Legislative Tracking System

ASD Business Systems

Community, Trade and Economic Development

Introductory Training

Introduction

LegTrack is an easy and convenient way to follow the progress of legislation in the Washington State Legislature. It uses bill status information obtained directly from the Legislative Service Center (LSC) every two hours during session. This is essentially the same information as the Legislature publishes in the Daily Status Sheet.

Log in to LegTrack

1. Choose your agency from the drop-down list.

2. Enter your assigned user ID and password, then sign on.

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LegTrack Tracking Workbench1. This check indicates an

active bill.

2. Search toolbar.

3. Control buttons.

4. Search results pane.

5. Select a row by clicking on the row indicator. A pointer in the shape of a hand with a finger will appear when you can select the bill. After you click the arrow, the row will turn blue indicating that it is selected. To open the bill click the row indicator an additional time.

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Searching - Quick Search Toggle Buttons

Select the ALL toggle button to retrieve a list of all activated bills.

Select the BOOKMARKED toggle button to retrieve your personal bookmarked list of bills.

Searching – Bill Number or Keyword

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1. Enter either a bill number or a key word in this text box.

2. Click the SEARCH button or press the ENTER key to execute the search.

Administration Functions

Activating a BillActivating a bill is the first step in the tracking process. Once a bill has been activated the agency can begin to collect agency specific data and do team collaboration. In most cases the user may want to first research and review a bill by directly linking to the LSC website before making a decision to activate it. Once the user has activated the bill, there are many more features available. Only administrators and members of the CTED Leadership Team can activate bills.

Activating a Bill - Review

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1. Select the bill of interest by clicking the arrow once. Once selected, click the arrow again to take action on it.

2. To Review the Bill at the LSC website click the Continue button.

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Activating a Bill – LSC Site

A new window is opened and LegTrack automatically navigates the user to the section of the LSC website that contains information on the bill the user has selected for review. Once the user has completed their review they can close this window and return to LegTrack.

Activating a Bill - Activate

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1. Assuming the user wishes to activate the bill, they should change the radio button selection to ACTIVATE BILL.

2. Override any of the default activation tasks.

3. Every bill activated should be classified. This dialog allows the user to choose one classification. Once the bill review form opens, the user will have the option to add additional classifications.

4. Click the ACTIVATE button.

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Deactivate BillsSometimes it will become necessary to deactivate a bill. This should be done with caution because when you deactivate a bill it deletes all of the agency specific data and comments. Only users with administrator privileges are allowed to deactivate.

1. Select the row indicator of the Bill you wish to deactivate. Click the DEACTIVATE button to deactivate the bill.

2. To proceed, click the DEACTIVATE button.

The DON’T DEACTIVATE button will cancel the deactivation.

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Review / Edit Data ScreenOpening a Bill on the Workbench brings you to the Review / Edit Data Screen.

This screen allows the user to perform various functions. In addition it allows the user to link to other bills, and websites.

The information your agency is collecting about the bill has been organized into a series of tabs. Each of them is explained in this section.

Review / Edit Data - Buttons1. If you make any changes

to the bill data, you can press the SAVE button to save the changes into the database immediately. When you close or navigate to a new record, your changes are automatically saved.

2. Click the RELOAD button before pressing the SAVE button to discard any changes made to the bill and load the original saved record from the database.

3. Copy

4. Analysis

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Review / Edit Data - Buttons3. Clicking the COMPANION

link button will toggle back and forth between the bill and its companion.

4. Clicking here will open a window that navigates the user to the LSC site for this bill. This is similar to the REVIEW option we discussed.

5. The PRINT button prints a detailed report for the selected bill.

6. The CLOSE button closes the REVIEW/EDIT screen and returns the user to the tracking workbench screen.

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Review / Edit Data - Buttons7. If OFM Fiscal Notes exist for

this bill, they can be viewed by clicking the SEARCH OFM FISCAL NOTES link button. This will open a new window that navigates the user to fiscal notes for the selected bill.

Note that there may be more than one version of a Fiscal note for different agencies. To view the version for your agency, click the button next to the version.

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OFM Fiscal Note Example

Review / Edit Data – TabsLegTrack automatically loads most of the data on the BILL INFORMATION tab from the LSC database. The fields that are bold labeled are maintained by your agency.

