12:15 PM:  This concludes our TaxSlayer 2018 stress test.  Thank you so much for sharing part of your day with us.  You and everyone that participated in the first stress test, earned your “I made a difference” virtual button.

Please take a moment and share our experience with us.  Stress Test 2 Survey

 

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12:10 PM:  We are now moving into the 5 minute stretch….Stay Calm and Stress On

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12:00 PM:  Update on return volume created in the past hour:

Returns = 2,334

Shout Out to Philadelphia — #2 Stresser City at noon

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11:55 AM:  We are back up to 1,500 users…New York City and taken back 2nd in the number of stressers participating today.

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11:50 AM:  We are down tot he final 25 minutes of our Stress Test.  We really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to participate today and in our first stress test.  We will be posting a survey link at the conclusion of our stress event.

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11:45 AM:  Woo hoo!!! Los Angeles…you rock with 80 Slayit Stressers….

Worcester…you are running in second place now

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11:39 AM:  If you complete the scenarios below, we welcome you to stay on board with us until the conclusion of the Stress Test at 12:15 PM Eastern.  If you have worked through all of the scenarios below, be creative and complete the most complex return you can think of.

Update on Numbers:  Down to 1400 concurrent users

Up to 2,151 returns created since 11:00 am Eastern

We have also had 156 new Practice lab Accounts created since 11:00 am

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11:35 AM:  Friendly stressing competition between New York City and Los Angeles.  Los Angeles just took over the number 1 slot for users.  Come on New York…10 more people will move you back to the leader board……TaxSlayer’s friendly stress competition…

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11:33 AM — Los  Angeles just moved up to our number 2 “Stressing with us” city this morning.  We are currently at 1,572 concurrent users…

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11:31 AM –– Top 5 Stressing cities are:

New York

Albuquerque

Corpus Christi

Fort Myers

Virginia Beach

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11:28 AM – – Shout out our VITA sites in Puerto Rico for taking the time to stress with us this morning

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11:23 AM — Awesome job, you all have created 1,533 returns in the past 23 minutes

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11:18:  We are up to 1,503 concurrent users.  Give a shout out to all of your volunteers friends and family.  Our goal is to simulate peak hour which runs between 8,000 and 10,000 concurrent users.  This allows potential issues to identify themselves now and not on the first Saturday in February….Stress, Stress, Stress away today, so we don’t have to stress another day

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11:15 am:  Group 4 may begin your test scenarios — We are currently at  1,352   users and have completed  1,100   returns

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11:10 am:  Group 3 may begin your test scenarios — We are currently at 1,150 users and have completed 1,000 returns

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11:05 am  Group 2 may begin your test scenarios — We are currently at 833 users

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11:00 am Group 1 may begin your test scenarios

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We will begin in 5 minutes;

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Each group will have an assigned time to begin the testing process and scenarios

• Group A: Beginning character of Practice Lab Username: Any number or character – D   Begin 11;00 am Eastern
  • This includes users that have not established a username yet.
• Group B: Beginning letter of Practice Lab Username: E –  J  Begin 11:05 am Eastern
• Group C: Beginning letter of Practice Lab Username K –  R  Begin 11:10 am Eastern
• Group D: Beginning letter of Practice Lab Username S – Z   Begin 11:15  am Eastern

Make notes of the Practice Lab 2018 behavior as you execute the following instructions – any slowdowns, difficulties opening returns; problems completing inputs, navigation issues, etc.:

Scenarios:

