We like to have a summary of the travel expenses in our DoxCycle file. So we often do a spreadsheet of those.
The spreadsheet allows you to do the summary and then import it into TaxCycle without having to re-key. Note that you will need to change the per km rate for your province if you are using the simplified method.
Medical Travel 2016.xltx (20.3 KB)
Thanks Matthew. That’s a pretty comprehensive sheet. Here is the medical travel Excel spreadsheet that I use. Mine is geared solely for Ontario (but I guess I could just enter the appropriate per km allowance for another province). It only uses the simplified method but will automatically exclude meals and parking unless the km’s, one-way, are 80 or more.
Medical Travel Calcs (2016).xlsx (12.4 KB)
Thanks Matthew, we are looking at standardising our spreadsheets, and this is a great base to start from!
Has Kevin or another Excel wizard looked at a spreadsheet for medical expenses other than travel?
I am finding the drop-down pick lists for “Payment to” and Description" frustrating. They are not sorted alphabetically, and I cannot figure out how “Type to filter list” is supposed to work on medicals or any other form. (Is there a video?) If I type , say “P”, I’m told “P not found” - even if “Prescriptions” is at the top of the list. I am reduced to 'hunt and click", which is getting pretty tedious as the list grows longer. I think a simple copy and paste or alternatively “fill down” in Excel would be easier.
Another advantage of using Excel could be the ability to use the Subtotal function to determine whether limitations have been exceeded where the client has used more than one provider for attendant care, for example.
Coming over from Visual Tax, I do miss one of its features: predictive typing with user-editable lists. In VT when I typed the first few letters, say “Pr” in the Description column, VT would fill in “Prescription”. I could leave that or tap [End] and add an s, or continue with [Space]+p and get “Prescriptions per list”. Or, depending on how I tweaked the list, I might use [Space]+a and end up with “Prescriptions and administration” for a long-term care patient.
Well thanks for the props, @keith1. I haven’t looked too closely at this for a couple reasons. I’m a pretty fast typist so the typing hasn’t been a real issue for me. Second, I don’t really use the drop-down lists because I’ve found the type-ahead, if that’s what it’s called, works well enough for me. Over the years, too, I’ve developed some pretty short descriptions that minimize my input.
I have done spreadsheets that combine medical expenses for those clients with lots of receipts but that doesn’t happen too often. After April I may take a look at what you’re talking about, though, and see if I can streamline my medical expense input. It would be easier if the TaxCycle data files could be open to VBA access but the Excel templates recently provided are a good start.
I’d be interested to see what others do to help their input. There are likely many Excel guru’s in this group of accountants.
Well you did help me by saying “the type-ahead, if that’s what it’s called, works well enough for me”. It wasn’t working at all for me, so I took another look at settings under Return Preparation/Edit, found Auto-complete and changed it to Full. TY.
You’re right, @keith1, it’s “auto-complete”. Couldn’t remember the name and I didn’t remember that it’s an option you have to turn on.
Hi guys, I hope you don’t mind, but I took both of your templates and combined them…
It will determine if it is better for the client to choose simplified or detailed for each meals and KMs, and will only include meals, lodging ect if over 80KM. It will also throw out KMs and detailed auto if there are Plane/Bus/Taxi costs.
Let me know what you think 
Hope you had a great tax season!
People may want to drive their car to the airport. I Live an hour+ from teh nearest airport. I drive to a family member’s home, they drive me to the airport and take the car back to their. Then reverse the process for pick up. I can see the same for the bus station also over an hour away…