Review / Edit Data – TabsOn the TEAM tab, all team members that are assigned to track a Bill will be shown. All team members added to the list will be automatically added to the team member list for the companion bill (if one exists). In addition, adding team members to the bill will automatically bookmark the bill for the team member. If the team member is enabled for email notification, they will receive a list of all of the newly activated bills where they have been placed on the team each day.

Review / Edit Data – TabsAll of the data on the WATCH tab is maintained by your agency. The WATCH tab collects data about stakeholders, bill type classifications, the agencies position, priority and what action may be needed. The associated RCW’s for that bill can also be viewed here.

Advanced Filter – Apply Filter Screen

1. The user may set up their own personal RCW Watch List.

2. To use the Watch List in a filter check USE RCW WATCHLIST.

3. To add new RCWs to the watch list, press the ADD RCW TO LIST link button.

To delete RCWs from the watch List press the delete button.

To edit an RCW in the watch list, press the edit button.

4. Clicking the REPORT link button will generate the RCW watch list report.

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RCW Report Example

Review / Edit Data – TabsThe HEARING Tab allows monitoring of the current hearing schedule and a method for users to historically track each instance of who attended or monitored hearings.

Review / Edit Data – TabsThe NOTES tab is used to record opinions, observations, and recommendations concerning the bill you have selected. Anyone can enter comments. These comments are visible to everyone in your agency and cannot be altered except by the comment originator. The comments are automatically sent through email to other team members or users who have bookmarked the bill and have email notification turned on. Users with instant email notification will receive the message hourly otherwise it will be in their end of day email. These comments can also be included on reports.

Review / Edit Data – TabsThe MANAGER tab is only visible to team members who have been granted management security by the administrator. It works the same as the NOTES tab.

Review / Edit Data – TabsThe STATUS tab shows a chronological history of status changes. The status collection begins from the date that the bill is activated. When the status changes, team members and users who have book marked the bill will be automatically notified through email.

Review / Edit Data – TabsThe ANALYSIS tab contains hyperlinks to documents that have been assembled by your agency and associated with the bill. The documents are associated with the bill by saving them to a designated folder and prefixing the file name with the bill number.

Non-LSC Bills (Z-Drafts)The system allows users to put bills into the system that do not exist in the LSC system. These types of LegTrack bills will have a status of Z-Draft. They will contain mostly the same features and information as a regular LSC bill. Your agency will populate the data elements that are typically populated by LSC. The data entered for one of these bills can be shifted to an LSC bill when it enters the LSC system.

Non-LSC Bills (Z-Drafts) - Creating1. Press the NEW button.

2. Give the Z–Draft a bill number. It can have the same number as an LSC bill. The system will know the difference between the Z-Draft and the LSC bill.

3. Click the CREATE button.

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Non-LSC Bills (Z-Drafts) - EditingThe Z-Draft is capable of collecting all of the same information as the LSC Bill. The only difference is you enter it manually rather than LSC. The Review / Edit screen is used for this purpose. For more information on the Review / Edit screen, see that section of this manual.

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1. Your agency has the flexibility to choose how they will use the fields on this screen.

2. A Z-Draft can be shifted to an LSC tracked bill by using the COPY feature. You will notice that the COPY button is only enabled on a Z-Draft. This task can only be done by users with the Administrator security role.

Non-LSC Bills (Z-Drafts) - Editing

1. Text boxes that are maintained by your agency will be overwritten (i.e. expanded narrative).

2. The data in each of the data grid lists will not be overwritten. New items will be added to the list of the target bill.

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When copying a Z-Draft to a LSC Bill there are, two general rules.

Non-LSC Bills (Z-Drafts) – Transferring to LSC Bill

1. Click the COPY button on the Review/ Edit Data Screen.

2. Enter the target LSC bill that will receive the data from the Z-Draft version of the bill. The bill number must exist and be active in LegTrack. Click the CONTINUE button to proceed.

3. The system will give you one chance to confirm your choice before completing the copy. There is no way to undo the results of a copy! Click the COPY button to proceed.

You will receive a confirmation that the data was copied successfully. Press OK.

