making fillable pdf tax organizers

Key tips and advice the working tax pro can use.
#1
Posts:
886
Joined:
26-Feb-2016 10:14pm
Location:
Oakland CA
neither UT nor GST provide fillable pdf tax organizers. they will justify if asked about how hard it is to do for so many variations of fields.

While I tell my clients not to fill in any data that's on preprinted pdfs which can be ocr'd into the tax return, there's still info like rentals, sched C and charitable that is more difficult to efficiently suck into the tax return software I use, GST.

It has a convoluted method creating templates for import of Excel data, that seems not worth the trouble.

But SurePrep which I use for ocr service claims to be able to ocr legible handwitten input to the organizer fields.

To improve the accurracy of that ocr and to make it easier for client to type instead of writing, I want to create fillable fields for the 20% of my ind clients who want to use tax orgs to input data.

Simply letting Acrobat X create fillable organizer results in way too many input fields.

Other than going field by field, is there a way in Adobe or a third party cloud app etc to deselect say the entier left side of each page from being fillable?
 

#2
makbo  
Posts:
6840
Joined:
23-Apr-2014 3:44pm
Location:
In The Counting House
lenraphael wrote:neither UT nor GST provide fillable pdf tax organizers. they will justify if asked about how hard it is to do for so many variations of fields.

FWIW, UT does provide, for $1 to send and $3 to retrieve, a fillable online organizer. I use this for my Yes/No questionnaire, and most of my clients do fill it out online. I don't normally encourage them to fill out other organizer input screens, but some do so anyway. If they don't do it at all, I'm only out $1.
 

#3
Posts:
886
Joined:
26-Feb-2016 10:14pm
Location:
Oakland CA
Used ProFx web organizer with many of my tech saavy clients with more time than money for many years. Other than incompatible with Apple and Android devices, it was easy to use and stable. Problem was that preparer couldn't easily find out whether the client's input went. Many times a return would got out the door where client input a number to the wrong screen. It made clients spend their time inputting data for me. Occassionally they'd say they might as well use TTax.

When I switched to UT for 2016 I was assured the web organizer was compatible w Apple. What I wasn't told was that it was stable and often didn't save automatically before crashing. Also didn't tell me that it was limited to something like 4 W2's and certain other doc input couldn't expand.

What it did have was a nice way for me to review the input before exporting to UT.

After give refunds to two clients who had lost data that they had hours of work inputting, I stopped using it before phasing over to GST mid 2017. Used Gruntworx for many individuals on UT for 2017. Using them together was confusing to me and easy to result in overwritten return data.

I checked out the GST web organizer. Like so much of GST, poor look and feel, but highly functional and stable. Works on Apple.

Didn't bother trying it because there was no easy way to screen the data before exported to GST. Hard on the eyes of users also.

But by then I had one switched from Gwx to SurePrep. Both can be used on same return, but to confusing to coordinate.

For 2018 am using Sureprep scan/verify (human) for most individ and trust returns. So far very glad despite brutal training curve and cost.

But would like to provide a typeable version of gst tax organizer to clients to fill in the data not on ocr capable docs, such as Sched C, E, and charitable.
 

#4
WillG  
Posts:
17
Joined:
1-Jan-2022 10:01pm
Location:
Houston
Apologies for the rookie question... what does GST stand for?
 

#5
Posts:
886
Joined:
26-Feb-2016 10:14pm
Location:
Oakland CA
Go System Tax

btw, both Sureprep and CPApaperless say they will provide fillable online organizers w proforma data for the big three or four tax prep apps. Don't know if they come as or can be saved as fillable pdf's.

Curious, does Lacerte or any of the ProFx apps providing fillable pdf organizers for 2021?
 

#6
ocdtax  
Posts:
162
Joined:
16-Feb-2021 4:37pm
Location:
FL
Ahhh. This is something I've been after for a couple of years. If you figure it out, please let me know. We use UT. This year, I decided to create a fillable form using Microsoft Forms and I love it. It's only the questionnaire though. We haven't rolled it out to clients yet so we'll see how it gets adopted later. I'd be happy to share my template with you, if you have Microsoft 365 capability. We've found most clients don't fill out the organizer and we're fine with that, as long as they fill out the questionnaire and sign the engagement letter.
 

#7
Posts:
6006
Joined:
22-Apr-2014 3:06pm
Location:
WA State
Some of the new proj mgmt platforms advertise fillable and customizable organizers. They are all web based, but I don't think any are integrated with a tax prep software.
Looks like the industry is developing tools to move that way, though, which is promising.
~Captcook
 

#8
Posts:
886
Joined:
26-Feb-2016 10:14pm
Location:
Oakland CA
SurePrep's TaxCaddy now has a fillable online organizer for Lacerte, ProFx, GST, and maybe UTax.
Not sure why anyone would use SurePreps if the tax prep vendor provided a good web app.

Even GST provides an online MyTaxInfo that, like much of GST, is a bear to configure but probably rock solid once it's running.

All i need an online organizer for are Sched E rentals because GST does not provide an easy way to import Excel rental schedules into 1040 returns. It's trial bal import only works for business returns.

And the ones i most need fillable pdfs or web organizers are some family "wealth offices" where the same bookkeeper needs access to multip web organizers to do the input. Some of the vendors require unique email and cell phone numbers to authenticate access. That' wont work for family wealth office situations.
 

#9
Posts:
496
Joined:
12-Jun-2014 6:13pm
Location:
North Carolina
This is just a little surprising to me. Drake has had fillable .pdf organizers for three or four years now. Go Systems doesn't?
Because on T.A. ten was the most you were allowed
 

#10
Posts:
886
Joined:
26-Feb-2016 10:14pm
Location:
Oakland CA
GST figures you have junior staff to manually input the data or you've shelled out 4 grand for their data import tool that's supposed to be quick nifty.

For business returns they have a trial balance bridge that probably works ok. I've avoided it because it doesn't directly import from QBO and QB.
 

#11
Spiral  
Posts:
17
Joined:
23-Apr-2014 9:45pm
Location:
US
Late to rely however, https://safesend.com/solutions/safesend-returns.php, is a good solution. I use both them and taxcaddy.
 

#12
Posts:
886
Joined:
26-Feb-2016 10:14pm
Location:
Oakland CA
Spiral, my understanding is that those are competing products. How do you decide which one to use for which client?

Is it safesend organizer for people who are uncomfortable with giving TaxCaddy read access to their brokerage etc accounts?

Are having clients upload their docs using those vendors ?

Doesn't it get a little confusing for some clients to use one and others the other?
 

#13
Posts:
886
Joined:
26-Feb-2016 10:14pm
Location:
Oakland CA
Just talked to SafeSend (aka CPAPaperless). They confirmed that their announcement of an online organizer for Go System was premature.

That leaves either using the strangely crude Go System "MyTaxInfo" web organizer which seemingly is not compatible w high res monitors, or the SurePrep "Tax Caddy" app which isn't suitable for family wealth office situations where on bookkeepr needs access to all the family member online organizers. SurePrep requires a unique email address for each organizer.
So the bookkeeper would need to create 7 new email accounts for 7 organizers, unless the taxpapers want to give the bookkeeper access to their personal email accounts.

(did learn something about Gmail: one can create unique email addresses that automatically to the same single address by telling the bookkeeper to add a “+1” or a "+2" etc before the “@” sign for the email the bookkeeper tells SurePrep Tax Caddy to use for each taxpayer.)
 


Return to Tax Prep: Important tips and advice



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests