T4 Print Settings Vanishing

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This has happened to me a few times now… enough that it has gotten frustrating. A month ago I spent time configuring the 2016 T4 to print the way I like to have them. Once I had things the way I wanted I copied the format to 2015 through 2013. A little while later I wanted to tweak a couple of things, hit Apply, then went into the Employer’s file, Clicked on Print/PDF from the side bar and Taxcycle told me there were “No Print Sets” available. That was odd, so I closed Taxcycle, opened it again and opened the employer file. This time, the employer did have Print Sets Available, but they were the Taxcycle defaults. I went into options–>T4/T4A–>Print—>2016 and all my work was gone, I was left with the Taxcycle Defaults. No big deal I guess, so I started from scratch and configured everything again.

Yesterday I had a client phone me, one of his guys had moved away and asked if I could email a PDF copy of his T4 slip… easy enough I figured. I guess I haven’t learned the shortcut to print a single T4 slip with Taxcycle yet, which I thought may have been as easy as flipping to the employee’s T4 slip in Taxcycle, then hitting the “Print Single Form” shortcut key that I have mapped to my keyboard. The Print Single form while in a T4 slip essentially is a screen print (employee ID, Filing Info, Slip Data, Payroll View, and T4), and was not what I was looking for.

Anyway… I figured I would set up a new Print Set for T4-Employee Copy by making a Copy of the T4 Employee Copy and changing the printer to the PDF Printer. Of course, I don’t want this print set to print all the time, just when I need to print for a single employee, so I “unchecked it as a print set”. I opened the employer file and didn’t see the new print set… likely because I didn’t have it checked. Went back into Print Options, put a blue check mark in the box to include that Print that Set, hit Apply, and went back to the Employer’s file. “No Print Sets Available for this Employer” … oh no, not this again.

Went back to my 2016 T4 Pint Configuration and EVERYTHING is gone again! Everything has reverted back to the Taxcycle default. No big deal I figure, I’ll just go into 2015 or 2014 or 2013 and “copy those forward”. NOPE… they are all gone too… back to the default.

The only thing in common the last 2 times this happened was I had an employer file open while I was messing with the Print Sets, also, rather than creating new sets, I made changes to the 3 Default Sets.

Sometimes I really hate computers…

** End of Rant **

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@snoplowguy –

That sucks. We’ll spend some time on Monday trying to reproduce this situation. Is there anything unique about your set-up? Mac? Using options profiles?

In the mean time, you can backup your options by clicking opening up your options, selecting “manage” and then clicking “export”. When you lose the options you can re-import them.

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Sorry about the trouble… we’re on it. If there is any other information that might help us figure out what’s happening, please give us an update.

Thanks.

~ Cameron

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@snoplowguy –

Is this the sequence you are following when you lose the print sets?

  1. Start with a new instance of TaxCycle.
  2. Create a new T5 return. Don’t bother entering any information.
  3. Go to the Print / PDF pane on the left.
  4. Do this three times:
    a) click the wrench icon to get into Options.
    b) make the change to get the Apply button to become active.
    c) click the Apply button.
    d) if the Apply button deactivates, click OK and loop again.
  5. On the third iteration (and most times after that), the Apply button stays active after clicking it. Click the Apply button again. This causes the print sets listed in the main screen to disappear. These will not display again unless you exit TaxCycle, or you go back into Options, make a change and click Apply again.

If this sounds like what you’re doing, let me know. I’m going to look at this today.

~ Cameron

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Don’t spend your weekend working on this Cameron… it isn’t that important.
System; Windows 7-32 bit, Taxcycle installed on single PC, data files & CMM running from NAS.

I think I can reproduce this on my end in about 7 simple steps.

1 - I open new instance of Taxcycle (no open client). Go to Options–>T4-T4A–>Print–>2016
2 - Simply rename the first 3 T4 Print Sets as follows; Test 1, Test 2, and Test 3 then I hit Apply
3 - I open a Recent Employer that has T4 slips and click on the Print Tab. I see Test 1,2,3 as Print Sets
4 - With the Client open, I click on “File—>Options”
5 - I uncheck one of those 3 Print Sets, then hit Apply again, and then OK
6 - All Print Sets now seem to have disappeared in the open client.
7 - I go Back to "Options–T4/T4A–>Print–>2016 and Taxcycle Defaults have now replaced Test 1,2,3

Below are screenshots of what I see in steps 2, 3, 6, and 7

It seems to me changing anything to do with the Print Sets while a client is open and active in Taxcycle seems to throw things back to Taxcycle Defaults on my computer.

Step 2.jpg865×456 118 KB


Step 6.jpg523×606 56.8 KB

Step 7.jpg778×475 116 KB

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Update… If I make changes to the Print Settings without a client file open then everything seems to work ok. I don’t know if this is an issue that affects my system only, however, it definitely seems to have something to do with having an Employer file open while making changes to Print settings.

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Weird, never had anything like that happen…

and with the number of printsets I run, thanks for the backup method, @Cameron

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[quote=“BertMulderCGA, post:6, topic:1014, full:true”]
thanks for the backup method, @Cameron[/quote]

Yes… Thanks Cameron, I too have now backed up my options as you suggested.

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@snoplowguy –

I don’t like any reports of lost options because it is one of the more frustrating things that can happen. Thanks for the detailed account of what was happening. I’ve been able to reproduce the problem and fix it. We’re releasing an update next week, so hopefully you can wait until then.

Another workaround: If you make changes to the print settings, and click apply, and the apply button stays enabled, then DO NOT CLICK OK or press [Enter]. Since your changes have already been applied, just hit cancel. Part (but not all) of the problem related to the options being applied twice, since they are automatically applied on clicking OK.

~ Cameron

1 Like
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happening to me also,

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@taxpoint –

Sorry for the trouble. We have fixed the underlying problem and will update TaxCycle in the coming week.

Best regards,

~ Cameron

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I appreciate you spending the time on this Cam.
Now that I know “what not do to” there is no urgency for a release.