So there are still a couple of things I would like to see in the program. This is a rehash of some I have requested before.
T3 Slip entry screen (and posting from Doxcycle) - I would like an extra box for investment fees to speed up the entry of the investment fees that are entered in the footnotes of T3 slips. Saves having to go into open the S4 and checking if the staff have entered it;
I thing you should consider a investment worksheet screen as well so we can enter the investment fees for a client and mark them as either individual or shared with spouse so it populates the old S4 properly. currently we need to do the math, copy the tape and paste in the spouses return, the above option #1 can pull automatically and be split based on the slip breakdown between spouses.
AFR screen should consider some of the box values when suggesting the slip matches since the names may not match.
When matching T5008 and T3 slips on the AFR screen, it would be nice to be able to just key the Taxcycle slip number to match. I.e. first T5008 is slip one etc. That way I can click on the drop box with my mouse hit 1 and then left click again for quicker matching. currently I have to modify the names of the slips to be 1, 2, 3 in fron tof the actual names to do the above. This will also help when we have five slips all from CIBC which have the same account number for differentiation.
roll over of T936 data in Taxcycle should round to nearest dollar (or drop the cents) to carry forward the same as CRA AFR data to stop the error when the download and CRA file do not match;
When you complete “transmit family”, I would like to see a couple more things one that screen, first the balance owing/refund. I like to see that the T183 that I have still matches Taxcycle before I file. Second, after it is filed, I would like to see the same information showing that would be shown if I filed them individually. I want to see from the efile if there is a code 180, pre-assessment review etc. Currently I have to check each one individually after I file to see if I got back code 180
AFR screen reorders the T3 and T5008 slips based on name; however it would be nice if we could have the option to have them display in the same order as CRA sends them to you. I know this is possible since when you export the slips they are in the order provided by CRA i.e. processing order of the slips. If I can sort in the order processed by CRA, I can just run down the list if they are in the processing order rather than jumping around looking for them.
It would be nice to be able to click on multiple slips (T3 and T5008) on the afr screen see the subtotal of all the slips selected and assign them all at one time to the appropriate slip in Taxcycle.
Also for the AFR screen, it would be nice to have a display column showing the amount of the slip clicked when you are combining more than one together, once you have two together, it makes it more difficult to determine if a slip has been linked incorrectly, currently you have to drag it off the slip to a blank add new slip to see what the raw values for that particular slip are.
this is just a thought, option on the invoice screen to autopull the accounting invoice (or portion of the invoice on rollover) to the S4 or S4W next year allowing for the split of the cost between spouses for those who write off the accounting fees the following years tax return.
It would be nice if CRA allowed Taxcycle to download the proof of income details for the prior year to allow a quick population of the prior year data for new clients for comparative purposes.
ability to turn off optimization for donations from the donation screen
Maybe have a consolidated donation in addition to the current donation screen that works like the medical screen with a column for taxpayer for quicker review of clients with large number of donations to ensure no double entry from staff
Slips that are transferred from spouse at 50% should always fall to the end of the list on the slip summary screen
ability to opt out of the PAD from the family transmit and individual transmit screen instead of having to go to the T183 to click the box after the fact
ability to quick update online mail question from afr data from review screen
I’m good with most of these but I especially like #8. On more complicated returns I spend a fair amount of time trying to match consolidated T3’s. It’s worse when the client doesn’t give you the part of the T3 that shows the details and I have noticed it less of a problem this year for some reason. Being able to group T3’s and get subtotals, even if only temporarily, would give real added value.
Agree with quite a few of these. Unfortunately the T5008 / T3 stuff has gotten quite out of hand now with some clients.
I have one with 96 (!) T3s and organizing these into the same clumps as the reporting T3s has become an enormous pain.
T5008s are a bit better…exporting them especially when no ACB is provided is good, but it’s all still a bit messy to deal with.
Comment: This is not really due to TC, but more to the reporting agencies. Not sure why they report in this manner, especially when the “issuer” is, say TD Waterhouse…why not one slip that matches the printed one?
The S4 entry for investment fees is an annoyance, but we’ve had to do it that way, more or less…well, forever.
Another annoyance, not TC’s doing: different names on slips from one year to the next - even from government T4 issuers.
One more I missed, there has to be a better way to deal with downloaded RRSP slips, I should not need to sign off three cells to confirm that I have the RRSP below. One signoff should handle all the complete line, I should be able to right click and assign to a line that has been already entered as well.
@Cameron, let me know if you want to partner on the cloud version of Taxcycle, I have some ideas for you there as well
Which is why Taxcycle needs to consider some of the box values when matching; however, that only works if you have someone key the slips first and you use the afr as a review tool like I do. if you are prepareing th ereturn from the AFR, well then you are still hooped.
