Anyone tried SmartVault for Lacerte/Proseries yet?

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#1
Riki_EA  
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118
Joined:
22-Apr-2014 1:57pm
Location:
Virginia
Hi all,
A few days ago I signed up for the SmartVault for Proseries trial. Our firm is a longtime user of Proseries DMS. I had been very impressed at the webinar, and looked forward to trying it out. I knew that I would have to wait to do the DMS import, but wanted to get familiar with the system. I'm not bothered by it being cloud based as we can back up the virtual drive locally.

Well, I'm about ready to uninstall. I don't think they are ready for prime time. Don't think they had anyone on their team who used Lacerte or Proseries DMS on a daily basis for tax preparation. I was wondering what problems others are having with SmartVault? Here is what I encountered:

1) Installed on the first computer, set up SmartVault drive and portal. Tried to import clients from Proseries, but the window for import just disappears. Checked the training video online. Re-installed SmartVault twice but didn't help; sent in e-mail to support, but still no answer.
2) As a workaround, I printed TY13 tax returns from Proseries to SmartVault, which did set up the client folders. (There was no option to create a client folder without printing a tax return, as with "Send to DMS" in Proseries. So for clients whose tax returns are in process, I printed a tax return but then deleted it.) However, noticed that the tax returns printed with a standard name, but no date stamp. If you print a different version of the tax return again from Proseries, it overwrites the original tax return. With one client, we had two tax returns (one TY13, one short year TY14 using TY13 software), and it made a second client folder. Not sure how it matches tax returns to names in SmartVault; did not appear to match by SSN or EIN as with DMS. May just match to name or e-mail address.
3) Cannot send directly to SmartVault any previous year tax returns. We do a lot of amended and past year returns, so we would have to print to Adobe and cut and paste or drag to the correct folder in SmartVault.
4) Spent several hours trying to research how to change the folder templates in SmartVault. I don't think you can, without going through each client folder separately. Saw a posting online that they plan to add this capability, but not until September at the earliest. We have personalized the templates in DMS and would like to keep the same format.
5) Downloaded the plugin for Outlook. Appeared to run, but no changes appeared in Outlook. Looked online, and FAQ says that it only works for Outlook 2007 and above. We still run Office 2003 (on Windows 7 computers), and I had asked specifically at the webinar in May whether the plugin would work in Outlook 2003 and they assured me that it would work in Outlook 2003. So, I have sent another e-mail into support. Not the biggest issue (we will eventually upgrade), but annoying on top of everything else.
6) Installed SmartVault on a second and third computer. Appeared to install correctly and set up SmartVault drive. However, fired up Proseries and cannot print to SmartVault at all on either- grayed out. Also cannot connect to Proseries to import clients. Sent another e-mail to support. (Up to 3 support tickets already in one day.)
7) Tried to use SmartVault inbox to scan documents. Worked fine, BUT-- could not add additional pages. I use a sheet fed scanner, and ofter scan documents in bunches. It let me double click on the document and add additional pages in Adobe Acrobat, but when I saved, it did not save to SmartVault. When I opened the SmartVault drive, the document was there, but only with the first scan, not the additional pages. (Perhaps I am doing something wrong here.)
8) No "SmartVault PDF Printer" analogous to the "DMS PDF Printer". I use the DMS printer all the time to get documents into DMS. For SmartVault, appears you have to print to Adobe PDF, then drill down through multiple subfolders to save the document in the correct folder on the SmartVault Drive, or, save the file locally and drag it into the SmartVault Inbox.
9) CANNOT print to SmartVault single pages from a Proseries tax return! I often send single pages to DMS (extension, depreciation report, etc.), and there is no way to do this other than to print to Adobe PDF and save it as in #7 above, which takes way more time and effort.
10) Interface is clunky and just like Windows Explorer-- have to click through subfolder after subfolder to get to the right place. You even have to do this in SmartVault Inbox. The DMS interface makes getting to a client super fast-- just start typing the last name in the left pane and you jump to the right client, and can expand all the folders at once to see the documents.
11) Tried out sharing a document through the portal by setting up a mock client folder for myself with my personal e-mail address. No problem getting to the file through the link in the e-mail announcing the document. (Had to set up name, e-mail, and password to set up account in SmartVault.) Was able to download the document. However, later I logged into SmartVault through their main page, and the only folder I could see was the Public Documents folder for my firm. I could not see the folder or document that was shared with me before. Logged out, clicked on the e-mail link, and found the document again. (Public Documents not available on this view.) Tried to upload another document, as a client would submit tax info, and it would not upload! Just got the message "Failed". Looked through the FAQ, tried on my personal computer in case there were conflicting cookies or cache from my work account on SmartVault, and could still not upload any documents.
12) Haven't tried importing our DMS folders and documents into SmartVault, since the utility hasn't yet been released, but not very confident it would import correctly without duplicating clients since I don't think it matches to SSN/EIN.

