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This document and all materials submitted by Ajilon Consulting to DCED must be considered confidential. All information contained within this document is considered proprietary and not to be disclosed. Ajilon requires that this document not be distributed to any other party other than DCED employees without prior written consent of our company. Confidential materials contained in this document should only be used for the

express purpose of evaluating Ajilon’s capabilities and proposed assessment of this engagement.

Commonwealth of PA

Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED)

DCED Municipal Statistics System (MSS) Application Re-Design

Functional Specification

DOCUMENT HISTORY

Document Authors: Heather Fox, Foster Schucker, Chris Abdelmalek, Bev Comrey

Last Revised: May 28, 2005

Rev Type/ #: Draft for internal and client review Revision Date: May 31, 2005 Rev Type/ #: 1.0 First Draft as input to High Level Design Revision Date: June 20, 2005 Rev Type/ #: 2.0 Second Draft as input to High Level Design Revision Date: July 14, 2005 Rev Type/ #: 3.0 Presented at the July 27, 2005 meeting Revision Date: July 27, 2005 Rev Type/ #: 3.1 Final Client Acceptance Revision Date: August 2, 2005

Prepared By:

Ajilon Consulting 2nd Floor

5001 Louise Drive Mechanicsburg, PA 17055-6912

Phone: (800) 355-2342 Fax: (717) 790-9159

www.ajilonconsulting.com

Department of Community and Economic Development Municipal Statistics System Functional Specification

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Table of Contents

1 DOCUMENT OVERVIEW................................................................................................................................1

2 INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................................................2

3 BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS ..........................................................................................................................3 3.1 DATA COLLECTION ........................................................................................................................................3 3.2 DATA VALIDATION.........................................................................................................................................3 3.3 APPLICATION TECHNOLOGY...........................................................................................................................3 3.4 REPORTING.....................................................................................................................................................4 3.5 USABILITY......................................................................................................................................................4 3.6 CUSTOMER SUPPORT ......................................................................................................................................4 3.7 ROLES AND PRIVILEGES .................................................................................................................................4 3.8 NOTIFICATION ................................................................................................................................................5

4 APPLICATION OVERVIEW............................................................................................................................6 4.1 APPLICATION ARCHITECTURE ........................................................................................................................6 4.2 APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES.....................................................................................................7 4.3 APPLICATION OPERATION ..............................................................................................................................8

5 APPLICATION FEATURES ...........................................................................................................................10 5.1 E-MAIL NOTIFICATIONS ...............................................................................................................................10 5.2 E-MAIL VERIFICATION.................................................................................................................................10 5.3 MSS PROFILES .............................................................................................................................................10 5.4 USER ACTIVITY LOG ....................................................................................................................................11 5.5 APPLICATION MAJOR FUNCTIONS ................................................................................................................12

5.5.1 U1 – System Login ...............................................................................................................................13 5.5.2 U2 – System Logout .............................................................................................................................13 5.5.3 U3 – Access Online Help .....................................................................................................................13 5.5.4 U4 – Register / Request an MSS Account ............................................................................................13 5.5.5 U5 – Edit Profile..................................................................................................................................14 5.5.6 U6 – Select Report ...............................................................................................................................16 5.5.7 U7 – View Report.................................................................................................................................16 5.5.8 U8 – Download Data...........................................................................................................................16 5.5.9 U9 – Create and Save Report ..............................................................................................................16 5.5.10 U10 – Subscribe to Notification Service ..............................................................................................16 5.5.11 U11 – Subscribe to Web Service..........................................................................................................17 5.5.12 U12 – Contact GCLGS Customer Service ...........................................................................................17 5.5.13 U13 – Look up Tax Rates.....................................................................................................................17 5.5.14 U14 – View Tasks and Alerts ...............................................................................................................17 5.5.15 EF1 – Enter Form Data.......................................................................................................................18 5.5.16 EF2 – Update Form Data....................................................................................................................18 5.5.17 EF3 – Look Up MSS User....................................................................................................................18 5.5.18 A1 – Lookup Multiple Users ................................................................................................................19 5.5.19 A2 – Track Form Status .......................................................................................................................19 5.5.20 A3 – View MSS Report.........................................................................................................................20 5.5.21 SA1 – Approve or Reject Account Request ..........................................................................................21 5.5.22 SA2 – Inactivate User Account ............................................................................................................21 5.5.23 SA3 – View Activity Log.......................................................................................................................21 5.5.24 SA4 – Change Tax Validation / Exception Rules .................................................................................21 5.5.25 SA5 – Edit Local Government Relationships......................................................................................22


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6 APPENDIX: MODULE BUSINESS RULES.................................................................................................23 6.1 BR1-TIF – TAX INFORMATION FORM BUSINESS RULES...............................................................................23 6.2 BR2-AFR – ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT BUSINESS RULES........................................................................42 6.3 BR3-MA – AUTHORITY ANNUAL FINANCIAL REPORT BUSINESS RULES .....................................................44 6.4 BR4-FC – SURVEY OF FINANCIAL CONDITION BUSINESS RULES .................................................................49 6.5 BR5-EAO – ELECTED AND APPOINTED OFFICIALS REPORT BUSINESS RULES.............................................50

7 APPENDIX: BUSINESS REQUIREMENTS TRACEABILITY MATRIX ...............................................52

8 APPENDIX: USER EXPERIENCE GUIDELINES AND USABILITY GOALS ......................................53 8.1 UI DESIGN GUIDELINES................................................................................................................................53 8.2 USABILITY GOALS FOR THE APPLICATION.....................................................................................................58 8.3 USABILITY TEST PLAN FOR THE APPLICATION...............................................................................................58 8.4 PROPOSED FUTURE STATE FUNCTIONALITY MAPS, BY USER ROLE.................................................................60

8.4.1 End user: nonauthenticated and authenticated...................................................................................61 8.4.2 E-filer...................................................................................................................................................62 8.4.3 Administrator.......................................................................................................................................63 8.4.4 System Administrator...........................................................................................................................64

9 APPENDIX: CONCURRENT USERS SIZING MODEL ............................................................................65

10 APPENDIX: TECHNICAL ARCHITECTURE PREVIEW........................................................................66

11 APPENDIX: APPLICATION ARCHITECTURE........................................................................................67


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List of Tables Table 1 - Application Major Functions ......................................................................................................12 Table 2 - MSS Reports .............................................................................................................................20 Table 3 - Tax Information Form Business Rules.......................................................................................41 Table 4 - Annual Financial Report Business Rules...................................................................................44 Table 5 - Authority Annual Financial Report Business Rules....................................................................48 Table 6 - Survey of Financial Condition Business Rules ..........................................................................49 Table 7 - Elected and Appointed Officials Report Business Rules............................................................51 Table 8 - Business Requirements Traceability Matrix...............................................................................52 Table 9 - Concurrent Users Sizing Model .................................................................................................65

List of Figures Figure 1 - DCED Visual Brand Specified Colors.......................................................................................53 Figure 2 - www.newpa.com......................................................................................................................54 Figure 3 - DCED Funding and Program Finder Screen ............................................................................54 Figure 4 - Local Government Top Level Page ..........................................................................................55 Figure 5 - Municipal Statistics Page .........................................................................................................55 Figure 6 - Municipal Statistics System Top Level Page /Log In Page.......................................................56 Figure 7 - End User Start Page ................................................................................................................57 Figure 8 - End User ..................................................................................................................................61 Figure 9 - E-filer........................................................................................................................................62 Figure 10 - Administrator ..........................................................................................................................63 Figure 11 - System Administrator .............................................................................................................64 Figure 12 - Technical Architecture Preview ..............................................................................................66


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List of Acronyms and Terms

A Administrator user role in the MSS application

ADO.NET ActiveX Data Object

AFR Annual Financial Report (MSS module for counties and municipalities)

ASP.NET Active Server Page(s)

CRUD Create, Read, Update and Delete

CSS Cascading Style Sheet

CTC Commonwealth Technology Center

DAO Data Access Object

DCED Department of Community and Economic Development

DOR Department of Revenue

EAO Report of Elected and Appointed Officials (MSS module for counties and municipalities)

EF E-flier user role in the MSS application

EIT Earned Income Tax

EMST Emergency and Municipal Service Tax

EWS Early Warning System

GCLGS Governor’s Center for Local Government Services

HA High Availability

MA Municipal Authorities Annual Financial Report (MSS module)

MSS Municipal Statistics System

NANP North American Numbering Plan

OA Office of Administration

OIT Office for Information Technology

OPT Occupational Privilege Tax

PENNDOT Pennsylvania Department of Transportation

PIT Personal Income Tax


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PSATS Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors

PURTA Public Utility Realty Tax Act

RAD Regional Asset District

SA System Administrator role in the MSS application

SOFC Survey of Financial Condition (MSS module for counties and municipalities)

TASK A Initial phase of the MSS application redesign project in which the Ajilon consulting team analyzed the current application and gathered requirements for the redesigned application as documented in the functional specification.

TASK B Middle phase of the MSS application redesign project in which the Ajilon consulting team prepared the high level application design and blueprint, including the technical architecture, application architecture, test strategy/plan, and UI prototype.

TASK C Final phase of the MSS application redesign project in which the Ajilon consulting team prepares the detailed design documentation, builds tests, and implements the application.

TIF Tax Information Form (MSS module for counties, school districts, and municipalities)

U End User role in the MSS application

UI User Interface

UML Unified Modeling Language

VB.NET Visual Basic

XML eXtensible Markup Language


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1 Document Overview This document, the Municipal Statistics System (MSS) Application Redesign Functional Specification, is the second report produced by the Ajilon Consulting team, in its “Task A” engagement phase to document the “as is” and “to be” states for the MSS Application. This document contains the proposed description of the “to be” state of the MSS Application.

This document describes what the application will be—how it should perform, operate, and work. This document’s contents provide the input to the high level design (Task B) and the detailed design (Task C) activities of the project. The proposed UI prototype will illustrate how the functions documented in the Application Features of this document will work (see Section 5).

This report presents:

• The business requirements for the MSS Application. Requirements presented include those gathered from sessions with the client and the end-users of the application, along with requirements recommended from the consulting team’s findings from their current state business and application analysis task.

• An overview of the proposed MSS application architecture, development guidelines, and application operation.

• A catalog of key MSS application features and detailed descriptions of the applications major functions.

• A business requirements traceability matrix.

• The MSS application user experience UI guidelines and usability goals and list of client/end-user requested UI improvements.



2 Introduction The DCED Governor’s Center for Local Government Services (GCLGS) provides information, training, technical, and financial assistance to local governments (counties, municipalities, municipal authorities and school districts). GCLGS is the principal advocate for local governments, providing programs and services to local government officials to assist them in providing efficient and effective services to their residents. One of the service offerings provided by GCLGS is providing a municipal statistics database that gathers, reports on, and archives:

• Annual reports of the taxes levied by counties, municipalities, and school districts.

• Annual financial reports for counties, municipalities, and municipal authorities.

• Contact information for elected and appointed officials in counties and municipalities.

• An annual survey of the financial condition of counties and municipalities.

The most frequently used component of the GCLGS statistics service offering is the Tax Register, which is a series of reports that present municipal and school district Earned Income Taxes (EIT) and the Emergency Municipal Service Tax (EMST). The Tax Register is the official source of withholding information for all employers.

Under the provisions of the recently enacted Homeowners Tax Relief Act (Act 72 of 2004), GCLGS needs to update its tax information gathering process to collect information on Personal Income Tax (PIT) now authorized under Act 72, and needs to update its reporting capability to provide a PIT Tax Register (and to augment the existing EIT Tax Register).

Various reports are available via the DCED GCLGS public web site to view and download the Tax Register information, along with other helpful municipal information such as government official contact information, and county, municipality, and municipal authority annual financial report information.

The prior deliverable from the consulting team, the “System Assessment Report,” presents an overview and assessment of the current state MSS application in production as of April, 2005. Refer to the System Assessment Report for any detail needed on how the current system works, is operated, and where it is hosted.

The State Legislature has allocated some or all of the needed funding to add legislatively mandated features to the MSS application, and because there is a need to add functionality, GCLGS also wants to improve the usability of the MSS application. The document that follows this deliverable, the “Systems Definition Report”, will contain sizing and estimate information relative to the scope of the redesigned MSS application.

This document describes the functional requirements that are part of the re-design effort. Related documents that, together with this document, compose the complete high-level design deliverable include:

• Business process diagrams. • Page schematics (wire frames), as illustrated in the UI prototype. • Technical Architecture. • Test Strategy and Plan.



3 Business Requirements The application shall be written to support the following set of business requirements:

3.1 Data Collection

3.1.1 The MSS application and associated database shall support the intake and processing of all annual local governmental data submissions as mandated by the Commonwealth, including: Tax Information Form for Counties, Municipalities, and School Districts; Annual Financial Reports for Counties, Municipalities, and Municipal Authorities; Report of Elected and Appointed Officials for Counties and Municipalities; and County and Municipality Survey of Financial Condition (SOFC); per the specific laws/acts that require these reports.

3.1.2 The application shall support user notification of pending and delinquent tasks, via e-mail and letter.

3.1.3 The application shall support workflow capability to manage the processing of forms.

3.2 Data Validation

3.2.1 The MSS application and associated database shall provide data validation for the required intake forms to ensure that the data provided is valid and accurate (not withstanding human keying errors).

3.2.2 The MSS application shall provide a complete business logic layer with all field validations and form cross-checks built-in to the application, to minimize e-filer data entry error and to avoid any need for manual checks and analysis of the forms currently performed after the submission of the form.

3.2.3 The MSS application shall interface with an address verification/standardization service provided by the office of geospatial services to standardize all entered addresses.

3.3 Application Technology

3.3.1 The technologies employed in developing the MSS application shall conform to DCED and Office of Administration/Office for Information Technology (OA/OIT) architecture guidelines.

3.3.2 The MSS application shall support use of web services to provide MSS data to other applications that use MSS data.

3.3.3 For end-user interactions that take place through the web browser-based user interface, the MSS application shall support up to 25 concurrent users with a response time for simple operations exceeding no more than three seconds. Note that simple operations do not include the generation of compute-intensive or otherwise lengthy reports.

NOTE: There is a proposed Web Service for external users of the system, for response time purposes, 10 of the concurrent users will be using the Web Service.

3.3.4 The MSS application shall provide reliable, uninterrupted operation. Batch operations that may take place during regularly scheduled intervals shall not impact the availability of the application.

3.3.5 When using the protected (authenticated) portion of the MSS application, users shall be able to easily see and respond to tasks that are pending for them.

