Name: Intuit ProConnect: The Fundamentals
Uploaded: 2025-09-24T18:23:17.593Z
Duration: 1 h 5 min 8 s
Description: Intuit ProConnect: The Fundamentals

Transcript for "Intuit ProConnect: The Fundamentals": Hello, and thank you so much for joining me today for this session called Intuit ProConnect tax, the fundamentals. My name is Ross Olson. I'm glad you're here with me today, so that we can talk a little bit about the fundamental elements of ProConnect tax as you're getting started in preparing returns and using the software in general. As I mentioned, my name is Ross. Glad to be here with you today for about an hour as we go through the fundamental, components of ProConnect tax. When I'm not presenting and doing these webinar sessions, I get to work directly with firms like yours and help answer their questions, not just on implementation and how to use the software, which is what we'll be covering in today's session, but also working through their entire, essentially, beginning to end workflows and helping them find solutions that aren't necessarily just Intuit, but that will help them meet the needs that they have in their own unique way. I've been around for about a decade. And as we go through the session today, I always, always love to learn more about you, yourself, your firm. So please feel free to share, ask any questions. Even if I'm presenting, I'll take time throughout the day, the session today to stop and look at those. My team will also be behind the scenes to help answer those questions as well. As we get into the agenda for today's session, There are a few pieces we're going to cover here again in about the hour that we have scheduled today. We're gonna start we're gonna start at the beginning. No. We're gonna start with the basic element of just how do you get a client into broken attack. So creating that client, starting a return, and then we'll go through the input or the, the inside of the tax return, the navigation and data entry elements from, kind of the starting tab, the beginning point of that data entry process or inside of the tax return, all the way to filing that return, and also look at some workflow utilities that can assist throughout that process and wrap up with ways you can find help. This is a great primer, a great getting started piece, but there's going to be topics that are more specific that relate maybe to certain clients, but maybe not all clients depending on their activities and what you need to enter for them in the return. And finding how finding those how to guides after the session today will be equally as important, I think, as this getting started piece because there are so many different types of data entry. It's just not possible to go through all of those different forms, schedules, states, you name it, in the time we have. But this will give us a good foundation, and then more than that, give you the means to find the steps, for future data input that you may need. Maybe data entry that you're not even aware that you don't know how to do yet, but you'll have the ability to look into that later. Some quick housekeeping before we move on to the main content in the session today. It there are some best practices you can see on the screen there that will help you, as you're going through the session today as a reminder or as kind of my, default guidance. If ever you run across any issues, the best course of action is to refresh your web browser. And I will say too, if you have older browsers, if you're on an older computer, or device even, because you may be accessing this on a tablet or phone, sometimes problems do persist so you may try a different browser and ultimately a different device. Generally, older devices are just fine, but I have found that some attendees that don't have the most up to date browser will have some issues. We do recommend Chrome, but other browsers like or or Safari, other browsers will definitely work, but those are our recommended browsers. We also have a survey at the end of the session. Greatly appreciate your time in completing that survey. It's pretty quick, but it does help us improve as time goes on. There will be polling questions throughout the session today. You'll see those. I'll call them out. I'll make sure we have plenty of time to answer them. You'll see the question on screen. You'll also be able to answer the question in the polling or poll tab. Excuse me. That poll tab will appear between the chat tab and the docs tab. The docs tab is where you can grab any of the handout material for the session today. The chat tab is where you can use chat to talk to everyone here, your peers, everyone attending, as well as myself and my team. And then also that q and a tab since we're covering all the tabs is where you can ask questions directly to my team behind the scenes. Beginning back to the main point here is that the polling question will appear there. When it's live, you'll see that fourth poll tab appear. You can answer that question. If for whatever reason you don't see the polling tab, my earlier advice holds true here too. Refresh your browser. That generally will fix it if a polling tab or a polling question doesn't pop up when it's launched. You should have plenty of time to refresh and come back and answer that polling question like so. I'll give you, sufficient warning and a countdown too when we're gonna wrap that up. And you wanna answer that polling question because it's an element of earning that CPE and CE credit. This session is eligible for one CPE and one CE credit. You can see the requirements listed