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California’s Electronic Filing System For Business Property Statements (BPS)
Shared Services Helping California Businesses and Keeping California “Green”
Every year, almost one million Business Property Statement (BPS) forms are filed by businesses throughout the State of California. Until 2005, this was a paper-only process that could take days or weeks to print and mail the forms. Now businesses with multiple locations in California can file a BPS form for each location, by quickly uploading one data file to the Standard Data Record (SDR) website.
Before using the SDR, it took over 15 hours for a large bank to print BPS forms just for their Los Angeles County locations. Another ten days were spent preparing their remaining BPS forms for mailing to other California counties. Using the SDR, they were able to file over 2,000 statements in 55 counties, all in one day.
SDR is the first statewide e-government initiative in the nation that was developed and implemented by a group of local government officials. California’s 58 County Assessors recognized the need to streamline the BPS filing process, and worked together to provide a faster and more secure alternative to paper filing.
Everyone benefits from using the SDR/e-SDR system. Businesses save time and money by transmitting electronic files, and counties gain efficiency by getting away from handling paper. Statements are saved on the site and can be easily retrieved for up to seven (7) years. Statements are available for customer service and are never lost or misplaced.
Public-private participation has been a key part of the development process, and has helped create a system that meets the needs of both.
“At every step, the Assessors and Coordinating Assessor have worked collaboratively with job providers to make sure this product is useful for the end user – the taxpayers of California.”
Carl Guardino, President and CEO, Silicon Valley Manufacturing Group
The setup steps included the establishment of a statewide agreement to provide for cost sharing and ongoing systems operations. The system concept and development was managed by the Orange County Assessor, Webster Guillory.
Webster J. Guillory, Orange County Assessor
and SDR/Network Group Coordinating Assessor
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