Training

ACT is the only mass appraisal company in Arkansas to provide a training program for its employees, clients and other interested parties.

The following courses are available: 

• Basic Entry & Entry and Reporting 
• Deed & Ownership Transfer Processing 
• Assessment Administration 
• Personal Property
• SPSS Reports for Sales Chasing & Sales Ratio Compliance 

In an effort to provide participants with the best possible instruction, each class is limited in size. If there is more or less demand than anticipated, the class dates will be changed accordingly.

The Basic Entry portion of the workshop is designed to educate the student about the entry of ownership and property information into the ACT software system. In addition, the student will learn the basic mechanics of the CAMA system. 

The Reporting portion of this class is designed to educate the student about the various reports available to the user to summarize information and to find data entry inconsistencies. 

This workshop is two and a half days (approximately 17 hours of classroom time) and consists of both lecture and hands-on exercises using real life data.

This workshop is designed to provide a better understanding of the maintenance of ownership records in the assessor’s office. The student will learn about the different types of legal documents that affect property ownership and homestead status, and how to enter those ownership and homestead changes into the ACT software system. Property transfer, parcel splits and parcel combinations will be covered in this workshop. 

This workshop is two and a half days (approximately 17 hours of classroom time) and consists of both lecture and hands-on exercises using real life data. 

This workshop is designed to provide the Assessor a better understanding of the Assessment Administration functions of the ACT software system. The student will learn how to process corrections in daily use and how to obtain year-end correction reports. Assessment and Entry edits will be covered to include the appropriate times to process them. The student will learn how to use year-end reporting tools, such as Assessment Totals and Abstract, to balance and disseminate information to taxing bodies and other interested parties. Students will also be given an in-depth look at the Parcel Select process to help isolate and identify problem parcels.

This workshop is one and a half days (approximately 10 hours of classroom time) and consists of both lecture and hands-on exercises using real life data.

Personal Property

The Personal Property workshop presents all of the basics of using the ACT Personal Property system, in addition to providing insight into the reporting and edit tools available to the user. Both individual assessments and business assessments will be covered, with emphasis provided for validating assessment data.

This workshop is one and a half days (approximately 10 hours of classroom time) and consists of both lecture and hands-on exercises using real life data.

This workshop will cover several topics to help assessors, valuation specialists and anyone involved in the valuation process understand their ratio study in order to meet Assessment Coordination Department & IAAO requirements. The workshop will emphasize queries, reports and ratio study reports prepared with SPSS.

SPSS for Windows is the top-selling statistical software package for PCs and is used by the ACD in preparing ratio study reports. Students will learn several logic edits that will assist them in cleaning up their data before a ratio study. Logic edit topics will cover property characteristic data, valuation data and sales data. A general overview of how to prepare a ratio study will also be covered. Typical problem areas concerning market stratification, level of appraisal, COD and  PRD will be discussed in conjunction with prepared ratio studies used as examples.

The third part of the workshop will help the student interpret the ratio study report prepared by the Assessment Coordination Department and how it applies to the ACD & IAAO rules and regulations. Ratio studies using the ACD format will be used as case study examples.

This workshop does not include hands-on experience preparing ratio studies using SPSS.