3.3.6 The MSS application shall record all transactions/changes made by authenticated users and provide a means for managing the logging function and committing information on a regular basis to an archived log file.

3.3.7 The MSS application shall support the collection and reporting of various metrics.



3.4 Reporting

3.4.1 The MSS application shall support the generation of various internal and external reports that provide information about the data gathered and stored in the MSS database. Access to internal reports will be restricted to MSS-authenticated users.

• External reports and downloadable data sets will be available to the general public via the DCED GCLGS’s external web site (www.newpa.com) via a link.

• The data that users access will be stored on DCED and CTC servers.

3.5 Usability

Usability goals of the system, along with UI design guidelines, are presented in Appendix 8. The usability requirements of the application are listed below.

3.5.1 The MSS application shall allow users to recover from failures and/or errors.

3.5.2 The MSS application shall allow users to undo inputs or task steps where appropriate.

3.5.3 The MSS application shall allow users to retrieve forgotten passwords.

3.5.4 The MSS application shall provide tasks to users in small, logical segments.

3.5.5 The MSS application shall allow users to see where they are in the sequencing of a task at all times.

3.5.6 The MSS application shall provide in-context help for form entry tasks. Instructions required to complete the forms will be built in to the form entry task for all forms. Help at the field level shall also be provided, where appropriate.

3.6 Customer Support

3.6.1 To reduce the amount of human-based customer support required, the application shall provide a self-service password reset capability.

3.7 Roles and Privileges

3.7.1 With the following exceptions, all operations that affect data within the MSS application can only be accomplished by users that have first been authenticated:

• End-user request for an external report or data download.

• Self-service password reset request for end-users, e-filers, administrators, and system administrators.

3.7.2 Roles in the MSS application shall conform to the standards specified in Commonwealth of PA Management Directive 205.37.

3.7.3 There are four roles within the MSS application: end-user, e-filer, administrator, and system administrator. An individual user’s assigned role determines what functions the user can activate within the MSS application. A user may take on multiple roles. These roles are described in more detail below.

3.7.3.1 End user - The MSS application end user may be authenticated or non-authenticated. Both types of end users visit the public Municipal Statistics web site and run reports against the MSS data set. The authenticated end user is able to save report queries and is able to get notification when specific data set items change.

3.7.3.2 E-filer - A user who uploads data or fills out on-line forms for data capture. This will be an external (local government official) e-filer.



3.7.3.3 Administrator - The MSS application administrator is able to e-file, track and assign the manual forms submission process to other administrators. Members of the Pennsylvania State Association of Township Supervisors (PSATS) team who are performing the MSS data entry function for all local governments in the counties to which they are assigned are also part of this role. Limited-privilege administrator accounts can be created that allow for internal (DCED or other agency) access to reports of data not provided to the general public. Other types of limited-privilege administrators can be granted limited workflow privileges to assist with e-filing and account registration. Administrators can view activities and transactions for all e-filers.

3.7.3.4 System Administrator - The MSS system administrator is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the MSS application and has special capabilities made available to him/her to manage the application in this capacity, including the right to grant account requests and the ability to view activities and transactions within the entire application.

3.8 Notification

3.8.1 MSS users must have a valid e-mail address in order to use the MSS application. E-mail is the primary communication tool between the MSS application and the user.

3.8.2 MSS users shall be notified via e-mail of all changes made to their profile, whether by themselves or by another.

3.8.3 To ensure proper notification, all e-mail addresses entered within an MSS user’s profile shall be verified during a user’s initial registration and any time the e-mail address is changed.

3.8.4 MSS e-filers shall be notified via e-mail of all changes made to the status of the data forms/sets they provide, regardless of whether they make the change themselves or an administrative user makes the change. Status changes that trigger an e-mail include: update to a form, form due but not submitted (delinquent letter), and correction to a form.

3.8.5 MSS users shall be notified via e-mail each time a new task has been generated for them by the application. The e-mail shall provide the user with a context-specific URL to the MSS application to complete the task.



4 Application Overview The MSS application shall have multiple tiers of activity. This architecture shall be flexible and reliable while allowing the system to scale depending on user workload. Appendix 11 has a preview of the proposed application architecture (part of the high level system design).

4.1 Application Architecture

4.1.1 The application architecture and technologies used to implement the application shall comply with DCED and OA/OIT architecture guidelines.

4.1.2 The application shall possess an architecture of at least three tiers that clearly partitions and separates the following components:

• Presentation.

• Business Logic.

• Database Access and Retrieval.

4.1.3 The application architecture and technologies employed in the development of the application should conform to OA/OIT recommendations as follows:

• N-tier architecture (at least 3-tier).

• .NET, Visual Basic.

• IIS application server.

• Oracle RDBMS.

4.1.4 The application will provide for the use of the SQL Server Reporting Services report writer to allow additional reports to be generated that are not defined as part of the standard application.

4.1.5 If use of the MSS application exceeds performance specifications, the application shall provide for a separate reports database to be used for the generation of resource-intensive reports. The reports database shall be capable of being updated at least once daily to reflect the current state of the main application database.

4.1.6 The application shall provide an XML interface with the Geocoding web service, where a user provides the street address and the Address Geocoding web service returns the municipality, school district, county, and confidence level. If the confidence level is not 100%, the service will provide alternative municipal, school district, and county candidates.

4.1.7 The application shall provide web services:

• to external users, providing tax rate information based on the employee and/or employer location by physical address.

• to external users, providing tax rate information based on municipality and school district codes.



4.2 Application Development Guidelines

4.2.1 Development and implementation of the application shall be supported by the following detailed design documentation:

• Business process diagrams. (Task A deliverable)

• Functional specification. (Task A deliverable)

• User experience design, including site map, page template layouts, and navigation guide (See Appendix 8). (Task A deliverable)

• System architecture, including a description of the physical systems hosting the application together with physical and logical diagrams describing the connections between components. (Task B deliverable)

• Application architecture that describes each application tier, providing a map of the high-level software components making up the application and describing the interactions between them. (See Appendix 11 for preliminary information) (Task B deliverable)

• Data dictionary. (Task B deliverable)

• Entity-relationship model. (Task B deliverable)

• Database schema. (Task B deliverable)

o Oracle database configuration illustrating replication between CTC and DCED.

• Software detailed design, including a Unified Modeling Language (UML) or equivalent functional model and a description of all files, modules, objects or components making up the application and how they relate to one another. (Task C deliverable)

• Coding guidelines and programming practices. (Task C deliverable)

• Source code. (Task C deliverable)

• User manual. (Task C deliverable)

• Administrator / operator’s manual, detailing installation, configuration and ongoing maintenance of the application. (Task C deliverable)

4.2.2 The source code shall be maintained using a version control system. Each version or release of the source code shall include a description of all relevant changes made in that version relative to any previous versions.

• Developers will use the DCED standard, Visual Source Safe as code repository for version control.

4.2.3 Any changes made to individual source code modules or fragments shall be documented, using comments, within the module/fragment.

4.2.4 The operation of major functions, subroutines, iterated code (loops) and complex code fragments within the source code shall be clearly documented, using comments.



4.2.5 Data Access Objects (DAO) shall be used to encapsulate database queries, especially where database queries are used more than once in the application. (See Appendix 11 for description of the DAO).

4.2.6 The application shall be coded with the explicit intent of separating presentation, business logic and data access from one another wherever possible.

4.2.7 The application shall be highly modular, using subroutines, functions or object-oriented components to partition code into manageable portions and allow for re-use of common code.

4.2.8 Common code files, such as include files, shall be defined and partitioned in such a way that their size is minimized and they only include relevant code for each function or component that requires them.

4.2.9 The database schema shall employ variable-sized fields where possible to minimize database size. The use of primary and foreign table keys, indexing and any database-supported integrity checking shall be employed to improve performance and ensure data integrity.

4.2.10 The database schema shall be normalized to optimize performance. However, the database shall not be over-optimized to the extent that it makes report queries difficult to construct and understand.

• If a separate database is designed to optimize performance for reports, then the data may be de-normalized for easy access to the reports.

4.2.11 The application shall be designed and coded to efficiently allocate and manage database connections.

4.2.12 The application shall be designed so that the minimum amount of relevant information is transferred between the database and the application. The design should avoid the creation of large record sets where only limited use is made of the retrieved data.

4.2.13 Naming conventions, source code formatting and commenting, error checking and the use of efficient calculations, looping and conditional logic shall be adhered to as agreed in the Coding Guidelines and Programming Practices documentation provided by the IT department and attached to the system definition report (Task B deliverable).

4.2.14 Style sheets shall be employed to ensure the consistent use of formatting and style conventions outlined in the User Experience Design Document (see Appendix 8). The use of formatting or custom styles not defined in the application style sheet is discouraged.

4.3 Application Operation

4.3.1 The application shall include the capability to time out a user’s session after a defined period of inactivity. The duration of the application timeout is 15 minutes, which is the standard timeout period for DCED and Commonwealth applications.

4.3.2 The application shall be written to conform to Section 508 of the Federal Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, Section 1194.22, Web-based Intranet and Internet Applications, and in general will comply as much as possible with W3C Web Content Accessibility guidelines (V1.0, http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/) to allow for equal access by the disabled. See the OA/OIT web site for guidance on complying with Section 508: (http://www.oit.state.pa.us/oaoit/cwp/view.asp?a=12&Q=97863&oaoitPNavCtr=|1864|3675|#3675.) See the following URL on the OA/OIT web site for guidelines on web site design in general: http://www.oit.state.pa.us/oaoit/cwp/view.asp?a=12&Q=188275&PM=1&oaoitPNavCtr=|1864|#8454.



4.3.3 The application shall be programmed as a web-enabled application that allows the user to interact, without error, using the following Windows-based web browsers:

• Internet Explorer, Version 6 and above.

4.3.3.1 The application may make use of cookies for session management and JavaScript for client-side validation and interface manipulation.

4.3.3.2 Client-side code may be used for specific user interface controls or reports where tangible value is added. DCED has standardized on Infragestics Netadvantage for user interface controls. Maximal use shall be made of caching and other approaches that minimize the impact of .NET server-side components on application performance and response time.

4.3.4 Although the back button will not be available, the application shall not error nor create data duplication or corruption if the back function is executed by other means. (For example a warning message would appear after a user attempts to use the browser back function, saying that the user should press the “Back” button within the application screen.) Wherever possible the application shall prevent or mitigate the display of browser error messages from which the user cannot easily recover.

4.3.5 The user interface shall be written in and presented in a single language, American English.

4.3.6 The application shall return error messages that explain the errors in Plain English and, if not system errors, shall offer the user the needed information to correct the error condition.

4.3.7 With the exception of reports and client-side component downloads, the maximum time to download a page (including any sub-loadable components, such as images) shall not exceed 15 seconds over a 56 kbps network connection. Average page downloads over the same connection should not exceed eight seconds.

4.3.8 Average response time of the application, as measured from the time a message is received by the web server to the time the results are output by the web server, under nominal load shall not exceed three seconds for simple operations. A simple operation does not include the generation of reports, and is exclusive of any time required by the application to communicate with or manipulate the database infrastructure. Nominal load is considered to be 25 concurrent users executing similar, simple operations.

4.3.9 The application shall use FIPS codes, and the codes maintained and provided by PENNDOT for the Commonwealth of PA Municipality and County codes. The application shall use the codes maintained and provided by the PA Department of Education for School District codes. All codes will be stored in a table that includes the original DCED codes; the table shall be updated on a frequent basis, no less than once per quarter.

4.3.10 When searching on municipality or school district name, the application shall allow a fuzzy search. Results shall be returned without regard to prefixes or abbreviations such as “Mt.”, “Mount”, “S.” and “South” or suffixes such as “Boro” or “Borough”. The search shall not be case-sensitive, and shall not require the use of wildcards such as “%”.



5 Application Features 5.1 E-Mail Notifications

5.1.1 Unless otherwise indicated, each time a change to a e-filers profile is completed, the following parties shall be notified via e-mail as follows:

• The MSS user affected by the change. • The MSS administrative user who manages that municipality’s information.

5.1.2 Unless otherwise indicated, a party shall not be notified of changes that occur within the application if that party is the initiator of the change.

5.1.3 Notification e-mails shall only be sent once to each e-mail address associated with a change. Duplicates shall be eliminated in the case where recipients for a change are found to have the same e-mail address.

5.1.4 If a notification references a pending task, the notification shall include a URL that can be used by the recipient to access the task directly within the application.

5.2 E-Mail Verification

5.2.1 In order to ensure that the various parties to an MSS request or transaction are informed of changes in a timely manner, the application shall make every effort to ensure the accuracy of each user’s e-mail address using the e-mail verification process described below.

5.2.2 This process shall apply to all authenticated MSS users.

5.2.3 Each time an e-mail address in a user profile is changed, the application shall send an e-mail message to the user, using the new e-mail address, to obtain verification. Verification shall be accomplished by embedding a uniquely coded URL in the message sent to the user. Activation of this URL by the user will confirm to the application that the message has been received at the proper destination.

5.2.4 The application shall process all returned e-mail failure notifications to determine the recipient associated with the failure. If the recipient can be identified, that user’s e-mail address shall be marked “unverified”. The application shall then notify the system administrator of the error, suggesting that the e-mail address in the user’s profile be corrected and/or re-verified.

5.3 MSS Profiles

5.3.1 Each authenticated MSS user is associated with a profile. The profile stores the following information:

• MSS username.

• MSS status (active, inactive, or deleted).

• Identity information that describes the individual to whom the profile is assigned.

• The county, municipality, municipal authority or school district field this user (if allowed) can e-file forms for.

• User activity log.

• User rights (applicable only to administrators).



• Any role-specific information and privileges, for example the ability to view internal MSS reports.

5.3.2 When displaying profile information for a user, the following identity items are considered public identity information:

• First Name.

• Middle Initial.

• Last Name.

• Suffix.

• County, Municipality, Municipal Authority, School District, Company, Organization, or “No Affiliation”.

• Building, Location or Facility.

• Street Address (2 lines).

• City.

• State.

• Postal Code.

• Phone Number.

• Alternate Phone Number.

• E-Mail Address.

5.4 User Activity Log

All MSS application transactions that affect a given MSS user are logged to a user activity log associated with the MSS user affected.

5.4.1 The following items are recorded for each user activity log entry:

• Date and time the transaction took place.

• MSS username of the individual who requested the transaction.

• Function invoked.

• The application shall allow the viewer of the activity log to specify a start and end date to control the extent of the activity log information displayed. See SA3 – View Activity Log for details.



5.5 Application Major Functions

The MSS application has a series of major functions, organized by the role that is able to use the function in question as follows:

• U: Non Authenticated or Authenticated End User.

