Migrate clients from one firm to another

Pre-requisite steps before migration

Field	Description
Transfer Original Firm users	During the migration, clients will be matched to their Owner based on the Owner's name, meaning that each firm user's first and last name in the Destination Firm must match the first and last name in the Original Firm to migrate client lists successfully. Using the New User feature in Account Admin , transfer any firm users from the Original Firm to maintain your clients' Owner record post-migration. This will avoid the use of the Alternate Owner record.
Allow new users to be Owners	When transferring users from the Original Firm that will be assigned as the Owner of any of the Destination Firm’s clients (migrated or otherwise), they must have the Can be an Owner permission enabled for their assigned User Group in FileRoom.
Transfer Office Location	Using the New Office Location feature in Account Admin , transfer any relevant office location from the Original Firm to maintain your clients' Location field post-migration. This will avoid the use of the Alternate Location record previously provided.
Tax Software Activation & Tax Software Account Number	To ensure Original Firm clients retain their tax application and account number post-migration, turn on the matching application and account number in the Destination Firm beforehand. If no matching application is found and no overwrite is provided, clients will migrate without their tax application record. Ensure the tax application account number matches the Original Firm . Failure to do so (without providing a tax application or account number) will lead to incorrect account numbers for clients post-migration.
TaxCaddy Document Request List	If necessary, adjust the Destination Firm’s DRL settings to address any categories not included in those of the Original Firm , including custom DRL categories as well.
Custom Fillable PDF	If the Original Firm has enabled fillable PDF forms for any of their DRL categories, the Destination Firm can also enable these fillable PDF forms to give their clients the ability to fulfill their document request from within TaxCaddy.
Tax Return Category	If the Original Firm has enabled any added categories in their Tax Return settings, recreate the same categories to the Destination Firm's Tax Return settings if you’d like the migrated clients to receive their tax return requests as usual.
Custom Field	If the Original Firm has enabled and created a custom field for TaxCaddy and FileRoom in their Admin settings, and the Destination Firm would like to continue the use of this custom firm for clients moving forward, enable this setting and provide the custom field in the Project ID field.
Tax year manager	Establish the range of tax years that the Destination Firm will have access to, and the frequency of tax year-related email notifications once the migration is complete.
Add a Stripe account	Skip this step if you currently don't have a Stripe account setup. Any pending invoice from a migration client may not be viewable in the Destination Firm if they don’t have a Stripe account added to their firm.
Export client list	We recommend that users export the All Columns Excel file of your firm’s entire client list from Client Management to have the most comprehensive record of all your clients’ records pre-migration. Once migration is complete, the selected clients won’t be in the Original Firm . If their migrated records must be compared to their status prior to migration, users will have access to each client's status.
Contact Support for a report of assigned members	Your clients’ Assigned Members list won’t be migrated to the Destination Firm . If you would like to preserve the access your firm users have to their client list, then we recommend contacting SurePrep Support to receive an Excel spreadsheet of each client’s Assigned Members.

Migrating clients to their new destination

Sign into TaxCaddy.
Go to
Administrative
, then
CLIENT MANAGEMENT
.

Select the
MANAGE CLIENTS
menu.

Select
Migrate Clients
from the
ADMINISTRATIVE
section. Contact SurePrep Support if you don’t see the
Migrate Clients
option.

Now select the checkbox for each client you'd like to migrate.
Option 1
: Select the checkbox next to each client to only choose those clients.

Option 2
: To bulk select clients, select the 1st column header then select from the following options:
All Eligible
- It selects all eligible clients in your firm from all pages. However, if you are currently using filters and/or search then
All Eligible
(clients) will only apply to clients who are currently filtered/searched. If you need to perform the same action separately for a different set of clients then you must wait for the 1st bulk operation to complete before initiating the same action for the 2nd set of clients. Requires
Can Bulk Send
permission.
All Eligible on Page
- It selects all eligible clients on the current page.

After you select the clients, a selection bar slides up from the bottom of the page. Select
START MIGRATION
to begin editing the selected clients. Select
DESELECT ALL
to cancel and clear all selected clients.

The
Confirm firms for migration
window will appear.

Within this window, you will be able to confirm which firm has been allocated as the
Original Firm
and which firm has been allocated as the
Destination Firm
.

note
If this information is incorrect, please contact SurePrep Support for further assistance in rectifying these records. Do not proceed with migration if the
Destination Firm
is incorrect.
After you've reviewed the firm information and you are ready to proceed with the migration, users will select the
I acknowledge that all of the above information is correct to my knowledge.
and
I attest that my firm is merging with another TaxCaddy customer...
checkboxes.

Select
NEXT
to proceed to the next step in client migration.

