Hosted Multi-Tenant Election Management System

Development of a web-based hosted multi-tenant election management system developed to Canada and Ontario legal standards and requirements. This system shall: * Provide a facility to record and maintain a record of individuals, companies and unions (contact information, address, city, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.) * Provide a way to indicate relationships between entities (for example, Joe Smith is Bob Smith's brother; Tom Taylor is an employee of XYZ Company) * Provide accounting and financial recordkeeping for donations, associated to individuals or companies or unions. * Provide the ability to issue tax receipts in accordance with Ontario, Canada recordkeeping requirements. * Provide a method of keeping track of requests for lawn signs, including maintaining the status of requests (i.e. requested, deployed, recovered, etc.) as well as the quantity of signs and their style (i.e. 2 small signs and 1 large sign). * Provide the capability of producing the following reports: * Signs yet to be deployed * Donations over $100 * Canvasser Result Recording Sheets (lists names, addresses, etc. for particular locations and provides space for notes) The system shall be developed as a hosted solution which will be run by the project owner. All server-level resources will be maintained by the project owner. The system shall be developed in such a manner that multiple parties/campaigns can be operated on the system at the same time and the data will remain separate. For example, Party ABC's data should not be able to access Party XYZ's data in any way, shape or form. Database to operate on Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or higher. Preferred development languages are Microsoft ASP.NET or PHP. The application will be hosted on a Windows platform. ## Deliverables The system must meet the requirements described in the high-level overview as well as the following. Further, the system must meet the following requirements dictated by the Government of Ontario: ### Security The electronic database must have controls over access to the system to protect the accuracy, completeness, and integrity of data. Specifically, it must allow: ? only users with an assigned username and password to access the system; ? new database users to be created; ? all users to be uniquely identified within the database; ? roles to be created (for example, CFO or auditor); ? roles to be assigned access to various system functions (for example, contributions, reports, or administration); ? roles to be assigned to electronic database users; ? a system administrator role to be assigned to one or more users; ? user accounts to be designated as inactive, disabling the user's account access; and ? users to change their passwords at their own discretion. ### Transaction history (audit trail) The electronic database must provide an audit trail to allow tracing of all information from the source of each contribution to the tax receipt. Specifically, the electronic database must: ? uniquely identify all transactions (for example, a unique transaction number associated with the transaction, or one or more fields that distinguishes the record from other records in the database); and ? record information on all transactions that are made within the database including: ? the creation of a new record; ? new value of a record being modified; ? old value of a record being modified; ? user who modified the record; ? date and time that the record was modified; and ? description of the task. **Example:** The contributor's name is Jane Doe and she marries John Smith and changes her name; her contributor record must be changed. The old value of the last name field is Doe, and the new value of the last name field is Smith. For audit trail purposes, records must not be deleted from the electronic database, regardless of whether the tax receipt has been issued or if the contribution has been subsequently refunded. Records must be kept in the electronic database to meet *Canada Revenue Agency* requirements. ### Accuracy The electronic database must be designed to enter, maintain, store, and report on records so that these records present a complete and accurate representation of the contribution activities for the registered political party, constituency association, and candidate. In addition to the system access controls described above, it is recommended that the registered political party also consider putting into place the following types of system controls as provided in *Canada Revenue Agency's* *Information Circular (ICO5-1R1): Electronic Record Keeping:* ? input and output controls that ensure the accuracy and security of the information created, received and transmitted; ? processing controls that protect and ensure the integrity of the information processed by the system; ? back-up controls that guarantee the keeping of back-up copies of electronic records, computer programs, system documentation, and the recovery of electronic records in the case of system failure; and ? controls to ensure there is no accidental or intentional editing or deletion of recorded or completed transactions. ### Information recorded in the electronic database Each contributor who makes a contribution must have his or her information recorded once in the electronic database in a contributor record. The contributor record must, in turn, be associated to the contribution information in a contribution record that contains the data for the contribution that was made. Each contributor record must: ? be uniquely identified in the database; ? identify the contributor's name: ? for individuals, the individual's first and last name (last name first); ? for corporations, the corporation's legal name; or ? for trade unions, the trade union's name and local/district if applicable; ? identify the contributor's mailing address; and ? identify the contributor type (individual, corporation, or trade union). Each contribution record must: ? be uniquely identified in the database; ? identify the registered political party, constituency association, or candidate for whom the contribution was made; ? identify if the contribution is an agency contribution; ? identify the type of contribution being made (monetary or goods and services); ? identify the amount of the contribution; ? for an agency contribution, identify each of the amounts allocated to the registered political party, constituency association(s), and/or candidate(s); ? identify the day, month, and year that the contribution was accepted (deposited); and ? identify the contribution period as: ? annual (specifying year); or ? campaign period (specifying particular general election or by-election). ### Validation and controls within the electronic database The electronic database must provide a way for the registered political party, constituency association, or candidate to identify contributions and contributors that are non-compliant with the *Election Finances Act*. Specifically, the electronic database shall allow the party to identify: ? ineligible contributors as defined in the *Election Finances