Property Tax Collection and Management App

Technology Stack

ASP.NET
MVC 4.5
Kendo UI
MSSQL
Crystal Reports
ActiveReports.NET
MS Azure

The Client

The client maintains a property tax collection app that helps local governments and municipalities in the USA manage property taxes, licenses, permits, and miscellaneous receipts. It’s a flexible tool with custom features to manage taxpayer info, revenue collections, unpaid taxes, past dues, licenses, codes, and more.

The Challenge

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

The Solution

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.

Results

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:

Taxpayer Management

Managing taxpayer IDs, names, locations, etc., is streamlined and effective.

Taxpayer ID	Business Name	Owner Name	Location
14	Cox Enterprises	Anne Cox	Atlanta, Georgia
21	Old Scottish Rite Hospital	Forrest Adair	Decatur, Georgia

Payment Management

Tracking the payment flow of licenses, credits, and other transactions is also easy.

Transaction ID	Taxpayer ID	Code	Period	Collection Date	Payment
252610	14	SALE	2022-23	02.03.2023	$10
252614	26	CUAN	2022-23	21.02.2023	$17

Delinquency Management

Recording delinquent accounts is effortless as the app clearly shows who didn’t pay their taxes on time and must pay a late fee.

Taxpayer ID	Taxpayer Name	Territory Code	Due Date	Delinquent	Late Fee
12	Andrew	114	15.04.2023	License	$10
12	Smith	142	22.05.2023	License	$12

Renewal Management

Viewing business license renewal periods is also straightforward and convenient.

Code	Description	Renewal Frequency	Status
280	Horticulture Business	Annually	Active
498	Contractor Firm	Half-yearly	Inactive

Mass Mailing

Thanks to Mail Merge, sending reminder emails and notices in bulk to concerned accounts takes only a few clicks.

Custom Reporting

Extracting 100% fair and correct custom reports is also possible.

Taxpayer Reports	Transaction Reports
Taxpayer Liabilities	Payment Summary by Day
Taxpayer by License Code	Payment History by Territory Code

Business License Reports	Miscellaneous Reports
License Code Listing	Site Option Setup Report
License Comparison Report	Territory Code Listing

Excel Importing

Importing custom reports to Excel files makes it easier for decision-makers to evaluate collections better.

Invoicing and Billing

Attaching documents to auto-generated bills and invoices keeps things transparent.

Audit Tracking

Modifying every transaction is simpler with the reliable Audit Trail that keeps mistakes at bay.

Financial Record-keeping

All in all, financial record-keeping is economical with this app that Capital Numbers skillfully built from scratch.

Full-scale Accounting

Capital Numbers is happy to have wrapped up a project that helps local municipalities in the USA get a high-level overview of property tax collections down to each transaction and invoice - within one hub. Our journey doesn’t end here as we continue to collaborate with the client to develop the mobile version of the app to help local districts track collections on-the-go.