Motor Vehicle Processing Each year the DMV distributes a motor vehicle file to each community for taxation. Vision prepares these files for processing in the Tax Administration system. Detailed instructions for importing the file are distributed each year. Our first task will be to review the process of importing using the Motor Vehicle Wizard. Once the files are loaded into your Tax Administration system, you will need to perform the following steps to complete your motor vehicle data: 1. Some vehicles will need further processing. That processing may include: a. Assigning account numbers to vehicles whose accounts could not be determined electronically during the import. b. Assigning values to unpriced vehicles. You may want to run the MV Unpriced report from the report menu. c. Correcting any problems that occurred during the file import from the DMV. During the import, you are prompted to print a report that lists each vehicle that was included in the DMV file. The last column of that report will print out any errors that occurred during process. You should review and correct any such errors. d. Indicate any vehicles that need to be exported from your community to another community and process the exports. The screen pictured below is the screen that is used to process vehicles. To open this screen: Data > Motor Vehicle Processing > Vehicle Maintenance
2. The vehicle maintenance screen places a blank check box to the left of vehicles that are missing account numbers. Select the All Vehicles filter and sort by Registry Owner Last Name. There are new buttons that are available when you first open this screen Next and Clear. Clicking on Next will bring you to the next vehicle on the grid that does not have an account number. Check box appears to the left of vehicles with out account numbers The Clear button will indicate how many vehicles you have checked off on the grid. This allows you to search through the grid and select as many vehicles as you would like. If you decide you would like to remove the check marks from the vehicles you have selected click on the Clear button. Two vehicles have been selected
Once you select Clear, the button will reflect (0). There are zero vehicles selected There are different ways to manage account numbers on motor vehicles: a. Create a new account number b. Search for an existing account number c. Link to an existing account number d. Remove link which will disconnect a motor vehicle from an account number a. Create a new account number. To create a new account number, select the vehicle(s) you would like to link to a new account number by placing a check mark in the box next to each vehicle. Click on the Create New Account button. Select the vehicles you want to link to the new account. Create New Account button
Click YES to continue. Verify Account information is correct and Save. Select Additional files to update.
Once an account number has been assigned, the two vehicles will no longer have a check box located to the left of the grid. b. Search for an existing account number. Select the vehicle(s) you would like to include in a search for existing account numbers.
Click on the Search for existing Account button. The two accounts that were selected on grid now appear below Link the following vehicles. The system will try to match the selected vehicles as closely as possible to accounts that already exist. You have the ability to search through accounts by account number and owner. Two vehicles selected from the grid Search by account number or by owner To view vehicle data, while on the search screen, double click on a vehicle at the top of the screen. The Motor Vehicle Maintenance screen will open for the selected vehicle.
To view a summary of the account listed on the bottom half of the search screen; double click on the existing account. The account summary from the Collection system will open. To link the vehicles to the highlighted account, click on the Select button. Otherwise, select Cancel to return to the Vehicle Maintenance grid.
c. Link to an existing account number. While processing unpriced vehicles, or using the All Vehicles filter, you may find two or more vehicles that belong to the same person. If one vehicle has an account number, you may wish to link the other vehicle(s) to the same account number. In this example, Antonio Almeida has two vehicles. One vehicle does not have an account number. Select the vehicle without an account number by placing a check mark in the box to the left. Highlight the vehicle with an account number. Notice the Link to highlighted Account button becomes available. Click on this button. Link to highlighted Account button The system will automatically link the two vehicles on the same account.
d. Remove link. While processing vehicles, you may need to remove a vehicle from an account. Highlight the vehicle, and click on the Remove Link button. Remove Link Select Yes to continue. The vehicle is no longer linked to an account number.
3. Assign Value by selecting the Unpriced Vehicles filter. Under the Value column, you may type directly into each field, assigning a value for the vehicle. Type the vehicle s value directly in the grid Select the Unpriced Vehicle filter 4. As you process the vehicles you may want to check the status of the vehicle processing. Select the statistics button on the MV Processing screen. The Statistics screen will open. Once you have finished processing vehicles, your Total Unpriced Vehicles, Total Vehicles without account numbers, and Total Out of Town vehicles should all be zero.
