Property Tax Collection and Management App

This app was earlier built using Visual Basic programming language. But, the problem was that this legacy-old app ran only on computers that had Windows installed. It didn’t run on any other system.

Plus, the app required specific hardware configurations to run successfully. So, users couldn’t access the app from any computer even if they wanted to. Many such issues posed a real problem for most users. As a result, there was a decrease in app usage.

The client, therefore, had to rethink a strategy that would ease app usage. There had to be a solution that helps users access the app from any operating system (OS).

At this stage, the client came across Capital Numbers’ portfolio and wanted us to handle the above challenges.

We aimed to change this Windows-based solution into a web app that users can access from any computer. This way, people won’t be forced to install the app on Windows machines. Just an Internet connection was enough to access the app from any device.

Additionally, the app had to be a full-scale accounting software that consists of data tables of rows and columns to present financial information such as:

• Taxpayer info
• Payments
• Delinquencies
• Reports
• Bills
• Invoices, etc

Capital Numbers started the work with a team of ASP.NET and Kendo experts. We integrated our team with the client’s team to implement the following solutions:

Firstly, our team used the ASP.NET framework to develop the application backend. We chose this framework because ASP.NET apps are accessible from all OSs. An Internet connection is all that users need to access these apps.

We also used MVC 4.5 to separate the application into Model, View, and Controller. This Separation of Concerns (SoC) keeps code clean and maintainable.

Next, we used Kendo UI for the frontend. Kendo UI offers pre-built data tables. It allows easy configurations of these data tables and grids.

Custom filtering, grouping, and sorting of these data tables are hassle-free. Manipulating values and properties in these data tables is also straightforward. So, Kendo UI was a preferred frontend solution for this project.

Because the software had to have multiple data tables for accounting tax collections, we had to think of a scalable database solution. So, we chose MSSQL because it’s scalable and secure.

The accounting software also had to have reporting engines. So, we embedded Crystal and Active reports to deliver rich, interactive reports on transactions, taxes, and other receivables.

A mass mailing feature was crucial to remind taxpayers about overdue payments. So, we incorporated mail merge, which eases sending reminder emails in bulk.

We tested all the solutions (through the CI/CD approach) to see if the data tables behaved as desired and were bound to data sources. After testing everything, we hosted the solution on the secure MS Azure for stability and reliability.

Our skillful implementations resulted in a fully-featured tax collection app. Our solution works on all OSs with an Internet connection and is multi-fold better than its legacy solution. Here are some benefits that the app offers: