[lenraphael]

Do you use an Excel sheet or a reconciliation worksh in your tax software where you reconcile you input documents to the tax return. I do that in Excel for net rent by property, net Schedule C, State to Fed differences, and total FTC but for nothing else.

GST provides what looks like the screen version of what Fasttax and Profx gave 40 years ago on the last reconciliation paper input sheets. Rarely had a problem in Profx or Ultratax where data could be input without noticing it. GST twice now has "trapped" data that you can easily miss but flows to the return.

[Seaside CPA]

I use a reconciliation worksheet from my input sheets. Takes a little longer to complete a return, but that way I am pretty sure the numbers are what they should be when the return is complete.

[ATSMAN]

Depending on your tax prep software there may be a built in reconciliation worksheet. My software allows me to checkmark all the important input sources so that after I prepare a return and before finalizing I can go back and review all the input checkmarks to the source and then finalize. It has saved my bacon more than once

[lenraphael]

GST has a basic reconciliation wp for Federal but nothing for states. For states like CA, it's often the fed to state differences that are the gotcha. GST sells an addon that does more reconciliation.