Preparedness Guide
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Welcome to our step-by-step guide to prepare your firm for organizer season and make your experience with Organizers easy and seamless.
Getting Started
Review your print settings
Make sure the following conditions are met
- The Personal Information page is included in your print.
- The PDF has bookmarks generated by your tax software (CCH® only).
- The questionnaire should be the default; it can't be edited.
- Questions can't be added or removed.
- The default font and margins need to be used.
- Condensed organizers are not supported for Lacerte® customers.
- Summary organizers are not supported for GoSystem® customers.
Batch organizers
Refer to Uploading Batch Organizers.
- A ZIP file file containing all organizer PDFs and a CSV containing client information is required for batch uploads.
- The outlined file naming conventions need to be used for the batch to upload correctly.
- Ensure CSV cells are formatted as plain text; Excel automatically truncates some numbers.
- Don’t add or remove any columns from the CSV file.
- Don’t add any text in any fields outside of the columns provided.
- Ensure clients are sorted in the same order they are sorted in the ZIP file.
- The number of .CSV line items should match the number of PDFs in the ZIP file.
- The following fields are required:
- Client ID
- Taxpayer First Name
- Taxpayer Last Name
- Taxpayer email address
Review firm wide settings
- Use our Settings: General guide to make sure your clients and staff will have the options and defaults they need.
- Turn on or turn off engagement letters, source document gathering and firm notifications, and automated reminders for clients.
- Set up Custom Questions to create questions not covered by the questionnaire.
- Text should not be copied/pasted into this section. It can cause display issues.
- Set up Saved Messages and Client Instructions as needed.
Recognized forms and fields
- Only 1040 organizers are currently recognized.
- Any version of the organizer can be used if the Personal Information page is included.
- Due diligence forms are not currently recognized.
- Custom forms are not recognized.
- Organizers for the tax year 2020 and later are recognized for CCH®.
- Organizers for tax year 2021 and later are recognized for GoSystem®, UltraTax®, and Lacerte®.
- To review fillable fields, select the Taxpayer Preview option in the Delivery Options tab.
- Fillable fields appear green in the preview but can't be filled.
Uploading and processing
Review processing guides
- For individual organizers, refer to Processing an Organizer.
- For batch organizers, processing is very similar to individual organizers except:
- Pages can't be moved.
- An error tab may appear outlining batch errors. These errors can be corrected (in most cases) or ignored.
- If you are unable to deliver an organizer, refer to the Unable to Process Organizer article for troubleshooting steps.
Engagement letters (optional)
- The engagement letter must be printed with the organizer and be included in the same PDF for CCH®.
- The engagement letter must be printed as a separate PDF and uploaded alongside the organizer for GoSystem®, UltraTax®, and Lacerte®.
- For batch organizers, the engagement letter template must be the same for all recipients.
- If the signature location differs from letter to letter, the signature will be misplaced on the signed document.
- Alternatively, the engagement letter can be uploaded to theAdditional E-Sign Documentstab during processing.
- For batch organizers, the engagement letter template must be the same for all recipients.
- Signature controls must be added to the engagement letter during processing; they are not added automatically.
- If your firm doesn’t add signature controls, the client won’t be prompted to sign.
- Mark the signature block as required or not during processing.
Managing delivered organizers
Reports Dashboard
- Refer to the Organizers Reports Overview article to review your delivered organizer options.
- There is a separate status column for Engagement Letters, Organizers, and Source Documents.
- All organizers, individual and batch, are in the sameDelivered Organizerssection.
- Column headers can be used to filter, and sort delivered organizers.
Frequently asked questions
- How do I let the client to upload source documents?
- An administrator can turn on source document gathering under .
- How do I know if the user uploaded new source documents?
- The status will showUploadedany time new documents are uploaded.
- You can select the black download button in the action menu to refer to which documents are newly uploaded.
- An administrator can turn on email notifications for source document uploads under .
- How are client email notifications delivered for married filing jointly organizers?
- If an email address is entered for the taxpayer and spouse, the organizer will be delivered to both at the same time.
- If an email address is only entered for the taxpayer, and there is no spouse signature control, the spouse won’t receive an access link unless the taxpayer selects .
- If the taxpayer selects , the spouse won’t receive an access link.
- If an email address is only entered for the taxpayer, and there is a spouse signature control, the taxpayer will be prompted to enter an email address for the spouse. The spouse will get an access link after the taxpayer signs.
- Why is there an Error tab during processing for my batch organizer?
- This tab appears if the system detects missing or incorrect information in the batch.
- The tab will show a description of the error.
- Some errors can be corrected in this tab, others can't.
- You can choose to ignore the errors and deliver anyway, but those organizers won’t be delivered and will appear in the Undelivered Batch reporting section.
- Note: Not all data mismatches will be recognized. It is important to make sure you have the same number of PDF files and .CSV line items to prevent incorrect delivery or other errors.
- For additional frequently asked questions, refer to our Organizer FAQ.