1. Login to Practice Lab 2018
2. Create a new return using Basic (No Profile) that has a minimum of 2 income documents from basic information through creating an e-file.
   • Save and Exit the return
3. Open an existing return
   • Navigate to the Income Section and add an additional income document.
   • Navigate to Summary/Print and select View/Print Return.
   • Select Print your 2018 Tax Return to render the PDF.
   • Close the PDF.
   • Select Save & Exit Return
4. Switch years to Practice Lab 2017
5. Create a new return using Basic (No Profile) that has a minimum of 2 income documents.
   • Add a State (even if you don’t typically do state returns).
   • At a minimum, open Additions and Subtractions to Income menus, enter data and continue. This will kick off calculations within the state menu (new from last year’s stress test).
   • Generate the PDF of the state when you return to the state summary page.
6. Switch years back to Practice Lab 2018
7. Create a new return using Master Taxpayer Profile that has at least Interest and/or Dividends.
   • Generate the PDF for the Schedule B.
   • Navigate to Deductions and complete Itemized Deductions.
   • Generate the PDF for Itemized Deductions.
   • Save and exit the Return
8. Select the Quality Review Print Set for a return in the client list.
   • Generate the PDF
   • Close the PDF
9. Continue moving around within returns as you would experience at your site during tax season.  We want to keep as many volunteers active through entire stress test time period at 12:15 PM EST.

Practice Socials and EIN Guidance:  The Practice Lab automatically enforces 00 as the 4th and 5th digit of the taxpayer SSN when starting a return.  Even though this is a secured, practice environment, we recommend you use 00 as the 4th and 5th digit of any SSN in the return.  We also recommend that you use 00 as the 3rd and 4th digit of any EIN you are using.

Communications:  TaxSlayer will be communicating to testers through the VITA/TCE Blog and the message center.

Feedback:  We will post a link to a survey that will allow you to share your experiences with us.

When:  Saturday, December 8, 2018

Time:  11:00 am – 12: 15 PM Eastern

Where:  TaxSlayer Practice Lab 2018 from anywhere with an internet connection

Goals:

Users: 8,000 – 10,000 concurrent users to most closely simulate our peak hour during tax season

Return preparation:  24,000 returns prepared during the period

Identify Items:  Identify any items that need adjusting prior to busiest day of the tax season.  We cannot do this without your participation.

Selecting the My Account Login from the VITA/TCE Springboard will take you to a more modern version of My Account.

Note:  For now, it is going to take 30 – 90 seconds to render the login page.  We are aware and are working on a solution.

Login

You will use the same username and login credentials that you used for My Account.  If you have forgotten them, you follow the same forgot password process as usual.

Software Options

Select to download 2018, 2017, 2016 and/or 2015

Account History

Click View to display your EFIN Validation Code (required for completing desktop installation)

Account Information

Displays your email address, telephone number and allows you to update your password

Company Information

Allows you to view the information we have on file.  Changes made to this page have no impact on your Pro Online setup or how we have you setup in our system.

Changing your SIDN:  Email support

Changing your EFIN:  Contact your SPEC  Relationship Manager

Any changes you make to this page should also be emailed to your SPEC Relationship Manager so they can update the IRS Ordering System

When:  Saturday, December 8, 2018

Time:  11:00 am – 12: 15 PM Eastern

Where:  TaxSlayer Practice Lab 2018 from anywhere with an internet connection

Goals:

Users: 8,000 – 10,000 concurrent users to most closely simulate our peak hour during tax season

Return preparation:  24,000 returns prepared during the period

Identify Items:  Identify any items that need adjusting prior to busiest day of the tax season.  We cannot do this without your participation.

 

The new 1040 Post Card and new Schedules 1 through 6 will require a print set to be created that can be used to print returns that will be mailed via paper to the IRS.

The existing print sets that TaxSlayer delivers will contain the “stacked” version  of the schedules that will contain a “do not mail” watermark.

• Master
• Master (2 8879s)
• Quality Review

What does Stacked mean?

We can print two of the schedules on the same page as long as they are watermarked in a way that indicates they are not to be mailed to the IRS.

What will the new print set assigned by TaxSlayer be called?

We are not sure yet, but it have a clear indication that it should be used to print “paper” returns that will be mailed to the IRS.  The IRS requires that each of the new Schedules be printed on an individual page for all mailed returns.

This is just a heads up that changes to print sets will be changing prior to e-file opening in January.  We DO NOT have a specific date when the Schedules will be available to add to the print sets or when the new “stacked” schedules with a watermark will be available.

