With the latest update, I started looking into the Data Mining feature to see if it would be something our firm should be considering when (if) we renew. Still trying to figure out the advantage of using Data Mining over simply filtering returns using Client Manager. Although, given the issues we’ve been having with Client Manager recently not reporting the correct/updated return status I’m hoping we can get better results from Data Mining. Still to be determined.
Not knowing what I’m doing, I figured I would start with one of the built in examples. So, I chose “Farming income” from the pull-down menu. 1st bug I noticed was that the pull-down menu now said “Bankruptcy-related filings”. Regardless of which example I chose it didn’t change from bankruptcy (unless I chose the “Examples” option.
2nd bug (although, I’m not sure if this a bug or just my lack of experience with it) - unless the formulas are highlighted, when choosing a different option from the pull-down menu, the formulas in the window below aren’t replaced - just added to the previous ones. Short of highlighting the formulas I didn’t want and deleting them manually, there was no clear/easy way to reset things (at least, not that I noticed with my limited use so far).
Clicking Next, I then made sure the path for the files was correct and clicked the “Save and Run” button. 3rd bug - when it’s prompting me to name the file before saving it, it’s defaulting the name to “New T1/TP1…”. Unfortunately, Windows doesn’t do too well with a file name that includes “/” in the name. The default “T1/TP1” should be changed to something Windows won’t throw a fit with.
As I play with it more, I’m sure I’ll find other quirks but for now, that’s all.
This has been addressed. After selecting an example query from the list, it should reset to ‘Example’ and not show the bankruptcy item.
The examples are additive. They will replace any selected/highlighted text. If nothing is selected, insert the example query as a new line. We will look to add some options to reset or clear the existing query/formula etc. to assist with this.
In the section where you would choose which columns you want to see, when clicking on the “Add Default Columns” button it adds all of the default columns whether they’re already included in the list or not. Clicking on the button again, will insert the default columns again. IE: you end up with multiple columns for the SIN, First Name, Last Name, etc. unless you delete the duplicate columns manually.
2nd new bug, when adding your own column you can enter the Field Code, but there’s no way to enter a Description (at least none that I’ve found so far).
Full disclosure, I’m currently using TaxCycle version 13.2.53809.0 so, these may have been addressed in the latest update.
@RichJ The duplicate default field codes has now been fixed and will be in the next release. The Description field is read from the form’s description for the entered field code. It isn’t something that is intended to be manually entered.
@Andrew Thanks for fixing the duplicate default fields (along with the other fixes).
When using Data Mining, I know you can add a column to the report that will tell you whether or not a workflow item was signed off or not. But is there a way we can pull the actual date that item was signed off on? When you check something off, TaxCycle automatically adds “Completed on {{date}} by {{user}}”. Would it be possible to pull that date and include it in the report? I believe @kevin was also asking something similar but I’m not sure if he ever got an answer.