You will be prompted to provide optional alternate records (populated by the
Destination Firm
) that will be applied to clients whose
Original
records couldn’t be located in the
Destination Firm
.

Field Name	Description
ALTERNATIVE OFFICE LOCATION	This is an optional field. If possible, our system will assign each taxpayer client to the same office location that they had on file in the Original Firm . However, if this office location can't be found in the Destination Firm , the client will then be assigned to the Fallback Location.
ALTERNATE OWNER	This is an optional field. If possible, our system will assign each taxpayer client to the same Owner that they had on file in the Original Firm . However, if this Owner can't be found in the Destination Firm , the client will be assigned to the Fallback Owner .
TAX SOFTWARE and ACCOUNT NUMBER*	These are optional fields. When provided, these will replace the original tax application and account numbers of all migrated clients, regardless of what was saved to their records in the Original Firm . If provided, any tax application and account number value that can't be located in the Destination Firm (that is, not yet turned on, incorrectly provided) will cause the migration to fail.Ensure that the values provided for these fields are accurate and present in the Destination Firm before initiating the migration process.
note
*
Only 1 tax application and account number can be provided. This optional tax application and account number will then be applied to all client records being migrated to the new firm. Firms with multiple tax application and account number options must update the applicable clients post-migration.
After all necessary alternate records have been provided in their respective fields, you are ready to begin migrating clients. Select
MIGRATE CLIENTS
if you'd like to proceed with the client migration process.Read more about what successful client migration results will entail.

TaxCaddy will begin migrating clients from your firm (the
Original Firm
) to the
Destination Firm
. Once the migration is complete, you will see a toast notification appear indicating the results, including a count of successfully and unsuccessfully migrated clients.
note
Once all of the clients you'd like to migrate have been migrated, contact the Support team to remove the
Migrate Clients
option from the
MANAGE CLIENTS
menu to avoid accidental migration in the future.

Download an exception report

To download the most recent exception report made for your firm, select the
Export Client Reports To Excel
icon from
CLIENT MANAGEMENT
.

From the
Export Client Reports To Excel
window, select the
REPORT TYPE
dropdown menu, and select
Migration Exception Report
.

Select
GENERATE REPORT
.

After it has been generated, the exception report will be ready for download. Select
Download file
from the window.

When you open the exception report, find the
Reason for Failing Records
column to view the reasons for each client that failed the migration process. Rectify the client/alternate data according to the suggestion in the
Reason for Failing Records
column. Learn more about what could cause a client record to fail migration.

Reasons for an unsuccessful migration

What will a successful migration look like?

