• Uploading a New Tax Organizer
• Editing an Already “Published” Tax Organizer
• Exporting Client Response Data
• Importing Client Data
• Logging into the Tax Organizer
• Setting it Up & Email Notification
• Editing the Default Tax Organizer
• Creating a New Tax Organizer From Scratch
• Adding a Section and Questions
• Publishing – Putting on Hold – Drafting a Tax Organizer
• Managing Client Accounts
• View/Edit Client Responses

Overview

The Online Interactive Tax Organizer is a dynamic web application that allows your clients to organize their tax information online, saving you time when preparing their taxes. You and your clients can securely access your client’s tax information anytime from anywhere, eliminating the time and expense involved in mailing paper organizers.

Logging into the Tax Organizer In order to log in to the Tax Organizer, click the “Login” button on the top of your website. If you don’t see the “login” button, click on the “login” link located on the bottom of your site. If you haven’t setup your portal yet, please see Portal Help.

Now select the “Tax Organizer” heading and you will be brought to the Interactive Tax Organizer Menu

Setting it Up & Email Notification The “Setup Main Menu” link allows you to edit the information that appears on the welcome page of your Tax Organizer. Starting at the top, you are asked to enter a name for your organizer, i.e. “Tax Organizer”, “Forms Page”, “Forms”, etc. Remember, whatever name you choose will appear both at the top of the page and on the button or navigation link.

After you’ve made any necessary changes to the body text of the Tax Organizer Welcome Page, make sure to enter your email address in the space designated to send email notifications.

You can easily monitor your clients’ activity in the Tax Organizer by receiving email notifications when a new client registers, when a client starts a new tax organizer, and when a client submits a tax organizer. When you have everything the way you like it, click “Save”.

Editing the Default Tax Organizer

You cannot edit a tax organizer on “Hold” or a “Published” tax organizer until you convert it to “Draft” status Click here for information on editing a tax organizer that is already published or on hold). A “Draft” tax organizer is an editable tax organizer that is still under construction and not viewable by clients.

Click the “Edit” icon, which is a pencil, in order to make changes to the default Tax Organizer.

In order to edit a question or section of the default tax organizer, scroll down to the questions and click the pencil icon next to the section or question you wish to edit.

In the Edit Question page you can re-arrange the section number or question number of the question. You can also change the text for the question and the type of answer field that it requires.

Make sure to check the respective boxes if the question is mandatory or you need to encrypt the response. It is a good idea to encrypt responses for highly secure information. However, the more fields that you encrypt, the slower your Organizer’s performance will be.

Click “Save” to save your changes and you’ll be brought back to the “Edit Form” page.

Creating a New Tax Organizer From Scratch

A list of Tax Organizers shows up on the “Manage Organizers” page. To add a new tax organizer to the list, click the “Create a New Organizer” link.

Enter information such as the title of the tax organizer, a description, and confirmation page/email text.

A confirmation page is text that will appear after users submit their completed tax organizer. It is a good place to thank them for completing the organizer and you can also let them know that they can return to their tax organizer and edit their answers.

Select the checkbox titled “Send client confirmation email upon form submission with the following text:” if you’d like to have the tax organizer send your client a confirmation email.

Notice that you can enter the text for the Confirmation email. The Confirmation Email can be used to remind your client of any additional steps needed after completing the organizer like setting an appointment or sending a hard copy of receipts.

Enter the text for your default email that will automatically be sent out to any client who submits a tax organizer. You can also select whether you want the section and question numbers to display when a client views the tax organizer.

Now click “Create Organizer” and the new tax organizer shows up in your list of tax organizers.

Uploading a New Tax Organizer

A Tax Organizer can also be uploaded using a CSV (Comma Seperated Value) file. If you want to create your own tax organizer, open Microsoft Excel and enter your organizer questions into the first row of the Excel table. Note: In order for a CSV file to upload successfully, all questions must be in a single row.

Once you have all of the questions entered, save the tax organizer as a CSV file. To do this, click Save and then select the option to save as a CSV file.

Go back to the “Manage Organizers” page of your Tax Organizer and click “Upload An Organizer Using A CSV File”.

Before the tax organizer can be created, you need to map the answer fields for each question in the CSV file. This is necessary so that the tax organizer can provide the proper spacing and options to correctly answer each question. Also, don’t forget to enter a name for your tax organizer.

Adding a New Section and Questions

Now that we know how to make a new tax organizer, let’s learn how to edit it by adding a new section. In order to make edits to a Draft tax organizer, simply click the pencil icon next to the tax organizer you want to edit. You can edit any of the information that you entered when creating the tax organizer and you can also make changes to the sections and questions in the tax organizer.

Click the “Add Section” button and a new section is created where you can enter questions.

Now let’s add some questions to your new tax organizer by clicking the “Add Question” underneath the Section that you just created.

Start by either selecting the question number or accepting the default, which is simply in the order the questions are entered. The number 1.1.1 stands for Page 1, Section 1, Question 1. Select whether you want the question to be mandatory and whether you want to encrypt the response. Clients will not be able to move forward without filling in a response for a mandatory question.

It is a good idea to encrypt responses for highly secure information. However, the more fields that you encrypt, the slower your Organizer’s performance will be. Encrypting causes the server to pause to encrypt and unencrypt for viewing in-tax organizers. Therefore, encrypt only those fields that require encryption in order to maximize your client’s positive online experience.

Enter the question and then select what type of question it is by clicking the pull down menu. It is important to select what kind of question you’re asking so that the Tax Organizer can provide the correct spacing and support for answers. Let’s say you want to add a short answer question. Scroll down until you find the question type that says “Open Question (short answer)”. If you want to add a Yes/No question, select “Radio Buttons (Yes/no)”.

Once you have entered all of the sections and questions that you want the tax organizer to contain, click the “Save Changes” button and you’ll be brought back
to the “Manage Organizers” page.

If you want to preview exactly what the tax organizer will look like when you publish it, click the Preview icon, which is a picture of an eye. Note:
The place markers (i.e. “Organizer Title”, “Page Title”, “Section Summary”, etc.) will not appear in your published tax organizer. They are simply in the preview
to assist you in designing your tax organizer.

Publishing – Putting on Hold – Drafting a Tax Organizer

Once you have your tax organizer the way you like it and you want to make it available to your clients, select the box next to the tax organizer title and then hit “Publish”. To publish more than one tax organizer at once, select as many boxes as necessary next to the tax organizer titles.

If you no longer want a tax organizer to be available to your clients, select the box next to the tax organizer title and click the “Put on Hold” button. If you don’t need to make any more changes to a draft tax organizer, you can put it on hold using the same process.

Editing an Already “Published” Tax Organizer

Let’s say that you have edits that you want to make to a “Published” tax organizer or a tax organizer on hold. In order to convert the tax organizer to Draft status, you must make a duplicate of the tax organizer. Click the edit icon next to the tax organizer you want to duplicate and then scroll down to the bottom where it says “Duplicate Form”.

Enter a title for the “new” tax organizer and then hit “Duplicate”.

As you can see, the original tax organizer still exists on the “Manage Organizers” page, but a duplicate with Draft status has also been created.

Note: Once a tax organizer has been “Published” it can not be edited without making a duplicate copy.

Managing Client Accounts

Click the “Manage Responses” page in order to monitor your clients tax organizer submissions.

Adding/Editing Client Accounts

Clients are organized in a comprehensive list including their name and optional client number. The pencil icon next to a client allows you to edit that client’s Login Information.

Clients can be added to the Tax Organizer by creating a Portal Account for them. Help on how to
do so can be found here

Emailing Client’s Login Credentials

You can email your client’s login credentials directly to them by clicking “Email Login Info”. This is a useful tool if a client forgets his/her username and password.

Removing a Client Account
If you want to delete a client’s account from the Tax Organizer, click the “Delete” button. Otherwise, click Save and you’ll be brought back to the “Manage Responses” page.

View/Edit Client Response

Click the Submissions icon next to a client’s name to view a summary of the client’s activity.