• EF: E-filer.

• A: Administrator.

• SA: System Administrator.

The following table summarizes the major functions available within the MSS application together with what privileges are required to access each function.

Function Number

Function End User

E-filer Administrator System Administrator

5.5.1 U1 – System Login X X X X 5.5.2 U2 – System Logout X X X X 5.5.3 U3 – Access Online Help X X X X 5.5.4 U4 – Register / Request an MSS Account X X X X 5.5.5 U5 – Edit Profile X X X X 5.5.6 U6 – Select Report X X X X 5.5.7 U7 – View Report X X X X 5.5.8 U8 – Download Data X X X X 5.5.9 U9 – Create and Save Report X X X X 5.5.10 U10 – Subscribe to Notification Service X X 5.5.11 U11 – Subscribe to Web Service X X 5.5.12 U12 – Contact GCLGS Customer Service X X 5.5.13 U13 – Look up Tax Rates X X X X 5.5.14 U14 – View Tasks and Alerts X X X X 5.5.15 EF1 – Enter Form Data X X X 5.5.16 EF2 – Update Form Data X X X 5.5.17 EF3 – Look Up MSS User X X X 5.5.18 A1 – Lookup Multiple Users X X 5.5.19 A2 – Track Form Status X X 5.5.20 A3 – View MSS Report X X 5.5.21 SA1 – Approve or Reject Account Request X 5.5.22 SA2 – Inactivate User Account X 5.5.23 SA3 – View Activity Log X 5.5.24 SA4 – Change Tax Validation / Exception Rules X 5.5.25 SA5 – Edit Local Government Relationships X

Table 1 - Application Major Functions



5.5.1 U1 – System Login 5.5.1.1 This function allows an authenticated user to log into the MSS application. 5.5.1.2 This function will subscribe to the PA Login service. 5.5.1.3 Users provide their MSS username and password to authenticate with the MSS application. 5.5.1.4 Once authenticated, the user, depending on the role assigned, shall be presented with a list of

valid actions, alerts and any pending tasks. 5.5.1.5 In the event the user is not able to authenticate, upon selection of the “Forgotten Password

Link”, the user will be taken to a page that will request his/her user ID. 5.5.1.6 The security question will be shown for the user ID provided and the user will be prompted for

the answer to the security question. 5.5.1.7 Upon a successful match the application shall e-mail the password to the user, at the e-mail

address provided in the user’s profile. 5.5.1.8 If the user ID provided cannot be matched, no security question is shown and the user is

returned to the original login screen. 5.5.1.9 All attempts to use the Forgotten Password feature are logged. 5.5.1.10 All login dates and times are logged. 5.5.1.11 No e-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function.

5.5.2 U2 – System Logout 5.5.2.1 This function allows an authenticated user to log out of the MSS application. 5.5.2.2 The session timeout time is 15 minutes. 5.5.2.3 All logout dates and times, explicit or as a result of timeout, are logged. 5.5.2.4 No e-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function.

5.5.3 U3 – Access Online Help 5.5.3.1 This function is available to both authenticated and non-authenticated users. 5.5.3.2 The application shall support the use of topic-based help. Each page of topic-based help shall

be organized around a specific topic. 5.5.3.2.1 The application shall support the ability for a topic page to link to one or more other topic

pages. 5.5.3.2.2 The application shall provide for topic-based help to be accessed via an index. 5.5.3.3 The application shall support the use of contextual help. Contextual help shall be offered to

help users with specific tasks both at the individual page and field level. Each page of contextual help shall be organized around a specific task or field.

5.5.3.3.1 The application shall support the ability for a contextual help page to link to one or more other contextual help or topic-based help pages.

5.5.3.4 Both topic-based help and contextual help shall be displayed in a daughter window so as not to interfere with the display of the application’s main content window.

5.5.3.5 No e-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function.

5.5.4 U4 – Register / Request an MSS Account 5.5.4.1 Any non-authenticated end-user may request a MSS account using this function. 5.5.4.2 As part of requesting an MSS account, the end-user must:

• Complete his/her user profile.

• Select and answer a security question.



5.5.4.2.1 When filling out the user profile required as part of the account request process, the rules described for U5 – Edit Profile shall apply.

5.5.4.2.2 The user must provide a valid e-mail address as part of the registration process. This e-mail address will be used for communications between the application and the user.

5.5.4.3 If the user is requesting e-filer access, an e-mail will be generated containing the user ID and all profile information and sent to the system administrators. A system administrator will perform the manual verification process and approve or reject the account.

5.5.4.4 For measurement purposes, the application shall record the following metrics associated with the request process:

• Number of MSS account requests initiated.

• Number of MSS account requests granted.

5.5.4.5 E-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function.

5.5.5 U5 – Edit Profile 5.5.5.1 This function is available to authenticated users, e-filers, administrators, and system

administrators. 5.5.5.2 A user is permitted to view and edit the information contained in his/her own profile. 5.5.5.3 System administrators make use of the function to select the user whose profile is to be

edited. 5.5.5.4 When editing a profile, the requestor shall be able to view the public identity information

recorded for the user as described in requirement 5.3.2. 5.5.5.5 System administrators shall have the ability to make changes to all of the information

displayed in the identified user’s profile, as described in requirement 5.5.5.4, subject to PA Login limitations. System administrators shall also be able to determine what privileges administrators should hold.

5.5.5.6 The following fields in an active user’s profile must be filled in; they are not permitted to be empty at any time:

• First Name.

• Last Name.

• County, Municipality, Municipal Authority, School District, Company, Organization, or “No Affiliation”.

• Street Address.

• City.

• State.

• Postal Code.

• Phone Number.

• E-mail Address.



5.5.5.7 The user profile shall support use by a US-based, national population. For example:

• Phone numbers shall include provision for country codes and digit strings that fit the traditional 10 defined by the North American Numbering Plan (NANP).

• Users may or may not have middle initial.

• Postal codes are restricted to 5- or 9-digit U.S. ZIP codes and shall not provide support for alphanumerics.

• The State field shall support entry of State, Territory, or other US-entity designation.

5.5.5.8 Security questions are used to verify the identity of an individual in the following situation:

• When a password is forgotten

Examples of security questions include:

o What is your mother’s maiden name?

o What is your favorite color?

o What city were you born in?

o What is your favorite movie of all time?

o What is your favorite sports team?

o What is your father’s middle name?

o What was the name of the first school you attended?

The application shall allow for at least one security question to be selected and answered.

5.5.5.9 Within this function is a sub-function to allow an authenticated user to change his or her password.

• This function is available to authenticated end-users, e-filers, administrators, and system administrators.

• The user must provide his/her current password to be allowed to change his/her password.

• The user must provide a new password. The password provided shall conform to policy governing the creation of strong passwords.

• When a password is changed, e-mail notifications shall be sent to the affected user. 5.5.5.10 Within this function is a sub-function to allow an authenticated user who has registered for

either “notification service” or a “web service” to unsubscribe. 5.5.5.11 Each field in the profile shall be validated appropriately. For example:

• E-mail addresses shall be validated, when entered, to ensure that they are in proper SMTP/Internet addressing format (user @ host.domain).

5.5.5.12 Any changes made to a profile shall result in an e-mail notification being sent to the user that owns that profile. The e-mail shall include details of the changes made.



5.5.6 U6 – Select Report 5.5.6.1 This function is available to non-authenticated and authenticated users. 5.5.6.2 Only a single MSS report can be queried at a time. 5.5.6.3 The application shall present the data set choices to the user in an organized, structured, and

usable way. 5.5.6.4 The application shall remind authenticated users that they can save the query. 5.5.6.5 No e-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function.

5.5.7 U7 – View Report 5.5.7.1 This function is available to non-authenticated and authenticated users. 5.5.7.2 The application shall provide the ability to view the report with column and row labels frozen

(so they are always clearly readable on the screen). 5.5.7.3 The application shall suggest downloading the report data when the number of columns

exceeds 8 and/or the number of rows exceeds 25. 5.5.7.4 The application shall provide a link to “print this report” which will show a page with all

graphical headers, footers and menu items removed to allow for clean printing. 5.5.7.5 No e-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function.

5.5.8 U8 – Download Data 5.5.8.1 This function is available to non-authenticated and authenticated users. 5.5.8.2 Only a single MSS download request can be made at a time. 5.5.8.3 The application shall present the data set choices to the user in an organized, structured, and

usable way. 5.5.8.4 The application shall remind authenticated users that they can save the query. 5.5.8.5 The application shall provide the following formats for the download: Excel (.xls, .csv) and

Word (.doc) for labels. Excel (.xls) will be the default. 5.5.8.6 No e-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function.

5.5.9 U9 – Create and Save Report 5.5.9.1 This function is available to authenticated users. 5.5.9.2 Only a single MSS report can be queried at a time. 5.5.9.3 The application shall present the data set choices to the user in an organized, structured, and

usable way. 5.5.9.4 The application shall present the results of the query and shall provide the user with an ability

to save the query to his/her profile, and to view the report results in a printable screen. 5.5.9.5 The application shall allow the user to describe the report and save the description.

Description text is limited to 1,024 characters. All HTML tags are stripped out of the text. 5.5.9.6 No e-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function.

5.5.10 U10 – Subscribe to Notification Service 5.5.10.1 This function is available to authenticated users. 5.5.10.2 The application shall provide the user with an ability to request notification of change specific

to selected local government entities and the specific tax and officials information gathered about them (such as an EIT rate, or an EMST tax collector).

5.5.10.3 When the application determines that new information is available related to a requested change, it shall alert the user with a daily e-mail notification that contains the detail of the changes requested along with a URL that links the user directly to the report query page.

5.5.10.4 During the period that a user is subscribed to the notification service, e-mail notifications will periodically be sent to him/her.

5.5.10.5 The application shall provide the user with an ability to “unsubscribe” within the U5 – Edit Profile function.



5.5.11 U11 – Subscribe to Web Service 5.5.11.1 This function is available to authenticated users. 5.5.11.2 The application shall provide the user with an ability to indicate to the GCLGS staff that web

service access is being used. The user will incorporate his/her userid in each web service request, for GCLGS metrics purposes.

5.5.11.3 An e-mail notification shall be sent to the user at the time that the user signs up for this capability.

5.5.11.4 The application shall provide the user with an ability to “unsubscribe” within the U5 – Edit Profile function.

5.5.12 U12 – Contact GCLGS Customer Service 5.5.12.1 This function shall be available to authenticated and non-authenticated users. 5.5.12.2 The application shall provide the user with an ability to select one or more problem categories

and provide details of the problem encountered. 5.5.12.3 If the user is an end user, the application shall automatically pre-fill any contact fields in the

request form with information from the user’s profile. The application shall allow the user to change this information prior to submitting the form.

5.5.12.4 If the user is an e-filer, the application shall automatically pre-fill any contact fields in the request form with information from the user’s profile.

5.5.12.5 Once submitted, the contents of the contact form shall be e-mailed. If the contact form is from an e-filer, the email goes to the administrator (PSATS team member) to whom the e-filer is assigned. If contact form is from an end user, the email is forwarded to the customer support email address defined within the application.

5.5.13 U13 – Look up Tax Rates 5.5.13.1 This function is available to non-authenticated and authenticated users. 5.5.13.2 The user has the option of submitting their home address or the home address and the

workplace (employment) address; users can also submit their municipality and school district names, if known.

5.5.13.3 The application shall pass the address information provided by the user to the Geocoding service.

5.5.13.4 The application shall use the data provided by the Geocoding service to look up the corresponding tax rates for that location.

5.5.13.5 In the event that the Geocoding service can not create a firm match (i.e. the location is on a boundary) all location data returned from the Geocoding service will be used. A notification to the user that an exact match could not be made will be shown to the user.

5.5.13.6 The application shall present a simple report of the tax rates that correspond to the addresses provided; see requirement 4.1.6.


5.5.14 U14 – View Tasks and Alerts 5.5.14.1 This function is available to authenticated users. 5.5.14.2 The application shall present an individualized start page for each authenticated user that

shows any alerts, pending tasks (including delinquent tasks/notices) or system messages that this specific user needs to know and act upon. Submitted forms can also be viewed and printed from here.

• Alert: An update message a user requested (e.g., “the PIT for Chester County schools has changed; click here for the details”) or an update for an e-filer (e.g. “A tax form was filed by <username> for the Chester County School District on <date>. Click here to review the form submitted”).



• Pending task: A reminder that a task is pending for any user type (e.g. “Reminder! Your municipality’s Survey of Financial Condition form is due on <date>. Please click here to enter your survey information”).

• System message: An announcement that all system users need to know. An example on the current MSS application screen is the system message about the EMST.

5.5.14.3 The start page shall show any reports that the user may have created and saved. 5.5.14.4 For an e-filer, the start page shall show the status of the forms that this user can enter. 5.5.14.5 No e-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function.

5.5.15 EF1 – Enter Form Data 5.5.15.1 This function is available to e-filers, administrators, and system administrators. 5.5.15.2 The application shall trigger an e-mail alert to the user that a form should be completed when

the form’s due date is within one month of the current date; reminder e-mails are issued at two weeks prior to due date and 1 week prior to due date. Reminders are only sent out if the form has not been filed.

5.5.15.3 The application shall present a consistent, persistent reminder of where the user is in the form entry task.

5.5.15.4 The application shall allow the user to use the “TAB” key to move through form fields in order. 5.5.15.5 The application shall present error messages if unacceptable values are entered in form fields. 5.5.15.6 At the end of the data entry cycle, the application shall present a final review page (allowing

the user to go back and edit if necessary), then a confirmation page (that allows the user to print a copy of the submitted form for his/her records). NOTE: Submitted forms can be accessed for viewing and printing via the start page (see U14 – View Tasks and Alerts).

5.5.15.7 At the end of the data entry cycle, the application shall send a confirmation e-mail to all e-filers that have a matching municipality, county or school district code in their profile and have rights to enter or update the specific form in question.

5.5.15.8 Specific module business rules are described in section 6 Appendix: Module Business Rules.

5.5.16 EF2 – Update Form Data 5.5.16.1 This function is available to e-filers, administrators, and system administrators. 5.5.16.2 The application shall allow continuous updating of EAO forms by e-filers throughout the year. 5.5.16.3 The application shall allow updating of TIF, AFR, and MA forms by e-filers outside the 1-month

window prior to the form’s due date; however, forms updated outside the 1-month window prior to due date are marked “pending” and must be reviewed and approved before the changes made can be posted to the MSS database. These pending changes will be presented as “’pending tasks” in the PSATS team members’ start pages, per the county assignments the team members hold.

