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According to the Texas Tax Code, certain accounts can be labelled as confidential if the certified owner is a police officer or is employed in certain other designated occupations (see Section 25.025).  The addresses of these owners should not be available to the public.  

Accounts labeled as confidential will not appear on the tax office web sites maintained by ACT. However, some tax offices allow searches by account number (which do not result in the name or address appearing on the web site) or by a special code provided by the tax office.

If an account is not confidential, but the tax office still wishes to prevent it from being shown on their web site, check the Web Suppress box on the Owner Detail screen.

User Entitlements

The following user entitlements are used on the screens noted below. They are part of the Manage Public Users and View Confidential Owners tasks, which are part of most jobs. See Tasks, Entitlements, and Jobs for more information.

CONFIDENTIAL_ACCT: In order for a user to act as a public user, the CONFIDENTIAL_ACCT user entitlement box needs to be unchecked (note, NOT checked).  The screens that can be viewed by public users (those users who cannot see confidential accounts) are also controlled by this list, so be sure to check those screens that should be available to public users. This is part of the View Confidential Owners task.

ACCT_MASTER_PUBLIC: If checked, Notes and Online Help are available on the Account Master screen. If unchecked, users cannot click the Notes button or change an address, and the Online Help question mark is disabled. This is part of the Manage Public Users task.

ACCT_SEARCH_PUBLIC: If checked, Notes and Online Help are available on the Account Search screen. If unchecked, users cannot click the Notes button or change an address, and the Online Help question mark is disabled.This is part of the Manage Public Users task.

ACCT_STATUS_PUBLIC: If checked, Notes and Online Help are available on the Account Status screen. If unchecked, users cannot click the Notes button and the Online Help question mark is disabled. This is part of the Manage Public Users task.

ACT MENU_PUBLIC: If checked, the blue Online Help button is disabled on the Main Menu. If unchecked, the Online Help button is enabled and the help can be viewed. This is part of the Manage Public Users task.

ONLINE_PRODUCTS_PUBLIC: If checked, Notes and Online Help and the Change Address feature are available on the Online Products screen.  If unchecked, you cannot click the Alternate Owner or Change Address buttons or reprint receipts and refund letters. The online help is also not accessible. This is part of the Manage Public Users task.

"Disable" means "allow" in these cases; for ex., checking Acct Master_Public allows users to see Notes and Online Help, and to change address on Online Products.

Note: The public_user_client_id login also automatically assigns this user a public_terminal role; the CONFIDENTIAL_ACCT box must still be unchecked for these users. The Harris County tax office is the only one using this login for their public users. Users having a public_user_client_id login (for ex., public_user_2000) will not be able to click the Notes buttons, or use the Online Help on the Account Search, Account Status, Account Master, or Online Products screens.  On the latter screen, they can access only delinquent and current statements and will not be able to change addresses on them.  Public users will not be able to enter notes on any screen.

For all public users, the Copy Address button on the Owner Detail screen and the Previous/Next Owner buttons on the Account Status and Account Master screen will be disabled. If particular users do not have the user entitlement CONFIDENTIAL_ACCT granted, they will be allowed to see the Previous/Next Owner buttons; however if they are at the Harris County Tax Office, these buttons will be grayed out.

For all public users and public_user_ID users, the following client preferences apply:

CONF_NAME_TOSHOW: The certified owner's name will be filled in with whatever text is entered for this preference.   

CONF_LEGAL_TOSHOW:  If set to Y, the full legal description shows; if set to N or is expired, the description is blanked out; if set to anything other than Y or N, those words will appear in the first line of the description and the rest of the description is blanked out.

CONF_ADDR_TOSHOW:  If set to Y,  the address on confidential accounts appears for public_user and accounts. Set to N to hide the address.  Currently this occurs on the Account Status, Account Master, Receivable, Payment History, and Deposit Status Remittance screens.    

In the Account Search screen, searches can be done by account number or address if CONF_ADDR_TOSHOW is set to Y. The name will be shown with whatever is entered in CONF_NAME_TOSHOW.  A search by name does not retrieve the account. If CONF_ADDR_TOSHOW is set to N, searches are not possible.

If you have a limited number of roles and cannot see the Online Products screen, make sure that the CONFIDENTIAL_ACCT entitlement is checked and the ONLINE_PRODUCTS_PUBLIC entitlement is not checked.

Users logging in to ACT 7 without a public_tax role or a public_user_client_id login will be able to see the names, addresses and legal descriptions of confidential accounts, but these fields will have a colored background to indicate that they are confidential and should not be given out to the public.  The Account Search, Account Status, Account Master, Receivable, Payment History, and Deposit Status Remittance screens are affected. Public users will not be able to search by name or account number on the Account Search screen.

Confidential accounts will be designated properly as part of the certified load process.  As part of this process, some clients may have a note inserted for each confidential account.

To manually add or remove a confidential account designation on an account during other times of the year, follow the steps below.

1. From the Main Menu, click the Account Master () button or select Update, then Account Master, or click the Go To drop-down list and select Account Master.  The Account Master Summary screen will appear.
2. If the account has carried over from a previous screen, go to step 3.  
   
   If the Account Number field is blank, enter the account number, press F8, then go to step 3.
   
   If you need to enter a different account number, press F7, key in the new account number, press F8, then go to step 3.

Note: If you don't know your account number, see Locating an Account.

3. If you need to see information for a prior year, follow the steps below (remember that you need to set the confidential account flag for each year the account is eligible):
4. Click the Owner Detail tab.
5. To indicate that an account is confidential, click the Confidential Account box to place a checkmark there.
6. To remove a confidential account designation, click the Confidential Account box to remove the checkmark.
7. Press F10 (Save) to save the changes.