Data types for Tax Return Import/Export
Tax Return Import/Export uses these data types: Alpha, Alphanumeric, Date, Dollar, Edited, Fraction, Integer, and Percent.
Alpha
- Fields with type Alpha allow letter characters [a-z][A-Z].
- These fields are almost exclusively used for checkboxes, radio buttons, and dropdowns where each option is a sequence of text but to conserve memory the system only stores a 1-3 length string value corresponding to each option.
Alphanumeric
(AlphaNu)- Fields with type Alphanumeric allow letter and number characters [a-z][A-Z][0-9] and all special characters that fall in the ASCII range from 33 (exclamation point) to 126 (tilde).
- Any special characters that fall outside this range should be included as a Warning in the validation report generated after an import with a message indicating there is no guarantee that the data record or group member imported successfully due to the presence of the unsupported special character.
- You can clear any data in an Alphanumeric field by importing an empty string: “”.
Date
- Fields with type Date accept regional United States date formats MM/DD/YYYY and will automatically convert single digit days and months to the leading zero version (“9” to “09”).
- Date fields don't accept YYYY/MM/DD format and will treat DD/MM/YYYY as MM/DD/YYYY or throw an error if DD exceeds 12 so ensure that all dates being imported are formatted as MM/DD/YYYY.
- Date fields can also accept the word VAR (various). You can clear any data in a Date field by importing an empty string: “”.
Dollar
- Fields with type Dollar allow whole numbers and commonly have a maximum length of 15.
- Dollar fields automatically round to the nearest dollar so typing or importing 777.77 will display 778. Most exports will add formatting with a .00 to the end of the value so 778 will export as 778.00.
- If you don't wish to leave a Dollar field empty, it will acceptNONE(inside the tax applicationNONEautomatically has uppercase applied to becomeNONE). You can also importNONEbut import is case sensitive so useNONEand notNONEorNONE.
- You can't store a0in a Dollar field (the system will prompt you to useNONEinstead) but you can clear any data in a Dollar field by importing either0or an empty string: “”.
Edited
- Fields with type Edited are custom-created number fields where both the field length and precision (number of places after the decimal point) are determined on a field-by-field basis by the tax application developer to fit the specifications of the tax form or e-file.
- Edited fields may or may not allow commas on a field-by-field basis. The commas are not mandatory but when the system computes it will add commas and commas do count for maximum length. The same rules for0andNONEvalues that apply to Dollar fields also apply to Edited fields.
Fraction
- Fields with type Fraction are commonly meant for fields with a value between0and 1 that will display as for example 0.12345 but this isn't always the case.
- Fraction fields will accept any numbers that meet both the field length and precision conditions which can be a number greater than 1.
- Fraction fields will show trailing zeroes after the decimal point if there are fewer numbers than the precision. For example, 77.111 will display as 77.1110 if the field has a precision of 4.
- The same rules for0andNONEvalues that apply to Dollar fields also apply to Fraction fields.
Integer
- Fields with the type Integer accept numbers [0-9] and will always have a precision of0to ensure only whole numbers (integers) are stored in the field.
- Integer fields will show leading zeroes if there are fewer numbers than the field length. For example, 12 will display as 0012 if the field has a field length of 4.
- Integer fields don't acceptNONE.
- The same rules for0values that apply to Dollar fields also apply to Integer fields.
Percent
- Fields with type Percent are usually intended to show a percent number in the tax application like 75.1234%.
- Percent fields can hold at most 8 numbers including the decimal point.
- When importing, the value in a Percent field is multiplied by 100. When exporting, the value visible in the tax application is divided by 100. If you want the tax application to show 75.1234 in a Percent field you should import either 0.751234 or .751234. Any leading zeroes are not considered part of the 8 number maximum length.
- The same rules for0andNONEvalues that apply to Dollar fields also apply to Percent fields.