5.5.16.4 The application shall present a consistent, persistent reminder of where the user is in the form entry task.

5.5.16.5 At the end of the data entry cycle, the application shall present a final review page, then a confirmation page.

5.5.16.6 At the end of the data entry cycle, the application shall send a confirmation e-mail to all e-filers that have a matching municipality, county or school district code in their profile and have rights to enter or update the specific form in question.

5.5.16.7 Specific module business rules are described in section 6 Appendix: Module Business Rules.

5.5.17 EF3 – Look Up MSS User 5.5.17.1 This function is available to e-filers, administrators, and system administrators. This function

provides the means to view identity profile information for another MSS user given an MSS username.

5.5.17.2 Only a single MSS user can be looked up at a time.



5.5.17.3 For an e-filer, the only results returned are those that have a matching county, municipality, municipal authority or school district code to their own code.

5.5.17.4 An administrator or a system administrator can look up any MSS user. 5.5.17.5 The MSS username included in the search results shall be the same as the one supplied. 5.5.17.6 If an MSS profile matching the supplied username cannot be found, the application shall

return an error. 5.5.17.7 No e-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function.

5.5.18 A1 – Lookup Multiple Users 5.5.18.1 This function is available to administrators and system administrators. 5.5.18.2 The user is prompted for search criteria of:

• Username and User’s First and Last Names. • County, Municipality, Municipal Authority or School District number. • County, Municipality, Municipal Authority or School District name.

5.5.18.3 Wildcard searches are allowed. 5.5.18.4 All user public information matching the search criteria is returned. 5.5.18.5 Each user ID is shown as a clickable link to that user’s U5 – Edit Profile function. 5.5.18.6 No e-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function.

5.5.19 A2 – Track Form Status 5.5.19.1 The application shall provide a facility to log, track, and assign the completion of manual and

e-filed form submissions. 5.5.19.2 The application shall provide a tracking feature where notes can be stored specific to form

submissions. 5.5.19.3 The application shall provide alerts and pending tasks to the e-filer and/or administrator

assigned to enter the manual form logged into the system. 5.5.19.4 The application shall provide a facility to either send e-mails or generate letters that can be

printed and mailed to delinquent counties, municipalities, municipal authorities and school districts. Delinquent emails shall be sent 15, 45 and 75 days after the deadline to submit a form.




5.5.20 A3 – View MSS Report The following MSS reports are available to administrators and/or system administrators, depending on their roles.

Report Need Satisfied Role Held Required to View

Delinquent Organizations Produce delinquent reports, by module form and/or organization type and/or administrator.

Administrator or System Administrator

In-progress Submissions Produce in-progress submission reports, by module form and/or organization type and/or administrator.


Completed Submissions Produce completed submissions reports, by module form and/or organization type and/or administrator.


Turnaround Form Prepare customized paper forms for local government officials who do not elect to e-file

System Administrator

PENNDOT Report Produce PENNDOT reports that provide: 1) date specific updates to EAO contact information for Official #31; and 2) filing status of the SOFC.


Department of Revenue (DOR) Report

Produce DOR report that aggregates the following municipal information: 1) TIF submission status; 2) Audit submission status; 3) real estate taxes levied-effective year, rate, last updated, status; 4) real estate tax revenues collected (301.00 from AFR); and 5) contact information from EAO (#31).


E-Library (Land use Database) / MSS Differences

Produce report of discrepancies between the MSS data and E-Library. This report will be created by the IT department pending the availability of resources.


Table 2 - MSS Reports

5.5.20.1 An entry shall be made in the user’s activity log making note of any reports viewed, saved, or data downloaded.




5.5.20.3 Privileged administrators and system administrators are able to define new reports and edit existing reports per A2.

5.5.21 SA1 – Approve or Reject Account Request 5.5.21.1 This function is available to system administrators and is the activity following U4 – Register /

Request an MSS Account, where a user requests to be an e-filer. 5.5.21.2 System administrators are notified via e-mail when a new account request has been

submitted. The e-mail received by the system administrator has a clickable URL that takes the system administrator to the U5 – Edit Profile page for that user.

5.5.21.3 The system administrator, using the data presented in the profile and any other manually submitted information requested from the user to set up the account, can determine what privileges the user should have. E-filers do not have privileges purse; however the system administrator needs to enable the ability to e-file after providing the certification paperwork.

5.5.21.4 The system administrator can then set the appropriate privileges for administrators, configuring the account for the tasks they can perform.

5.5.21.5 As an alternative, the system administrator can perform the SA2 – Inactivate User Account function.

5.5.21.6 The following information is logged: • Date and Time. • User ID and System Administrator ID. • Privileges granted.

5.5.21.7 E-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function that the account has either been approved or rejected.

5.5.22 SA2 – Inactivate User Account 5.5.22.1 This function is available to system administrators. 5.5.22.2 This function allows system administrators to inactivate user accounts from the MSS

application. 5.5.22.3 When a user account is inactivated, the following information is logged:

• Description of transaction.

• Reason codes or comments for the account deletion reasons.

• Transaction result (OK/Fail), together with any associated error codes or messages.

5.5.22.4 As a result of using this function, a final e-mail notification is sent to the user noting that the account was inactivated.

5.5.23 SA3 – View Activity Log 5.5.23.1 This function is available to system administrators. 5.5.23.2 This function allows system administrators to monitor application activity across all users. 5.5.23.3 This function allows system administrators to specify a date range and a user id, or just a date

range (start date and end date) to produce a system activity log that provides, organized by MSS username, a log of transactions by date and time requested by a specific user, and the function invoked in the transaction.


5.5.24 SA4 – Change Tax Validation / Exception Rules 5.5.24.1 This function is available to system administrators. 5.5.24.2 This function allows system administrators to add new validation rules or edit existing

validation rules to correspond with revised taxation information and rules. 5.5.24.3 E-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function to all administrators and system

administrators that the rules have been changed.



5.5.25 SA5 – Edit Local Government Relationships 5.5.25.1 This function is available to system administrators. 5.5.25.2 This function allows system administrators to manage relationships among counties,

municipalities, municipal authorities, and school districts. 5.5.25.3 This function also allows system administrators to import STEB data, and to enter overlay

ratios. 5.5.25.4 E-mail notifications are sent as a result of using this function to all administrators and system

administrators that the relationships have been changed.



6 Appendix: Module Business Rules NOTE: UPGRADES RECEIVED AFTER 7/22/2005 TO BUSINESS RULES WILL BE REFLECTED IN THE SYSTEM DEFINITION REPORT AND WILL BE ADDED TO THIS APPENDIX.

Business rules will continue to be refined in the subsequent project deliverables. The final business rules will be documented in the MSS application blueprint document (Task B deliverable).

6.1 BR1-TIF – Tax Information Form Business Rules

This section outlines any business rules that are specific to the Tax Information Form as filed by school districts, counties and municipalities. Common requirements are found in EF1 – Enter Form Data and EF2 – Update Form Data. Sources for the business rules presented here are listed below:

• Current system business rules: (see tables in Current State Assessment Report).

• Manually applied business rules: Appendices C, D, and E in the Current State Assessment Report.

• New business rules gathered from requirements gathering workshops are primarily from Georgia Earp, taxation SME.

Item No. Business Rule Legal limit Citation Comments

Applied to any Tax Forms

TIF1

User's pending task(s) specific to TIF are displayed on the start page.

TIF2

User's organization type and organization profile (i.e., which Acts the org type is subject to) determines the form presentation.

TIF3

If the organization levies an EIT, an EIT collector needs to be named.

TIF4

If the organization levies an EMST, an EMST collector needs to be named.

TIF5

If the school district levies a PIT, a PIT collector needs to be named.

TIF6

Compare the prior year's rates with new rates provided upon form completion. Any changes to Act 511 taxes or any new taxes added based on adopting Acts, gaining court approval or voter referendum must be accompanied by an ordinance. If any tax rates change by at least a factor of 50%, the TIF in question will be flagged as a pending task for the PSATS team member assigned to the organization in question. The e-filer may proceed with submitting the form.

Is this item actually 2 business rules (see where divider is placed)




Applied to any Tax Forms

TIF7

If an organization has implemented a homestead exclusion, the amount of the exemption is to be reported on the TIF.

The entry will not be validated; there is no calculation to be performed.

TIF8

Local governments imposing homestead exclusions may not increase the millage rate on the real estate.

TIF9

When a municipality has more than one school district, or a school district spans more than one municipality, the application needs to display all the sharing tax rate fields specific to the sharing relationships in place on the screen for "Step 1: Enter Tax Rates."

TIF10 Tax collector addresses are validated via USPS service

TIF11

When new taxes are entered, the application will require that the user upload the appropriate ordinance or mail it to DCED. Form data will be pending until the PSATS team verifies that there are no problems with the language in the uploaded or mailed ordinance.

TIF12

Data will go live when updated within one month before and one month after the form’s due date. Data updated outside of that window will be marked as pending and will only go live after being reviewed by the PSATS team.

Applied to County Tax Forms

TIF13 Counties may not levy an EMS tax

TIF14 Counties may not levy EIT or PIT

TIF15

4th through 8th Class Counties may levy a Per Capita tax of $5 OR may level an Occupation Tax of 20 mills

TIF16

If real estate tax mills are listed on the county tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 3110 under the general fund of the County Annual Financial Report.

TIF17

If a personal property tax is listed on the county tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 3130 under the general fund of the County Annual Financial Report.

TIF18

If an other tax is listed on the county tax information on the county tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 3199 under the general fund of the County Annual Financial Report.

Other taxes include: debt service, lease rental payments to authorities, institution districts, parks and playgrounds, libraries, roads and bridges, memorial hall, tuberculosis hospital, community colleges, municipalities financial recovery program.




Applied to County Tax Forms

TIF19

If a sales tax percent is listed on the county tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 3160 under the general fund of the County Annual Financial Report. This applies to Allegheny and Philadelphia counties only.

TIF20

If a hotel room rental tax percent is listed on the county tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 3140 under the general fund of the County Annual Financial Report.

TIF21

If an occupation tax rate is listed on the county tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 3150 under the general fund of the County Annual Financial Report.

TIF22

If a per capita tax rate is listed on the county tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 3120 under the general fund of the County Annual Financial Report.

TIF23

If a figure is placed in the real estate tax line of the county tax information form, the same figure must populate the tax rate line under general purpose (mills) on page 12 of the County Annual Financial Report.

County Tax Sources: What can be levied, limits, citations

General purpose tax levies

Counties adopting home rule charters may set rates higher than the limits provided in state law for property taxes and for personal taxes levied on residents. They may not create new subjects of taxation.

TIF24 Real Estate

TIF25 Second Class Counties (Allegheny) 25 mills 16 P.S. 4970

TIF26 Second Class A Counties (Montgomery, Bucks, Delaware) 30 mills 16 P.S. 4970

TIF27 Third through Eighth Class Counties 25 mills 16 P.S. 1770

five additional mills available with court appeal

TIF28 Personal Property

TIF29 Second Class A to Eighth Class Counties 4 mills 72 P.S. 4821

TIF30 Sales

TIF31 Second Class Counties (Allegheny) 1 percent 16 P.S. 6152-B

TIF32 Per Capita (Fourth through Eighth Class Counties) $5

TIF33 or 16 P.S. 1770

TIF34 Occupation (Fourth through Eighth Class Counties) 20 mills

Special Purpose Taxes TIF35 Debt Service no limit 16 P.S. 1770, 4970




County Tax Sources: What can be levied, limits, citations

TIF36

Lease Rental Payments to Authorities (Third through Eighth Class Counties) 10 mills 16 P.S. 1770

TIF37 Institutional Districts TIF38 Second Class Counties 10 mills 62 P.S. 2257 TIF39 Second Class A Counties 15 mills 16 P.S. 4970.1 TIF40 Third Class Counties 10 mills 62 P.S. 2257 TIF41 Parks and Playgrounds

TIF42 Second and Second Class A Counties 2 mills 16 P.S. 6007, 6035

TIF43 Third through Eighth Class Counties no limit 16 P.S. 2507

TIF44 Libraries no limit 24 P.S. 4401

TIF45 Roads and Bridges 6 mills

16 P.S. 2707, 2724, 2733, 5901, 5902, 5903

TIF46 Memorial Hall no limit 16 P.S. 2366, 5571 TIF47 Tuberculosis Hospital no limit 16 P.S. 2118, 5324

TIF48 Roads and Bridges no limit 16 P.S. 2675, 5734, 5778

TIF49 Community Colleges

Revenue (CC part of Audit line 3199) ≤ STEB MV * .001*5 24 P.S. 19-1909-A

Local sponsor may levy any tax permitted by law to support a community college. Revenues from the tax cannot exceed 5 mills of the market value of real estate, except for first class cities and first class school districts where it cannot exceed 1 mill of the market value of real estate.

TIF50 Municipalities Financial Recovery Program

no limit (levied only with court approval)

53 P.S. 11701.123(c)

TIF51 Hotel Room Rental

TIF52 Second Class Counties 5 percent 16 P.S. 4970.2, 3000, 3061

TIF53 Second Class A Counties 3 percent 16 P.S. 4970.2

TIF54 Lackawanna, Lehigh, Northampton Counties 4 percent

16 P.S. 1770.4, 16 P.S. 13211

TIF55 Berks, Luzerne Counties 5 percent 16 P.S. 2399.1

TIF56 Third through Eighth Class Counties 3 percent

16 P.S. 1770.2, 1770.5, 1770.6, 1770.7

Applied to Municipal Tax Forms

TIF57

2nd Class Cities may levy a $10 Per Capita tax which is not subject to sharing with any other entity

Think these are all duplicates with the specific taxes and limits provided in the tax tables for each organizational entity.

TIF58

2nd Class A Cities, 3rd Class Cities, Boroughs, 1st Class Townships, and 2nd Class Townships may levy a $10 Per Capita tax which is subject to sharing with its school district(s)


TIF59

2nd Class Cities may levy a Flat $10 Occupation tax or may collect by mills; millage has no limit






TIF60

2nd Class A Cities, 3rd Class Cities, Boroughs, 1st Class Townships, and 2nd Class Townships may levy a Flat $10 Occupation tax which is subject to sharing with its school district(s) or may collect by mills; millage has no limit


TIF61 2nd Class Cities may levy a $52 EMS tax


TIF62

2nd Class A Cities, 3rd Class Cities, Boroughs, 1st Class Townships, and 2nd Class Townships may levy a $52 EMS tax, subject to sharing with their school district(s)


TIF63 Municipalities may levy EIT—both resident and non resident.

