RICHLAND COUNTY. Register of Deeds e-recording. System User s Guide

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1 RICHLAND COUNTY Register of Deeds e-recording System User s Guide

2 R E G I S T E R O F D E E D S E - R E C O R D I N G System User s Guide Richland County Register of Deeds 1701 Main Street, Columbia SC ii

3 T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S REGISTER OF DEEDS E-RECORDING... 4 Overview... 4 Audit Trail... 6 e-recorded Documents Identifiers... 8 e-recorded Indicators in Processing system... 8 Payments for e-recorded Documents E-VERIFICATION (OF SUBMITTED DOCUMENTS)...12 Processing Overview Viewing Documents without Submitting Processing e-recorded Packages Add Party Name: Edit Name Remove a Name Pages Not Charged Exemptions Other image controls Verification Stamp (label) controls Processing options: Unreject Submit Package Return Rejected Package Financial Reconciliation Daily Monthly Financial Statement Reconciliations Reports Summary Consolidated by User Rejected e-recorded Documents ACH Payments TECHNICAL FEATURES AND PROCESSING...30 Web Portal Additional ROD Integrations and Processes Security / Logging into Verification Module Vendor Profile Image Specifications Web Service Calls Loading Data Other Web Methods: iii

4 Chapter 1 Register of Deeds e-recording Overview R ichland County Register of Deeds Office is pleased to provide the ability to record documents related to property transactions via the Internet. Richland County has established contracts with several Vendors to facilitate the submission of documents from abstractors and/ or attorneys as well as the transmittal of recording fees and/or taxes due with the submission. These Vendors are required to be in compliance with PRIA (Property Records Industry Association) for e- recording. This process involves the abstractor/ attorney (aka Submitter) establishing a contract with the Vendor of their choice (i.e., Simplifile). The Vendor provides the required license to the submitter needed to transmit the documents and scanned images to the Register of Deeds via the vendor. The submitter is also required to establish an ACH account with a bank from which funds for fees and taxes are withdrawn and wired to the County. The relationship between the bank, submitter and county is managed by the vendor. The e-recording process begins with the submitter scanning the Package of documents and submitting them to the vendor. A package usually consists of a deed, mortgage, plat, and satisfaction of previous mortgage. The vendor inspects the transmitted Package and to verify it conforms to the PRIA standards..when approved, the vendor transmits the packages to the county. The Register of Deeds Office is notified by the package has been transmitted. The package is reviewed by a ROD employee to ensure the images are legible and the appropriate information is included in the documentation. Packages are processed by ROD in the order they are received. Documents are scrutinized in much the same way as mail or walk in recordings. A temporary electronic label mask is positioned on the documents; an example is shown below. 4

5 After a package has been approved, it is submitted to the ROD Cashiering system for processing. Packages can be submitted individually or as a group; all packages with the status Accepted are processed when the user clicks Submit. During processing, each document is assigned an instrument and book / page number and associated with a ticket ID. (Note: all instruments in one package are assigned the same ticket ID). The payment on the ticket is assigned the payment type of ACH payment record and is equal to the total amount due for the ticket. Also during this process, the electronic label mask is updated with the instrument and book/page assigned to each individual document. The label information can be viewed under the e- recording history tab and the image is immediately available for viewing via Public Viewer. Because a scanned image is submitted with the document, e-recorded documents are considered cashiered and scanned when the e-recording process has completed. The status of the package is updated to e- Recorded which signals to the vendor that the funds can be released. Add Image of label with book/page and instrument Sample Label Mask 5

6 Audit Trail An audit trail is maintained in the e-recording module for each processing step that occurs up to and including the e-recording status. The e-recorded status indicates the document and package have been accepted into the ROD system and assigned a book/page and instrument number. See the chart below for e-recording statuses. e-recording Statuses Note the status of the package does not change until all of the documents in the package have been processed; the order is indicative of the normal flow of processing. Note also there is a separate status for the Vendor. 6

7 After the instrument is processed through indexing where remaining information about the document is entered, the document is proofed and considered completely recorded at this time. E- Recorded documents have the same statuses as any other instrument recorded at the ROD on the History tab that displays in Public viewer. The statuses of Cashiered, QC d and Scanned, however, will have been processed via e-recording. It was not necessary to and there is no way to distinguish an e-recorded instrument from a non-e-recording instrument in the Public Viewer. A sample History is shown below. Audit Trail under Public Viewer History after e-recording 7

