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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

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.