TIF64

Municipalities that have approved Act 47 may increase their EIT rate

no limit Residents must be approved by court. Non-resident must be approved by count of common pleas.

See Act 47 Municipalities worksheet

TIF65

Municipalities that have approved Act 153 may increase their EIT rate (resident rate only) and may increase their Real Estate tax rate

no limit. Residents must be approved by voters.


TIF66

Municipalities that have approved Act 205 may increase their EIT rate

no limit. Resident/Non-residents determination of municipal pension distress must be made by PERC.


TIF67

Municipalities that have approved Act 24 may increase their EIT rate and must repeal their Occupation tax levy

no Limit. Residents only must be approved by voters.

See Act 24 School Districts and Munis worksheet

TIF68

Check for low income exemptions with School Districts and Municipalities on EIT, Per Capita tax, EMS tax, Flat Occupation tax, Assessed Occupation tax

source 4-19 tax session notes with Georgia; need to follow up for precise detail; assume this applies to all Act 511 taxes?

TIF69

If a real estate tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.00 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

TIF70

If an earned income tax percent is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.20 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.





TIF71

If an EMS tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.50 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

Will line 310.5 now take the EMS tax?

TIF72

If a realty transfer tax percent is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.10 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

TIF73

If an occupation tax (levied under municipal code) is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 305.00 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

TIF74

If an occupation tax (mills or dollars, Act 511) is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.40 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

TIF75

If a per capita tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.00 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

TIF76

If a residence tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 308.00 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report. Note: This tax is only for Cities of the 3rd Class.

TIF77

If a mercantile tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.30 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

TIF78

If a business privilege tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.80 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.





TIF79

If an amusement/admissions tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.60 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

TIF80

If a mechanical devices tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.70 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

TIF81

If a tax is listed under the other category on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure along with the name of the tax in the other category must appear on the lines located under line 310.90 in the general fund column of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

Municipal Tax Sources: What can be levied, limits, citations-by org type

First Class City (Philadelphia): potential tax sources

General purpose tax levies TIF82 Real Estate no limit 53 P.S. 12553 TIF83 Personal Property 4 mills 72 P.S. 4821 TIF84 Business Privilege no limit 53 P.S. 16181 TIF85 Sales 1 percent 53 P.S. 12720.503

TIF86 Sterling Act Taxes 53 P.S. 15971

The Sterling Act gives Philadelphia the power to levy taxes on any privilege, transaction, subject, or personal property not subject to a state tax or license. There are no limits on the rate of taxation under the Act. Taxes listed are those currently levied.

TIF87 Wage, Earnings, and Net Profits No limit

TIF88 Realty Transfer No limit TIF89 Amusement No limit TIF90 Parking Lot No limit Special purpose tax levies

TIF91 Community Colleges


Local sponsors may levy any tax permitted by law to support a community college. Revenues from the tax cannot exceed 1 mill of the market value of real estate for first class cities

TIF92 Hotel Room Rental 6 percent 53 P.S. 16223

Philadelphia City is also Philadelphia County, thus the ability to levy hotel room rental tax.




First Class City (Philadelphia): potential tax sources

TIF93 Distressed Pension System Recovery Program no limit 53 P.S. 895.607(f)

TIF94 Open Space (real estate or earned income) set by voters 32 P.S. 5007.1

Requires approval of voters in referendum

Second Class City (Pittsburgh): potential tax sources


As a home rule municipality, Pittsburgh may set rates higher than the limits provided in state law for property taxes and for personal taxes levied on residents. It may not create new subjects of taxation.

TIF95 Real estate no limit 53 P.S. 23104, 25942


TIF96 Licenses taxes no limit

53 P.S.23107, 23126, 23127, 23136

TIF97 Dog owners no limit 53 P.S. 23144 TIF98 Act 511 taxes 53 P.S. 6901

TIF99 Per Capita $10

TIF100 Occupation (Flat Rate) $10

TIF101 Occupation (Millage) no limit

TIF102

Occupational privilege (Now Emergency and Municipal Service) $10 (now $52)

TIF103 Earned income/net profits 1 percent (resident and nonresident)

Pittsburgh does not transfer funds to other municipalities, thus their non-resident rate applies only to people who don’t owe a resident EIT in the place where they live.

TIF104 Realty transfer 1 percent

TIF105 Mechanical devices 5 percent TIF106 Parking no limit

TIF107 Amusement 5 percent

TIF108 Business gross receipts

1 mill wholesale; 2 mills retail; no limit other businesses

TIF109 Institution/service privilege No limit Is this an Act 511 tax? No citation in the appendix.

TIF110 Act 24 earned income set by referendum 53 P.S. 6927.1

If a municipality raises the rate of the earned income tax through a referendum authorized by Act 24 of 2001, it cannot levy an occupation tax.

Special purpose tax levies TIF111 Public parks no limit 53 P.S. 23140 TIF112 Sinking fund 3 mills 53 P.S. 25851





TIF113 Community colleges


Local sponsors may levy any tax permitted by law to support a community college. Revenues from the tax cannot exceed 5 mills of the market value of real estate

TIF114 Open space (real estate or earned income) set by voters 32 P.S. 5007.1



TIF116 Municipalities Financial Recovery Program no limit

53 P.S. 11701.123( c) Levied only with court approval.

Second Class A City (Scranton): potential tax sources


As a home rule municipality, Scranton may set rates higher than the limits provided in state law for property taxes and for personal taxes levied on residents. It may not create new subjects of taxation.

TIF117 Real estate no limit 53 P.S. 23104, 23105

TIF118 Act 511 taxes 53 P.S. 6901

TIF119 Per Capita $10 Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district


Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; If a municipality raises the rate of the earned income tax through a referendum authorized by Act 24 of 2001, it cannot levy an occupation tax.


If a municipality raises the rate of the earned income tax through a referendum authorized by Act 24 of 2001, it cannot levy an occupation tax

TIF122


Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district

TIF123 Earned income 1 percent Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district

TIF124 Realty transfer 1 percent Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district

TIF125 Mechanical devices 10 percent Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district


Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; for taxes first levied after 12/31/97, the maximum rate is 5%




Second Class A City (Scranton): potential tax sources


1 mill wholesale; 1.5 mills retail; no limit other businesses

Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; can levy only if enacted before 12/1/88



Special purpose tax levies


Revenue (CC part of Audit line 310.90) ≤ STEB MV * .001*5 24 P.S. 19-1909-A

Local sponsors may levy any tax permitted by law to support a community college. Revenues from the tax cannot exceed 5 mills of the market value of real estate.



TIF131 Distressed Pension System Recovery Program no limit 53 P.S. 895-607(f)


53 P.S. 11701.123 (c) Levied only with court approval

Third Class Cities: potential tax sources


Home rule municipalities may set rates higher than the limits provided in state law for property taxes and for personal taxes levied on residents. They may not create new subjects of taxation.

TIF133 Real estate 25 mills 53 P.S. 37531 Five additional mills available with court approval.

TIF134 Residence $5 53 P.S. 37531 TIF135 Business license $100 53 P.S. 37601 TIF136 Act 511 taxes 53 P.S. 6901

TIF137 Per Capita $10 Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district


Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; If a municipality raises the rate of the earned income tax through a referendum authorized by Act 24 of 2001, it cannot levy an occupation tax.



TIF140



TIF141 Earned income 1 percent Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district

TIF142 Deed transfer 1 percent Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district





TIF143 Mechanical devices 10 percent Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district


Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; for taxes levied after 12/31/97, the maximum rate is 5%



Maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; can levy only if enacted before 12/1/88.



Special purpose tax levies TIF147 Bonded debt and sinking fund no limit 53 P.S. 37351 TIF148 Recreation no limit 53 P.S. 38709 TIF149 Library no limit 24 P.S. 4401 TIF150 Shade trees 1/10 mill 53 P.S. 38809 TIF151 Support bureau of charity 10 mills 53 P.S. 39502








53 P.S. 11701.123 (c) Levied only with court approval.

Boroughs: potential tax sources


Home rule boroughs may set rates higher than the limits provided in state law for property taxes and for personal taxes levied on residents. They may not create new subjects of taxation.

TIF156 Real estate 30 mills 53 P.S. 46302

5 additional mills available with court approval; This tax is also authorized for the incorporated town of Bloomsburg, 1972, P.L. 1441, No. 320

TIF157 Occupation 30 mills 53 P.S. 46302 5 additional mills available with court approval

TIF158 Act 511 taxes 53 P.S. 6901

This tax is also authorized for the incorporated town of Bloomsburg, 1972, P.L. 1441, No. 320

TIF159 Per Capita $10 maximum rate subject to sharing with school district






maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; if a municipality raises the rate of the earned income tax through a referendum authorized by Act 24 of 2001, it cannot levy an occupation tax


If a municipality raises the rate of the earned income tax through a referendum authorized by Act 24 of 2001, it cannot levy an occupation tax

TIF162



TIF163 Earned income 1 percent maximum rate subject to sharing with school district

TIF164 Realty transfer 1 percent maximum rate subject to sharing with school district

TIF165 Mechanical devices 10 percent maximum rate subject to sharing with school district


maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; for taxes first levied after 12/31/97, maximum rate is 5 percent



1 mill wholesale; 1.5 mill retail; no limit other businesses

maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; tax can be levied only if enacted prior to 12/01/88


if a municipality raises the rate of the earned income tax through a referendum authorized by Act 24 of 2001, it cannot levy an occupation tax


TIF169 Debt service no limit 53 P.S. 46302


TIF170 Pensions and retirement .5 mill 53 P.S. 46302


TIF171 Shade trees .1 mill 53 P.S. 46302, 47729


TIF172 Street lighting 8 mills 53 P.S. 46302


TIF173 Library no limit 24 P.S. 4401, 53 P.S. 46302


TIF174 Special road fund 5 mills 53 P.S. 46304





TIF175 Recreation no limit 53 P.S. 47712


TIF176 Fire equipment and firehouses 3 mills 53 P.S. 46302, 49235

Higher rate may be approved by voters in referendum

TIF177 Gas, water, electric light 8 mills 53 P.S. 46302, 49231

Must be approved by voters in referendum

TIF178 Firehouse, lockup, or municipal building 2 mills

53 P.S. 46302, 49241

Higher rate may be approved by voters in referendum



Local sponsors may levy any tax permitted by law to support a community college. Revenues from the tax cannot exceed 5 mills of the market value of real estate; this tax is also authorized for the incorporated town of Bloomsburg, 1972, P.L. 1441, No. 320.

TIF180 Debt payment no limit 53 P.S. 46303 Levied only on court order.

TIF181 Ambulance and rescue squads .5 mil 53 P.S. 46302

Higher rate may be approved by voters in referendum; cap is 2 mills.


Must be approved by voters in referendum. This tax is also authorized for the incorporated town of Bloomsburg, 1972, P.L. 1441, No. 320

TIF183 Distressed Pension System Recovery Program no limit 53 P.S. 895.607 (f)




53 P.S. 11701.123 (c)

Levied only on court order. This tax is also authorized for the incorporated town of Bloomsburg, 1972, P.L. 1441, No. 320

First Class Townships: potential tax sources


Home rule townships may set rates higher than the limits provided in state law for property taxes and for personal taxes levied on residents. They may not create new subjects of taxation.

TIF185 Real estate 30 mills 53 P.S. 56709 5 additional mills available with court approval.

TIF186 Occupation 30 mills 53 P.S. 56709 5 additional mills available with court approval.

TIF187 Act 511 taxes 53 P.S. 6901







First Class Townships: potential tax sources



TIF191







maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; for taxes first levied after 12/31/97, the maximum rate is 5 percent.



maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; can be levied only if enacted before 12/1/88.




TIF198 Firehouses and equipment 3 mills 53 P.S. 56709 Higher rate may be approved by voters in referendum

TIF199 Shade trees .01 mill 53 P.S. 56709 TIF200 Municipal building no limit 53 P.S. 56709 TIF201 Debt service no limit 53 P.S. 56709 TIF202 Pensions and retirement .5 mill 53 P.S. 56709 TIF203 Fire and water district 2 mills 53 P.S. 56515 TIF204 Permanent improvement fund 5 mills 53 P.S. 57601 TIF205 Recreation no limit 53 P.S. 58012

TIF206 Library no limit 24 P.S. 4401


Requires approval of voters by referendum




TIF209 Ambulance and rescue squads .5 mill 53 P.S. 56709

Higher rate may be approved by voters in referendum; cap is 3 mills.



53 P.S. 11701.123 (c ) Levied only on court order.




Second Class Townships: potential tax sources Legal limit Citation Notes


Home rule townships may set rates higher than the limits provided in state law for property taxes and for personal taxes levied on residents. They may not create new subjects of taxation.

TIF212 Real estate 14 mills 53 P.S. 68205 5 additional mills available with court approval.

TIF213 Act 511 taxes 53 P.S. 6901






TIF217







maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; for taxes first levied after 12/31/97, the maximum rate is 5 percent.



maximum rate subject to sharing with school district; can be levied only if enacted before 12/1/88.




TIF224 Municipal building .5 general rate 53 P.S. 68205

Limit is “1/2 general rate” Not sure what this number is. What is the “general rate”?

TIF225 Firehouses and equipment 3 mills 53 P.S. 68205 Higher rate may be approved by voters in referendum.

TIF226 Recreation no limit 53 P.S. 68205 TIF227 Debt service no limit 53 P.S. 68205 TIF228 Permanent improvement fund 5 mills 53 P.S. 68205 TIF229 Road machinery fund 2 mills 53 P.S. 68205






TIF231 Ambulance and rescue squads .5 mill 53 P.S. 68205 Higher rate (no limit) may be approved by voters in referendum.

TIF232 Fire hydrants for township 2 mills 53 P.S. 68205

TIF233 Street lights for township 5 mills 53 P.S. 68205

TIF234 Debt payment no limit 53 P.S. 68205 Levied only on court order





Local sponsors may levy any tax permitted by law to support a community college. Revenues form the tax cannot exceed 5 mills of the market value of real estate.



