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These instructions can be used if you want to post a locked portfolio in the Tax Collection System. You can post either the exact amounts locked, using a check for the same amount, or if your check does not match the total locked amounts, you can pay the total due for each account, putting any overage or shortage into the last account.  

Note: This process replaces the need to use the Mortgage Payment Entry screen and the batch menu portfolio processes (batch menu nos. 111 or 138).

You can create a portfolio if you want to group multiple tax accounts together for easier review and payment.  You can do so either on your tax office's web site or from within the Tax Collection system. Mortgage companies often find it convenient to create a portfolio of the accounts they will be paying each year.

After logging in to your portfolio, you can add more accounts or delete accounts. You can add up to 500 accounts to a portfolio. When adding accounts on the Adding Accounts to Your Portfolio page, you may click the Save Changes button at any time. This will save your work in progress before actually adding the accounts to the portfolio. The portfolio web pages will time out after 30 minutes (the default setting) Contact ACT if you need to adjust this configuration.

You can also lock (or save) selected accounts and their current year or total amounts due; this is particularly useful for fiduciary companies.

Each time you open your portfolio you will see the amounts due as of that day.  Each time you open a locked version of your portfolio you will see the amounts due as of the day you locked it.

Taxpayers can mail their payments to the tax office for the total amount due of the portfolio. If you are sending a payment for a locked version of the portfolio, send in the lock ID number.

To begin using these pages, you must create a user name and password to gain access to your portfolio. You can then use the same user name and password every time you use these web site portfolio pages.

User Entitlements

The following user entitlements must be set for each user who needs access to the Portfolio Payment screens. They are part of the Manage Internet Payments and Run Batch Processes tasks.

Changes can be made with the Head Cashier job. See Tasks, Entitlements, and Jobs for more information.

BATCHMENU - check the box to see the Batch Menu.

BATCHREQUEST - check the box to see the Batch Request screen.

PORTFOLIO -  check the box for users to access the internal (non-public) Portfolio web site (to create a portfolio).

PORTFOLIO_LOCKBOX -  check the box for users to access the internal (non-public) Portfolio Lockbox screen.

(Dallas County only) The following user entitlement can be set for tax office employees to view all saved (locked) portfolios created on the Dallas County Tax Office web site. It is part of the Manage Web Portfolios task.

PORTFOLIO_VIEW_SAVE_ID_ACCESS - check the box to allow tax office employees to view all saved portfolios

Client Preferences

The normal client preferences for tolerance payments are also observed.

Consider these other client preferences :

LOCKBOX_CLEARACCT: Set to Y to allow monies for invalid accounts to be stored in a LOCKBOX-CLEAR account; set to N to not allow this (which will cause the lockbox to stop processing). ACT recommends that tax offices that have lockboxes set this to Y.

LOCKBOX_CLEARTU:Enter the tax unit to store LOCKBOX-CLEAR funds.

LOCKBOX_POST_ORDER: Enter the number (for ex., 1) that indicates the lockbox posting order for your tax office. A number 2 allows posting from oldest year first, unless a year is specified in the lockbox file;  1 permits posting to the current year first unless a year is specified, then from the oldest year. This preference takes precedence over the Special Rule parameter.

OVERPAY_STATUS: If this is set to OH, all overpayment refunds generated by the lockbox will be put on hold.

MIX_AGROLLBACK_ONLINE: If this preference  is set to N, rollback payments made through the lockbox will be put in escrow.

BANKRUPTCY_TO_ESCROW: Enter Y to send bankruptcy lockbox payments to the escrow unit defined by BANKRUPTCY_ESCROW_TU. Enter N to post these payments normally.

BANKRUPTCY_ESCROW_TU: Enter the escrow tax unit used to store bankruptcy lockbox payments if BANKRUPTCY_TO_ESCROW is set to Y. The default is 8999.