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Non-LSC Bills (Z-Drafts) - Confirming

1. It is advised that the user confirms that the copy was successful by opening the Bill and reviewing the Review / Edit Data Form.

2. Take note that although different data may have been entered into fields such as the short and long title, they will not be overwritten because those fields are updated from the LSC site.

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Reports

LegTrack produces three types of printed reports. From the Workbench screen, search for an activated bill by keyword or bill number. Select the bill from the list of search results, then click on the Reports button.

A pop up window will appear with Reporting options.

Detail Report

The detailed report contains a detailed summary of all aspects of the Bill. We discussed this in the REVIEW/EDIT Bill data section.

Detail Report

Executive SummaryThe executive summary report summarizes important information about several bills at once. The default version includes all bills you have bookmarked. You have the option of including all active bills, or using a “filter” to include only bills that meet customized criteria. It’s important to note that the EXECUTIVE SUMMARY report is for ACTIVE BILLS only. If a filter retrieves both ACTIVE & INACTIVE bills, the INACTIVE bills will be omitted from the report. The default output is a PDF file but you also have the ability to export the report to Microsoft Word or Excel. Below we will discuss each of the options for this report.

Executive Summary

Hearing Schedule

The hearing schedule report displays the published hearing schedule for activated bills within a specified date range.

BA Roles

Hearing Schedule

Bill AnalysisIn ANALYSIS mode, the user has the ability to do Bill Analysis assignment, tracking, and reporting. To create a Bill Analysis the user must have the BA Agency Coordinator security role assigned to them by an Administrator.

Bill Analysis – Starting New1. Search for a bill needing a bill

analysis by entering a title or bill number. Remember the bill must be activated in order to create a bill analysis assignment.

2. Select and open the bill.

3. Click the ANALYSIS button to switch to ANALYSIS mode.

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Bill Analysis - Creating1. To begin you must enter a

version identifier.

2. Click the CREATE button.

3. The new version of the bill analysis has been added to the Version drop down list. Each new version created for the bill will exist in this list.

4. While the status is DRAFT, no other user can see the ANALYSIS.

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Bill Analysis - Assigning

Once the assignment takes place, the team members will be notified via internet email and be directed to the next step.

1. Optionally a comment can be entered which will appear in the log for team members to view.

2. Click the ASSIGN button to start the process

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Bill Analysis – Email NotificationsThis email was sent to Brian Myhre who is the division coordinator for the division 100 bill analysis. Each person that was assigned to the Bill Analysis will receive an email.

1. Notice that the above emails contains a hyperlink. To act on the notification, the user simply clicks the hyperlink. When the user clicks the link, they will first be prompted to sign in. The user enters their password and clicks the SIGN IN button. Users will receive emails throughout each step of the process.

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Bill Analysis – Acknowledging1. Initially Brian who is the division

coordinator is assigned to do both the preparation and review. Brian can simply Acknowledge the assignment or reassign it.

2. In this example, Brian who is the division coordinator has assigned the bill analysis to Laura Watson for preparation. Kate Hiembach has been assigned to do the review.

3. An optional comment can be entered that will appear in the log for the other members of the bill analysis team too see.

4. The last step is to press ACKNOWLEDGE. This will notify Laura and the Agency Coordinator by email.

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Practice

Bill Analysis – Preparation1. This pane on the left is a

navigation and progress indicator. As each step is completed, a check mark will appear next to the step number. To jump to a specific step the user can click on the hyperlink and the wizard will go directly to that question.

2. To begin the interview, click the NEXT STEP link button.

3. Notice that after clicking the NEXT STEP link, we are now on question number one.

4. Answer each interview question as requested. The system will logically skip questions that are not applicable.

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Bill Analysis – Error CheckingThe preparer is always required to complete the error checking step prior to completing the assignment and sending it to the reviewer. After answering all of the questions, the following screen will be displayed.

1. Click the NEXT STEP LINK

2. Notice that there are no errors.

3. Click the NEXT STEP LINK.

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Bill Analysis – Error CheckingIf any of the questions in the Wizard are left blank the system will show that it found a potential error. It is not necessary to fix the potential error. It is just to warn the user.

1. If the error needs to be fixed the user can press the Go link to be redirected to the error.

2. Notice that error checking has been invalidated again and needs to be run before returning this to the reviewer. Any change causes this error checking step to be reset. Run error check again by pressing the Error Checking link.

