Creating a Landmark Auxiliary File

Landmark Auxiliary file requirements

The Landmark Auxiliary file requirements include:

• The file must be a fixed-width text file: On Windows, the text file must be ASCII
• The file must have a .gax extension on Windows
• The file must have less than 500,000 records
• The file must follow the column field order and lengths specified in Landmark File Layout.

Record types

You can include two types of records in your Landmark Auxiliary file: Landmark and Street Records.

A Landmark record represent a single site. To be a valid landmark record, the record must have the following fields:

• ZIP Code
• Name of the landmark - placed in the street name field
• Beginning latitude of the landmark
• Beginning longitutde of the landmark

In addition, a Landmark record may NOT have the following fields:

• Street type abbreviation
• Pre-directional abbreviation
• Post-directional abbreviation
• Low house number
• High house number

A Street record contains a range of one or more addresses on a street. To be a valid street record the record must have the following fields:

• ZIP Code
• Street name
• Street type abbreviation, if part of the address
• Pre-directional abbreviation, if part of the address
• Post-directional abbreviation, if part of the address
• Low house number within the street segment
• High house number within the street segment
• Beginning longitude of the street segment
• Beginning latitude of the street segment

In addition, a Street record may NOT have the following fields:

• Secondary address information, such as unit numbers
• Mailstops
• Private mail boxes (PMBs)

During processing ignores any record that does not comply with the preceding requirements.

Landmark Auxiliary file organization

You must comply with the following organizational rules when creating your Landmark Auxiliary file.

• Use semicolons in the first column to indicate a row is a comment, not a data record; Spectrum Enterprise Tax ignores rows that begin with a semicolon.
• Order the records within the file by descending ZIP Code then descending street name for optimal performance.
• All records must represent one or both sides of a street.
• All records must represent segments that are straight lines. Records cannot represent a non-straight segment.
• If house numbers are present in the record, the house number range must be valid according to USPS rules documented in Publication 28.
• The numeric fields, such as ZIP Codes, must contain all numbers.
• Latitude and longitude values must be in millionths of decimal degrees.
• Records cannot contain PO Box addresses.

Default values

Spectrum Enterprise Tax uses the following defaults if you do not include the values in the Landmark Auxiliary file:

• House number parity = B (both odds and evens)
• Segment direction = F (forward) or A (ascending), these are interchangeable.
• Side of street = U (unknown)

Landmark Auxiliary file layout

Matching to the Landmark Auxiliary file

Spectrum Enterprise Tax performs the following steps when matching an input address to a Landmark Auxiliary file.

1. Spectrum Enterprise Tax determines if there is a Landmark Auxiliary file present. If more than one Landmark Auxiliary file is present, Spectrum Enterprise Tax attempts to match against the first file. Spectrum Enterprise Tax ignores any additional Landmark Auxiliary files for matching, regardless if Spectrum Enterprise Tax found a match to the first auxiliary file.

   If a record within the Landmark Auxiliary files is invalid, Spectrum Enterprise Tax returns a message indicating the auxiliary file has an invalid record. Spectrum Enterprise Tax continues to process input addresses against the Landmark Auxiliary file, but will not match to the invalid auxiliary file record.

2. If the Landmark Auxiliary file is present, Spectrum Enterprise Tax first attempts to match to it. If more than one type of auxiliary file is present, the search order is:
   • Landmark Auxiliary file
   • User Auxiliary file
   • State-supplied file
   • GeoTAX Auxiliary file
   Note: Spectrum Enterprise Tax only matches your input address to your Landmark Auxiliary file if there is an exact match. Therefore, your input address list should be as clean as possible; free of misspellings and incomplete addresses.
3. If Spectrum Enterprise Tax finds an exact record match to the Landmark Auxiliary file, it standardizes the match to USPS regulations and returns the output of the auxiliary file match.
   Note: You cannot update the Landmark Auxiliary file while Spectrum Enterprise Tax is running. If you want to update the auxiliary file, you need to stop Spectrum Enterprise Tax before attempting to replace or edit the file.

Record type matching rules

When attempting a match against the Landmark Auxiliary file, GeoTAX abides by the following rules:

Landmark record match

• The input data must contain both a ZIP Code and address line, and they must exactly match the values on the auxiliary record.
• The input address cannot have any other data, such as a house number, unit number, or Private Mail Box (PMB).

Street record match

• The input house number must fall within or be equal to the low and high house number values of the auxiliary record.
• The input house number must agree with the parity of the auxiliary record.
• The input ZIP Code must exactly match the ZIP Code of the auxiliary record.