COPsync announces Initiative to Help Student Safety

One of the most important issues facing us as a nation today is the safety of our children.

HCSS technology partner COPsync has just announced the release of their newest product meant to help keep teachers and students safe in school.

With the release of COPsync911, a school teacher can simply hit a button on their computer if there’s a dangerous situation. School administrators and the five closest law enforcement agents using the COPsync system are immediately notified of an emergency. The notification includes a map of the school and the location of the room where the alert was sent.

By reducing response time, COPsync works with local law enforcement to do everything possible to protect our children and staff helping them.

HCSS is proud to be fully integrated with the COPsync system in our courts and law enforcement packages.

To read more about COPsync911, see the full press release here.

2012 HCSS User’s Conference – November 14-16

Start making plans now to come to the 2012 HCSS User’s Conference. Last year’s conference was a huge success and one of our biggest ever. Make sure you don’t miss out on the panels and discussions about how to get the most out of your software.

The conference will be at the Inn of The Hills in Kerrville, Texas, November 14-16.

Registration information will be coming soon. Save the date and we’ll see you there!

JP and Municipal Court Checklist for the new OCA Report – IMPORTANT

The new OCA reporting requirements for your courts goes into effect for your September 2011 report.
Follow these steps below to be sure that you’re ready!
  1. Complete your August 2011 report. We don’t want to change any of your codes until you have turned in your August data.
  2. Download and install August 18a HCSS Court update or newer
  3. Switch to new report – Go to OCA Monthly State Report and click on the button in the upper left hand corner of the screen to switch to the new report. You can do this before you are ready to run your September report, but only after you have completed your August 2011 report.
  4. Click on help button on OCA Monthly State Report and review HCSS help pages and videos. You can also view the help pages and videos at http://help.hillcountrysoftware.com
  5. Update Court info. (Help pages – page 1)
  6. Review the difference between Active/Inactive and Pending/Closed and how to designate a case Inactive. (Help pages – pages 2 and 3)
  7. Update subset groups on offense codes. See OCA list of how DPS offenses codes are categorized if you are unsure of a subset group. (Help pages – pages 2 and 3)
  8. Update disposition codes. Most of these should be correct, but you will want to review them just in case. (Help pages – pages 2 and 3)
  9. Create new offense code for Possession of Drug Paraphernalia – Juvenile if necessary (Help pages – page 4)
  10. Be sure you are using the Adult/Juvenile switch on cause screen (Help pages – page 4)
  11. Review new proceeding options on note records (Help pages – page 5)
  12. Be sure you are using receipts to show Community Service. The new reports requires reporting of cases fully or partially satisfied by community service and this is how we track this. (Help pages – page 5)
  13. Call HCSS if you have any questions!

PDFDownload a PDF copy of these instructions

2011 HCSS User’s Conference, November 16-18, 2011 at the Inn of the Hills in Kerrville

There will be a lot to go over including legislative updates and new software features and functionality. We look forward to visiting with you and getting your input on how we can better serve you.
As always, there will be a block of room available until October 21, 2011. For reservations at the Inn of the Hill’s, call 1-800-292-5690. Be sure to tell them you’re part of the conference so they can get you in the block of rooms.
Room rates are:

  • $84 for a single or double room
  • $94 for a triple
  • $104 for a quad

Remember that the block is being held until October 21 so make your reservations now.

Here’s the tentative schedule for the conference…

  • Wednesday – November 16, 2011
    • 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM HCSS Staff available for consultation
    • Evening On your own
  • Thursday – November 17, 2011
    • 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM General Assembly
    • 10:00 AM – 10:30 AM Refreshment Break
    • 10:30 AM – 11:50 AM Group Meetings
    • 11:50 AM – 1:00 PM HCSS Sponsored Luncheon
    • 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM Group Meetings
    • 2:30 PM – 3:00 PM Refreshment Break
    • 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM Group Meetings
    • Evening On your own
  • Friday – November 18, 2011
    • Morning Golf; Departure


Download the flyer and registration form here.

There is a $75 registration fee per attendee. This fee is refundable until November 9th and does not apply to spouses or significant others not attending the sessions or luncheon on Thursday.

We’re looking forward to another great conference! See you soon!

Thanks for your patience

We recently installed a new phone system at the office. You may notice a few glitches as we finish training on the system and get things figured out. If you leave a message and don’t hear back from us soon, please feel free to give us a call again.

Thanks for your patience as we finish this transition.

New FAX number for HCSS

Our fax number has changed!