on the screen there. If you meet the requirements, we're gonna send you an email to the email you registered for this session with with that certificate, with that credit. If you don't see it, wait a few days. If you still don't see it, check your junk or your spam folder and or folder. And if you still don't see it, you can always reach out to us there at that email address, that [email protected]. Make sure, because we do have several sessions, that you include the title and the date so that our team can look into that for you and get that session or set session credit sent your way. A quick disclaimer before we jump in. There's not a whole lot in this session about, you know, the basics of ProConnect tax, the fundamentals, that will be or could be, maybe, might be construed as tax advice, but that's not my intention here. And just be aware like anything else in our industry, things can change very quickly, and I encourage you to always be in the know as far as any of those alerts when things do change around tax situations and tax law. Wonderful. Just a quick primer, just a quick trial to make sure we've got this process down pat. Here's our first polling question, and we'll take about a minute here to answer this question. It's a basic one. No wrong answers. What's the primary reason for attending for you attending this webinar session today? So answer that question on screen, and I'll call back to, the other sections or the tabs you can see here in this webinar platform. If you have questions you'd like to ask of myself or my team behind the scenes, use the q and a tab. That'll send it directly to us. If you'd like to post a question maybe more for the general audience, sometimes I've I see it there, you know, where you're listening from. That's perfectly fine, but that will let you engage with everyone else here if you use that chat tab. And, of course, grab the handouts in the docs tab where you can find the presentation slides if you need it. And, I think this was on the slide earlier, but it bears mentioning again here. If you're watching today, maybe you have to leave for a little bit, you come back, you miss a segment, or you'd like to share it with someone else potentially even, this session will be available on demand. So you can watch it recorded, or just watch a specific section of this session recorded if you need to after it concludes today. You can re access that recording using the same link in your email that you're accessing this live session on today. So as soon as the session is over, you can reenter this same platform and watch it on demand. So let's wrap this question up here in three, two, and one. Wonderful. So we're ready for our first section. We're done with all the housekeeping stuff, our first polling question. Ready to get off to the races here with where we're gonna start. And the format for today's session is going to be, hopefully not repetitive in a bad way, but repetitive in a way that will show you some slides here, just the basic what to do, and then we're gonna jump into the program. I don't want it to be just strictly a slide PowerPoint presentation that, you know, bullet points are great, but we wanna jump in and actually see what this looks like. So I'll go through fairly quickly when it comes to the presentation slides, and then we'll jump into the tax return or into the program itself and go through the things we just saw. And so what I would encourage you to do is, again, go to that docs tab, download the slides, or use it after this session just as a reference point, as a reminder for what we looked at. They'll be good, you know, jog your train of thought or remind you what we looked at or how we did things. Again, this session is designed for people that maybe want a reminder on data entry inside of ProConnect tax or how to use the software or those new to ProConnect tax. If you were an experienced veteran at this, some of this is going to be very familiar to you. It's fine. A refresher is always worthwhile, I think, but keep that in mind too that we're we shouldn't be doing anything or showing anything here that's going to be, really advanced or advanced data input. It is, after all, the fundamentals. So we're going to start here with, our creating a client process. So this is the getting started piece. There are three key ways that I'll point you to when I say when I say create a client. How could that be done? Here are the three ways. Add them directly, share, or through that shared database with QuickBooks Online accountant, or data conversion. So these three ways are ways you can really get clients into ProConnect tax, and we'll start with just adding them directly. Probably the most basic or straightforward way to do so, there's an add client button. Press it, choose the client type. Be aware that when you create a client this way, there's not a way to edit them to change them based on what client type you want. So if they are an individual client, say a ten forty or seven zero nine, label them as an individual or label them as a business. The reason why this is important is you're going to be able to create any tax return based on whatever client you have here, but this is important in the sense of making sure we're setting this up as the correct client type, especially for integrations with QuickBooks and to make sure those clients are established that way, as well as certain integrations with things like Intuit link and our client portal. We wanna make sure we've defined them the correct way. Now it won't be the end of the world if, you know, you