Pay.gov forms February 2022

[One Eight D]

Hi all,

Looks like the forms at Pay.gov have a new look this month?  Anyone know what's up?

Cheers, Alex

[Jedd Haas]

It seems the TTB has taken a big step backward in usability. Now you have to enter the data, and then render the PDF. Data from the previous month also wasn't carried over, which led to a few glitches as I figured out the new system. 

I have a hypothesis as to the reason for the change. Many years ago, I needed some previously filed forms that were lost (long story). TTB was able to retrieve them, but instead of getting the actual forms, I received a tabular layout of the data similar to the new data entry scheme that was implemented on pay.gov.

So it appears that it was changed to make it more convenient for TTB and less convenient for us. Entering the data directly on the form was much easier. On top of that, there are some other annoying new "features."

1. Decimal points don't line up in the columns. They didn't line up correctly on the previous forms, but it seems worse now.

2. Totals are rounded to one decimal place (tenth of a proof gallon). This could potentially lead to errors down the line. Perhaps this means that TTB thinks that one decimal place of accuracy is close enough. One decimal place rounding is on the Storage form, but not the Processing form, which retains 2 decimal place calculation.

[brokenarrow1560]

This happened to me also. Thought something was wrong at pay.gov.

I backed out of the system entirely and am waiting for a response from ttb.

Maybe we should all go back to mailing in out reports and see how they feel about that!

[RBDistiller]

I commend them for trying because a change is needed, but this was not it... 

[kkbodine]

Just got in and what a pain it now is. Thanks for nothing TTB.

[Silk City Distillers]

I had it down to an art, it was so quick to get reports in, and that included cross-checking against the previous month's forms.

Took at least twice as long, but this was the first time through.  I did notice, there are actually more validations than previously existed, including across multi-page forms (like processing) the did not exist previously.  Perhaps it might catch more mistakes up front?

 

[Foreshot]

I think it's slightly better than before. Once we get used to it it should be fine. I messed up one form and had to immediately submit an amended form. I do like the PDF preview, that is nice.

Things I found:

Denaturing Report 5110.43- Displays full state name. Signed date is the day after submittal. Continue button does not ask for confirmation. This is bad for accidentally hitting it.

Processing report 5110.28- Doesn't ask for EIN. Signed date is the day after submittal. Continue button does not ask for confirmation.

Production Report 5110.4- Displays full state name. Pennsylvania doesn't fit on the PDF display. It displays "Pennsylvan". Displays DSP Plant number without the "DSP-" prefix. Other reports do. Signed date is the day after submittal. Continue button does not ask for confirmation.

Storage Report 5110.11- Signed date is the day after submittal. Continue button does not ask for confirmation.