We would like to thank the volunteers that participated in Thursday’s stress test.  We want to share the results:

Concurrent Users to simulate peak hour of tax season:

• Goal: 8,000 – 10,000
• Actual: 1,872

Returns prepared for the purpose of generating calculations and rendering PDFs

• Goal:  24,000
• Actual:  3,651

Discoveries

Your testing resulted in generating errors that resulted in errors generating a PDF.  This allowed our infrastructure engineers and developers to analyze the error messages, understand the cause of the error, and make modifications to the code.

Stress Test 2:

• When:  Saturday, December 8th at 11:00 AM EST
• Goals:  8,000 – 10,000 users to generate 24,000 returns

Purpose:  To simulate peak hours during tax season and analyze any errors or anomalies seen.  This allows us to make any necessary changes during December.

We cannot do this without your help.  We need approximately 10% of all VITA/TCE volunteers to spend 90 minutes with us to allow us to monitor the application and infrastructure that you will be experiencing with your taxpayers during peak week in February.

Experience it first in December.

 

 

Click here to complete today’s Stress Test Survey

12:00 PM EST:  This year’s first stress test will begin in 15 minutes.  We are so excited for this opportunity and we appreciate everyone who is participating.

12:15 PM EST:  Group 1 please begin

12:20 PM EST:  Group 2 please begin

12:25 PM EST:  Group 3 please begin

12:30 PM EST Group 4 please begin

12:33 PM EST:  Keep up the good work…you have created over 1,100 returns in the past 18 minutes…we are at approximately 1,789 concurrent users…this equates to about 9 AM during peak weeks.

12:41 PM EST:  We are up to approximately 1836 concurrent users….Keep up the good work and thank you for participating

12:53 PM EST:  We are about 1/2 through the stress test.  We are still running at around 1800 users…give a shout out to all of your volunteer friends and ask them to join you…stress now so you don’t have to stress later.  You all are doing awesome…1,865 returns…

1:00 PM EST:  30 minutes left.  There is plenty of time to make a difference.  If you run through all of our scenarios, just enter returns like you prepare at your sites.

1:11 PM EST:  We are receiving reports of Print failures and we are looking at them now.  We are tracking this information

1:15 PM EST:  We will be concluding the stress test at 1:30.  It looks like we started receiving print time outs at 1:04 PM EST.  We are continuing to trace the errors you are producing.

1:30 PM EST:  This concludes our first 2018 stress test.  Please join us again at 11:00 am EST on Saturday, December 8th.  It will be holiday season, so bring a friend or two along with you…  You all did a great thing today…you created 2,966 2018 returns, 685 2017 returns and generated print errors for us to review.  Thank you all for your participation.

3:30 PM EST:  We were able to identify and resolve a concern that caused the prints to time out because of your participation…Thank you

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Each group will have an assigned time to begin the testing process and scenarios

• • Group A: Beginning character of Practice Lab Username: Any number or character – D   Begin 12:15 pm
    • This includes users that have not established a username yet.
  • Group B: Beginning letter of Practice Lab Username: E –  J  Begin 12:20 pm
  • Group C: Beginning letter of Practice Lab Username K –  R  Begin 12:25 pm
  • Group D: Beginning letter of Practice Lab Username S – Z   Begin 12:30 pm

Make notes of the Practice Lab 2018 behavior as you execute the following instructions – any slowdowns, difficulties opening returns; problems completing inputs, navigation issues, etc.:

Practice Lab URL:  Practice Lab

Generic Password:  TRAINPROWEB

Scenarios:

1. Login to Practice Lab 2018
2. Create a new return using Basic (No Profile) that has a minimum of 2 income documents from basic information through creating an e-file.
   • Save and Exit the return
3. Open an existing return
   • Navigate to the Income Section and add an additional income document.
   • Navigate to Summary/Print and select View/Print Return.
   • Select Print your 2018 Tax Return to render the PDF.
   • Close the PDF.
   • Select Save & Exit Return
4. Switch years to Practice Lab 2017
5. Create a new return using Basic (No Profile) that has a minimum of 2 income documents.
   • Add a State (even if you don’t typically do state returns).
   • At a minimum, open Additions and Subtractions to Income menus, enter data and continue. This will kick off calculations within the state menu (new from last year’s stress test).
   • Generate the PDF of the state when you return to the state summary page.
6. Switch years back to Practice Lab 2018
7. Create a new return using Master Taxpayer Profile that has at least Interest and/or Dividends.
   • Generate the PDF for the Schedule B.
   • Navigate to Deductions and complete Itemized Deductions.
   • Generate the PDF for Itemized Deductions.
   • Save and exit the Return
8. Select the Quality Review Print Set for a return in the client list.
   • Generate the PDF
   • Close the PDF
9. Continue moving around within returns as you would experience at your site during tax season.  We want to keep as many volunteers active through entire stress test time period at 1:30 PM EST.

Practice Socials and EIN Guidance:  The Practice Lab automatically enforces 00 as the 4th and 5th digit of the taxpayer SSN when starting a return.  Even though this is a secured, practice environment, we recommend you use 00 as the 4th and 5th digit of any SSN in the return.  We also recommend that you use 00 as the 3rd and 4th digit of any EIN you are using.

Communications:  TaxSlayer will be communicating to testers through the VITA/TCE Blog and the message center.

Feedback:  We will post a link to a survey that will allow you to share your experiences with us.

• Each group will have an assigned time to begin the testing process and scenarios
  • Group A: Beginning character of Practice Lab Username: Any number or character – D   Begin 12:15 pm
    • This includes users that have not established a username yet.
  • Group B: Beginning letter of Practice Lab Username: E –  J  Begin 12:20 pm
  • Group C: Beginning letter of Practice Lab Username K –  R  Begin 12:25 pm
  • Group D: Beginning letter of Practice Lab Username S – Z   Begin 12:30 pm

Make notes of the Practice Lab 2018 behavior as you execute the following instructions – any slowdowns, difficulties opening returns; problems completing inputs, navigation issues, etc.:

Scenarios:

1. Login to Practice Lab 2018
2. Create a new return using Basic (No Profile) that has a minimum of 2 income documents from basic information through creating an e-file.
   • Save and Exit the return
3. Open an existing return
   • Navigate to the Income Section and add an additional income document.
   • Navigate to Summary/Print and select View/Print Return.
   • Select Print your 2018 Tax Return to render the PDF.
   • Close the PDF.
   • Select Save & Exit Return
4. Switch years to Practice Lab 2017
5. Create a new return using Basic (No Profile) that has a minimum of 2 income documents.
   • Add a State (even if you don’t typically do state returns).
   • At a minimum, open Additions and Subtractions to Income menus, enter data and continue. This will kick off calculations within the state menu (new from last year’s stress test).
   • Generate the PDF of the state when you return to the state summary page.
6. Switch years back to Practice Lab 2018
7. Create a new return using Master Taxpayer Profile that has at least Interest and/or Dividends.
   • Generate the PDF for the Schedule B.
   • Navigate to Deductions and complete Itemized Deductions.
   • Generate the PDF for Itemized Deductions.
   • Save and exit the Return
8. Select the Quality Review Print Set for a return in the client list.
   • Generate the PDF
   • Close the PDF
9. Continue moving around within returns as you would experience at your site during tax season.  We want to keep as many volunteers active through entire stress test time period at 1:30 PM EST.

Practice Socials and EIN Guidance:  The Practice Lab automatically enforces 00 as the 4th and 5th digit of the taxpayer SSN when starting a return.  Even though this is a secured, practice environment, we recommend you use 00 as the 4th and 5th digit of any SSN in the return.  We also recommend that you use 00 as the 3rd and 4th digit of any EIN you are using.

Communications:  TaxSlayer will be communicating to testers through the VITA/TCE Blog and the message center.

Feedback:  We will post a link to a survey that will allow you to share your experiences with us.