From this page you can see which tax organizers a client has viewed, completed or are in progress. By clicking “In-Form” in the Review category, you can view the date that the tax organizer was submitted by the client, and view and edit the client’s responses.

Exporting Client Response Data

“CSV” (Comma Separated Value) allows you to see your clients responses in a table format and export the data to another software. To export a tax organizer response in CSV format, click “CSV” under the “Export” column. You can either save it to disk or open it with the default application, Microsoft Excel.

Importing Client Data

You can also import client data from your computer or tax programs. In order to import client data (anything from name, address, phone numbers to social security numbers) into the Tax Organizer, you must save/export the data as a Microsoft Excel CSV file.

Note: In order for a CSV file to upload successfully, all questions must be in a single row, and all answers must be in a single row directly below the question row. The CSV file should look like this:

Once you have a CSV file on your computer that contains the client data you want to import, click “CSV” in the “Import” column.

Click “Browse” and search through your computer until you’ve found the CSV file that you want to upload. Click “Upload File” and the CSV file will be uploaded into the Tax Organizer.

Before the CSV file is fully uploaded into the Tax Organizer, the questions must be mapped. Mapping the CSV file responses is important in order for the Tax Organizer to determine which answers match up with each question.

Once imported, you can view the submission by clicking “In-form” or print by clicking the print icon.

• Client Self Registration
• How To Verify Client Registration
• Default Permissions
• Default Notifications
• Additional Resources

Client Self Registration

Clients can register themselves via the Client Self-Registration Form. The link to this form can be found
on your Portal Login Panel.

All a client has to do to sign up for Portal access is fill out their contact details and preferred password.

After clicking “Register” they are directed Portal Login Panel, and notified that their request is awaiting verification.

How To Verify Client Registration

Login to the portal as an administrator. The default administrator account is admin@yourdomainname.com and the password you signed up with.

Click on “awaiting verifications“.

Click on the user to verify or delete them from the system.

After clicking “Verify User” click on “Edit Users” to make changes to the client’s contact information, password and access rights.

When you are finished click “Save“.

Default Permissions

If you have a set of Portal applications you would like to be immediatly available to every self-registering client once they’ve been verified, you can easily set it up so you don’t need to manually check off each application in the access rights section.

Start by clicking on “Firm Administration“.

It will default on the “My Account” tab. When you scroll down, you will see the Default Client User Access section just below the Portal Login Information. You can now check off the different application you want to be available by default when a client signs up.

You can also do the same for your Firm Users, whose access rights you can find directly under the clients’ section.

When you are finished click “Save“.

Default Notifications

You can also customize a pre-set email notification for the File Exchange so you don’t need to manually add one in for every client who signs themselves up for the Portal. Everytime a new client registers themselves and you verify them, the firm user of your choice will be set to get notifications of their Secure File Exchange activity.

Start by clicking on “Firm Administration“.

It will default on the “My Account” tab. When you scroll down, you will see the Default Notifications section just below the Default Firm User Access. Select the Firm user of choice from the dropdown menu that appears when you click on the notification box. That user will get emails whenever a new client uploads something to the Secure File Exchange, unless you set them otherwise in the Add/Modify Client Users section.

When you are finished click “Save“.

Additional Resources:

Client User File Vault Help

QuickSend: The Quickest Way to Receive Client Files Securely

Quickbooks–Free Off Site Backup

Free Screen Sharing Makes Helping Your CPA Clients More Efficient

Note: “This section has been discontinued. Please upgrade to the latest version by calling 800-896-4500 or emailing support@cpasitesolutions.com”
To begin using Secure File Transfer, click on the File Transfer link in your website, and enter a user name of admin with a password of admin…

If your log-in screen doesn’t look like the above picture, click here for instructions on installing the new Secure File Transfer tool.