need to change this in the future, but it's always easier, like I said, to get things started from the beginning because it's not a direct or a direct or straightforward way to change that client type if you needed to for whatever reason. For the vast majority of things, you'll probably never notice if you set the client up as the wrong type, but there could be a few things that come your way, some hurdles that maybe things aren't working quite right because they're in an individual when they should be a business or vice versa. You may see this also, from a shared client list with QuickBooks Online Accountant. Now we're not gonna jump into too much of the all the integrations and the the the areas of overlap between QuickBooks Online Accountant and ProConnect Tax. But every client that you have inside of ProConnect Tax will appear as a client in QuickBooks Online Accountant and vice versa. So if you go into ProConnect Tax, maybe it's the first time you've used it and you see a list of clients, those will be those same clients that you created inside of QuickBooks Online Accountant. They may be clients you invoice, they may be clients you're doing bookkeeping or accounting for, but if they appear on the list of clients in QuickBooks Online Accountant, they will also be in ProConnect tax online. Also be aware that if you know, accepting that invitation as an accounting firm to a QBO company, that's gonna show them as well on that list. Right? That's adding a QuickBooks Online user as you as the accountant or bookkeeper will be invited that will make that client appear on your list of clients. So you don't have to add those clients manually they'll already exist within ProConnect Tax but you can also if you for whatever reason, as I mentioned, maybe invoicing or any other reason, if you just added a client inside of QuickBooks online account, maybe you manually added a client that way, they will also appear even if they don't have that QuickBooks Online subscription. And the third way that we'll mention here is the client conversion. There's a hyperlink here that talks about what it is, in this case, I labeled what is it. So you can find this again in the handouts. But to break it down in kind of a summary view, this process is taking data from another tax software that could be Intuit like LeCerpe or ProSeries or another non Intuit software and taking that backed up data and bringing it into ProConnect where it's going to essentially pro form a transfer year over year the data into ProConnect tax. It will take the most recent prior year and convert it into starting point data for the current year inside ProConnect tax. So that's the general process. There may be a few, tax programs out there that you're gonna be able to convert more of a same year, same year. So if you've already completed a tax year return to bring that into the current year, could be possible for some soft route there. But in general, treat this as a pro form a or a year over year transfer. So it's not intended to recreate the returns one to one. It's intended to give you a starting point return. But in that process of, doing so, it will either create a new client for you, if that client doesn't already exist, or it's gonna look into that return and find things like the Social Security number or the EIN, client's names, addresses, that sort of thing, and match it up if those clients already exist. So for example, if you have a client in QuickBooks Online Accountant, but you're not doing their taxes inside of ProConnect Tax yet, but you convert that that client's return into ProConnect Tax, it will match that client up. So you shouldn't have duplicate clients. It shouldn't create a new client if it sees that. Again, there, no worries. If you skip it or for some reason it doesn't identify it as the client because you have a different social, a different EIN, different name, whatever the situation may be, you can always, if you if needed, run this process as many times as you want or move data over as necessary. So this is, just one piece there too that can create those clients. But, again, it should match that information up. Now when we talk about conversions, just to break it down one step further, it is really best defined in this three step process. You back up your data from your current tax software, you upload that data to ProConnect, it gets converted automatically, not manually, so there's an automatic process that converts that data and gets that return started again as that starting point return. You'll receive an email and you'll be able to begin working. Now this process again is is labeled as completely automated, accurate, and guaranteed. So you're not having to worry that something is missing or something fell off, but not everything converts. So when we say extremely accurate, that is where I point you again to this hyperlink in this presentation slide. You can go there and find for any of the supported tax software that we convert from, you'll find a list of items that will convert. That's what you'll wanna pay attention to so that you're aware of what will come over and what will not. So what will come over, that's what we're saying is extremely accurate you'll have that information brought over but not everything is able to be converted just because it's a separate software, not everything is saved or organized the same way as it is in ProConnect tax but you should at least get a starting point return so you're not having to recreate that return from scratch. And, hey, while we're on that conversation of starting a