Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry

Construction Codes and Licensing Division

Building Codes and Standards
443 Lafayette Road N., St. Paul, MN 55155-4341
Phone: (651) 284-5068 Fax: (651) 284-5749
www.doli.state.mn.us TTY: (651) 297-4198

Annual Expense Report

Minnesota Statute 16B.685 requires that each municipality annually report by June 30 all construction
and development-related fees collected by the municipality from developers, builders, and subcontractors
if the cumulative fees collected exceeded $5,000 in the reporting year. The report must include: (1) the
number and valuation of units for which fees were paid; (2) the building permit fees and plan review fees;
and, (3) the expenses associated with the municipal activities for which fees were collected.

Overview

The Annual Expense Report must be submitted annually to Building Codes and Standards. The process
involves three basic steps:
• Download the form from the Building Codes and Standards Web site.
• Complete the form and save a copy on your own computer
• E-mail the completed document to Building Codes and Standards.

Using these procedures requires the use of Microsoft Word (version 2000 or greater) and Microsoft
Outlook (version 2000 or greater).

Before opening the Word document, security settings on your

computer must be properly set or the document cannot be properly
used. See Setting Security below for instructions.

The instructions for completing the form are available on the Building Codes and Standards Web site. The
form is a Microsoft Word document formatted as a ‘fill-in’ form. Because the form contains a command
button causing a small amount of code to be executed, the security settings for Microsoft Explorer must
be properly set prior to downloading the form.

Setting Security

By default, Microsoft Explorer is installed with the highest level of security set in order to minimize the
risk of running unauthorized programs on your computer. By changing the security setting, the operator
can allow authorized programs to be downloaded and executed. This section describes the procedures for
changing security so that the form will work properly after downloading. Follow the steps described
below:

1. Open Microsoft Word

2. For Word 2000

a. Select Tools>Macro>Security
b. The following dialog box is displayed:

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 c. To set the Security Level, click the “Medium” option and click the “OK” button. The
dialog box will close and you may proceed with downloading the form.

Saving the Form

Once the link below is used, the current form will minimize, either save, print, or minimize and
maximize between both forms for ease of use.

Download the Form

1. First finish reading these Procedures for Generating the Annual Report.
2. Download the interactive Word version of the Annual Report form from the Web site:
Direct link: http://www.doli.state.mn.us/docs/bc_ec016_mcdreport_9_21.doc
Or, from the Web site home page:
www.doli.state.mn.us/buildingcodes.html - (left column) Specialty Services - Local
Government Services/Reports/Forms – Annual Expense Report.
3. The following dialog box will be displayed. Click on the “Yes” button. The Annual Reporting
form will then be displayed as a Word document. If the dialog box does not appear the Security
Settings may have been set incorrectly.

Completing the Form

The form will open with the cursor in the first field. Move the cursor from field to field by pressing the
tab key or clicking on the field where data is to be entered. In those fields where dollar amounts are
entered, the amount should be entered to the nearest whole dollar. Do not enter cents.

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The amount fields have been initialized with a zero value. When entering data, please make sure the zero
value is deleted when an entry is made in the field. (To aid in the process, choose the Tools>Options menu
item in Microsoft Word. Select the Edit tab and check “Typing Replaces Selection” option on the dialog
box.)

Generate the Email

After data entry is complete, select the menu item File> Save As. Save the document in a folder and user
name defined by the person filling out the document.

Click the “Gen Email” button in the lower right corner of the form displayed on the screen. The system
will automatically generate an email using Microsoft Outlook. The email will be displayed with a Sender
Name and a Subject as well as a Microsoft Word attachment containing the Annual Report document just
completed.

Complete the process by clicking on the “Send” button on the Outlook toolbar. The email containing
report will be on its way and the Outlook window will close returning you to the annual reporting form in
Word.

If as described above, you do not save the document before clicking the Gen Email button, the following
message box is displayed as a reminder that the step needs to be taken. Click OK and proceed with saving
the document as described above.

Saving the downloaded form locally

In some cases, you may wish to save the fill-in form on your local drive rather downloading from the web
site each time it will be used. The following paragraphs describe using the form from the local drive.
(Note: Using the downloaded form is recommended)

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After the form is downloaded from the website and before data has been entered, the Word fill-in form
may be saved to the local drive and used as the source for generating forms in the future. Using ordinary
procedures for saving Word documents, save the document in an appropriate folder on the local drive
using an appropriate name for the document (e.g., MCDRFillIn).

When opening a form that has been saved to the local drive, the following message will be displayed if
the security in Word has been properly set.

Click on the “Read Only” button and the following message will appear.

Click on the “Enable Macros” button and proceed with data entry.

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