53 P.S. 11701.123 (c) Levied only on court order.

TIF239

1st Class A School Districts may levy a $10 Per Capita tax unless the voters approved increased EIT under Act 50 of 1998 (GE to confirm)

TIF240

2nd-4th Class School Districts may levy a $10 Per Capita tax, subject to sharing with its municipality(ies); however, no Per Capita tax may be levied if voters approved increased EIT under Act 50 of 1998 (GE to confirm)

TIF241

1st Class A School Districts may not levy an Occupation tax if the voters approved increased EIT under Act 50 of 1998 (GE to confirm)

TIF242

2nd-4th Class School Districts may levy a flat $10 Occupation tax, subject to sharing with its municipality(ies); however, no Occupation tax may be levied if voters approved increased EIT under Act 50 of 1998 (GE to confirm)

TIF243

1st Class A School Districts may not levy an EMS tax if the voters approved increased EIT under Act 50 of 1998 (GE to confirm)

TIF244

2nd-4th Class School Districts may levy an EMS tax subject to sharing with its municipality(ies), unless voters have approved increased EIT under Act 50 of 1998 (GE to confirm)

TIF245

School Districts of the First Class A and 2nd through 4th Classes can levy either EIT or PIT (GE to confirm)





TIF246

School Districts that have approved Act 24 may increase their EIT rate and must repeal their Occupation tax levy

See Act 24 School Districts and Munis worksheet (GE to confirm)

TIF247

School Districts that have approved Act 50 may increase their EIT rate up to 1.5%; they must repeal their Occupation tax, and Per Capita tax (and EMS?)

See Act 50 School Districts worksheet (GE to confirm)

TIF248

Exceptions to 1% EIT for School Districts if subject to any of the following law: Act 24, Act 50, Act 72 See Act 511 exceptions worksheet

School District Tax Sources: What can be levied, limits, citations-by org type

First Class School Districts potential tax sources Legal limit Citation Notes

General education purposes

TIF249 Real estate no limit

24 P.S. 6-652, 583.1, 583.6, 583.10, 583.14, 53 P.S. 16101

TIF250 Unearned income or non-business income no limit 53 P.S. 16101

TIF251 Business occupancy no limit 53 P.S. 16102 TIF252 Liquor sales 10 percent 53 P.S. 16134 Special purpose tax levies


Revenue (CC part of muni Audit line 310.90) ≤ STEB MV * .001*1 24 P.S. 19-1909-A

Local sponsors may levy any tax permitted by law to support a community college. Revenues from the tax cannot exceed 1 mill of the market value of real estate for first class school districts

First Class A School Districts potential tax sources Legal limit Citation Notes

General education purpose tax levies

TIF254 Real estate no limit

24 P.S. 6-652, 6-652.1(3), 583.1, 583.10, 585.1, 585.5, 585.9, 585.14, 586.1

TIF255 Earned income 2 percent 24 P.S. 588.2, 6.652.1(a)(2)

TIF256 Mercantile .5 mill wholesale; 1 mill retail 24 P.S. 582.4

TIF257 Act 511 taxes 24 P.S. 6-652.1(4) TIF258 Per Capita $10 TIF259 Deed transfer 1 percent TIF260 Mechanical devices no limit

TIF261 Mercantile 1 mill wholesale; 1.5 mills retail

TIF262 Act 50 taxes 53 Pa.C.S. 8701, 8711

Must be approved by the voters in referendum




First Class A School Districts potential tax sources Legal limit Citation Notes

TIF263 Earned income 1.5 percent TIF264 Realty transfer 1 percent

TIF265 Business gross receipts 1 mill wholesale; 1.5 mills retail

Can be levied only if enacted prior to 12/1/88

TIF266

TIF267 Act 72 (personal income tax) no limit citation is?

If PIT is levied, EIT cannot be levied. Must be approved by voters.

Special purpose tax levies TIF268 Debt service 8.5 mills 24 P.S. 6-653 TIF269 Parks and playgrounds 2 mills 24 PS.S 7-706 TIF270 Capital reserve fund 3 mills 24 P.S. 6-690


Revenue (CC part of muni Audit line 310.90) ≤ STEB MV * .001*5 24 P.S. 19-1909-A


Second, Third, Fourth Class School Districts potential tax sources Legal limit Citation Notes

General education purpose tax levies

TIF272 Real estate 25 mills 24 P.S. 6-672

Additional unlimited millage may be levied to pay salaries and debt service charges for school buildings

TIF273 Per Capita $5 24 P.S. 6-679 TIF274 Act 511 taxes 53 P.S. 6901

TIF275 Per Capita $10 Maximum rate subject to sharing with municipality

TIF276 Occupational (Flat Rate) $10

Maximum rate subject to sharing with municipality; if a school district raises the rate of the earned income tax through a referendum authorized by Act 24 of 2001, it cannot levy an occupation tax.

TIF277 Occupational (Millage) no limit

If a school district raises the rate of the earned income tax through a referendum authorized by Act 24 of 2001, it cannot levy an occupation tax.

TIF278


Maximum rate subject to sharing with municipality

TIF279 Earned income 1 percent Maximum rate subject to sharing with municipality

TIF280 Realty transfer 1 percent Maximum rate subject to sharing with municipality

TIF281 Mechanical devices no limit


Can be levied only if enacted prior to 7/1/97. Maximum rate subject to sharing with municipality


1 mill wholesale; 1.5 mills retail; no limits other businesses





Second, Third, Fourth Class School Districts potential tax sources Legal limit Citation Notes

TIF284 Act 50 taxes 53 Pa.C.S. 8701, 8711

Requires approval by voters in referendum.

TIF285 Earned income 1.5 percent

TIF286 Realty transfer 1 percent Maximum rate subject to sharing with municipality






TIF289 Act 24 earned income no limit. 53 P.S. 6927.1

If a school district raises the rate of the earned income tax through a referendum authorized by Act 24 of 2001, it cannot levy an occupation tax. Set by referendum.

TIF290 Act 72 (personal income tax) no limit citation is?

If PIT is levied, EIT cannot be levied. Must be approved by voters.

Special purpose tax levies TIF291 Debt service no limit 24 P.S. 2-232 Levied only by court order. TIF292 Parks and playgrounds 2 mills 24 P.S. 7-706 TIF293 Capital reserve fund 3 mills 24 P.S. 6-690





May be subject to voter approval; Georgia to provide update when TM updates are complete. (NOTE: citation provided is from municipality example; is the law the same for munies and school districts?)

Table 3 - Tax Information Form Business Rules



6.2 BR2-AFR – Annual Financial Report Business Rules

This section outlines any business rules that are specific to the Annual Financial Report Forms for counties and municipalities. Common requirements are found in EF1 – Enter Form Data and EF2 – Update Form Data. Sources for the business rules are listed below:


• Manually applied business rules: Appendices F and G in the Current State Assessment Report.

• New business rules gathered from requirements gathering workshops (essentially only the manually applied rules from tip sheets and instructions, covered in the bullet above).

Item No. Business Rule

Applies to County and Municipal AFR submissions AFR1 All dollar figures entered will be rounded to the nearest dollar amount. AFR2 All columns and rows will be totaled

AFR3 The application compares the tax revenue reported to the tax types listed on the organization's Tax Information Form. Revenues must be reported for all tax types listed on the TIF.

Balance Sheet AFR4 all items are numeric AFR5 assets equal liabilities AFR6 total assets and other debts minus total liabilities equals total fund and account group equity Statement of Revenue and Expenses AFR7 all items are numeric

AFR8 if total real estate mills = 0, then real estate taxes can be zero otherwise real estate taxes collected must be > 0

AFR9 if total debt and revenue anticipation notes > 0 then total debt service (revenue & expenses ) must be > 0 AFR10 total principal paid must equal Total Debt Principal from revenue and expenses

AFR11 total Interfund Operating Transfers (Revenue) must equal the total Interfund Operating Transfers (Expenditures) AFR12 miscellaneous revenues and expenditures must be < $100 Statement of Capital Expenditures AFR13 all items are numeric

AFR14 assessed value of real estate must be > 0 AFR15 general purposes tax rate must be > 0 AFR16 debt purposes tax rate must be entered AFR17 all other purposes tax rate must be entered AFR18 total salaries, wages, commissions, etc. must be entered AFR19 if total real estate mills = 0 then real estate taxes can be zero Debt Statement AFR20 all items are numeric

AFR21 if the total debt and revenue anticipation notes > 0 then total debt service (revenue & expenditures) must be > 0

AFR22 total debt principal (revenue and expenditures) plus total tax anticipation note/principal must equal total principal paid during year

Tax Rates, Census and Other Information

AFR23 the “assessed value of real estate as of December 31st “ field will be pre-filled with the STEB value.

AFR24 the tax rate fields will be pre-filled with the corresponding values from the Organization’s TIF. Applies to Municipal AFR submissions only Balance Sheet




Statement of Revenue and Expenses

AFR25 If the municipality reports a negative amount on line 341.00, the application will move that amount to line 482.00 (Judgments and Losses) on the Expenditure side of the Report.

AFR26

The total of line 392.00 (Interfund Operating Transfers) must equal the total of line 492.00 (Interfund Operating Transfers). These lines show the movement of money from one fund to another. When the money is moved out of one fund it should be reported on line 492.00 as an expenditure from that fund and that same amount is to be reported on line 392.00 as a revenue under the fund into which it was deposited. Several transfers of money can happen during one reporting year, but each must be indicated appropriately as both a revenue and expenditure.

AFR27

If real estate tax mills are listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 301.00 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report. For those municipalities that have a split rate real estate tax, the rate for the land without buildings and the rate for the land with buildings must be listed on the municipal tax information form. In addition a composite rate must also be listed and is the basis for the real estate figure to be listed on line 301.00 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial report.

AFR28 If an earned income tax percent is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.20 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

AFR29 If an EMS tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.50 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

AFR30 If a realty transfer tax percent is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.10 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

AFR31 If an occupation tax (mills or dollars) is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.40 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

AFR32 If a per capita tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.00 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

AFR33 If a residence tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 308.00 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report. Note: This tax is only for Cities of the 3rd Class.

AFR34 If a mercantile/business privilege tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.80 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

AFR35 If an amusement/admissions tax is listed on the municipal tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 310.60 under the general fund of the Municipal Annual Audit and Financial Report.

Statement of Capital Expenditures

AFR36

The application compares the following revenue and expenditure line items. There should be an amount under both the revenue and the expenditure side of the audit (amounts do not need to be identical). The reverse is true as well. - Foreign Fire Insurance Monies (355.99 & 411.00) - Wastewater/Sewage (364.10 & 429.00) - Solid Waste Collection/Trash (364.30 & 426.00/427.00) - Water System (378.00 & 448.00) - Other Charges for Service (379.00 & 442.00)

Debt Statement

AFR37

For cash basis municipalities: if expenditures are reported on line 471.00 (Debt Principal), the report should have information contained on the Debt Statement. The total amount of the ‘Principal Paid During Year’ column of the Debt Statement should equal the total of line 471.00 (Debt Principal). The reverse is true as well- If the report shows information on the Debt Statement and there are any figures in the ‘Principal Paid During Year’ column, then the should have information reported on line 471.00 (Debt Principal). This is also true for line 473.00 (Tax Anticipation Note/Principal).

AFR38 For modified and/or accrual basis municipalities, the application will verify that the liability on the Balance Sheet has been reduced by the principal payment amount.

Applies to County AFR submissions only Balance Sheet Statement of Revenue and Expenses

AFR39

The tax revenue reported on the Report is compared to the tax types listed on the Tax Information Form for the same reporting year. For example: if the county indicated on the Tax Information Form that it collects Real Estate & Hotel Room Rental Taxes, then the Report should reflect revenue for those taxes.

AFR40 If real estate tax mills are listed on the county tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 3110 under the general fund of the County Financial Report.

AFR41 If a sales tax percent is listed on the county tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 3160 under the general fund of the County Financial Report. This applies to Allegheny and Philadelphia counties only.




AFR42 If a hotel room rental tax percent is listed on the county tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 3140 under the general fund of the County Financial Report.

AFR43 If an occupation tax rate is listed on the county tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 3150 under the general fund of the County Financial Report.

AFR44 If a per capita tax rate is listed on the county tax information form, a dollar figure must be entered onto line 3120 under the general fund of the County Financial Report.

AFR45 If a figure is placed in the real estate tax line of the county tax information form, the same figure must populate the tax rate line under general purpose (mills) on page 13 of the County Financial Report.

AFR46 If the county reports a negative amount on line 3610 (Interest Earnings), the application will move that amount to line 4820 (Judgments and Losses) on the Expenditure side of the Report.

Statement of Capital Expenditures Debt Statement

AFR47

For cash basis counties: counties that report expenditures on line 4710 (Debt Principal), should have information contained on the Debt Statement. The total amount of the ‘Principal Paid During Year’ column of the Debt Statement should equal the total of line 4710 (Debt Principal). The reverse is true as well- If the county shows information on the Debt Statement and there are any figures in the ‘Principal Paid During Year’ column, then the county should have information reported on line 4710 (Debt Principal).

AFR48 For modified and/or accrual basis counties, we will verify that the liability on the Balance Sheet has been reduced by the principal payment amount.

Table 4 - Annual Financial Report Business Rules

6.3 BR3-MA – Authority Annual Financial Report Business Rules

This section outlines any business rules that are specific to the Municipal Authority Annual Financial Report Form. Common requirements are found in EF1 – Enter Form Data and EF2 – Update Form Data. Sources for business rules are listed below:


• Manually applied business rules: Appendices J and K in the Current State Assessment Report.

• New business rules gathered from requirements gathering workshops (nothing gathered other than the suggestion that manually applied rules within tip sheets be applied via the MSS application).