return, this gives us a nice natural segue and just, well, then how do you get a return started? Well, we've already created that client or maybe we're in the process of creating a return and the client at the same time. That's fine too. You'll be able to, basically start this return in a few different ways. We'll start with that tax return tab just as a quick layout as far as seeing what returns are available in the program. That's gonna be your Tax Hub. It will show your returns by year. You'll see the button that says Create Tax Return. This will let you create a new return for an existing client or where we have a little bit of an overlap here, let's say you wanna create a return and a client essentially at the same time, you'll have that option as well. This is also where you can choose to transfer data if you prepared that client's return in the previous year, you can transfer that data forward here as needed, and if you're creating a new client also, we'll talk about this in a little bit so I don't wanna jump too far ahead, you can also choose to import that client from a PDF copy of their ten forty. So separate from conversions, but an ability to create, again, some of that basic information, so you're having to manually create the return from scratch. When you're looking at your clients tab, this is another way to create a return. This would have to be if you'd already created that client or they already exist. So we're not able from this tab essentially to start a new return if the client doesn't exist, but this will show you all of your clients listed out. You can open that client's profile to see all of their existing returns, and it will also allow you to create a new return from there. And another way to create a return, as I mentioned, you have that integration with QuickBooks Online Accountant. If they are a QuickBooks Online subscriber, they use QuickBooks Online, or they're a QuickBooks Ledger subscription that you're using to manage their books to do their accounting and bookkeeping, then you can use this option, which is called Prep for Taxes, to take the data from inside of QuickBooks Online accountant from inside their books and map that information over into ProConnect tax. You'll have two options there if you're going to do this, trial balance or this prep for taxes process. If they already have an existing return, it may be just a brand new return that you're starting for the year or it could be a return that's mostly completed and just you're wanting to update it with the last final elements or pieces of data inside of QuickBooks Online Accountant. You can update it or if you haven't started that return yet, you can use this process to create a brand new return, from their bookkeeping data from their, their information through tax mapping to start that tax return. So let's jump into the program, we'll take a look at those different elements and take a peek at what those different processes entail. So let's do that now. Let me switch things over. Here we go. Perfect. Wonderful, so we should be now looking at, ProConnect tax where we can see the tax hub. So as I mentioned just to go through those different pieces, that you can see if you're looking at your client list, you can add a client this way by clicking on Add Client, but notice that you have a pretty detailed list here. So you may have this when you get started to see a list of not necessarily tax returns, but a list of clients since these clients are shared with QuickBooks Online Accountant as well. So you'll have that shared list across both QuickBooks Online Accountant, which as as I I'd like to note, you can see that link here to QuickBooks Online Accountant, or from within QuickBooks Online Accountant, you'll be able to see the option to go into ProConnect tax from QuickBooks Online Account as well. So there's that kind of carry forward back and forth where you can get between the two. So if you want to create a client adding the client here is an easy way to to do it to also show that process of creating a return for this client or kind of doing maybe potentially both, at the same time. If I click on create tax return, this is where I can choose to use one of my clients that are already inside of ProConnect or can add a new client here. As mentioned, you'll wanna select the right client type, either the individual or the business, and even lay out the main forms associated with those. And also, as I mentioned, that importing from the prior year October, you'll have that option as well. So if you have a PDF copy of their October, you can choose to import it here and that will pull this information in. Otherwise, you can enter their first and last name. Those are the key elements needed to create this client. So you may not have their email yet or their social or their birthday, but if you have their first and last name, there we go, if you have their first and last name, you'll be able to do that. Again, this process to create this client or to create this tax return of the client is from the main tax hub, and you'll be able to choose create tax return. From here, you can select a client or add a new client this way, choose between business or individual and choose from that ten forty. Also, as mentioned from your client list, here you can add a client directly. So if you need to do that, you can, or you can find a client that already exists and open their profile. This will show you all the returns you prepared for them. This will let you create a new return for this client as well. And here's where you have the option to