What happens to the Client Management details of the migrated clients?
For clients classified as either
Standard
or
Offline
, their classification will remain unchanged in the
Destination Firm
.
The following fields will be preserved and migrated as is from the
Original Firm
:
Client's First Name
Client's Last Name
Client's Email
Mobile Number and Country Code
Spouse's First Name
Spouse's Last Name
Spouse's Email ID
Tax Client ID
Tax software version
Tax software password
Custom Field
What happens to the Assigned Members List?
A client’s Assigned Members list won’t be retained and carried to the
Destination Firm
. After the migration is completed users at the
Destination Firm
will need to add assigned members manually as needed. Before migration, you can contact SurePrep Support to get a report of your clients’ Assigned Members list.
What happens to any Duplicate records that were migrated?
If an identical record (either Standard or Offline profile with the same Email ID on file) is already present in the
Destination Firm
, this record will be skipped during the migration process, and we’ll generate a log containing these records for review. A Support team representative will receive this list and manage it with your firm.
How are the Original and Destination firms' TaxCaddy Unit consumption impacted?
Once client migration is complete, the
Destination Firms
performing any type of
Gather
or
Deliver
actions that the
Original Firm
previously performed in a client’s profile resulting in TaxCaddy Unit consumption will incur the same charge for the
Destination Firm
.
For example, if the
Original Firm
was previously charged a TaxCaddy Unit for performing a
Gather
activity (sending a client their questionnaire, using Smart Links) then post-migration, the
Destination Firm
will also be charged a TaxCaddy Unit for performing another
Gather
action (sending DRL, uploading a document to their profile) for the same client.
What happens to any questionnaire that was sent prior to migration?
If an
Original Firm
user has sent a client their questionnaire in the previous tax year and a
Destination Firm
user would like to view it in the
Destination Firm
, the user must:
Create their firm's questionnaire for that tax year.
Send the created questionnaire to at least one of the firm's clients.
If the
Destination Firm
user doesn’t want to create their firm's questionnaire for that tax year, they’ll have the option to generate a PDF of that client's questionnaire (via the File to Tax Documents feature) that they can then view in the
Uploaded Documents
tab of their account.
What happens to any DRL that was sent prior to migration?
DRL items will be migrated from the
Destination Firm
to the
Destination Firm
as is.
DRLs that were previously created in the
Original Firm
will still be accessible in the
Destination Firm
. If personal information has been imported along with the DRL, it will also be preserved.
DRLs that were previously sent from the
Original Firm
will be displayed in the Requested Items tab of both firm user and client. Any fulfilled document requests will also be accessible from the
Destination Firm
.
If a DRL item was marked as
Doesn't Apply
or
Already Provided
, that status will also be preserved in the
Destination Firm
.
What happens to a client's existing documents after they're migrated?
All the documents that were requested (that is, Review, Sign, e-file, and Upload requests), directly uploaded to the account
Tax Returns
,
Tax Payments
, and
Invoices
will be retained and available with their most recent status.
Uploaded requests
System-defined categories
: These will be retained and carried forward, along with the uploaded document with the status.
Custom categories
: If an
Original Firm's
custom DRL category also exists in the
Destination Firm
, then any request uploaded with this category will be preserved, and any documents uploaded to this category will still be saved to it. If an
Original Firm's
custom category doesn’t exist in the
Destination Firm
, any request or document uploaded to this category will still be migrated to the
Destination Firm
under this custom category. However, this category won’t be added to the
Document Request List
category list, and further requests using this category can't be made until it is added from the
Administrative
screen.
Direct upload (documents uploaded directly in uploaded document section)
System-defined categories
: System-defined categories will be preserved and migrated along with any documents uploaded to them.
Custom categories
: If a custom category that was added to the
Original Firm
exists in the
Destination Firm
, then any documents uploaded to it can be found in the same category that they are currently in. If a custom category that was added to the
Original Firm
doesn’t exist in the
Destination
Firm, then any documents uploaded to this category will still be migrated to the
Destination Firm
under this custom category, however, this category won’t be added to the
Document Request List
category list, and further uploads using this category can't be made until it is added.
Tax returns, tax payments, and invoices
If tax returns, tax payments, or invoices were uploaded to the
Original Firm
in a previous year not available in the
Destination Firm
, the tax return document will be visible at the profile-level after migration, rather than at the firm-level.
For example, if a tax return, tax payment, or invoice document was uploaded in 2019 but that year is not enabled in the
Destination Firm
, the only way of viewing this document (or any 2019 document that resulted from migration) will be through the account it was uploaded to.
note
If a custom category that was added to the
Original Firm
exists in the
Destination Firm
, then any tax return uploaded to it can be found in the same category that they are currently in. Tax returns uploaded to an
Original Firm's
custom category that doesn’t exist in the
Destination Firm
will be migrated and categorized as a
Federal Tax Return
.
If a Stripe account is not added to the
Destination Firm
, any invoices migrated from the
Original Firm
won’t be visible to the firm user. Once the Stripe account is added, the invoices will become visible.
How are the Destination Firm's tax years impacted by migration?
If the
Original Firm's
tax year manager extends beyond the
Destination Firm's
tax year manager, additional tax years will be added for the migrated clients only, exclusively granting firm users access to those clients' documents outside of the Destination Firm’s range.
For example, if an
Original Firm
has access to client documents from tax years 2017 and onward, but the
Destination Firm
only grants users access to client documents from the tax year 2020 and onward, users at the
Destination Firm
will maintain access to these clients’ 2017 documents migrated from the
Original Firm
. However, firm users won’t gain access to the 2017 documents of clients that were not part of the migration (for example, Destination Firm’s original client list won’t retroactively gain access to previous years).
How are clients' existing binders impacted by migration?
The
Original Firm's
binders won’t be migrated to the
Destination Firm
. Once the migration is complete, the
Destination Firm
will need to recreate binders for the migrated clients.
How is a client's 7216 Consent status impacted by migration?
A client’s 7216 consent status will remain the same as it was in the
Original Firm
. If the
Destination Firm
would like to update a clients 7216 consent status or settings, they must perform the update in the
Destination Firm
once the migration is complete.
Will a client's existing message threads be impacted after migration?
Message threads will be retained in their current status without any changes.
How will a client's 1041 entities be impacted by migration?
Any 1041 trusts that have been added (as well as the activities performed within them) will be migrated to the
Destination Firm
in their current status.
Will there be any impact on a client's open invitation or reminder after migration?
All pending
Invites
and
Reminders
will now direct users to the
Destination Firm’s
connection page and the user will be able to connect with the
Destination Firm
.
Will a Dynamic Password client's email access link be impacted by migration?
Clients who previously accessed their
Original Firm
TaxCaddy accounts using a link emailed to them (dynamic password users) rather than creating a password and signing into their account via the login screen can still use their valid sign in emails to access their account. Like
Invites/Reminders
, they’ll now be redirected to the
Destination Firm
.