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Bill Analysis – SavingIf you are in the middle of working on an Interview, meaning you have not printed or ran an error check, and you will be leaving your desk longer than 20 minutes you should save your work.

1. Click the SAVE link button to force the save operation to run.

2. If the save operation is successful, this message will be displayed.

3. You may also Click the CLOSE link button to exit without saving.

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Bill Analysis – Completing Preparation

After the error check is complete and the preparer clicks next, they will be returned to the BASIC INFORMATION screen. This is the step that notifies the REVIEWER that the preparation is complete and ready for their review.

1. Optionally enter a comment that will be placed in the log for the reviewer.

2. Click the COMPLETE button.

A Bill Analysis completion notification will be sent out to the Reviewer with a link to review the Analysis.

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Bill Analysis – Returning

If the reviewer determines that a bill assignment needs additional work completed they can easily return it to the preparer.

1. Optionally enter a comment that will be placed into the log.

2. Click the RETURN button and the bill analysis assignment will be sent back to the preparer.

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Bill Analysis – Approve

At the division level, the assignment is approved by the division coordinator. Once approved, the assignment will no longer be in the division coordinators work queue. The agency coordinator will be notified.

1. Kate clicks the APPROVE button.

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Bill Analysis - Complete

All divisions must approve their bill analysis. If any are not complete, the agency coordinator cannot do the final completion.

1. Click the complete button to finalize the bill analysis.

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Bill Analysis – Notes

1. Notice that a comment has been entered into the notes tab on the bill review form. This comment will be sent to all users that have the bill bookmarked in their end of day email or if they have it hot bookmarked it will be sent on the hourly update.

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Bill Analysis – Work Flow DiagramThe diagram below depicts the combined workflow capabilities of the LegTrack system.

Practice

Bill Analysis – Adding DivisionsEach analysis must have at least one division assignment. The division is derived by selecting a team member that is assigned to the division. Typically the agency coordinator will assign the bill analysis to a team member that performs the function of the division coordinator.

1. Click the NEW DIVISION ANALYSIS link button at the bottom of the data grid. This will create a new entry in the data grid.

2. In this example, two divisions have been given assignments that are due on 1/15/05.

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Bill Analysis – Agency Rollup

Usually when there is more than one division assignment, it is necessary to combine them into a single agency rollup.

1. Notice that the Sam Wentz is responsible for the division 600 bill analysis and also the agency rollup. The CHECK in the column labeled AGENCY ANALYSIS is what separates the division and agency analysis.

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Other Features:

-Print

-View Com

-See Answers

Bill Analysis – Printing

The default output for a bill analysis is PDF. Options exist for printing to a Microsoft Word or Excel file.

1. Click the PRINT link button.

2. To overwrite the output, choose the alternate medium from the drop down list.

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Bill Analysis – PDF Output

Bill Analysis - Research

Notice that the bill number, version, and division id are enabled as a hyperlink. This link will open a new window and direct you to the LSC site for the associated bill.

1. Click this link to access the bill information at the LSC site.

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Bill Analysis – Comments/Status Log

1. Click the VIEW COMMENTS AND STATUS LOG to see the historical record.

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Bill Analysis - OverviewThe overview displays the high level view of each individual division assignment. Here the users can see the status for each division. This is especially useful for the agency coordinator or the team member responsible for completing the agency rollup.

1. Note that the division 100 bill analysis has been RECEIVED and assigned to Kate for review.

2. Note that the division 600 bill analysis has been assigned to Sam but he has not acknowledged it yet so the status is still ASSIGNED.

3. Clicking the blue arrow will bring you to the details of the bill analysis.

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Bill Analysis – Work QueueEach team member involved in bill analysis assignment processing has their own work queue. This is how users know which assignments are pending. The list may include work assigned to you or work that you have assigned to another user.

1. Clicking WORK QUEUE gives a user their personalized list.

2. Clicking ALL shows every bill analysis your agency has, at any status for the entire legislative session.

3. To open a Bill Analysis select a row indicator. Once selected click an additional time.

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Bill Analysis – Searching

1. Enter a key word and any analysis for bills with the key word in the bill title will be listed.

2. For a title search be sure to select TITLE before searching.

3. For a bill number search be sure to select BILL NO before searching.

4. Click the SEARCH button or press enter.

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Bill Analysis – Advanced Filter1. To access the advanced

filter options, click the filter button.