transfer that data from the prior year. If you need to bring it over to the next year you're working in, you can do that process as well. This is a little bit of an add on piece, something that I don't normally mention, but since I've talked about that pro form a or transfer, notice too that in the settings, you have batch actions like transfer prior year data. So if you wanted to take all of your prior year clients, all of your prior year returns and bring them over, instead of doing it one by one, you could do that as well. I generally recommend against that prior year batch transfer because then you have every client, even the ones you're not working on or you've not met with yet or engaged with, and so my recommendation is start your current year tax returns when you're engaging with that client when you've had that, process kicked off. That way you have a detailed list of clients. You don't have a lot that really are there, but you may not even be preparing the returns for them yet. You've not started that engagement. It keeps things a little bit more sorted and organized. Wonderful. Another piece we talked about was, the conversions. You'll find that in settings as well under convert data. So this is where you can see returns, you can see the process. Now I've done conversions a few times for this client but as I start this conversion process, if you've not done this you'll see the information here as well. This is where you can see the instructions for all the software we convert from, and it will hold your hand step by step in converting that data. So if you have data from another program for another software, you can use this process to, bring that data into ProConnect tax. Wonderful. I think we start we talked about starting a return. We looked at the the ability to convert data. The final piece before we left off was the prep for taxes element or piece here. So as I mentioned, if you you have clients that are in QuickBooks Ledger or have a QuickBooks online subscription, you can see that I've sorted those clients here in QuickBooks Online Accountant. I can find those clients here or go to their QuickBooks. And once you're inside this company profile, inside this company for your client, under the accountant tools, you'll be able to do prep for taxes, which will, again, allow you to take this information, map it to where it needs to go inside of whatever form. In this case, we wanna make sure we're going to ProConnect tax, and we wanna make sure we have that eleven twenty ask. You can see the different types of returns this data can be mapped to. We can see the data here on the side, we can adjust those mappings and edit them if we want them to go, somewhere else, for example, by clicking that pencil icon. And then you have the option to either update an existing return or create a brand new return with this tax mapping data. Now if you've already done this for a client, you can see that import complete option. This will allow you to adjust those amounts without having to restart that process. So you can make those adjustments, within ProConnect Tax. You don't have to start or readjust this always from QuickBooks Online accountant, but this is another way that you can create a new return inside of ProConnect Tax. So creating your return or updating is what can be done with prep for taxes. So I think that's the starting point. We saw how to create a client or create a return. Again, not terribly difficult, but something that we'll need to do if we wanna actually begin working inside, the tax return. So let's shift things back over now to I think it's our next polling question. It is. So let's jump there next. For a minute here, I'll leave this up. It's, the client must have a QuickBooks Online subscription for your firm to utilize prep for taxes in QuickBooks Online account. Just a true or false. Again, no wrong answers here, but take a moment to answer this question. And while you are answering that, I'll take a look to any of your questions behind the scenes. We'll let this poll run for about thirty more seconds here while you're answering this question. Take a look and see what we have. Yeah. So that's a good question. You can create create as many clients as you need. You can start the returns, and basic due data entry. The only time you'll use any credits in ProConnect tax is if you're going to be printing or filing. So there's no harm in saying I wanna create a client. That's not why I suggested, you know, not doing the the batch pro form a or transfer from the prior year, because you can do that. You can create as many clients as you need or as many returns as you need. My guidance there was more around keeping data kind of contained and knowing that if you see clients in your list for the current year, they're actually clients you've begun that engagement with. The opposite or the alternative to that is you can always use statuses and custom statuses to sort clients by the ones you began working with versus the ones that haven't started that engagement with you. So a common trend in ProConnect tax, as we just saw in the numerous ways on how to create a return, open a return, or create a client, There's different roads that get to the same path and they're designed to be flexible based on where you're at in the process. So let's wrap this polling question up here in three, two, and one. The answer to this polling question is true. Now again, there's no wrong answers here, but I included Ledger as part of a QuickBooks online subscription. It's a little different, but essentially, if your