Item No. ID # Business Rule Comments

MA1 Figures provided will be rounded to the nearest dollar

MA2 Deadline is 6/30 for Authorities on a calendar year FYE and 90 days after FYE for all others

MA3 Must upload or mail CPA Audit. MA4 Add Municipal Authority Authority Code is required MA5 Add Municipal Authority Authority Code must be 6 digits MA6 Add Municipal Authority Authority Code must end in 8 MA7 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Date of Termination is defaulted to Start + 50 MA8 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Name is required MA9 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Address Line 1 is required MA10 Add & Edit Municipal Authority City is mandatory MA11 Add & Edit Municipal Authority State is mandatory




MA12 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Zip is mandatory MA13 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Zip must be numeric MA14 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Zip+4 must be numeric if present MA15 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Phone is required MA16 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Contact Name is mandatory MA17 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Contact Title is required MA18 Add & Edit Municipal Authority At least one facility type must be selected MA19 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Filing status is required MA20 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Fiscal Year End is required MA21 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Fiscal Year End must be a valid Month/Day combo MA22 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Date of Origin is required MA23 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Date of Termination is required MA24 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Full Time Employees is required MA25 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Full Time Employees must be >= 0 MA26 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Part Time Employees is required MA27 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Part Time Employees must be >= 0 MA28 Add & Edit Municipal Authority Reporting Year for Facility Types is required

MA29 Edit Municipal Authority E-filers changing status from active to inactive must answer additional questions

MA30 Edit Municipal Authority If any of these answers are "Yes", status cannot be changed to inactive

MA31 Edit Municipal Authority E-filers cannot change status to anything other than active or inactive

MA32 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Cash balance must be >=0 if present

MA33 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Investments must be >=0 if present

MA34 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Accounts Receivable must be >=0 if present

MA35 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Inventories must be >=0 if present

MA36 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Other Current Assets must be >=0 if present

MA37 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Restricted Assets must be >=0 if present

MA38 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Deferred Charges must be >=0 if present

MA39 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Property, Plant and Equipment must be >=0 if present

MA40 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Less Accumulated Depreciation must be >=0 if present

MA41 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Construction Work in Progress must be >=0 if present

MA42 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Other Fixed Assets must be >=0 if present

MA43 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Accounts Payable must be >=0 if present

MA44 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Accrued Payroll Withholdings must be >=0 if present

MA45 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Accrued Interest Payable must be >=0 if present

MA46 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet

Current Portion of Long-Term Debt must be >=0 if present

MA47 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Other Current Liabilities must be >=0 if present


Long Term Debt - Current Portion must be >=0 if present




MA49 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Governmental Grants must be >=0 if present

MA50 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Other Contributions must be >=0 if present

MA51 Add & Edit Operational Balance Sheet Retained Earnings Reserved must be numeric if present


Retained Earnings Unreserved must be numeric if present

MA53 Add & Edit Financial Balance Sheet

Total Assets Need to equal Total Liabilities and Fund Equity

MA54 Add & Edit Financial Balance Sheet Cash balance must be >=0 if present

MA55 Add & Edit Financial Balance Sheet Investments must be >=0 if present

MA56 Add & Edit Financial Balance Sheet Accounts Receivable must be >=0 if present

MA57 Add & Edit Financial Balance Sheet Other Current Assets must be >=0 if present

MA58 Add & Edit Financial Balance Sheet Restricted Assets must be >=0 if present


Lease Rental Payment Receivable must be >=0 if present


Loans to Municipalities Receivable must be >=0 if present

MA61 Add & Edit Financial Balance Sheet Accrued Interest Payable must be >=0 if present


Current portion of Long-Term Debt must be >=0 if present

MA63 Add & Edit Financial Balance Sheet Other Current Liabilities must be >=0 if present


Long Term Debt - Current portion must be >=0 if present

MA65 Add & Edit Financial Balance Sheet Retained Earnings Reserved must be numeric if present


Retained Earnings Unreserved must be numeric if present


Total Assets Need to Equal Total Liabilities and Fund Balance

MA68 Add & Edit Financial Balance Sheet Accounts Payable must be >=0 if present

MA69 Add & Edit Financial Balance Sheet Accrued Interest Payable must be >=0 if present

MA70 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Sales of services must be >=0 if present

MA71 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses State operating grants must be >=0 if present

MA72 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Federal operating grants must be >=0 if present

MA73 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses

Local government operating subsidies must be >=0 if present

MA74 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Interest income must be >=0 if present

MA75 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Other operating revenues must be >=0 if present

MA76 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Cost of Sales and Services must be >=0 if present

MA77 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Administration salaries must be >=0 if present

MA78 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Other Administration Amount must be >=0 if present

MA79 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Depreciation must be >=0 if present

MA80 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Other operating expenses must be >=0 if present

MA81 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses State capital grants must be >=0 if present




MA82 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Federal capital grants must be >=0 if present

MA83 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Proceeds of sale of fixed assets must be >=0 if present

MA84 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Proceeds of borrowing must be >=0 if present

MA85 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Other non-operating revenue must be >=0 if present

MA86 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Debt service interest payments must be >=0 if present

MA87 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Construction/Expense of system must be >=0 if present

MA88 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Major equipment purchased must be >=0 if present

MA89 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Other Non-Operating Expenses must be >=0 if present

MA90 Add & Edit Operational Income/Expenses Extraordinary gain must be numeric if present

MA91 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Interest Income must be >=0 if present

MA92 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Lease Rental Payment must be >=0 if present

MA93 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Other Operating Revenues must be >=0 if present

MA94 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Administration salaries must be >=0 if present

MA95 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Other administration must be >=0 if present

MA96 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Other operating expenses must be >=0 if present

MA97 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses State capital grants must be >=0 if present

MA98 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Federal capital grants must be >=0 if present

MA99 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Proceeds of borrowing must be >=0 if present

MA100 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Other non-operating revenue must be >=0 if present

MA101 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Debt service interest payments must be >=0 if present

MA102 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Capital advances to lessees must be >=0 if present

MA103 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Other Non-Operating Expenses must be >=0 if present

MA104 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses Extraordinary gain must be numeric if present

MA105 Add & Edit Financial Income/Expenses

The Fund Balance Beginning of Year plus the Net Income (or Loss) must equal the Fund Balance End of Year

MA106 Add & Edit Debt Detail Type of purpose is required MA107 Add & Edit Debt Detail Debt Type is required MA108 Add & Edit Debt Detail Issue Year is required MA109 Add & Edit Debt Detail Original Amount is required & must be >= 0

MA110 Add & Edit Debt Detail Outstanding balance beginning of year is required & must be >=0

MA111 Add & Edit Debt Detail Outstanding balance beginning of year cannot exceed original amount.

MA112 Add & Edit Debt Detail Principal paid this year must is required & must be > 0.

MA113 Add & Edit Debt Detail Year Bond Matures is required & must be numeric & 4 digits in length

MA114 Add & Edit Debt Detail Need to warn user if bond matures in the past




MA115 Add & Edit Debt Detail Need to warn user if removing an item that has a debt balance

MA116 Add & Edit Debt Detail Outstanding balance at end of year is a calculated field

MA117 Add & Edit Debt Summary If Authority Type is "F" then Credits against debts must be equal to outstanding debt

MA118 Add & Edit Debt Summary

Total Outstanding Debt must equal the total of Current Portion of Long Term Debt plus Long Term Debt Less Current Portion from the Balance Sheet

MA119 Form field comparisons for operating authorities

MA120

“Total Retained Earnings” on the Balance Sheet should equal the “Retained Earnings (end of year)” on the Statement of Income and Expenditures. If the numbers do not match, offer the e-filer an option to correct the figures or provide a mandatory footnote explaining the discrepancy.

MA121

“Retained Earnings (beginning of year)” on the Statement of Income and Expenditures should equal the previous year’s “Retained Earnings (end of year).” If the numbers do not match, offer the e-filer an option to correct the figures or provide a mandatory footnote explaining the discrepancy.

Form field comparisons for financing authorities

MA122

“Total Fund Balance” on the Balance Sheet should equal the “Fund Balance (end of year)” on the Statement of Income and Expenditures. If the numbers do not match, offer the e-filer an option to correct the figures or provide a mandatory footnote explaining the discrepancy.

MA123

“Fund Balance (beginning of year)” on the Statement of Income and Expenditures should equal the previous year’s “Fund Balance (end of year).” If the numbers do not match, offer the e-filer an option to correct the figures or provide a mandatory footnote explaining the discrepancy.

Form field comparisons for all authorities

MA124

“Current portion of long-term debt” plus the “LONG-TERM DEBT - less current portion” should equal the “Total bonds and notes outstanding” on the Debt Statement. If the numbers do not match, offer the e-filer an option to correct the figures or provide a mandatory footnote explaining the discrepancy.

Table 5 - Authority Annual Financial Report Business Rules



6.4 BR4-FC – Survey of Financial Condition Business Rules

This section outlines any business rules that are specific to the Survey of Financial Condition form. Common requirements are found in EF1 – Enter Form Data and EF2 – Update Form Data. Sources for business rules are listed below:


• Manually applied business rules: Appendix I in the Current State Assessment Report.

• New business rules gathered from requirements gathering workshops (essentially only the manually applied business rules).

Item No. Business Rule Comments

FC1 E-filer can submit form for prior reporting year only FC2 Form cannot be changed by an e-filer after submission Admin users can change the form if necessary FC3 Required questions: Q1-14

FC4

If user answers any of Q1-12 with a "yes," user must explain yes answer(s) in the text box provided for the question(s) with the "yes" answer

FC5 Question 1 is verified against the organization's current AFR, line X.

FC6 Question 2 is verified against the organization's current AFR, lines X and Y.

FC7 Question 11a is verified against the organization's current TIF, Real Estate Tax field.

FC8 On Question 13 if the basis is changed from the prior year, the user is prompted to confirm the change.

FC9 Certifying official must re-enter name and phone number (title will be presented)

The law requires this survey form to be signed by the Presiding Officer of the Governing Body. The Presiding Officer is: the President of Council in Boroughs and Incorporated Towns; the Chairman of the Board of Counties, Townships of First Class and Townships of Second Class; the Mayor of a City if operating under the Commission form of the Third Class City Code or the Council-Mayor form, or the President of Council in a Mayor-Council structure; and the Presiding Officer of the legislative policy making body in Home Rule Municipalities.

FC10 Certifying official's name and phone number must match EAO record for that organization's official by that title

FC11 Radio buttons default to “NO” for Administrators and “blank” for e-filers.

FC12 Philadelphia should never be reported as delinquent on the SOFC for the PENNDOT report

FC13 Appropriate Administrator will be notified when E-filer answers “YES” to a question.

Table 6 - Survey of Financial Condition Business Rules



6.5 BR5-EAO – Elected and Appointed Officials Report Business Rules

This section outlines any business rules that are specific to the Elected and Appointed Officials Form for counties and municipalities. Common requirements are found in EF1 – Enter Form Data and EF2 – Update Form Data.


• Manually applied business rules: Appendix H in the Current State Assessment Report.

• New business rules gathered from requirements gathering workshops.


What questions, if any, are to be added to the

muni and/or county forms?

EAO1

E-filer presented with EAO form based on organization type and home rule status (is home rule or is not home rule)

EAO2 Organization profile and list of organization questions presented based on organization type

EAO3

List of official presented based on existing officials listed for organization in database and the titles permitted by the organization type

EAO4 Addresses for officials are validated by USPS service EAO5 Email addresses are validated per spec

EAO6 E-filer must review and verify all existing position information

EAO7 E-filer is able to change titles on existing officials

Allows E-filer to "swap" an official from one title to another; if the title in question is already in use, the e-filer is given the option to swap that person's title or to delete them.

EAO8 Edit & Add Municipality Only Admin users can add Municipalities EAO9 Edit & Add Municipality Municipality Number is required EAO10 Edit & Add Municipality Municipality Name is required EAO11 Edit & Add Municipality County Code is required EAO12 Edit & Add Municipality Incorporation Year is required

EAO13 Edit & Add Municipality If not home rule, then home rule name and year must be blank

EAO14 Edit & Add Municipality If home rule, then home rule name and year are mandatory

EAO15 Edit & Add Municipality If active, Full time employees is mandatory EAO16 Edit & Add Municipality If active, Part time employees is mandatory

EAO17 Edit & Add Municipality For police type 4&5, number of full & part time police must be blank

EAO18 Edit & Add Municipality For police type 1, number of full & part time police is mandatory.

EAO19 Edit & Add Municipality For police type 1, number of full time police must be > 0

EAO20 Edit & Add Municipality For police type 2, number of part time police are mandatory

EAO21 Edit & Add Municipality For police type 2, number of part time police must be > 0

EAO22 Edit & Add Municipality For police type 2, number of full time police must be 0 or blank




EAO23 Edit & Add Municipality For police type 3, number of full time and part time police must be 0 or blank

EAO24 Edit & Add Municipality Police Service Type is mandatory for Municipality Codes that end in 01

EAO25 Edit & Add Municipality For Municipalities Status 2 (Merged) Status Date is required

EAO26 Edit & Add Municipality Contact Name is mandatory EAO27 Edit & Add Municipality Contact Address 1 is mandatory EAO28 Edit & Add Municipality Contact Phone is mandatory

EAO29 Edit & Add Municipality For Municipality Codes ending in 01, zoning ordinance and county zoning cannot both be "Y"

EAO30 Edit & Add Municipality County subdivision and subdivision ordinance cannot both be "Y"

EAO31 Edit & Add Municipality Incorporation comment mandatory for inactive communities (Status <> 1)

EAO32 Add School District School District Code is mandatory EAO33 Add School District School District Name is mandatory EAO34 Edit & Add LGO Municipality Code is mandatory EAO35 Edit & Add LGO Official Code is mandatory EAO36 Edit & Add LGO Official Title is mandatory EAO37 Edit & Add LGO Official Name is mandatory EAO38 Edit & Add LGO Address 1 is mandatory EAO39 Edit & Add LGO City is mandatory EAO40 Edit & Add LGO State is mandatory EAO41 Edit & Add LGO Zip is mandatory EAO42 Edit & Add LGO Phone Number is mandatory EAO43 Edit & Add LGO Year Term End must be even if provided EAO44 Edit & Add LGO Year Term End cannot be < current year if provided

EAO45 Edit & Add LGO Year Term End is Mandatory for certain types of officials. Depends on table LGO_CODES

EAO46 Maintain LGO Codes Official Code is mandatory EAO47 Maintain LGO Codes Official Title is mandatory

Table 7 - Elected and Appointed Officials Report Business Rules



7 Appendix: Business Requirements Traceability Matrix The Traceability Matrix links the business requirements to supporting application or function references with the specification sections of the document.

