Also, notice the options that are selected are bold. Since these options can greatly affect your scanning, I thought it best to make the ones you have selected stand out.

30) Enhancement {Client Request} – Numerous changes have been made to help those clients who are using large fonts on their computers. While the program may not be 100% ready for large fonts, it works much better now and we will continue to improve the program for Windows large fonts.

23

31) NEW – There is a new feature located under Shortcuts, that requires the Professional version of VCS Personal Property, and is called The Undo System. The Undo System, or “US” as we like to call it, is a system that monitors accounts when they change in Account Maintenance. “US” will track every time an account changes and allows you to rollback changes made to an account. For example, you just made a bunch of changes to an account in the history for a court order. Just before you “Live Export” the account you see that you accidently made some of the changes incorrectly. So, instead of going back into the account and trying to fix the issue, simply let “US” help you. “US” allows you to pick which version of the account you want to go back to. You can even see the differences between what is on the account now and what the changes will be if you let “US” undo the changes for you. If activated under Shortcuts, “US” will always make a copy of any account before you make any changes, that way you can always go back to a previous version of an account. On older workstations and file servers this can slow down your computers performance when loading, saving, or accessing accounts. FIY, when restoring an older changed account, “US” will even recalculate it if the pricing tables were changed. “US” can even be used during BOE. Way to coo1, right? When “US” can’t help:

1) “US” only works in Account Maintenance. So, it does not track account changes anywhere else like when doing a Batch process to accounts, like a recalculation, or when clearing account status.

2) If you physically delete an account, all account information is removed from the system, including the information created by “US”. Therefore, there is no way to get it back.

3) “US” is not to be used in replace of your file server tape backup system or VCS Backup. These two options help prevent loss of data due to hardware malfunction. “US” in contained within the database, so if the server crashes, so will “US”.

4) See information under Main Menu | Shortcuts | “US” the Undo System.

One thing to note, the “US” system will need to be cleared from time-to-time. For instance: when a VCS Update is installed or the New Value Guide is loaded. You will always be warned that resetting “US” will need to take place before it is done.

Showing the Shortcut Undo System

24

Below is the Account Maintenance Screen with one account that US can restore.

Below is a list of account changes that can be selected to be restored.

25

Showing the differences in yellow

32) Enhancement – The Query Guide search has a new option that shows the query results grouped together by Make, Model, and Body. If you want to turn this feature on/off, simply click the grouping button on the Query toolbar. When you turn it off, the information is still listed in Make, Model, and body order.

26

33) Enhancement {Client Request} – It was brought to our attention that clients like to add notes to accounts when they change account numbers. Now, you can quickly enter Account Maintenance directly from the Change Account Number screen by clicking the “Maintenance” button. Please note that you will only have access to the General and Notes tab when using this feature. You can use the “Maintenance” button before or after you change the account number.

27

34) Enhancement – Hurray! The 2012 Value Guide has been added into the system. Every effort has been made to help with the transition. If you use the Ultimate My Guide – do not forget to reapply it. If you cannot remember how to apply the Ultimate My Guide, please call technical support or your VCS Field representative. Value Guide Changes:

a. Numerous descriptions have been changed. Remember, Vanguard does not make the Value Guide descriptions. The descriptions are done by the Value Guide staff.

b. More vehicles have been added. The 2011 Value Guide had 17,500+ items; the new Value Guide has 32,500+ items.

c. Value Changes – Some values have again increased from last year, but for the most part not too significantly. From what I can tell, the big increases were due to errors in last year’s Value Guide. I noticed some RVs and campers that were 2-3years old were priced less than $1000 and the values now look more appropriate.

d. VIN Numbers are now in the Value Guide and have been imported to the My Guide as well. FYI: The VINs are only a partial VIN (Make, Model, Body), not the full VIN. If you have already entered VINs into your system, they will not change. There is no automatic procedure at this time to put the VINs on vehicles. Since the Pricing Guide only contains a partial VIN, we did not want to simply replace VINs when the VIN entered on your vehicles may actually be more accurate than the VIN in the Pricing Guide.

