There are several steps that must be completed in order to start recording documents electronically. These high-level steps include:

• Complete the Letter Of Intent required by the California Attorney General's ERDS Program Office. (Counties)
• Obtain a board resolution authorizing the county to participate in the electronic recording process. (Counties)
• Establish an MOU with CeRTNA to participate in the electronic recording process. (Counties)
• Obtain hardware that will be dedicated to transporting electronic recording transactions. (Counties / Agents-Submitters)
• Identify individuals that will have a 'Secure Access' role and complete the Department of Justice (DOJ) fingerprint and background check process. (Counties / Agents-Submitters)
• Electronic Recording Delivery System (ERDS) to local system integration. (Counties / Agent-Submitters)
• Create County ERDS Operating Procedures document. (Counties)
• APEX installation. (Counties / Agent-Submitters)
• Initial DOJ ERDS audit. (Counties)
• Initial ERDS workstation audit. (Agent-Submitters)
• Training. (Counties / Agent-Submitters)

Each of these high-level steps are documented in the following paragraphs:

Each year, the California Attorney General's office distributes a letter to all California County Recorders, to identify the California counties that will be participating in the electronic recording process for the upcoming calendar year. This communication includes a Letter Of Intent (to participate) form that must be completed and returned by each California County Recorder. The Letter Of Intent initiates a process for determining the annual fee that is paid to the Attorney General's ERDS Program office and for establishing an MOU between the County Recorder and the Attorney General's ERDS Program office.

For additional information about the Letter Of Intent or the ERDS Program, you can contact the Attorney General's ERDS Program Office by clicking this Contact Form link.

Counties must obtain a board resolution before they can start recording documents electronically. CeRTNA can provide a template resolution document to help get you started.

The DOJ Electronic Recording Delivery System (ERDS) regulations state that ERDS workstations must be sole-purpose. This means that those workstations are used only for the purpose of electronic recording. Depending on your availability requirements, you will need to purchase one or more computer workstations. Counties that plan to process Government To Government (G2G) transactions will need a second workstation to transport the G2G transactions and the G2G workstation can serve as a failover option should the primary ERDS workstation fail. Agent-Submitters should also consider acquiring and certifying a secondary workstation to ensure uninerrupted access to the CeRTNA ERDS.

Workstation specifications are documented in CeRTNA's APEX HW & OS Requirements document, which is available to registered users on the CeRTNA Wiki.

Individuals that will be responsible for transporting electronic recording transactions must complete a fingerprint and background check process, along with some additional forms. The following sections outlines the process for adding individuals to CeRTNA's ERDS platform.

IMPORTANT: It can take approximately 3-4 weeks to receive the Secure Access approval letter once your LiveScan process is completed. The completed LiveScan form (BCIA 8016 ERDS) form and approval letter are included in the application package that is submitted to the DOJ, by CeRTNA, when adding a county to the CeRTNA ERDS platform.

The CeRTNA ERDS platform uses a shared folder in the clients local evironment to exchange transaction files. (CeRTNA Standardized XML structures.) How the client puts XML files in the shared folder or picks up XML files from the shared folder is managed by the client.

Counties will need to speak to the vendor that provides their recording/cashiering software application to determine if their vendor supports an electronic recording interface with CeRTNA. Several vendors currently provide a CeRTNA interface, however, some level of vendor specific installation and configuration is typically required. Please contact your recording/cashiering software vendor for additional information about integrating with CeRTNA

Agent-Submitter firms that intend to create CeRTNA Standard XML files and place them in the shared folder will need to review the CeRTNA Systems Integration Guide and the CeRTNA Standardized XML schema definitions to gain an understanding of how to create XML files that can be picked up and delivered to the counties by CeRTNA.

For counties, one of the requirments of the preliminary certification/audit process is to create a County ERDS Operating Procedures Document. CeRTNA can provide a template document that can save you time in completing this step.

Once you have received and installed your ERDS and/or G2G workstation(s), you will need to install CeRTNA's APEX software. APEX is the CeRTNA client-side application that provides the functionality required to transport secure electronic recording transactions between Agent-Submitters and Counties. Additional information about APEX can be viewed in the APEX User Guide which is available to registered users on the CeRTNA Wiki.

Before a county can start e-recording, they must receive a certification number from the DOJ. In order to receive a certification number the county must complete an initial audit that is conducted by a DOJ certified security auditor. The security auditor will review the various documents, some that have already been referenced in this Getting Started With Electronic Recording document. These include:

• A County Board Resolution document.
• A list of users authorized for a 'secure-access' role.
• A County Operating Procedures document.
• A high-level network diagram that shows the major connections between the ERDS workstation and the Internet (CeRTNA). High-level can be characterized as ERDS workstation –> Network Switch –> Router –> County Firewall –> Internet. There is no need to know if you have 10 switches in the rack or 5 routers in the network. Just the high-level connection points. List the Manufacturer, Model, and OS or IOS versions for the components shown on the diagram.
• A completed/clean Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer (MBSA) report.
• Additionally a visual inspection of the premises and the area where the ERDS workstation resides will take place. In the case of a remote audit, a county will be asked to complete a questionairre and provide photographs of different areas of the premises.
• An audit of ERDS workstations will be completed as well to verify that the ERDS workstation has been configured as outlined in the Preparing For Your System Audit document, which is available to registered users on the CeRTNA Wiki. For remote audits, this audit will be conducted via a web meeting.