LOCKBOX_QUARTER_PAY: Set to Y to have the lockbox pay the next available quarter pay receivable on any accounts that have been split into quarter pay receivables.  Once the earliest available quarter receivable (starting with Q2) has been paid, the next quarter will be paid, and then any remaining money will be applied to Q4.  Any remaining funds will be put into refund for the current year.  Tolerances are applied to the last quarter paid. Set this preference to N to put the entire payment amount into refund for all accounts having split receivables.

PORTFOLIO_LOCK_AMT: set  to either CURRENT (for locking only current year amounts due) or TOTAL (for locking total amounts due).

PAYMENT_BLOCK_ENFORCE: Enter ACCOUNT to block payment for an entire account; enter YEAR to block payment only for specific years of an account. The Block Account for Payment flag must be set for each year if the preference is set for YEAR.

BLOCK_ACCOUNT_TU: Enter the escrow unit to put money that is directed toward blocked payments. Remember that if PAYMENT_BLOCK_ENFORCE is set to YEAR and years other than the year that is blocked are still due, the lockbox program will pay those other years before putting money in this escrow unit.  The default unit is 8001.  If you want a different unit, you will need to change this preference.

SHORT_PAY_ALLOCATION: By default, tolerance underpayments are taken out of penalty in the tax unit set in the PRIM_JURIS client preference.  If you wish to change where the under variance is taken from, set SHORT_PAY_ALLOCATION to one of the following: ATTORNEY, PENALTY, INTEREST, or DISCOUNT.  SHORT_PAY_ALLOCATION is ignored if SHORT_PAY_GO_NEGATIVE is set to N.  For examples of this, click here.

SHORT_PAY_GO_NEGATIVE: If you want the system to allow amounts applied to 'under tolerance'  to be taken from individual tax units (not 8003), set this client preference to Y.  To have amounts applied to 'under tolerance'  taken from the escrow column of 8003 (or the unit you set in UPAY_TOLER_TU), set it to N.

OPAY_TOLER and OPAY_TOLER_TU: Set to the amount and unit, respectively, to use for overpayments within tolerance.

UPAY_TOLER and UPAY_TOLER_TU: Set to the amount and unit, respectively, to use for underpayments within tolerance.  

OVERPAY: Refunds will be placed in the tax unit specified in this client preference if CREATE_ADJUSTMENT_RECORD is set to Y

OVERPAY_STATUS: Set this to OH to have refunds created by overpayments placed on hold automatically.

FEES_PAY: Set to FIRST to pay all fees (including Returned Check Fees) first, before any levies or penalties and interest. Set to LAST to pay fees last. Any other setting will cause an allocation of money across all units, including fee units.

RUN_NEW_PORTFOLIO_LOCKBOX: Set to N to run batch menu no. 111 from the Portfolio Lockbox screen or set to Y to run batch menu no. 2111.

Dallas County only:

WEB_CCP_ROLL_CODES: Enter the roll codes that can be paid by credit card on Internet. Do not separate by comma or space.

WEB_CCP_VENDOR: Enter the start date for anew Internet credit card processor.

WEB_STOP_PAY_CONTROL_YEAR: Enter Y to control the lookups for the next client preference if there is a year the preference is referencing. Enter N otherwise.

WEB_STOP_PAY_LEGALDTL:Enter Y to hide the Pay Now button if a bankruptcy no. exists and the account's current year legal status is the same as a value in this client preference.

WEB_STOP_PAY_TAXDTL_BLOCK:Enter Y to hide the Pay Now button if the Block Account flag on the Account Detail screen is also Y. Enter N to show the button in this case.

WEB_STOP_PAY_TAXDTL_HOLD: Hide the Pay Now button if for these hold codes in taxdtl_hold table. If expired, the button is not hidden.

WEB_STOP_PAY_TAXDTL_STATUS: Hide the Pay Now button for the account statuses entered in the preference. If expired, the button is not hidden.

TAX_OFFICE_EMAIL - Set to the email address to use for sending saved portfolio information to the tax office.

To add accounts and lock a portfolio,

1. In ACT 7, set the client preference PORTFOLIO_LOCK_AMT to either CURRENT (for locking only current year amounts due) or TOTAL (for locking total amounts due).
2. If you are on the tax office web site, click the Property Tax Account Portfolio link at the top of the screen.