5. Other communities will send you vehicles that are yours but were incorrectly sent to them. Those vehicles should come in the form of a floppy disk or e-mail if the municipality is using The Vision Tax Administration system, or they will come in a printed form if the municipality is using a system other than Vision s. If the vehicles come in the form of a printout, you must enter each vehicle manually into the system. If they come in electronically, you can use Import Vehicles from File from the MV Processing menu to load the vehicles. Close all screens in the system and select: Data > Motor Vehicle Processing > Import Vehicles from file You may also have vehicles from other communities that need to be exported. To open the Process Unwanted Vehicles screen, select: Data > Motor Vehicle Processing > Export vehicles to other Cities/Towns
Chose a destination under the Send to field. Select the Process button and the file will be saved to the destination, and a report will print. The following message will open. Select OK to remove the vehicles from your system or Cancel to exit from the message and the motor vehicles will remain in your system. This process will create two files, one for the municipality that is using Vision s tax system and one for the DMV. The DMV file will appear as DMV01txt, DMV05.txt, etc. The number represents the tax town code. Send this file to the DMV to prevent the same incorrect motor vehicles from transferring from the DMV to your municipality next year. 6. Since the data from the DMV is not perfect, there are some reports included in the system that you should run to identify and correct data errors within the system. The following reports should be run: Data -> Motor Vehicle Processing -> Motor Vehicle Reports
a. Find Registration numbers with too many days owned. In general, a particular license plate should not be billed for more days than there are in a year. This report looks for license plates where the total number of days owned for a particular license plate on one or more vehicles exceeds 365 (366 for a leap year). In the case of a plate existing for 366 days (367 for a leap year), the system will automatically deduct one day from one of the vehicles so that the total is 365 (366 for a leap year). For plates that have more than 366 days, you will need to manually adjust the days owned. You should note that the same plate number could exist across multiple class codes (i.e. a bus and a car can both have license A 234 for example. Even though these plates show up on the report, there is no need to make a modification to the data. b. Find VIN numbers with too many days owned. In general, a particular vehicle should not be billed for more days than there are in a year. This report looks for VIN numbers where the total number of days owned for a particular VIN number exceeds 365. In the case of a VIN numbers existing for 366 days, the system will automatically deduct one day from one of the records so that the total is 365. For VIN numbers that have more than 366 days, you will need to manually adjust the days owned. c. List Vehicles where last year s NADA value is greater than this year s NADA value This report will run a value comparison between the current year s data from the DMV and the previous year s data. A list will generate with any vehicles that have a higher value this year. d. Motor vehicle address checking There are three reports that can help you verify that motor vehicles are being mailed to the proper owner at the proper address. Compare Registry Address with Municipal Address List MV s with same name and different DOB List MV s that have an alternate mailing address e. List Vehicles where Value has changed by more than X Percent Another report that is useful for running comparisons on NADA values and values imported by the DMV.
f. Find duplicate vehicle records If a duplicate vehicle was imported form the DMV file, this report will indicate which account this record is linked to, and you will need to review to verify if the duplicate record is valid or should be deleted from the database. g. Single Drivers License occurring on multiple accounts This report will list any taxpayers that may have multiple accounts within the system by searching the Motor Vehicle details for license number. 7. General Vehicle Maintenance. You may find that you need information on a particular vehicle. The Tax Payer Maintenance screen allows you to search for and edit vehicles in the system. It also allows you to move vehicles from one account to another. Select: Data > Taxpayer Maintenance The Motor Vehicle Maintenance screen includes information about the vehicle including the phase-out calculation for that particular vehicle. To open the Motor Vehicle Maintenance screen select the motor vehicle from the Tax Items list select the Edit button. Note that according to state law, the personal exemption is applied before any state exemption.
To open the Exemption Maintenance screen, select Add or Edit from the Taxpayer Maintenance screen. 8. Setting Tax Rate parameters. The Tax Calculation parameters screen allows you to set the MV tax rates, due dates and phase-out calculation parameters for the entire tax roll. Close all the screens in the system and select: Tools > Tax Calculation Parameters
9. Additional Reports. There are additional reports available for Motor vehicle processing. Close all screens in the system and select: Reports > Built-in reports The following reports would be useful for processing and verifying the motor vehicle data: MV Unpriced MV Workbook Tax Bill/Roll List