The county pulled an InvoiceCloud payment portal rollout after staff discovered the vendor was not integrated with the county’s specific PACS tax software. Treasurer Jen White said the county went live with InvoiceCloud in 2023 but withdrew the service after three to four months because online balances and prior-year penalty calculations did not sync correctly.

Treasurer White told the finance committee that the vendor’s integration worked with a number of county systems but not with the county’s PACS implementation—identified in the discussion as “PACS Washington”—which prevented accurate online balance displays and proper handling of prior-year interest and penalties. The county had been manually exporting files from PACS and importing them into InvoiceCloud to keep online displays current; that stopgap created delays and caused items to disappear from the vendor’s lists once paid, which confused taxpayers.

White said InvoiceCloud has since been negotiating with PACS Washington and assigned a tax-specialist on the vendor side; the vendor is working on code changes and plans an on-site visit. InvoiceCloud also proposed changes to rates and fees after negotiation; the county reported the vendor revised earlier quoted fees (originally high, in staff’s view) down to terms that match current county pricing: approximately 2.5% or a comparable fee structure for card transactions, no portal fees and free point-of-sale equipment for counters under the renegotiated terms.

White emphasized the potential customer-service benefits if the product can be fully integrated: consolidated account linking for taxpayers with multiple properties, one-click payment options like Apple Pay and Google Pay, PDF statement viewing, one-click autodraft, improved e-notice and delinquent notice options, the ability to intercept bill-payer checks and convert them to ACH, and retail payment partners for in-person payments. She said the vendor now aims for a relaunch around next tax season pending technical fixes.

Ending: Staff will continue to work with InvoiceCloud and PACS Washington to achieve a functioning integration and will resume the service only after tests demonstrate accurate balance and penalty handling and acceptable commercial terms.