2 Quality Data Services, Inc. (QDS) Tax module to bill Real, Personal and Motor Vehicle taxes and process and account for related property owner payments. QDS was implemented by the Tax Collector
’s Office in July 2014 replacing the MUNIS Tax module.
Sometime in January 2015,
the Tax Collector’s Office began receiving packets of
tax payments and checks through next day express mail that were rejected from the BOA automated lockbox process. These checks were then required to be manually recorded in QDS and prepared for deposit by the
Tax Collector’s Office.
Review Results Various tests and reviews of why this occurred, the checks involved and resulting processing issues disclosed the following: 1.
A
t the City’s request and based on billing data it receives from the Tax Collector’s Office,
BOA has the ability to accept or reject the automatic processing and deposit of checks it receives in the designated lockbox from taxpayers. When the Tax Collector
’s Office was
using the MUNIS Tax module to bill and collect taxes, the agreement with BOA was to accept and process for deposit all payments sent to the lockbox by taxpayers. At some point after the City implemented the QDS Tax module, the BOA lockbox process was changed to not accept checks that included back taxes. In instances where the taxpayers
’
checks included payments for back taxes, they were not automatically processed and deposited by
BOA but were instead sent back to the Tax Collector’s Office
by next day express mail to be manually recorded in QDS and prepared for deposit. In an email correspondence from a BOA representative to
Tax Collector’s Office
management,
the following was noted, “I have attached the new test file. This file had the
working stop file, and multiple payments were stopped due to back tax flag. Please let me
know if you have any issues with it.” BOA indicated that this was the basis for the change in
the process. The Tax Collector, however, indicated there was never any intention or specific direction on
his Office’s part to
change the process so that checks that were previously handled by BOA would be returned to the City for processing. The Tax Collector further indicated that this would not make sense as it would cause additional unnecessary work on
the part of the Tax Collector’s Office. Both BOA and Tax Collector’s Office management
have indicated that they believe their respective offices handled this transition in accordance with their understanding of what was required/expected. Regardless, as a result of this change, checks that were stopped in the lockbox process due to the back tax flag were not deposited by BOA
and were instead returned to the Tax Collector’s Office to be manually
deposited and processed
.
Once this occurred and the Tax Collector was notified of the
problem by the Treasurer’s Office, the Treasurer’s Office worked with the Tax Collector and
BOA to ensure that BOA processed and deposited all checks sent to the lockbox by taxpayers as had been the case previously. 2.
The checks originally sent to the BOA lockbox by taxpayers but not processed due to the previously noted change in the BOA lockbox process
were returned to the Tax Collector’s
Office beginning in January 2015. The problem of the BOA lockbox not accepting certain taxpayer checks was fixed by the end of March 2015. During this three month period, BOA