2. Enter filter settings or select from the drop down list.

3. Click Apply filter.

The filter settings are applied and each bill analysis that matches your criteria is listed and will be displayed in the results pane of the Work Queue.

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Bill Analysis – Print Work QueueA print feature exists for printing your work queue or search results. The printed output shows the details of each division analysis. This is a useful feature for the agency coordinator, and any team members responsible for agency rollup analysis. This report shows them the status across all other divisions responsible for a division analysis.

Bill Analysis – Deleting a Version

This is permanent! Note that only the BA Coordinator role can do the delete operation. To delete the bill analysis version, first select it.

1. Select the version from the drop down list.

2. Click the DELETE link button.

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Bill Analysis – Copy VersionThis is a useful feature that works in a similar fashion as the COPY THIS VERSION except it allows the user to copy it to a completely independent bill. It can only be run on a COMPLETED bill analysis. It’s great for copying the bill analysis to a companion bill.

1. Select the SOURCE version you want to copy from

2. Click the COPY TO Link button to start the process.

3. Enter a bill number and version.

4. Click the copy button

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Preparing Fiscal Notes

Miscellaneous InformationDue to increased demands on the web application server, it has become important to enforce an inactivity timeout period. Currently that timeout is set to 20 minutes. Take note that ACTIVITY is defined as clicking a button or a link that performs an action that sends and receives data to and from the web server.

When you see this message, simply click the OK button. This simulates activity and resets the timer to the beginning of a new interval (currently 20 minutes). In the event that you have left your machine and were not available to click the OK button, when you return and do click the button, timeout will take place and you will be asked to SIGN INTO the system again. At least you know that it has timed out, and you will not do unnecessary work.

Q: Drive/Hyperlinks

End of Training

Thank You for Using ASD Business Systems!

 

 

 

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Table of Contents

Bookmark a Bill

An alternate method of Bookmarking a bill is to open the bill and click on the Bill Information tab. Then click on the Bookmark checkbox.

You can Bookmark a bill from the workbench by selecting the bill in the results pane and pressing the bookmark button. The Bill must be active.

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E-mail Notifications

Ordinarily, when you bookmark a bill you will receive automatic e-mail notifications whenever a bill changes status, or someone adds a new comment about that bill. The e-mail will arrive at the end of the day. All your LegTrack notifications will ordinarily come bundled in one e-mail each day. All staff listed as Team Members will get the same e-mail notifications.

If a bill is of very high priority, you can request hourlye-mail notification of status changes and new comments. Click on the checkbox next to Instant E-Mail to activate.

Please note that Hearing Schedule updates are sent hourly.

Browse a Group of BillsBrowsing will save you time. Instead of opening one bill at a time, it’s easier to click the BROWSE button and use the navigation controls on the REVIEW/EDIT screen to review each bill record.

1. First search for the set of bills you want to browse. Remember that browsing is for examining activated bills. In the event that your search retrieves bills that are not activated, they will be excluded from the set of browse records.

2. Click the BROWSE button to open the REVIEW/EDIT form in browse mode.

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Browse a Group of Bills

Move to the first record.

You will Browse records on the Review/Edit form. We will review this in much more detail soon.

Move 1 record back.

Current record

indicator

Move 1 record

forward.

Move to the last record.

Advanced FilterAdvanced filtering allows users to specify more criteria than title or bill number in their searches. Multiple criteria can be combined into a single search.

1. To access the advanced filter settings, click the FILTER button.

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Advanced Filter – Apply Filter Screen

1. The user may enter Filter criteria into text boxes, or choose values from the drop down lists.

2. The user may set a filter on multiple bill type classifications by simply holding down the CTRL key on the keyboard while clicking their selections with their mouse.

3. Press APPLY FILTER to execute the query and retrieve search results.

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Filter Search Results

1. Notice that the FILTER ON message indicates that the search list has a filter applied.

2. Clicking either the ALL OR BOOKMARKED button removes your filter and sets the search list back to ALL bills or BOOKMARKED bills.

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