BLS Partner Training Environment – Now available

We are pleased to offer you a chance to get more hands-on experience in the new ATLAS system for business licensing.  This training environment is available for our partners through Friday, June 3.

This email is going to just to those who joined us for systems testing (April) or trainings (May). Please share with your teammates who will also use ATLAS.

Questions or issues? Send those to BLS Partnership Services by email.

Some things to remember in this training environment.

• All the data is fictitious and is shared by all users
• Access levels, screens, and reporting available in this environment may be different than what you see next month (Security permissions and reports will vary in the actual ATLAS system)
• All users will have the same login. If there is a password lockout, simply wait 15 minutes for the system to reset. 

Login instructions are here.

 If you have questions about ATLAS, please refer to the appropriate guide below.

• City Training Guide

• Agency Training Guide

Also, the Computer Based Training for ATLAS that we shared last month will continue to be available without login. You can review this anytime at bls.dor.wa.gov/atlas

Thank you,

~BLS Partnership Services

SFT not working reliably Wednesday

UPDATE: The SFT service has been restored as of 9 a.m. Wednesday.
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The Secure File Transfer (Axway) service is experiencing service interruptions.  

Technicians are aware and working the issue. We will update this post when a fix is in place.

~BLS Partnership Services 

Incomplete Application ARDs

Partners,

On Thursday May 19th, BLS ran a process to  incomplete applications that had outstanding RFI’s or RFP’s over 120 days old. This was done to clean up data prior to implementing our new system. Unfortunately, it seems that ARDs were sent out to our partners. You did not receive any funds for these applications and the endorsement has been withdrawn. The process made the application incomplete and the customer now needs to re-file the application if it is still needed.

Please disregard any ARD that is over 120 days old, you can find this date on the ARD in the Application Received Date field.

As always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.

Thank you,

Partnership Services 

Systems Replacement Update #5

Partners –

It’s just a matter of days before we all start working in the world of ATLAS. It will be an exciting change with great benefits. By now, almost all of you – or your coworkers – have taken in-person training to do your daily work in ATLAS. We asked for comments about the training, and it’s getting rave reviews, like:

“Thank you. Really appreciate the time taken to train ... us. The partnership between the agencies is great!!!”

“(Trainers) were very informative and did a great job. They answered all of our questions and were flexible with the agenda.”

We look forward to helping everyone else access the powerful new features in ATLAS very soon.

Transition times: Mark your calendar

Please add these important items to your calendar. They directly impact you and your customers.

• No online applications processed as Monday, May 23 (paper will be accepted).
• No online renewals as of Wednesday, May 25.
• The BLS system is down as of 5 p.m. Friday, June 3 through 8 a.m. Monday, June 6.

Also, to expedite issuing your licenses, please complete your approval/withdrawal updates by Wednesday, June 1. You will be able to complete this after June 6 in ATLAS, but printing and mailing may take longer.

Partner Portal access is coming soon

BLS Partnership Services will be helping you get access to the ATLAS Partner Portal next month. Most of you will be adding a new service through your existing login at https://secureaccess.wa.gov (SAW) on or after June 6. We will be posting instructions here and emailing links to you. Stay tuned!

Update your city and program web pages

Our online business licensing application link will be changing on June 6. If your city or program web pages link to the state’s online business application, we recommend you change your current links to the Business Licensing Service landing page (http://business.wa.gov/BLS) by June 3 to avoid any broken links.

Also, if you need to update information for your city or program, email your updates to BLS Partnership Services.

Join us in June

We are completing the agenda for Revenue’s annual Local Government Workshops. Once again, we are offering events for municipal staffs on both sides of the state. Get complete information and registration information at http://dor.wa.gov/localgovernment.

City Partners: June Local Gov't Partnership meetings

BLS City Partners:

The Department of Revenue has scheduled two Local Government Partnership meetings, one in Western and another in Eastern Washington. This is a great opportunity for all local governments to hear from the Department.   
Topics include:

• Changes to taxation of Amusement & Recreation activities
• Taxation of Spec builders & subcontractors and impact on local tax reporting
• Sales suppression presentation
• Legislative update
• Changes to Business Licensing Service (BLS)

Registration Deadline: May 25, 2016

Western Washington: Online Registration 

Wednesday, June 8
9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
La Quinta Inn & Suites 4600 Capitol Blvd SE, Tumwater
Note: This meeting will also be offered via WebEx.

Eastern Washington: Online Registration
Wednesday, June 15 
9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Check-in begins at 8:30)
Best Western Lake Front Hotel, 3000 West Marina Dr, Moses Lake 

**CPE credits will be offered at both meetings.**

Contact us

For more information contact Local Government Liaison Patti Wilson or call (360) 534-1543.  

Change to SFT passwords

The Secure File Transfer service (SFT) is changing its security requirements on May 16.

New passwords will be required to:

• Be at least 8 characters long
• Have at least 2 alpha characters
• Have at least 2 numeric characters
• Have at least 2 special characters (e.g. # @ $ *)

Order does not matter. Some examples are:

•  MONKEY01##
• 22@@CATS
• B!ZL!C3N5E

The changes bring the password security in line with requirements of the Office of the Chief Information Officer. Most BLS partners will stop using SFT in June with the change to the new ATLAS system for reports and files.

~BLS Partnership Services