clients have that subscription, if they're a u if they're using QuickBooks online or you've got them inside of of Ledger, you're going to be able to use prep for taxes and update their returns or get their returns created based on that data. Next up is our Profile tab. We looked at that, very briefly, I think, but now we're going inside of the return. So again, I'll go through this quickly. Since we're going to see this, live, I'll share it on screen as well. So this profile tab, this is what I've always called the foundation of the return. This is where we're going to, the first time we start a return will be our initial screen. Every time thereafter, we'll have to navigate back to it because we don't typically need to make entry on this screen every time we open the return, but this is where we'll initially visit. It's where we can choose what states are gonna be part of the return. In ProConnect tax, you can add every state you want. There's no per state charges, and they're all included as, available. Should say the states that have that applicable tax type are available. And you can add them inside of this as well. You can also remove states if you need to, and also set up what you're e filing. Is that going to be, extensions, amendment, amended returns, the the federal, state, local? All of that is done through this initial screen. And if you don't check anything for e file, that means you've told the program you're paper filing. It's important because there are diagnostics and messages and and required information that's needed for e filing versus paper filing, so I like to mention that here. Once we move from the profile tab, we shift our attention to the input return tab. This is probably where where you'll be spending most of the time as you're doing data input because as the title just says, it's where you're doing most of the input. Now this is going to, include oops. Just quick. There we go. A table of contents, which is that broad overview. It's gonna show you all the possible screens. You can also have you can also use a toggle to have that be the default view if you'd like that table of contents. Otherwise, you'll have kind of that, side navigation view which we'll talk about in just a moment. You'll see that organization laid out by kind of that broad category, income, credits, deductions, and then the specific sections or input screens sorted underneath of them. The way this is organized top to bottom is organized by the general flow of how you would generally input a return from top to bottom, going from the top left column down or going from top to bottom, essentially. And you'll be able to see any input screens or sections in use because you'll they'll be bold. So you have an immediate visual identifier that there's data in that screen. Something has been entered into that screen or something has been brought over, pro form a transferred, imported, etcetera, if you see that screen in bold. The navigation panel is something that you'll see if you kind of close out of that table of contents or maybe you don't like the default that to be your default view and you rather have this navigation panel be the view. This is going to match the table of contents as far as how things are organized, but it will also let you search through the various screens, three different levels of search all done at the same time, as well as adjust your view if you wanna see all applicable all screens or just the ones that are in use. That's probably one of my favorite functionalities in ProConnect because there's so much white noise in returns. You're typically not using every entry field when you're preparing a return. And so that filter to change to in use not only hides the data input sections or screens that you're not using, but the input fields on the screens in use. So even if you tell something like w two, it would still show you the w two screen because you've done data entry on it, but any field on that screen that's not in use would be hidden. So it really condenses that view and allows you to really get to what is entered. Wonderful when it comes to troubleshooting or finding where information is coming from. But in general, just reducing that white noise so you can be hyper focused on what you've actually done inside the return. Another element of AI, navigation assistance in the return is something called smart navigation for the, ten forty returns. That will let you essentially say, oh, most people go here next. Would you like to go here next? Kind of an an assistant or a guided, resource that looks at returns you're preparing, but also in general, what most preparers do, what their natural flow of progression is. And I have found that from many, many occasions, that's very helpful in giving you the next logical step, the next most used step so you're not having to find where those input screens are. When it comes to data entry, there's a few things we're gonna want to talk about, as far as doing data in the return. So I've broken it up here to kind of a a table of contents within a table of contents for our overall presentation. First, let's look at how things are organized in the data input screens. That'll help you not just on the ten forty tax type, but all tax types because we don't reinvent the wheel when you move to a corporate or a partnership return, for example. We're gonna keep this organization pretty solid throughout. We'll then wanna look at how can you really customize or tweak that input so that it's correctly calculated in the return. That's what's called the source input here, how