Note: Your client, when logged in will see only the following:

You are now logged in as the administrator (you can change the user name and password at another time if you so desire), and should see a screen that looks like the graphic below (click the labeled parts to jump to the description):

Download/ Delete/ View Files:

To the left of each listed file there are two or three icons that can be clicked for file interaction. If the file is a graphic, a PDF or other viewable file type, a View File icon will be available. Click this to open a separate view window to look at the file. Click on the icon in the middle to download the file to your computer, or click the trash can icon on the right to delete the file from the secure file area.

You have a finite amount of space available in your secure file transfer area (available space will be noted in the top right corner), so once you no longer need certain files in your file transfer area it is a very good idea to delete them.

Add User:

Click this button to add a new user zone to the File Transfer. Enter a user name (may not contain spaces) and a password (must be between 5 and 20 characters).

Keep in mind, the user name and password is case-sensitive, so unless specifically requested, it’s best (and easier to remember) to use all lower-case characters.

User Email: If you want the user to be sent an email when you have uploaded a file to their file transfer zone, add the email address in this field.

Acct. Email: If you wish to be sent an email when the user uploads to this account, place your own email address in this field.

Edit User:

Click this button to edit the settings for a user.

A small window will pop open and give you a pull-down menu to select a user from. Selecting a name will bring you to the next screen:

From here you can edit the password, user email or acct. email.

Delete User:

To delete a user from the File Transfer area, click the Delete User link, select the user from the pull-down menu and click the Delete User button.

Edit Notification Message:

Click this button to edit the user notification message. This is the message that will be sent to the user/administrator when a file is uploaded (see red-marked area in the picture below). If you wish to change the message, change the noted message text and click the Save Changes button.

Help:

This button will bring you to the page you are reading right now.

Note: “This section has been discontinued. Please upgrade to the latest version by calling 800-896-4500 or emailing support@cpasitesolutions.com”

• Logging into the Document Manager
• Managing Client Accounts
  • Adding/Editing Clients
  • Email Notifications
  • Deleting/In-Active Clients
  • Retrieving Client Passwords
• Organizing Files in File Cabinets
• Creating Folders
• Loading Files into Document Manager
• Ordering More Storage Space
• Downloading Files from Document Manager
• Editing File Names and Descriptions
• Transferring Accounts From Secure File Exchange

Overview

The online Document Management System provides your clients with 24/7 access to vital company information like employee data, corporation papers, legal documents, tax returns, financial statements, and scanned source documents.

Any file can be placed in the Document Manager, including: extremely large QuickBooks Backup Files, Microsoft Word Documents, PDF Documents, Excel Spreadsheets, Video Files, Music and Audio Files. All files on the Online Document Storage System are backed up daily and archived in our secure data-center.

Logging into the Document Manager

In order to log in to the Document Manager, click the “Login” button on the top of your website. If you don’t see the “login” button, click on the “login” link located on the bottom of your site. If you haven’t setup your portal yet, please see Portal Help.

Now select the “Secure File Exchange” icon from the menu to get into the Document Manager.

Managing Client Accounts

To add clients to the Document Manager, you must first set them up in the Firm Portal. Instructions on how to do so can be found here.

Now let’s say that you want to modify a client in the Document Manager. Click on the “Client Logins” button.

As you can see, the Document Manager provides the client’s name, company, email address and username.

To edit a client’s login information, click the “Edit Login” button, which is the pencil icon on the right side of the table. This brings you to the “Add/Edit Client Login” screen where you can edit the name, company, email address, username and password.

You can also control whether or not the client has access to the Client Interactive Center and if they receive email notifications for Document Manager activity.

Click Save and you’ll be brought back to the “Client Logins” page.

Now let’s go back to the “Client Login” page. Notice the “Active” column on the left side of the table. This indicates whether or not a client has been given access to the Document Manager. In order to enable or disable access to the Document Manager, without deleting a client from the list, simply check/uncheck the “Active” checkbox.

There are two ways to delete a client. You can click the delete button in the “Add/Edit Client Login” screen, or simply click the trashcan icon.

Now let’s say that a client or someone in your firm forgets his/her username or password. Don’t worry about it! All usernames and passwords are stored in “Firm Logins” or “Client Logins”. Simply click the edit icon next to the client and you can view their username and password.