I am so disappointed because this looked promising. Our preliminary plan is to keep using Proseries DMS until they iron out the problems in SmartVault or if another vendor provides full integration with Intuit Proseries. Figure that we will only lose the capability to Send to DMS directly from Proseries tax year 2014 and forward. We can work around it by selecting the "DMS PDF Printer" as the Tax Forms printer, and for previous years, we can still use the DMS capabilities. We will have to set up new clients manually in DMS, unless we are doing a prior year return.

Sorry so long-winded! We plan to write to SmartVault about these issues.
-Riki
 

#2
Posts:
728
Joined:
28-May-2014 12:04pm
Location:
Arkansas
Wow, that sounds like 15-year old technology compared to UT's File Cabinet.
 

#3
Posts:
98
Joined:
22-Apr-2014 9:38am
Location:
California
Thank you for providing that feedback Riki!

While preparing a return yesterday I received a pop up window in Pro Series advertising the Smart Vault option. Now I'm very glad I didn't have the time to sign up for it yesterday.

Smart Vault sounded like a great option since it would supposedly work well with Quick Books and Pro Series but based upon your experience it sounds like Pro Series needs to work out some real problems.
 

#4
LeslieK  
Posts:
12
Joined:
21-Apr-2014 11:02am
Location:
Palatine, IL (NW Suburbs of Chgo)
I signed up with EFile Cabinet. I do not like the cloud based data option and Efile Cabinet has a local storage option. Although I do not print the final returns to "DMS". I lock the return in Lacerte and backup my Lacerte database.

My DMS Conversion is scheduled for Aug 13th, so I will let you know how it goes.
 

#5
Posts:
241
Joined:
21-Apr-2014 6:22am
Location:
Austin, Texas
Intuit tends to release new features that are not ready for prime time. I had bad experiences with their new encrypted tax return pdf email and broker statement import.
 

#6
kathyt  
Posts:
445
Joined:
21-Apr-2014 7:42am
Location:
Lake Charles, LA
I also bought efile cabinet in May, the conversion was a breeze, took a few hours and it was finished & ready to use. A few things I did not like, first off they lied about integrating with Lacerte, it's not going to happen according to both Lacerte and e-file cabinet (when I emailed them about it). Some things are difficult, for instance I often have a PDF attachment to an efile return; the only way I could see to attach it with efile cabinet is to drag it to the desktop and attach it that way. Then remember to delete it from the desktop. And try real hard not to attach the wrong file to the tax return. I didn't like that. Also, I was used to "printing" extensions to the client file, acceptance letters, things like that won't work in bulk. Only one at a time.

I ended up scrapping the e-file cabinet and Lacerte too. I went with Ultra Tax, and I love it so far. The file cabinet is awesome, it creates a new client drawer the minute I enter a new client in the Tax program, I just got it installed 2 days ago so I'm still learning the ins & outs of it, but so far I really like it.
 


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