Special Board of Aldermen 7-14-2020 Page 7
which we refer to as AP5 and the existing system that the Assessing Department has been using for
several years which we refer to as Classic. So right off the bat, AP5 has a much improved user interface
over the Classic CAMA System. It is easier and friendlier to use, and it is also gives a full screen view of
the system as opposed to a tiny window as in Classic. So our staff can see more information at one time.
There are multiple ways to search for information, which | have a slide that | will show later on what this
entails. It also has autofill dropdowns, so as soon as you type information that you are searching for, the
dropdown will automatically find anything that matches that. So, again, a lot easier and quicker to find
information. We can open any section and have multiple sections in for quick display. So instead of
toggling back and forth as we had to do in the old system, it’s all right there, right in front on the main
screen for our staff to click through and get to whatever they use most often. Info for past years is quickly
accessible without having to switch to a different data base. Again, with AP 5, everything is in a single
database, all past years. In Classic, each year had its own data base. So we are much better off with AP5
as the Assessing Department can quickly go back to historic information if they are researching any sort of
issue that arises.
With that, the new system also has the ability to change the color scheme for what they are looking at, the
user interface, so it brings the attention of a different year if they are not in the current year so they know
right away if they are where they need to be. It has improved filter capability. The filter function in the old
system was not that great. The new one is much more powerful and it is very easy to use. It is based on
what they call sequel queries, which is the data base that the City uses and this application is hooked into.
There are also new tools such as Lookup Grid, which again, very powerful can look up a lot of data with
very few clicks. The staff is really excited about that feature. They use it quite a bit.
Historic images and sketches are preserved for previous years. In AP§, this is all in the database. It is not
separate files like the old system. So you can have an image and sketch for a particular property for 2018
and then you can have a new sketch and an image for 2019 and the database keeps track of all that
information. So as staff looks back, they can see the gradual changes all in the same system. And also we
can hide closed accounts using the simple check box. That’s important so we don’t necessarily need to be
recording on accounts that have been closed, but it’s good to have that historic information at the tip of your
fingers.
Alright, Kim can you — alright so here’s a screen shot and yes you will see my name, | am a citizen of the
City of Nashua and | consent to have my information displayed so we don’t run into any problems. So the
Year Toggle, that’s where you would switch back for the current year versus previous years, as well as
going forward, you can also program information for future (audio cuts out) which will be very helpful
because then like at the end of the year at tax season ordinarily the staff would have to wait until the tax
process has been completed. With AP5, they don’ have to wait, we can set the new year and they can
start entering information for the future.
The Hide Closed Accounts is just a simple check box whether they are displayed or not. In the purple, this
is what | was referring to as multiple ways you can search for information; the account number, personal ID,
the street, or the owner. Here is a screen shot of a couple examples of the sections that can be pinned and
it is based on whatever staff is working on the most. So on the top you have the account detail, you have
the building section, the land section and special features and yard items. Another person could have the
exemptions, appeals, permits and the owners. The sky is the limit, whatever information that they use
most, they can have pinned. And if they are not using it at any one time, they can simply close that and
then reselect it which is on a menu which was not included in the slide unfortunately.
Here is the filter function, we can select just about any field in the database as you see on the left hand
side, those are the different tables, you simply expand them to get to the fields, the create the expression,
put in a value that we are looking for such as | want all building permits that were created for 2020. | build
that query and hit the query button and it gives that result in the filter result in the bottom right hand side.
What Assessing can do next is save that filter and the system will navigate through just those parcels or