Requirement

Number Item Description Supporting Reference(s)

3.1.1 Legal mandate to annually collect local government data

5.5.15, 5.5.16, 5.5.17

3.1.2 Notify users of pending and delinquent tasks 5.1.4, 5.5.10, 5.5.14 3.1.3 Provide workflow capability 5.5.19 3.2.1 Validate data entered 5.5.15, 5.5.16, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 3.2.2 Provide a complete business logic layer 4.1.2, 4.1.3, 4.2.6, 5.5.23, 5.5.24, 6.1, 6.2,

6.3, 6.4, 6.5 3.3.1 Follow OA/OIT architecture guidelines 4.1.1, 4.2, 4.3 3.3.2 Provide web service capability 4.1.6, 4.1.7, 5.5.11, 5.5.13 3.2.3 Address Verification 5.3.2, 5.5.5, 5.5.15, 5.5.16 3.3.3 Support up to 25 concurrent users 4.3.7, 4.3.8 3.3.4 Provide reliable, uninterrupted software operation A-9 3.3.5 Present users only the choices they can act upon

and/or use A-8, 5.5.14

3.3.6 Log application transactions 5.4 3.3.7 Collect and report metrics 5.4, 5.5.22 3.4.1 Generate and present reports 4.1.4, 4.1.5, 4.1.6, 5.5.6, 5.5.7, 5.5.8,

5.5.9, 5.5.10, 5.5.11, 5.5.13, 5.5.18, 5.5.19

3.5.1 Allow users to recover from failure/error 4.3.2, 4.3.4, 4.3.6, 5.5.12, 8.2 3.5.2 Allow users to undo inputs or task steps where

appropriate 8.2

3.5.3 Allow users to retrieve forgotten passwords 5.5.10, 8.2 3.5.4 Provide tasks to users in small, logical segments 8.2 3.5.5 Allow users to see where they are in the

sequencing of a task at all times 8.1, 8.2

3.5.6 Provide users in-context and topic-based help 5.5.3, 8.2 3.6.1 Provide self-service password reset capability 5.5.10 3.7.1 Operations that affect data are performed by

authenticated users (except for external reports and self-service password reset)

5.5.1, 5.5.2, 5.5.4, 5.5.20, 5.5.21

3.7.2 Application supports four user roles 5.3 3.8.1 Users must have a valid e-mail address 5.1, 5.2 3.8.2 Changes to a profile will generate an e-mail

notification 5.1.1, 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 5.3, 5.5.5

3.8.3 E-mail address verification 5.2 3.8.4 Changes to a form will generate an e-mail

notification 5.1.2, 5.1.3, 5.1.4

3.8.5 Provide authorized users e-mail notification of pending task

5.5.11, 5.5.10

Table 8 - Business Requirements Traceability Matrix



8 Appendix: User Experience Guidelines and Usability Goals 8.1 UI Design Guidelines

UI design guidelines for the application shall draw upon design elements documented in the DCED Style Guide. Color and font choices shall draw upon the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) used in the new design of newpa.com.

Templates for levels 1-4 of the MSS application will draw upon the specified colors in the CSS and visual branding rules as noted in the Style Guide, and will pare down the design features used to a set more appropriate for a task-based web application (as opposed to a marketing-oriented website).

Figure 1 - DCED Visual Brand Specified Colors

The following set of screens illustrate the proposed “paring down” of design effects that would allow users to navigate from the top levels of the newpa.com site into the MSS authenticated system without a sense that they’ve left “DCED territory”.



Figure 2 - www.newpa.com

The entry to DCED via the web is now quite flashy and snazzy. It’s a great marketing look. The overall experience promotes a sense of “commercial savvy”.

Drilling down to specific DCED offerings is one click away on the left navigation menu of the top level page. Clicking on “Department of Community and Economic Development” leads us to the following screen.

Figure 3 - DCED Funding and Program Finder Screen



At this second level screen (one click away from the top level), the design still has lots of marketing activity going on, as it should.

Flash is employed in the masthead to keep a video effect going. An overwhelming number of choices are offered to help visitors get to the right DCED offering (or to experience the depth and breadth of all the DCED offerings). At this screen we click on the left navigation menu choice for “Local Government” and arrive on the following screen.

Figure 4 - Local Government Top Level Page

From the Local Government offerings page, visitors can click on “Municipal Statistics” in the left navigation menu to reach the current presentation of the Municipal Statistics offering.

Figure 5 - Municipal Statistics Page



This screen is the point from which visitors will access the MSS authenticated system to file annual forms (if they are school district, county, municipal or municipal authority officials) and the MSS reports.

Note that at this point of the experience there is still a lot of marketing design and cross-promotion of DCED offerings. The next step the user takes off this page, if that step is either filing a form or creating/viewing/printing/downloading a report, is a task-based activity. To promote the usability goals of helping that user perform the task at hand effectively, efficiently and ideally error-free, the design needs to ratchet down the “noise”. The next set of screen concepts illustrate how the newpa.com design elements would be “pared down” to help users focus on their task.

Figure 6 - Municipal Statistics System Top Level Page /Log In Page

This screen, a crude mock-up, shows how the masthead has been simplified and choices the user has are focused on the MSS offering and the tasks that can be accomplished in the system. Clear choices to return to the marketing experience remain, but the wealth of choices available in the previous screens to explore different aspects of DCED are gone, since the user has arrived in this place to accomplish a task. Let’s imagine that an e-filer logs into the system. Here’s what he or she will find:



Figure 7 - End User Start Page

The overall effect we are trying to achieve in “paring down” the design is summarized below:

• Retain all essential user experience attributes of the newpa.com design and CSS.

o Color scheme.

o Font usage for content windows and navigation menus.

o Consistent header (masthead) and footer.

o Breadcrumb trail to retrace steps in the experience.

• Retain the navigation conventions.

o Left navigation panel.

o Search box in upper left “ribbon” under the masthead.

• Remove the choices and design effects that create distraction, effect system performance, or may contribute to user error during task performance.

o Use of Flash in the masthead after the top level MSS page.

o Navigation choices that sit above the masthead (event calendar, news, keep me informed, contact us).

o “ready > set > succeed” tagline treatment in the ribbon below the masthead.

o Section navigation tabs below the masthead (business, community, site revitalization).



8.2 Usability goals for the application

The application should meet the following usability goals, which are measured using a scenario-based checklist to walkthrough all functionality visible through the user interface:

8.2.1 Increase individual user effectiveness when completing the tasks the system supports and/or automates.

• Expedite routine performance.

o Accelerate error-free portion of routine performance.

• Improve non-routine performance.

o Support problem-solving.

o Facilitate learning.

• Reduce the impact of user errors caused by lack of knowledge (mistakes).

o Prevent mistakes.

o Accommodate mistakes.

8.2.2 Reduce the impact of system errors.

• Prevent system errors.

• Tolerate system errors.

8.2.3 Increase user confidence and comfort.

8.3 Usability test plan for the application

The usability testing for the application should start in the high-level application design phase with an internal effort to verify that the future state application prototype’s functionality can and will meet the usability goals specified, via heuristic checklists that inspect prototype screens and their implied user-system interactions against the usability goals.

If possible, a recommended end-user and administrative user test with a flat prototype (UI-only, no back-end logic available) should take place during application design to gauge user reaction and relative satisfaction to the redesigned application’s approach to working with the user.

• Key scenarios should be described that cover the top 5-7 tasks and issues each user type has with the current system.

• Test protocol:

o Recruit users: A group of representative e-filers would be recruited, ideally including existing e-filers and if possible, e-filers who tested the prior system. Other test candidates for end-user functions should include individuals who took part in our requirements gathering workshops. The administrator user test group should include the PSATS team, Wendy and Erich at minimum. It might be interesting to include Peggy.



o Design the test: Prepare user-based scripts, based on the agreed upon testing scenarios.

o Administer the tests: The user in question follows a script (test protocol) to walk through the prototype and attempt to complete the task. A test coordinator would observe the user as he/she walks through the scenarios, and would intervene only to encourage the user to “talk aloud” when he/she is acting, doing, or getting stuck.

• The sessions would be video-taped and audio-taped for transcripts, if the user is particularly verbal. Recommendations would be gathered for any needed changes to the UI design, based on confusion, trouble, gaps, and break downs in task flow. These are all “catches” that need to be made before the application build begins.



8.4 Proposed future state functionality maps, by user role

The following pages illustrate what functions each user type can access. The user roles covered are:

• End User.

• E-filer.

• Administrator.

• System Administrator.



8.4.1 End user: nonauthenticated and authenticated

Figure 8 - End User



8.4.2 E-filer

Figure 9 - E-filer



8.4.3 Administrator

Figure 10 - Administrator



8.4.4 System Administrator

Figure 11 - System Administrator



9 Appendix: Concurrent Users Sizing Model

Model for Number of Concurrent E-filers Number of Municipalities 2640 Percentage E-filing 50.00% Total Municipalities E-filing 1320 Percentage waiting until the last week to file form 50.00% Total forms filed in the last week 660 Hours between 8 AM and 5 PM 9 Business days in the last week 5 Business hours in the last week 45 Percent of users waiting until the last day 25.00% Forms the final day 165 Peak forms per hour 18.33333 Average number of hour(s) to fill a form 1 Peak concurrent users per hour 18.33333 Number of DCED Admin users 5 Peak Concurrent Users (Busiest Day) 23.33333

Table 9 - Concurrent Users Sizing Model



10 Appendix: Technical Architecture Preview

Figure 12 - Technical Architecture Preview

It is understood that the definition of the redesigned MSS application’s technical architecture is a task for the detailed design phase of the project, but this appendix simply documents what is understood at this point in the project (Task A, Requirements Phase).

The technical architecture is a simple, straightforward Web deployment of an application and database server.

The Commonwealth Technology Center (CTC) supplies the networking infrastructure of routers, switches and firewalls to allow external users to access the application server. They also support all of the equipment for intranet users, such as the PSATS team.

The existing hardware, a Dell 2550 will support the new application. It will be running Microsoft server software, IIS and the Microsoft .NET application software.

The application will use a SunFire 6800 server that is running the Oracle Database Software. The current version is 9.2. Since CTC supports this server, the version may change.

Presently the application server is redundant; the database server is not redundant. CTC may provide a high availability database service in the future, but this is not an option at the present time. Therefore, to mitigate the risks of hardware failure on the database server or its attached storage, DCED will setup a standby database located at the DCED facility. The redo logs from the primary database will be forwarded and applied to the standby database. If the primary database fails, the standby can be promoted to be the primary database. This will allow the application to continue to function even in the event of a database failure at CTC.



11 Appendix: Application Architecture The MSS shall have multiple tiers of activity. This architecture shall be flexible and reliable while allowing the system to scale depending on user workload.

The system shall be composed of the following components:

• Database - the physical database, running Oracle database software.

• Data Access Layer - a collection of Data Access Objects that manage information flow to and from the database.

• Business Logic Layer - a collection of business objects that encapsulate the business rules and work flows.

• Presentation Layer - the web page presentation and user interaction layer.

• Client Browser - the display device; the application generates presentation code that runs within the browser to enhance the user experience.

Each layer has specific functions that it performs. It also has specific interfaces that allow adjoining layers to change without requiring a change in all the software.

Each of the layers is described below. NOTE TO THE READER: the layers are discussed conceptually in the following paragraphs. The discussion below does not reflect the intended system design (which is a task yet to be completed. The discussion below is presented as a way to visualize AN approach to the functionality required by the system. It is intended that the design concepts discussed here will be further developed (and possibly significantly changed) in the high level system design.

Database

The current system uses Oracle database software. There was discussion during the early design phases of the project of using other database software. As of this writing, it has been confirmed that Oracle will be the database software for the redesigned MSS application.

In an average transactional system, the architecture would make heavy use of Oracle Stored Procedures to manage data access in the database. The use of stored procedures also allows data intensive functions to run on the database hardware, limiting network traffic and extra processing on the application server.

However, the MSS does not have a heavy transaction volume, complex processing, and large numbers of complex inner or outer joins, or a large amount of data to be transferred. For this reason, DAOs on the Application Server will contain the code that would ordinarily be placed in stored procedures.

There are a few transactions that will require close monitoring. One example is the code that supports finding tax information by employer and employee information. The intent is to make this transaction a Web Service and open it to employers in Pennsylvania. A worst-case scenario would have all employers doing checks of all employees on an annual basis (around the 1 July tax release date). This would mean about six million transactions would need to be processed in a short period of time. To improve response time and reduce transaction resources, it may be necessary for this code to be implemented as a stored procedure.

One of the benefits of using DAOs, as opposed to stored procedures, is that this method of data management can make an application easier to migrate if the need should arise. This is not to say that a



certain amount of change wouldn’t be necessary, but rather the use of DAOs often reduces the amount of work required.

Data Access Layer

The Data Access Layer is made up of a collection of DAOs. These DAOs have intimate knowledge of the database tables, their structure, and their usage. There is one DAO per table to manage the reads and writes to that table. There are DAOs that span more than one table to manage the cases where data needs to be retrieved from more than one table at a time.

The DAO is responsible for all Create, Read, Update and Delete (CRUD) activity. They are also responsible for adding the last changed (user, date, time) information that is kept on each record. The DAOs will communicate with the database via ADO.NET.

Business Logic Layer

The Business Logic Layer contains all of the business objects. The intent of this layer is to isolate all the Business Rules, Business Validation Rules and Business Workflow from both the Data Access Layer and the Presentation Layer. This allows the database to change without changing the way the application works. It also allows changes in the presentation (look, feel, user interaction, etc.) to change without major changes to the business functions. This lack of isolation is one of the biggest design issues with the previous system.

Business Rules

There is a business object for each business transaction that encapsulates all of the business rules. It is important to remember that a single business transaction may encompass more than one screen / page activity of the user. Each business object is responsible for the administration of any rules and workflow against that transaction. When the transaction is complete the information is passed to the appropriate DAOs for processing.

Validation Rules

To allow for flexibility in changing the system some of the rules are encapsulated in a Rules object. These objects understand limits and values of some of the business data. They also have an understanding of some of the Pennsylvania Ordinances and Acts.

These rules are stored in the database and there are system administrator tools that allow these rules, parameters and conditions to be manipulated. This allows for changes in the Tax Code to be implemented without recoding the system.

Suspense Objects

There are many user processes that require more than a single step and the application needs to save the input of the user for steps prior to his/her current step, should the user break the transaction on a current step. Rather than creating complex Business Objects that deal with partial data, a collection of Suspense Objects is used.

Each Suspense Object understands the data that it will get from a single user activity, (i.e., the completion of one step and the start of the next). When it gets the partial transaction (the single step’s data), it will pass that data to the DAO to be captured in the database.

When all of the data has been obtained from the user (all steps in a sequence are completed), control is shifted to the business object so that the business processing can continue.



Presentation Layer

The Presentation Layer controls the user experience. The primary support for the Presentation Layer is through the ASP.NET engine. The engine provides support for page control and data validation.

The system will use server-side data validations to ensure the proper format of the data. Server side validation is more robust than depending on client-side JavaScript that can be overridden or removed by the user.

The re-designed MSS application will use the same ASP to post the data as the ASP that the data was sent from. This reuse of the ASP code results in overall cleaner code; reuse of code also provides the ability to present error messages back to the user with ease.

For page construction, a modular set of template pages will be built referencing common base pages. This allows for some of the look and feel of the site to change by only changing the parameters and layout of the base pages. This will allow the pages to be updated on a regular basis to keep the end-user look fresh and appealing.

Client Browser

The client browser is the final layer of the architecture. While the design will not use JavaScript to perform client-side data validation, there may be some use of JavaScript to enhance the user experience.

Summary

The overall architecture goal of flexibility is achieved by the use of well-defined layers. It is enhanced by the use of the .NET architecture and the tools and processes that are part of the .NET infrastructure.

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