e. There were 4,900+ vehicles that were marked “Retired” in the 2012 Value Guide. This means that as the Pricing Guide was checked for errors and the errors corrected, it was discovered that there was a lot of what I would call “junk” in the Value Guide. By “junk” I mean vehicles that no one knows where or how the vehicle prices were attained. So, in the actual 2012 Value Guide, the leftover “junk” was set to be deleted from the Value Guide. I knew right off the bat that these vehicles could not just be deleted from our version of the Value Guide. There would be 1000’s of vehicles you would need to reenter. Instead I marked them as retired and left them in your system at the same price they had last year. This way you can clean up your vehicles between now and the next Value Guide release. A list of the retired vehicles will be created during the Vanguard Personal Property program update process. A Windows shortcut/icon to this report will be placed on your desktop and a version of the list will be available in Microsoft Excel format. Furthermore, I plan on writing an “Item Editor” program that will aid you in this transition. You will be able to see a list of the vehicles that need to be fixed and a list of possible matches to change them to. You will be able to update numerous vehicles at one time instead of having to change each account one at a time, saving you a lot of time and frustration. This update program will be provided FREE of charge to all our current personal property clients. It will be available and demonstrated at the 2012 User Group meeting. This should provide you with plenty of time to migrate your system to the newer vehicles and not affect BOE.

f. You will probably notice there are not very many 2011 and 2012 values in the Value Guide. I found out that this was done because in the 2011 October issue of the NADA there are not any “clean trade values” for 2011 and 2012. Good news, Vanguard saves the day again. If you use the Ultimate My Guide, then it will calculate a 2011 and 2012 value for you.

28

This is an example showing a vehicle that is retired in account maintenance.

If you want to generate a list of the Retired Vehicles in your personal property system and see which items they are and the accounts they are on, simply go to Batch | Recalculation. Choose “TEST” tables and click the check box “Track retired pricing guide items?” Now, click the “Calculate” button. The “Retired Items” tab will appear and provide you a list of retired items. You can print this list or save it in a format that Microsoft Excel can read.

29

35) Enhancement – A problem was created with the changing of so many of the item descriptions in the 2012 Value Guide. The problem occurs when posting items from the Account Item screen into the History Screen. The program cannot easily look up am vehicles value in a previous year’s Value Guide. So an option was added under shortcuts to help with this. Typically, when the program cannot locate an item in a previous Value Guide it starts searching through new and newer Value Guides until it finds the item and then uses that price. Since, so many of the descriptions have changes, this makes it very likely that the program will use a value from a much newer Value Guide, like the 2012 Value Guide. So, instead of using just a 2012 value for an item that was supposed to be reported in a previous year, I added an option that if the program does choose an item from a new Value Guide, the program will add 5% to the selected item for every year newer in Value Guide. Example: the program is searching for a vehicle for a person who forgot to report their boat in 2010. When you post the item to the history it tries to locate the boat in the 2010 Value Guide. Now let’s say it cannot find the boat, so it looks in the 2011 Value Guide and cannot find it in there either. So it uses the 2012 price with an additional 10%.

Screen showing new option

30

36) Enhancement –If someone provides you with a VIN number you can use the new VIN search to try to locate and price the vehicle. Simply type in a minimum of the first 3 letters or numbers of the VIN and click the button located inside the VIN field. As screen will popup showing everything that begins with the partial VIN you entered. The more of the VIN you know, the closer the program will get to the correct vehicle. However, since the system contains only the Make, Model, and Body of the VIN, only the first 8 characters of the VIN will be used when searching, even if you type in more characters. Once you are in the VIN search screen, typing in additional VIN characters will automatically re-trigger the search. The program will wait for you to quit typing for about 2 seconds, and then it will search for the new VIN you have entered and display the results. Searching notes: 1) You need at least 3 characters to have the program automatic search. 2) Use the underscore symbol “_” as a wild card to put any number in a particular position. Example 123_45 Once you have decided which VIN or vehicle you want you can do one of four options: 1) Select the VIN number and the Vehicle description shown. This will replace a vehicle you have already

entered and put in the VIN number. 2) Select only the VIN number shown. This option is nice if you only want to update just the VIN number,

leaving the current vehicle description in place. 3) Select only the Vehicle shown. This option is nice if you have already entered a full length VIN number and

want to leave it alone while you replace the vehicle description. 4) Cancel the VIN search and do not make any changes.

v10.75 changes & enhancements vcs personal property

Documents