Common questions about Gather
User questions
Turn on or turn off Gather
note
Gather
is included as part of the SafeSend Premium package. It can be purchased separately as part of the Gather Essential
package.Administrators can give users access to
Gather
in the Account Management User Management
dashboard.Supported tax applications
CCH Axcess™ and ProSystem fx®, UltraTax CS®, Lacerte®, and GoSystem® Tax RS.
Supported organizer types
1040 organizers are supported.
Supported tax years
2020 and later.
Sending entity organizers through Gather
Entity organizers are not currently supported, but document request lists, engagement letters, and custom question templates can still be delivered to entity clients.
Organizer pages
You don't need to have all pages in the organizer. You can select specific pages in print settings. Personal information pages are required to upload.
Supported organizers for upload
Most organizer pages are recognized. This includes lite organizers, classic, and full versions. Fillable fields appear green in the Taxpayer Preview.
Unrecognizable or unfillable documents types
Due Diligence letters are not currently recognized for all tax application types. Condensed organizers for Lacerte® are not currently recognized. Summary organizers for GoSystem® are not currently recognized.
Default questionnaire customization
The default questionnaire generated by your tax application should not be edited. We recommend you use the
Custom Questions
feature instead.Optical character recognition
Organizers comply with optical character recognition (OCR).
Turn off source document gathering
In
Gather
, go to .View delivered Gather requests
You can view delivered
Gather
requests in the side panel.Taxpayer text edits
If a taxpayer edits existing text, the text will be a different color on the completed organizer PDF. Taxpayer text appears blue, while information entered by the spouse is magenta.
Upload organizers using tax application integration
Integrations are not compatible with
Gather
. A PDF copy of the organizer must be uploaded manually.Uploading of documents to archived
Gather
requests by clientsThe client can still upload documents to an archived request unless the firm has closed it or the client has marked it as complete.
Use a document request list CSV template for an individual
Gather
requestThis feature is only available for entity requests.
Automatic form recognition
Automatic form recognition is not available on the taxpayer side when the document request list CSV template option is used.
Engagement letters
Batch engagement letters
All engagement letters included in a batch should be formatted the same way; any signature/date lines should be in the same position on the same page.
Engagement letters requirement
Engagement letters are optional.
Send engagement letters without a signature control
You can send engagement letters without a signature control for a 2nd recipient.
Add a standard or customized engagement letter
Engagement letters are added and customized in your tax application.
Apply signatures to pages other than the engagement letter
During processing, signatures can be added in the Organizer or eSign Documents section. Signatures can't be added to organizer pages when processing a batch.
Required signatures
The taxpayer will be forced to sign the required signature fields. After that is completed, they can choose to leave the other fields blank.
Declining to signatures
The taxpayer won’t be able to go back and sign if they select
Decline
. They can download the unsigned document.Client questions
Supported file types
The client can upload any file type. A System Admin can restrict specified file types in your section. Only PDF and image files go through document recognition with
Gather AI
.Document size limit for upload
The client can upload up to 500 MB at once.
Editing submitted organizers marked as complete
The firm would need to unlock the
Gather
request for editing using the Reopen Gather
option in the action menu.Uploading additional documents
If the client marked the document uploads as complete, additional documents can't be uploaded. To reopen document uploads, the firm can use the
Reopen Document Upload
option in the action menu.Using a tablet to complete a
Gather
requestA
Gather
request can be completed on a tablet. This includes signing, completing the questionnaire, filling out the organizer, and uploading documents.Using a phone to complete a Gather request
Gather
requests can be partially completed on a phone. You can sign and upload documents, but you can't complete the questionnaire or fill out the organizer.Batch processing
Batch Gather information
Batch Gather
information is provided by downloading and filling out the Gather CSV Template
found in the help center.CSV template requirements
- Client ID must be in text format.
- The mobile number field is digits only.
- Don’t delete any columns in the CSV.
Different engagement letters in a batch
All engagement letters in a batch must be formatted exactly the same to ensure correct signature placement.
Electronic Return Originator (ERO)
You need to do a separate batch for every ERO.
Batch size limit
There is a size limit of 1 GB for the ZIP file. This is roughly 1,000 organizers.
Batches for entity
Gather
requestsUsing a document request list CSV template for an individual
Gather
requestThis feature is only available for entity requests.
Committable or uncommittable errors
Committable errors will be delivered. Uncommittable errors won't be delivered and are removed from the batch process.