If you using the portfolio within the Tax Collection System, go to  the Main Menu, select Payment, then Batch Payments.  You will be sent to a web site page titled Batch Payments - Portfolios.

3. Login to your portfolio.  If you haven’t created a login, do so now.  Follow the directions on the web page.
4. Some tax offices want to be able to add confidential accounts to portfolios. For these offices only, the web site portfolio page titled 'Your Portfolio Tax Accounts' will have a Confidential Code field near the top of the page. If the tax office has given you a code, enter it there, then click Submit. Once the code has been entered, confidential accounts can be retrieved for the remainder of the session, or until the person logs out of the portfolio. The field will change to say that confidential codes are enabled.
5. To add accounts to your portfolio, you can either search for them or add them individually or from a.csv file.

To search for accounts,

1. Click the Search for Portfolio Accounts link at the top of the screen.
2. For steps 1 and 2, enter search criteria (owner name, property address, fiduciary number, etc.) in the empty field(s).
3. Click the appropriate radio button(s) for each step.
4. Click the Search button.
5. Select the accounts you want to add to your portfolio by either checking the Select/Deselect All box or by checking box in the left column for the individual accounts you are adding.
6. Click the Add These Accounts button.

To enter individual account numbers,

1. Click the Add Portfolio Accounts link at the top of the screen.  
2. Either key in or scan the account numbers.
3. Click the Add Accounts button whenever you need to.
4. To add more accounts, click the Add Portfolio Accounts link again.
5. You may have more or fewer accounts in the portfolio than what you want to lock. The total amount due in the portfolio must be equal to or less than the check(s) received from the taxpayer. If sum of the accounts is greater than the amount due, delete one or more accounts from the portfolio until you get an acceptable amount.  You can also change the amount just before you lock the portfolio.

To add accounts from a.csv file or a spreadsheet,

1. Click the Import Accounts in a CSV Worksheet link at the top of the screen.
2. Either key in account numbers manually, putting each one on a separate line or copy the accounts from a.csv file or an Excel worksheet, then paste them into the wizard screen.
3. Follow the instructions on the screens to validate and add the accounts to the portfolio.
4. You may have more or fewer accounts in the portfolio than what you want to lock. The total amount due in the portfolio must be equal to or less than the check(s) received from the taxpayer. If sum of the accounts is greater than the amount due, delete one or more accounts from the portfolio until you get an acceptable amount.  You can also change the amount just before you lock the portfolio.

To delete accounts,

1. Check the box in the left column for the accounts you are removing.
2. Click the Deleted Selected Accounts button.

To lock a portfolio (permanently saving the accounts and amounts to be paid)

1. When you have the correct accounts in the portfolio, check the box in the left column to select the accounts you are ready to lock.

2. Click the appropriate Lock Accounts button. The options may include Lock Accounts & Amounts Due,Lock Accounts by Attorney or Lock Accounts by Selected Jurisidictions.
3. If you need to select jurisdictions or attorneys, the next page will list the available units or attorneys.  Select a single attorney or one or more jurisdictions.
4. On the next page (Confirm Accounts and Amounts to be Locked), enter a name for your portfolio.  This can be anything you want.
5. Some tax offices offer options for quarter and half pay (split pay) calculations, to lock current year amounts only, or to lock total amounts due. Select the desired option from the drop-down list.
6. In the Lock Amount field for each account, change the amounts to lock if needed to make the total lock amount exactly the same as the check amount.
7. Click Lock Amounts and Accounts. (For Dallas County, this is Save Accounts & Amounts.)
8. You can view your locked portfolio at any time by clicking the View My Existing Locked Portfolios or View Saved Portfolios link at the top of the page.  A list of all locked portfolios you’ve entered will be displayed.  You can then choose one of them to see a list of the accounts and amounts in that locked portfolio.
9. (Dallas County only) )After clicking View Saved Portfolios in the step above, there are several options for further actions:

• Send Save ID to Tax Office - Email the portfolio to the tax office and to another email address
• Print Payment Document - Print a page with portfolio information, which can be sent with payment to the tax office
• Create a Current Date Saved Portfolio - Copy the accounts to a new portfolio with today's amounts due. Enter a description for the portfolio and save it.
• Copy to a New Portfolio - Go to the Create a Login page to create a new portfolio user, after which the accounts are copied to the new portfolio
• Pay Online - Pay the portfolio saved amount with credit card or echeck.