8 e-recorded Documents Identifiers Indexers and customer service representatives of the ROD s office need to be aware that a document was e-recorded. For example, indexing and proofing of an e-recorded instrument is performed via the electronic image and not a hard copy. Therefore, e-recorded document displays in the Indexing list, and Proofing list prefaced with an E (see screen print below) e-recorded documents are also identified in Document Sign-out. The document is not actually mailed or returned to the submitter (attorney or abstractor who initiated the electronic filing), however, the instruments display in the list of open books until retrieved and updated (Enter is pressed). This process generates an audit trail record to indicate the document was returned to the e-recording vendor. Note the Returned status records in the above example of the audit trail shown under the History tab in Public Viewer. e-recorded Indicators in Processing system Cashiering e-recorded instruments are indicated in Cashiering by the e-recording arrival type. Indexing and Proofing In order to distinguish e-recorded instruments from others, an E displays to the left of the instrument number to identify an e-recorded document. The indexer will know that there is no hard copy of the instrument to use when indexing. The scanned image submitted with the e-recording package would be used. 8

9 Indexing List including e-recorded instruments Clicking on the underlined E displays the contact information for the vendor as shown below. 9

10 e-recording indicators continued Document Sign Out including E-Recorded documents Clicking on the underlined E displays the vendor contact information as shown above. 10

11 Payments for e-recorded Documents When the ticket is created for a package of e-recorded documents, an ACH payment record is created to reflect full payment of the fees and taxes due. The payments are wired at a point in time after the invoice is created. There is a report available to facilitate matching payments entered in the ROD system against the ACH wire. See reports for sample reports. The Vendor will be responsible for establishing the Automated Clearing House (ACH) process between the Vendor s customer s bank account and Richland County s e-recording bank account. These accounts are used for transferring funds to satisfy e-recording charges. Please see the Processing section of the e-verification (of submitted documents) for details on processing e-recorded instruments. Documents created for e-recorded package Payment created for e-recorded package 11

12 e-verification (of submitted documents) Processing Overview Packages submitted to the Register of Deeds for recording are accessed for processing via the e- Verification screen. A sample is shown below. A package is the term used to describe a group of documents submitted from an abstractor or attorney via an electronic processing vendor. (Please see the Overview of this guide for a description of the full e-recording process. This section discusses processing individual packages submitted to the ROD.) The view below shows the Current Documents view. Note there is a tab to view Historical Documents, which displays processed packages. Note package statuses are color coded where yellow indicates In Progress; Pink indicates Rejected and Green indicates Accepted (waiting to be processed). View Current Documents The screen displays the packages in the order received in ascending order (oldest package submitted shown first). Packages should be processed in the order they are received and there are controls to facilitate this process. The process of accepting a package involves viewing each document to ensure that at least 2 party names exist, that the dollar amounts calculated as due match the amount submitted and that the image is legible. All documents in a package must be accepted in order to be submitted for recording. (See the Audit Trail section of the overview for a detailed chart describing statuses on e-recorded packages). The recording process assigns the book and page number and instrument number. When Submit is clicked, all Accepted packages waiting to be processed for the User are processed in the order received. The user has the flexibility to submit one package at a time, or several. 12

13 View Historical Documents To view additional pages on either the Current or Historical views, click on the numbers displayed in the lower right hand corner of the screen. Viewing Documents without Submitting Individual documents in a package can be viewed by clicking on the sign as shown in the sample above.. The list is expanded and individual documents can be selected and viewed, but not processed; processing keys will be grayed out. There are two statuses, a status for the Package and status for the individual document in the package. See the Field Explanation Chart on the following pages for additional information regarding statuses. In order to process documents, the user must click on the actual package itself. package ID is underlined signifying it is a link to other processing. Note the Document list expanded displaying document status 13

