As you may or may not know, the Avitar Clerk/MV program has a configuration option that you can set within your municipality to determine whether the system will automatically populate the next available decal for each vehicle, as opposed to you having to manually type the decal number. Unfortunately, recently on at least two occasions, clerks did not confirm they were issuing from the corresponding pack of decals. So the default decal number populated by the system and submitted by the user to MAAP did not agree with the decals physically attached to the registration. As a result, DMV has asked us to contact you so that you disable the Default Decal feature within the software. A summary of the feature and instructions on how to turn it off are below.

The Avitar Clerk/MV system tracks the batch of inventory decals assigned to each user. When the Default Decal option is enabled, the system populates the value in the “Decal#/Yr” text box with the next decal in the sequence, depending on the year of the current registration. Ideally, this feature eliminates the need to manually type the decal number, as well as the errors which can result from manual typing. However, if the user doesn’t visually confirm that the default decal populated initially by the system and subsequently submitted by the user to MAAP corresponds with the physical decals being given to the vehicle owner, then registrations are wrong and must be corrected.

Consequently, DMV has requested that we contact you to inform you that this feature is to be turned off. As it was related to us, DMV “want[s] the clerks to verify what decals/plates that they are giving to their customers.”

If your system does not currently default to the next available decal then you don’t have to change anything. Otherwise, to disable the Default Decal option, select Utilities | System Administration | System Options. Within the System Settings dialog box, click on the Motor Vehicle Settings tab, uncheck the box labeled Default Decals, and save your changes. If other users are currently using the system, you should instruct them to select File | Renew System Settings to load the new system configuration. Or alternatively, they can close the program and the change will be reflected the next time they start the program.

If you have questions about either the request itself or how to comply let us know.