Organizing Files in File Cabinets

You can add, delete, edit, organize and view personal files, firm files, client files and public files. These files are organized on the left side of the screen under the four filing cabinet categories: “My Documents”, “Firm Documents”, “Client Documents” and “Public Documents”. These filing cabinets can hold an unlimited number of folders, subfolders and documents

“My Documents” stores and organizes documents that only the individual staff member logged in can access.

“Firm Documents” stores and organizes documents that are available to your entire firm. This is a great place to post firm procedure documentation and firm-wide notices. Any staff member can add, edit or remove documents in the “Firm Documents” filing cabinet.

“Client Documents” allows each of your staff members to access all documents stored in each of your client’s “My Documents” filing cabinet. If your client wants to share a document with you, they can login to their Document Manager and upload the file. You can then click “Client Documents” and view the file in their respective client folder.

“Public Documents” are documents available to your entire firm and all clients but only the firm’s staff members can add or remove files. This is a great place to post general work-paper forms and other questionnaires that clients can print and complete.

Create a Folder

Let’s start by viewing the files in the “Firm Documents” filing cabinet. Click the “Firm Documents” button on the left side of the window.

Files and folders can be organized by name, description, size or date. In order to add a folder, click the “Create A Folder” button.

A window pops up that asks you to enter the name of the folder and an optional description of the folder. Writing a brief description of the folder’s contents is a helpful way to manage your documents.

Click “Save” and your new folder appears in the list of documents.

Loading Files into Document Manager

Now let’s click the folder and add a file.

Click the browse button and search through your computer until you’ve found the file that you want to add.

Again, you can add a description if you want to further label the file. Once the file you want is selected and you’ve entered a description, click “Upload File”.

As you can see, the file is now uploaded and you can view the name, description, file size, and date last updated.

Ordering More Storage Space

Now let’s say that you want to add a file but your Document Manager is full. In order to request more storage space in the Document Manager, simply click the “Order More Space” button and follow the instructions for requesting more space.

Downloading Files from Document Manager

Downloading files from the Document Manager is as easy as clicking the filename. Once you’ve found the file you want, click it’s name and a window will ask you to select whether you want to Open the File or Save it to Disk.

If you just want to view the file, click “Open With” and choose the appropriate program to view the file. If you want to save the file to your computer, select “Save to Disk”. You will be asked where you want to save the file. Once you have chosen your desired location, click “Save” and a copy of the file is now stored on your computer.

Editing and Deleting Files

If at anytime you want to change the file name or description, click the pencil icon, which is the “Edit File” button.

If a document is outdated or you don’t want it to be viewable anymore, you can delete it by clicking the “Delete a File” button. The “Delete a File” button is a trash can icon, which can be found next to the “Edit File” button.

Transferring Accounts From Secure File Exchange

If you already have accounts managed in Secure File Exchange, you can easily update to Document Manager and transfer the account data. This is done by downloading all of the files in Secure File Exchange to your local computer and then uploading them into Document Manager.

The first step in moving your documents from Secure File Exchange to Document Manager is logging into your Secure File Exchange. Although you may have rearranged the link location, the Secure File Exchange link is generally found under the “Resources” menu on your website.

Enter the administrative username and password. It is important that you log in as the administrator so that you have access to all accounts in your Secure File Exchange.

As you can see, all accounts show up in a list containing each individual file that is stored and organized with Secure File Exchange.

The next step is to download each file onto your computer. In order to download a file, click the “download” button to the left of the file.

Organizing the files might be easier if you create a separate folder on your local computer for each account and then download the files to their respective folder.

Once all files have been downloaded to your computer, it is time to upload the files into the Document Manager.

Create all of the accounts in Document Manager that were contained in Secure File Exchange. Click here for instructions on how to create an account in Document Manager.

Make sure to re-create the usernames and passwords for each account and organize their folders in the proper location. Click here for information pertaining to Document Manager organization.

Now upload the files from your computer into the newly created account folders. Click here for instructions on how to upload files into Document Manager.