1040 Workpaper Software Makes Personal Tax Easier

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• September 2008 Issue
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From the Sept. 2008 Issue

If you have more than a few 1040s to prepare in your firm, the new generation of 1040 workpaper tools that can scan, organize and, in a few instances, populate your tax software with numbers is worth reviewing. The problem is a difficult one to solve, but most of the major publishers and a number of startup companies have tackled the problem. You should, too.

This product genre has a number of offerings that are quite good, and many are covered elsewhere in this month’s issue (see www.cpatechadvisor.com/go/2079). Three of my favorites are SurePrep’s 1040Scan, CCH’s ProSystem fx Scan and Copanion’s GruntWorx. Other notable products include ATX/TaxWise Scan&Fill and GoFileRoom TaxSort. I have a pretty good list of tax products and the corresponding workpaper technology at www.cpafirmtechnology.com. Finding and organizing client tax data before preparation can be a time-consuming and tedious task. Surveys completed by Copanion showed that finding, organizing and entering client tax data averages 40 percent of the total time required to prepare a tax return.

Here are the key things you need to know when selecting 1040 workpaper software for your firm or your individual practice:
Many 1040 workpaper products interface into popular tax products. If you are involved with CCH’s ProSystem fx Tax; Thomson Reuters’ GoSystem RS or UltraTax CS; or Intuit’s Lacerte or ProSeries, options are available for you to buy, integrate and solve the problem completely, including the entry of data.

Using a 1040 workpaper product can change your processes, and you should plan accordingly. Key decisions include the following:

a) Who does the scanning — staff or practitioner?
b) 1040 Workpaper products assume scanning the client documentation on the front side. Has your firm been “post” scanning after all organization, tick marks and review is complete? How is this process going to change? How much sorting of documents will you let the software do?
c) How will you make annotations? Does the firm need to license additional tools like Tic, Tie & Calculate from Acct1st? Do you need more training on Adobe Acrobat? Does the supplying vendor have any tools to assist with the process?