Act* along with any associated contribution records; ? contributors that are duplicated in the electronic database (for example, contributors that have similar names or similar addresses); ? contribution records that are duplicated in the electronic database (for example, records may have the same contributor, on the same date, for the same contribution amount, made to the same registered political party, constituency association, or candidate); and ? contributors that may have exceeded the maximum contribution limits as defined in the *Election Finances Act*. Flagged contributor records and contribution records must be resolved by an electronic database user. The action taken by an electronic database user to resolve flagged contributor records and contribution records (for example, refunded, approved, disapproved) must be recorded. ### Generating tax receipts from the electronic database The electronic database must allow generation of electronic tax receipts for all approved contribution records in the electronic database. The electronic database must allow tax receipts to be generated from the contribution record information stored in the electronic database. The electronic database must record the contribution information that was used to create the tax receipt (tax receipt record). This is to comply with Canada Revenue Agency requirements that require a duplicate copy to be kept. Refer to the *Canada Revenue Agency Policy Statement (CPS-014): Computer-Generated Official Donation Receipts*. Once a tax receipt has been generated, there must not be any changes to that tax receipt record. For audit trail purposes, the electronic database must record the following for each tax receipt generated from the electronic database: ? the electronic database user's identifier in order to determine the user who generated the tax receipt; ? the time, day, month, and year that the tax receipt was generated; and ? the contribution record(s) that was used to generate the tax receipt. The registered political party must use a sequential numbering system to uniquely identify tax receipts issued for the registered political party, constituency associations, and candidates. Based on this sequential numbering system, the electronic database must uniquely identify each tax receipt record. Elections Ontario will not provide the unique sequential numbering system to the registered political party. It is up to the registered political party to develop its own sequential numbering system to uniquely identify the tax receipts issued. The electronic database must generate tax receipts containing the following information: ? a statement that it is an "official receipt for income tax purposes"; ? the name of the registered political party, constituency association or candidate for whom the contribution was made; ? the date of acceptance of the contribution; ? the date the tax receipt was issued; ? the amount of the contribution; ? the name and address of the contributor; ? the signature of an authorized person; ? a unique tax receipt identifier; ? the contributor type (individual , corporation or trade union); ? the contribution type (monetary or goods and services); and ? the registered political party's name (to appear on all tax receipts generated). As long as the tax receipt captures all of the fields required as outlined above, Elections Ontario does not prescribe a specific layout for the tax receipts generated from the electronic database. If the contributor has lost a tax receipt, the electronic database must be able to reprint the tax receipt. No information may be altered from the original tax receipt (including the tax receipt number) and the reprinted tax receipt must say "Copy." The electronic database must have a way to identify the tax receipt as "lost" in the system. If a tax receipt must be cancelled, the electronic database must be able to generate a Cancellation Notice and issue a new tax receipt if required. The new tax receipt must say "This cancels and replaces receipt # [insert the tax receipt number of the cancelled tax receipt]." The electronic database must have a way to identify the original tax receipt as "cancelled" in the system. The electronic database may allow generated electronic tax receipts to be emailed to a contributor. If a tax receipt is emailed to a contributor: ? the tax receipt shall be in a read-only or non-editable format. The recipient contributor must be able to only read and print the tax receipt in accordance with Canada Revenue Agency requirements. Refer to the *Canada Revenue Agency Policy Statement (CPS-014): Computer-Generated Official Donation Receipts*. Some examples of these formats include PDF, BMP, JPEG, and GIF; and ? the electronic database must contain the email address that is being used, which must be associated to the contributor. It is recommended that registered political parties use an electronic signature. This means that the document is encrypted and signed with an electronic signature such as Entrust technology. Refer to the *Canada Revenue Agency Policy Statement (CPS-014): Computer-Generated Official Donation Receipts*. ### Reporting from the electronic database The electronic database must allow reports to be generated from information that is stored in the electronic database. The electronic database must provide sufficient security so that only authorized users are able to generate reports. The electronic database must be able to provide Elections Ontario with the following reports: ? A Tax Receipt Summary report that must: ? list all contributions received by tax receipt number. The report must include tax receipts issued for the registered political party, its constituency associations, and its candidates; and ? be generated by the registered political party and be submitted to Elections Ontario with the financial statements; ? A List of Contributors Whose Contributions Totaled More than $100 report that must: ? be generated by the registered political party and submitted to Elections Ontario with the financial statements. This must be a separate report that accompanies the financial statements provided by the registered political party, its constituency associations, and its candidates. The structure of the reports to be provided to Elections Ontario must comply with Elections Ontario's Contribution Reporting Technical Specifications. This can be obtained upon request to Elections Ontario. There are no changes to the real-time disclosure requirements for contributions. Real-time disclosure requirements still apply only to a registered political party and leadership contestant. Refer to the Contributions section for further details on real-time disclosure requirements. ### Electronic record keeping It is recommended that registered political parties refer to *Canada Revenue Agency's* *Information Circular (ICO5-1R1): Electronic Record Keeping.* The circular covers topics such as retention of records, location of records, record keeping, electronic records management and imaging, business system documentation, audit trail, transaction integrity and security, inspections audits and examinations, etc.