City of Interest & Pending Accounts in SFT (Tumbleweed)

Effective, Monday, April 30, all city partners will receive the City of Interest and Pending Accounts reports  in the SFT folder.

If you have questions or concerns, please contact BLS Partnership Services.

Keep Track of More with the Comments Feature

City Partners:
When you're tracking information in the BLS system, remember you can use the Comments feature to track information for your city. It's simple if you follow the instructions in this image:

   

Click image to sharpen and enlarge

 Track information such as:

• Additional info needed
• Home occupation businesses
• Zoning requirements
• Planning Department reviews needed
• Inspections needed
• Etc.

Using the Comments feature helps you out, in part, by reducing questions from BLS staff seeking information on your licensees' pending accounts.

Got other tips or tricks to share? Tell us at dorblspartner@dor.wa.gov.

 

Click image to sharpen and enlarge

Account Financial Control Summary (AFCS) Format Improved

What is new?

The Account Financial Control Summary (AFCS) report format and content have been improved for our city partners. 

When will implementation occur?

The new AFCS report format will be implemented on Friday, April 20.

Where will the report be delivered?

The new report will be delivered to the city SFT folder starting Friday, April 20, for all city partners.

What is changing?

The funding dates (the ARD dates being picked up in the deposit) and the funds deposit date information has been moved to the top of the report.  This information used to be located at the bottom of the report.

The second (last) page of the report has a new feature called the Funds Summary by License Type.

This area of the document will show a breakdown the total funds distribution by the license type for your city. 

The license types provided in your city’s AFCS report will be based on the types of licenses processed by BLS for your particular city.   

Below is an example of the old AFCS report format and an example of the new enhancement format for comparison. Click the image to enlarge. Enhancement changes are highlighted for your reference. If you have questions, please contact DORBLSPartner@dor.wa.gov

Click images to enlarge and sharpen

Click images to enlarge and sharpen

BLS Systems Unvailable May 18 - May 20

What is happening?

The Business Licensing Service (BLS) will move all online licensing systems from the Department of Licensing to the Department of Revenue.

When is this happening?

Online systems will be taken down at 7:30 a.m. on Friday, May 18 and brought back up on

Monday, May 21.

What can I expect?

It’s important that business owner’s finish partially completed applications or renewals before May 18, as the information will be deleted during the move and the applicant will have to start over. 

Reports that normally generate on Fridays or Saturdays will arrive a day later than usual.

How should I prepare?

Please add a note on your website from now until Monday, May 21, to notify local business owners who may be planning to apply or renew electronically, during this time period.

Can business owners still submit paper applications or renewals during this time?

Yes. This outage only affects online applications and renewals.  Paper applications and renewals will be processed without interruption.  We encourage online processing.  The online licensing systems will be down for a very short time period.  It is still quicker to wait until the online licensing systems are back up, than to mail it into the Business Licensing Service.

No More JAVA Conflicts for BLS Logins

Good news!  The JAVA upgrade is here!
Remember having to load an old version of Java to get the HOD_BLS access to work properly? 
Well, no more. 
No need for your IT group to continually monitor for JAVA upgrades and no further need to bypass JAVA upgrades. HOD_BLS is now compatible with current versions of JAVA software.
Your JAVA load was updated with your first login that occurred after April 1, 2012. 

Instructions

Users of Secure Access Washington that use favorites or shortcuts to the access these services, it is recommended you use the following addresses for your shortcuts and/or favorites.

                        TIP: Make this a browser “Favorite” or add a desktop shortcut.
If you experience problems with Host-On-Demand (HOD_BLS) loading correctly, such as system stall outs or error messages popping up, please contact the CTS Service Desk for assistance. 
Local:              (360) 753-2454
Toll Free:         (888) 241-7597
E-mail:             servicedesk@cts.wa.gov 

FTP Reports Moving to SFT (Secure File Transfer)

Partners:

Secure File Transfer (SFT) BLS report handlers be getting new DOR SFT logons and temporary passwords.  Designated persons will get two emails:  one email will provide you with your new logon and the other will provide you a temporary password that you will want to change to your own password.

FTP Reports

Your BLS Standard Report delivery (Delinquent Accounts reports, ARDs, etc.) currently delivered to your File Transfer Protocol (FTP folder- accessed using the fortress URL) will soon be delivered to your new SFT folder.

Unlike FTP, Secure File Transfer will allow users to update and manage their own passwords. SFT passwords expire every 90 days. Reports are retained in the SFT folder for 13 days.  After 13 days, they will automatically delete out of the folder.

Access your new SFT folder at https://sft.wa.gov/.

There will be two types of documents showing in the folder:

·        a single MS word document containing the daily Standard Reports (.doc) and

·        other documents and reports showing as .txt files.

If your DOR BLS SFT logon or password is not working, revoked, or expires, contact the

SFT Admin Group at DORDLSFTAdmin@dor.wa.gov.

Optional Reports

Your Optional Report deliveries will also change from FTP to SFT.

Optional reports received in a text file format include the following:

Current licensees file: all active and held accounts for your city.

Welcome file: licensees in your city that were approved during the month – can be used to mail-merge a welcome letter, if desired.

Terminated accounts file: list of all licensees terminated during the month.

Vendor file: all active, held, pending, suspended, and recently terminated or withdrawn accounts.  This file can be used by a ‘tax discovery agent.’

Optional Report Instructions

Attached are instructions for accessing the SFT folder and downloading your reports which show as a text document (those with a .txt file extension).  The instructions for converting them to an Excel spreadsheet are the same as those used with your FTP folder.  

If you have password problems, contact DORDLSFTAdmin@dor.wa.gov directly for assistance.

If you have general questions regarding this communication, contact BLSDORPartner@dor.wa.gov .

Missing ARDs from Last Week Sent Today

BLS Partners:

ISSUE: Missing ARDs and reports from March 22, March 23, March 24 & March 26

RESOLUTION: Reports will be sent by email today, April 3, to the general mailbox in which you usually receive ARDs and reports.

SYNOPSIS: On or about March 22, server relays within Department of Licensing (DOL) systems failed to initiate the mailing of reports to some BLS partners (The problem was large in scope; DOL didn’t initially identify the impact to BLS). The problem was fixed by Monday, March 26.

We had hoped to have DOL recover the missing BLS reports over the past week. Unfortunately, we learned late Monday that it could not be done. BLS Partnership Services is presently working on salvaging and sending the missing reports today.

We regret the delay and apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank you very much for your patience.