14 To begin processing a package the user clicks on the underlined package ID. See the next section for processing packages. Field explanation chart for Current and Historical Documents View Field Description Comment Package Identifier from Vendor Cannot be changed Vendor Entity who submitted package For this example, Simplifile is the vendor. Submitter Docs Abstractor/ Law firm recording the instruments. Number of documents in the package. Field Description Comment Status Status of the package for Richland county. Possible statuses are shown below. Package Status There is a package status and a separate status for individual documents... There is also a separate status of the package for the vendor. In this example, the Vendor is Simplifile. The status with the vendor only changes when all the documents in the package have been processed. The chart following this field explanation chart shows the Vendor status after processing. Note the vendor statuses are restricted to Received, Accepted, Rejected Recorded and Returned. Document Status New Package has not been processed Document has not been processed. Accepted Rejected All documents in the package have been accepted. One or more documents in the package have been rejected. It is possible some documents have been accepted or saved. However, if one Document has been accepted. It s possible other documents in the package are waiting to be processed. Document has been rejected. 14

15 document is rejected, the PRIA standards require rejecting the entire package. Returned Rejected Saved In Progress e-recorded Indexed Proofed ereturned Received On Status Date Audit Processing Date Rejected Package has been retrieved by vendor. N/A This is not a valid status for a Package. Package has been viewed and / or documents have been processed All documents in the package have been assigned a book and page. All documents in the package have been Indexed. All documents in the package have been Proofed. All documents in the package have been retrieved by vendor after processing completed successfully Dates Package was received from Vendor Date of the current statues on Current View Link to display history of activity on the package Date Package Processed in ROD system. Rejected document has been retrieved by vendor. Document has been viewed and or modified. Changes, if any have been saved. Document has been viewed or is in the process of being recorded. Document has been assigned a book and paged. Document has been Indexed. Document has been Proofed Processing completed successfully. (Documents have been marked as available for retrieval). This column is on Current View only. Link to display history of activity on the instrument. This column is on Historical view only. 15

16 Processing e-recorded Packages To Process an e-recorded package Click on the underlined package ID Package link is underlined * If you click on a package below one that has not been processed the message Please select next available package displays. * If you click on a package that is being processed by another user: the message: Package is in use by: COUNTY/YonC displays. If you are an Administrator the following pop-up box displays: 16

17 You have the option to * assign the package to another user * unlock the package Note: a UserID and Password are required for either of the above options. The user ID is the NT login for the user. However, there is a separate password set up in e-verification for the purpose of unlocking packages. When there are no errors: The first instrument in the package displays. Details submitted with the document display on the left, thumbnails of each page display to the left of the image and the image displays on the right with the thumbnail of the image displayed, highlighted. Documents are presented sequentially in the order they exist in the package. * Required fields are denoted with an asterisk * 17

18 * The vendor name displays with the abstractor or submitting firm name underneath. * The package identifier assigned by the vendor displays: * The instrument type and document type display. * The document status displays, highlighted in yellow. See the chart on previous page for detailed information regarding status Add Party Name:.The instrument is submitted with at least one Party1 and one Party2 name. To add a Party Name: * Click Add The party name pop up box displays. * Click the appropriate radio button to specify whether the name is for an individual (click first Name), or click Firm Name if the name is a corporation or business. Only one type is allowed. 18

19 * Type in the name. In this example an individual name is used. * Click Save The name displays in the Party 1* box as shown below. Edit Name To edit a name, * Highlight the name you wish to edit and click the Edit button. * The name displays for editing. * Type changes and click Save. * Changes are saved and displayed in Party 1 or Party 2 box. Remove a Name To remove a name from either Party 1 or Party 2 display boxes. 19

20 * Highlight the name you with to remove * Click Remove The name is removed from the display box. To change the Consideration Amount on Deeds. * Type in the revised amount and click The State and County taxes are recalculated and the calculated total is displayed. Pages Not Charged All submitted images are counted. To remove pages from the fee calculation (as in the example of Affidavits), type in the number of pages that should not be considered in the page count. Exemptions If necessary, the document fee and/ or taxes can be exempted. * Click the checkbox next to the fee to be exempted and click Total Calculated fees are redisplayed When the last document in the package has been processed, the Current View screen redisplays with the cursor positioned at the package being worked on and documents expanded. Continue processing documents until the last one has been processed. The following chart explains the document and package statuses. 20