Further to signing off the RRSP from AFR - it is a real issues when the 1st 60 days comes in from AFR as one total amount for example $300 but the client provides 3 individual slips for $100 each. Our firm policy is to ensure we have each slip with their receipt # because too often clients bring in the prior year 1st 60 days and we have to check if they were claimed or not. When we check off the $300 from AFR it changes in the section below and then it has to be re-typed. I would prefer to confirm that we have matched the $300 but not post it from AFR
Thanks
It would seem that a lot of these items derive from what I’d call “preferred method of workflow”…
For those (like me) who download from AFR, send the list to the client, then get back only whatever ISN’T on AFR there is one method to input/check.
For those (like @james1) there is a different method of input/check.
Not sure how @cameron is going to reconcile those two – and it may end up being up to us to devise our own “tricks” to make each work (and there are probably a zillion variants to the two above…). It’s a thorny problem for a developer. I have empathy.
They key may be finding the commonalities and working with those?
Personally, I do not think there is much @Cameron can do with your process. When I export the T3 and T5008 slips from Taxcycle, there is nothing in the data that would indicate which slips go together to form the individual slips provided to the client. If you do not have the original slip, you are very hard pressed to group them in any proper order especially when you can have multiple slips from a particular investment company. There is also the problem of amended slips, you may download a slip from a company and the client has an amended slip that you may not catch if they are only sending you what is not on the list. Furthermore, you also may not catch the double posted slips from the company which happens more often then one would think, which causes issues of their own. I have one of these on my desk right now that I have to contact CRA to try and deal with if the company does not cancel one of them.
I would like to have the width of the Description Field reinstated such that it is wide enough to see the History of fixed asset additions in the Asset Manager. This Description field width has recently been dramatically reduced to make way for the Class 54 - Zero Emissions Vehicle cost limits… which now take up almost half the real estate on that screen.
Family Summary - The family summary shows the line-by-line tax returns for the parents and children who we’ve done tax returns for. However, sometimes I just want to show the parents on this family summary instead of the parents and kids.
I’m wondering if you might consider putting a check box at the top of the form under each person’s name (defaulting to checked) and allow the user to un-check the box for people not wanted on the summary.
DUH … I just found the “Joint Summary”. You are well-ahead of me, TaxCycle but it would be still good to have that check-box since I sometimes have kids who come in and out of having tax returns done. It would be nice to be able to not show them on the Family Summary in years when we don’t do their returns.
If this Docusign option becomes permanent, it would be nice to just have a better way to handle the docusign printing. For instance, my default for a document is to go to my printer; however, when I change to pdf most of the settings are there for docusign except I have to keep changing the mask of since before I print, it would be nice to have print default print setting for printing and then for docusign etc
@james1
Great running list from @james1 and all additional commenters.
In addition, I would like to add:-
RRSP - additional column so that I can add both the receipt # and the plan #.
RRSP - additional column or drop down so that I can note whether the RRSP plan is individually paid or paid through payroll deductions with an addition column to note if there is an employer matching component. Several of the payroll deductions plans with employer matching contributions have very late slips. If I noted the employer matching component then I know that I must wait for the slip to be issued and processed by CRA to be sure of the amount of the first 60 days contribution, because it is usually an oddball amount and not a match to the payroll deduction amount. Right now I make a note outside of TaxCycle and copy/paste into a memo field. I have to keep updating this notes fields if and when there is a CRA review request.
MEDICAL - Medical insurance premiums paid thorough payroll deductions. I would like something in the medical form where I can add medical deductions paid through payroll deductions but not reported on the T4, box 85. I would like to note that whether the source doc was the year end pay stub or an employer receipt. Often small employer refuse to provide a receipt. However when they do the receipt often does not match the payroll deduction reported sometimes by very large amounts. Right now I make a note outside of TaxCycle and copy/paste into a memo field. I have to keep updating this notes fields if and when there is a CRA review request.
NAICS Association site - I would love a link within TaxCycle for faster search for the right code to complete in T2125.
I am not sure which is the best site to use. Sometimes I check a couple of versions before I find the best match. If there are two or three possible matches then I note the other possibilities and why I chose the number that I did enter.
One minor irritation which just occurred:
Had a saved T1 file - printed, T183 done etc…just waiting for the signed copy back. Opened the file after receipt of the T183, eFiled, then mistakenly hit Close (toolbar icon)…and didn’t get a “save” prompt…even though the status would have changed.
(Note: not terrible as the Transmitted icon shows the nice happy face and I see that the status is not “completed” yet…so easy to spot…just odd to me.)