10. You can also run the Locked Portfolio Report, batch menu no. 110,  to see a list of locked portfolios containing tax office accounts.  You cannot see the individual accounts on this report.

To post a locked portfolio:

1. From the Main Menu, click on Payments, then Portfolio Lockbox.   
2. Enter the Lock ID for the portfolio you want to post.
3. Press F8. The screen fills will all available information for the lockbox. It will show any previous edit or posting runs for this Lock ID.
4. Press Tab to move the cursor to the Batch Request portion of the screen.
5. (required only for portfolio payments not made on a tax office web site) Enter a Fiduciary No. or, to search for a fiduciary, click the Alternate Payer button. If the payment has been made by credit card or eCheck on the tax office web site, the Fiduciary No. field should be left blank; the lockbox will create a fiduciary for the payer of the locked portfolio.

• Key in part of all of the name of the alternate payer you are looking for. You cannot make a payment using an expired fiduciary.
• Press F8. The first alternate payer that matches the name you entered will appear.  Use the up and down arrow keys on the keyboard to see additional payers, which are listed alphabetically by last name.
• To create a new alternate payer, press CTRL+Q. A new fiduciary number will automatically display.
• Enter the name, address, city, state, and zip code of the new alternate payer.
• From the Type list, select a fiduciary type.
• Click OK.  The fiduciary number will appear in the Portfolio Lockbox screen.

6. (optional, not needed for credit card or eCheck payments). Enter the Check No.
7. Enter a Deposit No.  It must not exist yet in the Tax Collection System.
8. The Deposit Date and Receipt Date default to the current date. Change them if needed (use YYYYMMDD format).
9. In the Special Rule field,  

• Enter 00 to post in the order given in the LOCKBOX_POST_ORDER client preference.  
• Enter 01 to post to coupon year first, then current year, then oldest year.
• Enter 02 to post to coupon year first, then oldest year.
• Enter 03 to post from current year to oldest year in order.
• Enter 04, which will post to current year only.
• Enter 05 to post only to prior years.
• Enter 07 to post to oldest year first.
• Enter 08 if your web site allows taxpayers to specify the year to pay first and you want that year paid before any fees are paid.  If 08 is entered, the specified year will be paid first, then any fees due, then current year, then the next oldest year, etc.
• Enter 09 to post any overage in the unit entered in the SIT_OVERAGE_TAX_UNIT client preference. This overage will be put in the current year (the default is 8001).
• Enter 10 to pay from oldest year to current year, paying taxes for each year, then fees for each year.  The client preference FEES_PAY must be set to LAST for this rule to take effect.

Payments are not posted to any years more recent that what is set in the CURR_YEAR client preference. For ex., if the preference is set to 2006 but 2007 data has been loaded into the production database, payments will not be posted to 2007.

If the Special Rule is set to 00 and there are multiple coupons associated with one or more checks, the first account is paid off in full first, then the second, and so on.  For the Fort Bend County. the current year will be paid first on all accounts for that check.  Any remaining money will then be applied to the unpaid prior years, starting with the oldest year. Refunds are put on the last account associated with the check.

10. The Apply By field defaults to Exact Amount, which means that the check amount matches the total locked amount. If is does not, then select By Account in the drop-down list, which will pay off each account in turn (ignoring the amount locked), leaving the shortage or overage on the last account.
11. In the Payment Type field, enter Check, Credit, Cash, Check, EFT, Mixed or Money Order, depending on the type of remittance you are posting.
12. Select a Location from the drop-down list.
13. The Process Option drop-down list defaults to Edit. You should always run lockboxes in edit mode first. If you have already done an edit run, then select  from the drop-down list.
14. If you are ready to post the portfolio,

• Click Add Job Request.
• Change the Process Option from Edit to Post.