If you need to send a FAX to Hill Country Software & Support, our new fax number is…


1-866-475-6759

 

We are converting over to a new phone system so please be patient while we make the transition.

 

County & District Clerks… OCA is ready for your reports!

In a letter dated May 6th, 2011, The Office of Court Administration notified its courts that it was finally ready to accept the new monthly reports. OCA will start accepting their new monthly reports on Thursday, May 12th, 2011.

As a recap, OCA adopted new rules for reporting that were to take affect September 1, 2010. Unfortunately they were not completely ready to accept those new reports.

HCSS has had the new reporting requirements in place since September of last year, so the submission of your new reports should go smoothly. Remember that unless OCA grants a waiver for good cause, the clerk must submit the reports by electronic means —by entering or uploading the data directly into the Court Activity Reporting and Directory System. Since they haven’t been accepting reports since September of last year, each court will have to submit their reports for the past 9 months. OCA also requires each report be submitted in order, starting with September 2010.

OCA has made several changes to dispositions and sentencing information and IADT accurately tracks the status of all of the cases and their Active or Inactive status as required. There were also changes to offense classifications that added several new categories. Those categories have been in IADT since September so if you haven’t already made those changes to your offense codes, you will need to adjust those categories in order to get a correct OCA report. While making these changes is necessary, we’ve made the process very quick and simple.

When  you’re working on your reports, make sure that you have the latest update installed on your system. If you have any questions on how those requirements are handled in IADT, please call our tech support line at 1-800-422-1982. You can also find some help in our new online help system HERE.

COPsync and HCSS sign distribution agreement

COPsync Inc. (COYN.OB) announced that the company has  licensed Hill Country Software and Support, Inc., an information technology vendor to state and local government and law enforcement, to be a distributor of the COPsync  fieldbased reporting and information-sharing network. Hill Country  sells and supports county and municipal government  accounting,  court management,  tribal  court  management, CJIS  reporting, vehicle inventory tax, and law enforcement systems.

“We  welcome Hill Country to our existing network of distributors and resellers,” said Herbert Severin, Vice President for Strategic Business Relations of COPsync.  “COPsync  is dedicated to building a nationwide network of the best  of the estimated  2100 vendors  supplying  information technology  to the law enforcement industry. We plan to integrate our service with the  information systems of these select vendors – to produce a nationwide network of distributors committed to real time data interoperability. Hill Country has a broad product set, robust technology and a substantial customer base in key industry sectors, making them an obvious choice for inclusion in our distributor network.”

“The integration between Hill Country and COPsync will produce a complete and powerful law enforcement package that we are excited to offer agencies in Texas and beyond,” said Jim Stateczny, President of Hill Country Software and Support, Inc.  “The new features will not only increase safety in the field for the officers, but will also increase efficiency and accuracy  in reporting and managing the data collected.”

“Lack of information sharing among law enforcement agencies is a well-documented problem in the United States,” said Ronald A. Woessner, COPsync chief executive officer. “Hill Country’ssubstantial customer base in Texas further solidifies our position as the information sharing network of choice among law enforcement agencies in Texas. The nationwide network of distributors that we are building, who are committed to real-time data interoperability, will help us  leverage our success in Texas to extend the company’s geographical footprint throughout the United States.”
Click here for the full press release

2011 Payroll Tax Changes and HCSS

The following changes have been included in the December 31st, 2010 update:

  • Printing of 1099’s with the 2010 format
  • Printing of W2’s with the 2010 format
  • 2011 social security tax law change processing

Once you’ve installed the update, keep the following in mind:

  • Do the W2 extract before you enter the new social security tax rate.  If you’ve already entered the new tax rate and must rerun the W2 extract, set the percentage back to 6.2%, run the extract, and set the percentage back to 4.2% after you’ve finished
  • On the social  security deduction record, which is deduction record number one, set the employee’s percentage to 4.2%, and  leave the employer’s percentage at 6.2%.
  • The processing of W2’s and 1099’s is the same as last year.  You must have the current update loaded before you do the actual printing of the 1099’s and W2’s.  It’s OK if  you ran the extract prior to the loading of the current update.
  • This is the link for Notice 1036, from the federal government, laying out the new tax rates. Please use this link for reference when you’re entering the new Tax Table 7
  • Remember that when you enter the new Tax Table 7, start from the bottom and work your way up.  The table in our software contains more entry lines than the table in Notice 1036 uses, and the unused lines must be at the top of our table, filled with zeros.