Clinet Manager Server set up

I just wanted to get feedback from anyone using the client manager on a central computer. Which is just a windows 7 pro box that we are using as a file share.

The staff does not have admin rights to their computers but they do have read/write access to the folders on the central computer that has the tax returns.

I have had numerous challenges getting the client manager to work on my machine. Several times I have had to go into the services and change how taxcycle is started to run as me so it can ‘see’ the files. Now this is just running as a private server on my box.

I am hoping to be able to set up a ‘common’ client manager for everyone to use.

Any gotcha’s that I should know before I get started with this? I don’t currently have Taxcycle or any of it’s components on the central box so I know that is step 1.

I have read the documentation and it looks easy I just want to know if there are any issues before I start.

You should only need to set up one Client Manager server on your network. Each of your workstations can then connect to it. They won’t need their own Client Manger server running.

I assume that you’ll also be using an Options Profile to share options?

Whoever configures the Options Profile can also pre-select your Client Manager server. Once each workstation uses this Options Profile, Client Manager will just work without any additional configuration. The workstation will connect to the Client Manager server provided by the Options Profile.

If your returns are located on the same computer as Client Manager, you shouldn’t need to change the user it runs as. As an extra precaution, check your share(s) and add the SYSTEM user account to the share(s).

Here is something we have come across:

Our environment is thin client based using RDS. We have an RDS server and we have a file server. So Apps run on the RDS server, Files are stored on another machine.

When we do a full install, rather than an automatic update, I have noted that the client manager service does not retain the login credentials that we have set for the service. The result is that the Client Manager stops monitoring the files since it does not have access.

Two thoughts:

  1. Could you provide some kind of message from the client manager when it is not able to access monitored folders? Maybe a big warning at the top of the client manager screen.

  2. Is there anyway that the credentials could be retained somehow so if the component is updated, the existing credentials put back?

A full install using TaxCycleSetup.exe will replace the Client Manager service by uninstalling it first. As a result, it resets the user account back to SYSTEM when it installs the new version. Auto-update stops the service and restarts it with the existing user account. Though this is something that’s unlikely to be resolved this filing season, I’d like to change this behaviour so the full install doesn’t reset the assigned user account.

With regards to folder accessibility. I’ll add a visual warning when adding (or using) a monitored folder that is inaccessible to the Client Manager.

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Yes I have found that I had to reset the login as well. I only found this out the hard way when the client manager couldn’t see my files any more.