14. Click Submit Lockbox.
15. Click OK to the Transaction Complete message. The Request Seq. and Request Date fields are populated.
16. To see when the lockbox finished, click Refresh Status. This can be done multiple times. When an End Time appears, the lockbox is finished.
17. In the Go To list, select Batch Menu.
18. Click Batch Requests.
19. The Request Seq. from the lockbox is listed in the Batch Request screen.

Note: If any errors occur during the lockbox posting, the program stops and 'rolls back' any payments already posted. See the LB010 report for information on the error.

If the first line in the lower portion of the Batch Request screen says **FATAL ERRORS**, look at the lb010 report, which will list the cause of the error.  The error is usually due to the fact that some account numbers are invalid, the total amount of the coupons does not match the total amount of the checks, or there is a duplicate deposit name (the program looks only at the first four letters/numbers of the deposit name).  You have several options. 1) You can edit the lockbox file and remove the invalid account numbers, in which case you will have to post those manually through the Advanced Payment screen in order to balance to the bank deposit amount for the file,  2) you can locate the coupon(s) with the invalid account number(s) and edit the coupon amount to match the check amount, or  3) you can post the file without any editing.  In this latter case, the lockbox program creates a LOCKBOX-CLEAR account that contains the funds for the invalid accounts.  Once you have determined how to correct the amounts, you will need to transfer money from the LOCKBOX-CLEAR account to the correct accounts.

This process creates several reports that show how the file will be processed and posted to the accounts. These reports are created both for Edit and Post modes. They can be seen by clicking on the appropriate line in the bottom half of the Batch Request screen, after you have clicked on the correct batch request seq. line for the Edit or Post process you just ran.

The reports are:

njb004a or LB005:  This is the Processing Journal. It is sorted by deposit, and lists the account number, payment year, portfolio user name, payment amount, and line number for each transaction on the file. The first page displays the remit IDs (check numbers) and amounts of the individual checks for that deposit (which is associated with a fiduciary on the file). If this report has '** ERROR** in it,the 'debug' report, LB010 and LB040 reports will provide information on the errors.

Debug report: This lists each 'job' run by the lockbox. A return code of anything other than '0' indicates a failure. The lockbox will stop processing and rollback any changes or posted payments already made.

LB010: This is the main lockbox processing program.  If no errors are found during the initial processing, you will not see this listed in the batch request jobs. If there are errors, a report is generated that lists the account number, year, tax unit and an error message.  There will also a second LB010 line that produces no report, but that contains these words: "FATAL ERROR. ABORT." See above for more information on this message.

LB012A:  This is the Batch Payment Processing Detail Transaction Listing. It lists individual transactions by type (which defaults to coupon), account number, amount to post to each account, post date (month and year only), tax year (defaults to 0), tax unit (defaults to 0) and payee (fiduciary number).  The information is sorted by deposit number (i.e., also by fiduciary), then by account number. The remit IDs (check numbers) are given for each deposit.

LB012E:  This is the Batch Payment Processing Special Transactions and Exceptions listing. It displays by deposit, then by account number, amount to post, post date (yyyymm only, displayed as the last 6 digits of the amount to post figure), tax year (defaults to 0), tax unit (defaults to 0), deposit date (yyyymmdd) and payee (fiduciary).

LB035A:  This is the Batch Payment Processing Overpayment Detail Register. It is sorted by fiduciary number, then by account number. It also lists, for each account, the deposit number, tax year, tax unit, overpay amount and payee (fiduciary) for each check used to pay this account. If an account is listed more than once, that indicates that it is being paid with more than one check.  The total amount of overpayment given on the report is also provided. If an account is blocked for payment and sent to an escrow unit as a result, this report will have a message to that effect.

