An enhancement released today now gives users (with the appropriate security template) the ability to assign Custom Consents to a specific tax year at their site(s). There is also the option to assign Custom Consents to all tax years at your site(s). Now, when accessing Configuration>Consent Forms a drop-down field is available to select the tax year for the consent to display or you can select “ALL“.
Schedule to be released tomorrow, May 3rd!
When accessing the W-2G menu, right below the Gambling Winnings field, there will also a new Gambling Losses field. This allows users to go ahead and enter the losses applicable to the reported winnings within the W-2G. These losses will automatically carry to Line 28 of the Schedule A and will no longer require the preparer to remember to report gambling losses later during return preparation.
Note: Any gambling winnings not reported on a W-2G, applicable losses will still be entered within the Itemized Deduction menu and will add to the total gambling losses carried from W-2G entries.
Scheduled to be released live on 5/3/2018!
We wanted to provide an early look at a new enhancement coming soon – State PDF View! After completing a state return from the State Section, you will soon see a printer icon (shown below) on the state return grid. Clicking the printer icon next to a state return will open a new window to display the PDF of only that state.
The “Report Customization” menu within “Configuration” is an enhancement released today. This menu option (shown below) is available at the site level for users that have access to the configuration menu with the corresponding “Security Role” assigned to their security template.
Note: Site admins can now access their sites and add the below security role to existing security templates for applicable users – “Edit and Customize Reporting Display”
What is Report Customization?
Having access to this menu provides the ability to edit what reports are visible within the “Reports menu” and what order they are displayed in. This enhancement allows site admins to further configure their own site to be more effective/efficient based on the reports available to other users. You can now limit the displayed reports to only the ones utilized at your site.
What does it look like?
The initial view when first accessing this menu will only display the current reports visible within your “Reports menu“.
To view all available reports that can be added, click inside the “Report Type (Lookup)” field and then press the down arrow on your keyboard. This will display the full list of available reports allowing you to choose which reports to add to your list. After adding the wanted reports to your site, you can drag and drop each report to sort the order in which they are displayed. The “Drag and Drop” sorting method works just like Custom Questions when changing the order of answers.
A couple items to note with this update:
We are excited to announce that the addition of the Affordability Worksheet (Phase II of Health Insurance redesign) will be released soon (tomorrow that is – 1/12/18)! Click here to then download a PDF providing additional information regarding the implementation of the Affordability Worksheet. The PDF will be found on the left-hand navigation bar after clicking the link.
Remember, the intent on the redesign after adding the Affordability Worksheet is specific to the order in which claiming exemptions is presented to the user. Previously, the determination to claim the affordability exemption was presented too early in the Health Insurance menu way before users had the opportunity to claim other coverage exemptions that applied (causing increased legwork on the preparer). The general order for claiming exemptions for not having Health Insurance is as follows:
The left navigation bar now reflects the entry forms that have been completed during return preparation.
This will allow the quality reviewer the ability to quickly navigate through the entry forms that were completed during tax preparation by clicking down the displayed items under each Federal Section
See example below:
Note: We are experiencing the tagged completed entries disappearing if you add an additional form. We will be working to resolve this over the next couple of weeks. Our goal for Phase I delivery is to allow you to get a feel for the new feature and allow you to work it into your Quality Review Process.
This seems to be happening in Chrome and not in Internet Explorer
A new feature was released for sites that will be offering the 8888. Now, when entering direct deposit information inside the E-file menu, if your site is set up to offer the 8888, you will be required to verify both the RTN and ACCT numbers provided. This will work just as the current Direct Deposit entry functions for sites that do not offer the 8888 at their sites. After entering the initial RTN/ACCT number information, it will be masked requiring the preparer to verify the confirmation entry by referring to the documents in hand. Adding this new feature for the 8888 will go a long way in ensuring the correct direct deposit information is entered the first time by the preparer before moving to quality review.
The site administrator controls whether or not a preparer has the ability to prepare prior year returns. If the preparer has a Security Template that enables prior year returns, they will access the prior years from their Welcome Page.
The Preparer will login to one URL and have access to the current year application and the three prior year applications.