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Escrow payments may be made for any amount and at any time during the remainder of the current tax period.  In most cases, escrow payments are made when a taxpayer has no outstanding balance, but the ACT system will allow escrow agreements and payments to be made even if the taxpayer has an unpaid balance.

Be sure that your escrow tax units have been created in the Tax Unit Maintenance screens, using a Unit Type of 'Escrow'.

User Entitlements

The following user entitlements must be set for each user who needs access to the Payment screens. They are part of the Take Limited Advanced Payment and Take Full Advanced Payment tasks.

Changes can be made with these jobs: Cashier1, CashierNo2, Head Cashier See Tasks, Entitlements, and Jobs for more information.

ACT8001 - Query Deposit Control.

ADVANCED_DEPOSIT - Take a simple or advanced payment.

CHANGE_DEPDATE - This defaults to N, so users cannot change the deposit date to something other than the current. Set to Y to allow this for individual users.

CHANGE_PAIDDATE - Change the receipt date for the entire deposit, but not for individual transactions within the deposit.

CHANGE_PMT_PAIDDATE - Change receipt date for transactions within a deposit, but cannot change the deposit or receipt date for the deposit as a whole.

NEED_REFUND_APPROVED - Default is N, so users do not need a supervisor to approve overpayment refunds for a particular user.

TAKE_PAY_ANY_DEPOSIT - Default is N, so users cannot take a payment in any deposit. Change to Y to make a payment in any deposit.

Client Preferences

ADVANCE_PRORATA_PAY_TU - enter the tax unit used to accept pro-rated payments made for the next year's taxes (normally due to a real estate closing),

ESCROW_REFUNDS - enter the tax unit used to accept conversion escrow.

ESCROW_PAYMENT_STATUS - set to OH if you want all escrow payments to be put on hold automatically.

CK_CHANGE: set to Y to allow change to be calculated on payments made by check.

SHOW_YTD_PAID_ON_ESCROW: Set to Y to show the sum of escrow payments made year to date on receipts if the receipt is only for an escrow payment. Set to N to not show these payments.

ALLOW_ESCROW_PAY_PRIOR_YEARS: Set to Y to show current year, one future year, and 5 prior years in the drop-down list of units for escrow payments, even if receivables for regular tax units do not exist. Set to N to show current year, future year, and prior years only if receivables exist for the current and prior years. Set to C to show only current year + 1 (the next year in the future). The default is N (see below, ESC_UNITS_SHOWN_FOR_FUTURE_Y)

ESC_UNITS_SHOWN_FOR_FUTURE_PAY: Set to N (default) to have the program look at the client preference ALLOW_ESCROW_PAY_PRIOR_YEARS. If set to Y, the escrow tax units displayed will include unit 8009 for current year + 1 and all prior year escrow units except 8009.

FUTURE_ESC_UNITS_AVAIL_FOR_TR: Enter the tax units, separated by comma, to which future year payments are allowed. If expired, all future year escrow units can be used.

1. After opening or re-opening an online payment deposit, the Advanced Payment screen will appear.
2. Click Simple Payment.
3. If the account has carried over from a previous screen, go to step 4.  
   
   If the Account Number field is blank, enter the account number, then go to step 4.
   
   If you need to enter a different account number, highlight the current account number, key in the new account number, then go to step 4.

Note: If you don't know your account number, see Locating an Account.

4. As soon as you press Tab or click a box on the screen, the Certified Owner, Total Due, Payment Amount, and Applying Amount fields will fill.
5. Click the Escrow Payments button on the right side of the screen.
6. In the Escrow Tax Units popup window, select the escrow account to which you want to apply the payment.
7. Click OK.

Note:  Make sure the correct unit appears in the box under the Escrow Payment button. Escrow units for archived years do not appear in this list.

8. Select the Payment Type.

9. If applicable, enter the check number in the Check No. field.
10. If an alternate payer is making the payment, enter the Fiduciary No.
11. Verify that the Payment Amount is correct.  Change it if necessary.
12. Click Apply; the transaction is complete and saved.
13. If you are not set up to print receipts automatically, click Receipt, which will appear between Apply and Void.
14. If you have made an error in the payment, you or your supervisor may be able to undo it by clicking the Void button to display the Unpaid window, then placing a check in the Unpaid box next to the amount in error, and clicking Process.  For more information, see Voiding a Payment.

Note:  The payment will show in the Refund column for the next year in the Account Status screen, but the payer will not display as the last payer in this screen. It will not appear on the ACT 536 Refund report. The payment can be seen in Deposit Status, Payment History, and the receipt.