This report can be used to check to be sure that the file you are processing has not already been posted.  This will show you the refunds that will be set up in the case of duplicate processing.

LB037E: This is another Special Transactions and Exceptions report that lists partial payments and duplicate payments.  Included on the report for each account, the deposit number, tax year of the payment, and the condition (partial payment applied).

LB038: This program (not a report) takes duplicate payments (those for the same account and year that could result in an overpayment of that year when other years remain due) and applies the overpayment portion to, first, the current year, and then to either the oldest or most recent year.

LB38E: This report shows Coupon Collision Repairs. A coupon collision occurs when more than one coupon exists for the same account in the same batch on the file.  Coupon collisions result in a temporary overpay or refund before the money is allocated to other years.  AVAILABLE indicates a coupon collision resulting in money available to be allocated.  REMAINING shows what was left after the money was allocated to other years where money was owed.  If all money was allocated, REMAINING would be 0.00. NOT ALLOCATED indicates that the funds were not moved to other years.

LB38RP: This Tolerance Applied report displays the client preference settings for tolerances, the amounts posted to under tolerance and the tax units to which the money was posted.

LB040: Database Process Update Log.  If this states Normal EOJ, you have posted the payments successfully.  If it states Edit Mode - No Database Updates, this is confirmation that you have run this in edit mode, not posting mode.  This also lists any tolerance overpayments.

LB045 - TC298A:  This Lockbox Distribution report is sorted by deposit and gives the receipt date, and the totals per deposit for levy paid, discount given (if any), penalty & interest, attorney fees, other fees, refund amount and payment amount (a gross total for each deposit) .  Totals are given for the entire file.

LB045- TC298B ThisLockbox Distributionreport is sorted by jurisdiction, then by tax year and roll code (all, real, personal, and other).  It lists totals for each year and roll code for levy paid, discount given (if any), penalty & interest, attorney fees, other fees, refund amount and payment amount (a gross total for each roll code per year).  Totals are given for each jurisdiction.

LB045- TC298C:  ThisLockbox Distributionreport is a summary of LB045B.  sorted by year (whether delinquent or all), then by jurisdiction.  It lists totals per year and jurisdiction, and roll code for levy paid, discount given (if any), penalty & interest, attorney fees, other fees, refund amount and payment amount (a gross total for each roll code per jurisdiction).  Totals are given at the end of each year (delinquent and all).

LB050 - TC298D: This Lockbox Distribution report is sorted by jurisdiction and shows disbursement amounts separated by M&O, I&S, and total of M&O and I&S. Tax rates are shown, as are totals by year and fund for   levy paid, discount given (if any), penalty & interest, TIF amount, disbursal total (sum of levy, p&i, and TIF), attorney fees, other fees, refund amount and payment amount (a gross total for each fund per year).  Totals for each column are given for each jurisdiction.  Grand totals for all years are provided on the last page.

LB050 - TC298E:  This Lockbox Distribution report is a summary of LB050D.  It is sorted by jurisdiction and then by fund (M&O, I&S). For each unit and fund it displays levy paid, discount given (if any), penalty & interest, TIF amount, disbursal total (sum of levy, p&i, and TIF), attorney fees, other fees, refund amount and payment amount (a gross total for each fund per unit).

Out.log: This log file lists each of the lockbox's 'jobs' and reports whether it ran successfully or not.

LB060:  This is the Batch Payment Processing Transactions With Allocations report. It is sorted by deposit, then by account. The check amount (remit amount) and check numbers (remit ID) are given for each deposit. For each account, the year, units being paid, check number (associated with a numerical sequence 1, 2, 3, etc.), receipt date (YYYYMMDD), amount to post, total amount to post, and payee (fiduciary) are given.  If an account is being paid with two checks, it is listed twice, with the amount to post being the amount taken from each check.

20. If the Edit reports are correct, you can now post the lockbox. Return to the Portfolio Lockbox screen (go to the Batch Menu, click Payments, then Portfolio Lockbox).
21. Repeat steps 16-30 again, this time selecting Post in the Process Option drop-down list.