21 e-recording Statuses 21

22 * Click on the next package in the list to be processed, with a status of New Other image controls Other image controls display at the top of the document. Are used to magnify, reduce, and restore the image to the original size. Are used to rotate the page if necessary. Verification Stamp (label) controls Use the verification stamp images: image and delete the stamp. to position the electronic label on the document * Click and drag to create/ position label on the document. The label can only be positioned on the first page of the document. Note: The label is a mask of the information that will be displayed in the public viewer. The actual instrument number and book and page are not assigned to the document until it is submitted for processing. * Rotates the label. 22

23 * ` Deletes the label. You may click on this image to delete the stamp even if the stamp is not visible. Note: only one stamp can exist on any document. If you are trying to add the stamp and it does not appear to function, click the red x to delete any possible image that may have been added inadvertently. Processing options: Accept: Documents accepted during the e-verification are updated with the status of Accepted and are ready to be submitted to the Cashiering system to be assigned an instrument number and book and page. All instruments in a package must be accepted for the package status to be updated to Accepted. Accepting the instrument is allowed only when the calculated fee matches the Estimated Fees and the document stamp has positioned. If other fields are required for the specific document, entry must be completed before Accept is allowed. The next instrument in the package is then displayed for processing. When the last document in the package is accepted, the Current Document view displays with the most recent package worked on displayed in the expanded list mode. Reject: If one document is rejected for any reason, the entire package is rejected and returned to the vendor to be retrieved. When the issue is corrected, the vendor resubmits the package. If the instrument is rejected, click the Reject button. The Rejection reasons table displays: 23

24 You may select multiple reasons for rejecting the document. * Click Reject Document. The instrument status is updated to Rejected. When the all documents in the package have been processed, the package will be flagged as Rejected. The user id is not associated with the status as is the case for other statuses, i.e., In Progress. To view details on which user rejected the instrument, click on the Audit link. Save Click Save to save changes made. The instrument status is changed to Saved. The Package status will be In Progress 24

25 Unreject If a package/ document is rejected in error, the status can be restored to In Progress. To reverse the rejection: * Click the check box of the package * Click Both the Package and Document statuses are changed to In Progress. 25

26 Submit Package When an individual or group of packages has been accepted, you may Click the submit button to process the packages. Note: A cash drawer must be opened in order to process a package (s). Return Rejected Package When a document has been rejected it is retrieved by the vendor for correction and re-processing. From the Current view * check the box next to the rejected package * Click Returned The status has been changed to xxxx. The package will be retrieved by the vendor. 26

27 Financial Reconciliation Daily Financial reconciliation will be performed daily. E-recorded instruments will be included in the drawer with all other activity for the cashier processing the package. Because the e-recorded tickets contain an ACH payment that is to be collected at a point in time after the daily deposit, the ACH payments are excluded from the monies collected for the day. See sample report showing ACH payments. ACH payments will be balanced later using a system report and the ACH wire transfer report from the bank. Samples of the reports utilized for balancing are shown under Reporting. Monthly Financial Statement Reconciliations Two reports are available for monthly reconciliation of ACH Payments. The ACH Payments by Vendor provides detail of payments for each vendor with whom the ROD processes e-recorded documents. The other report includes all ACH payments for any and all vendors and as well as any ACH payments entered via the Cashiering module. This report (currently in development) facilitates balancing with the bank for all ACH payments received by the ROD. 27

28 Reports Summary Consolidated by User 28

29 Rejected e-recorded Documents ACH Payments 29

30 Technical Features and Processing Web Portal The Web Portal through which the Vendors will pass through the packages/documents to be filed will consist of two web services: an External Web Service which will validate the Vendors authorized access and pass through the data and document images in a.tiff format to the Internal Web Service an Internal Web Service that will support the Vendor authorization process and accept data and document images to be passed to the Verification Module. Both services will also perform the pass through of data and images from the Verification Module back to the Vendors for package/document statuses, rejected packages/documents and successfully filed packages/documents. Additional ROD Integrations and Processes E-Recorded instruments will not be eligible for the Void transaction in the ROD main system. If necessary, an instrument will be e-recorded. E-Recorded instruments will be eligible for the Editing transaction in the ROD main system, and when appropriate, the first page may be re-scanned in order to display a corrected typographical error. Blanket Documents (documents with multiple labels per recording) will be excluded from e-recording. Security / Logging into Users are given access to e-recording via the Users table under Administration. When granted access, the option for e-recording displays on the ROD Main menu. See the Administration section of the User guide for information regarding updating the User table. 30

31 Verification Module Note that throughout the Verification Module there is to be an audit trail of date, time and user id that performed the action in accordance with the standards of the main ROD system. The fields that will be required for the submitter to provide are as follows: Party1 * Party2* *The specific name of each party depends upon the document type; e.g. Mortgagee, Mortgagor for Mortgage documents. It is understood from the vendor(s), that the vendors software will not allow submission without these fields being completed. Interface for user to view packages and documents. Capabilities will include: View each page of the submitted package: this will be facilitated through a collection of thumbnail images where the user can select a thumbnail and view the document, and perform rotation functions. Place an electronic label where the Instrument number, book and page number will be populated when the ROD main system assigns them. View the status of non-processed packages/documents. The verification module will obtain actual charges using the main ROD system s calculations. Allow the user to make the following modifications with an audit trail for each modification: o Change the document type in the event documents were submitted under an incorrect document type. o Enter number of pages for which there will be no charge which affects recording fees charged. o Select multiple documents that are to be exempt from charges which affect taxes charged. o Override the final total being charged with a required override reason. Re-recording process: the original document that contains the original label is required. The 2 nd electronic label will be placed so that both labels are visible. Manually reject packages/documents for non-compliance of filing requirements. View historical packages/documents. The document identifier will also be a Vendor/Customer hyper link that when clicked, will display contact information for the Vendor/Customer for that document in another window. Have system perform Auto-Rejections.* Send documents with Rejected status back to Vendor/Customer. Accept documents for processing into the main ROD system. The verification module will obtain the instrument number, and book and page from the same process as the Cashiering Application, and populate the electronic label on the document. Note that the tables of the main ROD system will be populated as if the document had been received manually, but will be identified as an erecording document, and will have a source transaction identifier available throughout the main ROD system. 31

32 Vendor Profile Each Vendor that will interface with the Richland County erecording System will be required to provide the following information in order to establish his profile. Vendor Name: Vendor Address: Contact Name: Contact Phone: Financial Reports URL: Address: IP Address: (must be static) At the time the vendor profile is established, the Vendor can test his connectivity via the following URL: <url to be inserted at production time> If the Vendor s profile has been established, the Vendor will receive a data report of the values contained in his profile. This report will consist of the information the Vendor provided as detailed above, in addition to any special instructions the Vendor should provide to their customers. Financial Accounts Vendor will be responsible for establishing the Automated Clearing House (ACH) process between the Vendor s customer s bank account and Richland County s erecording bank account. These accounts are used for transferring funds to satisfy erecording charges. Image Specifications Images must be scanned at 300 dpi, no larger and no smaller Must be either Letter-sized (8.5 x 11 ) or Legal-sized (8.5 x 14 ) Images are returned with a Compression of TIFF Group 4 and Photometric Interpretation of MinlsWhite(0). 32

33 Web Service Calls Once the Vendor s profile has been established and the Vendor is ready to submit Documents/Packages, he can perform a test submission. Once the Vendor is ready to submit Documents/Packages for production use, the Vendor s system will use the following web service calls: SubmitPackage GetStatus RetrieveRecordedPackage Loading Data Once the Vendor Profile has been established, the Vendor can proceed with the initial data load which will consist of the following web service calls: GetDocumentTypes: delivers the list of active document types from which the Vendor s customer can select. Other Web Methods: 1. GetDocumentTypes: Description: retrieves list of valid Documents with applicable fees and required fields. Parameters: none 2. SubmitPackage: Description: submits the data and images of the package to Richland County s erecording system. Parameters: PRIA_Request xml as string 3. RetrieveRecordedPackage: Description: retrieves package that has been recorded at Register of Deeds office with Instrument, Book and Page number of filing. Parameters: vendor s package id as string 4. RetrieveRejectedPackage: Description: retrieves package that has been rejected during the verification process; return includes one or more rejected reasons. Parameters: vendor s package id as string 5. GetStatus: Description: retrieves status of a specific package. 33

34 Parameters: vendor s package id as string Web Service Description Language file and sample data/xml files are available upon request. 34