to source the input correctly so that it's being allocated or sourced to the correct state, federal return, etcetera, so that everything is calculating as you're expecting it. We'll talk about Overrides and Adjustments. The program does a wonderful job of automatically calculating things as it should, but we also give you the ability to make overrides to ignore calculations or adjustments to increase or decrease calculations if you need to. We'll talk about those. Then we'll look at the data entry drawer, which is a utility you can use. It's not a required utility, but that will let you essentially automate some of your data entry for your ten forty returns and also keep track, across all return types when it comes to key information that your you or anyone else you're working with your firm would need to be aware of as you're preparing that client. Finally, we'll stop on the review return, which essentially is gonna allow you to have a multi monitor experience to review the forms while you're doing that data entry. So let's start on the input return tab. And I think actually what we'll do here is let me share my screen. Again, you'll have these presentation slides that you can come back to to reference them. If you have them right now, feel free to follow along. But let me jump into the return itself so we can see these instead of having that repeat of me saying it and then jumping in the return. So for the sake of brevity, let's jump into the program itself. Again, reference these slides. I can give you an example here. There's going to be, you know, for the input return screen, we can see all this laid out, what it means, what it looks like, but let's walk through this together inside the program. So let me switch things around here. Here we go. And make sure we've got it this time. Perfect. So we've got that on our screen ready to roll. Okay. So let's take a look in a return and we'll start again as we're doing that data entry we'll start at something we already discussed in the slides but just to give you that visual. On the Profile tab, this is the foundation I mentioned, you'll notice as I jumped in I actually landed on the Input Return tab but the profile tab is where you'll start when you're beginning a return or to come in and make any adjustments. As you can see, I have many states added. I have some cities added here. I can simply click that drop down, either type in the state abbreviation or find it on this list to add it. I can remove states as needed. And also these check boxes here will tell the program what is being electronically filed. So again, the foundation, kind of the setup of the return as far as what's being prepared, what's being filed. As a note here, you can delete any states really at any time. It'll give you a little warning. Just be aware that if you have any state specific inputs, in this case, Michigan was my, state I selected. If you had any state specific inputs for Michigan, deleting the state will remove those state specific inputs or those state specific entry or input screens. So keep that in mind as well if you've got the state out and you're gonna remove it, it will remove those calculations as well. Input return screen is where we left off. So here's our table of contents as I mentioned, you can easily see on the screen which fields are in use because they're bold. And I also have this as my default view. If I didn't want that as my default view, I can simply toggle it off so that next time, I'll see this, navigation screen to the left, which will kinda be persistent throughout. Again, I can see the sections that are in bold and the input screens I can click on to go in to see what is being in what is being used for that particular screen. This is what I said when I you know, things are kind of organized on how you prepare the return. The general information, like client dependent information gets entered, any payments, penalties, extensions that need to be prepared. Then we get into the income activities, deduction, activities or deductions that are applicable for this client, same with credits, taxes, and then the other miscellaneous that you may have as well as state specific input screens and then your miscellaneous forms like your ten forty n r, your ten forty x for amended returns, etcetera, you can find in that miscellaneous section. Some people prefer this view. Some, you know, really do like the, all input screen view, this table of contents. There's no wrong way, in my opinion. Just pick which one works better. I like using the table of contents at first, and then while I'm inside the return, this, navigation panel is especially helpful to just move throughout the program. As I'd also mentioned here, you can see where I can search through this various section, various sections to find something. So to look for sections, which are kinda the broad categories, the field descriptions, which we can see here, like employer identification numbers. Those are field descriptions as well as field data. So if you put an amount in or an identifying number, anything like that, a name of an employer, you can search through the program for that to find that information as well. Oops. I really transposed there. So I can see oh, I've entered the gift shop here, and, actually, I can see it on the screen behind me. That'll let me navigate to where that data exist in the return. Now that we're in a in a data input screen, I've gone to wages, so our w two screen, just to go through the way that these are organized. So we can scroll simply from top to bottom to do this input, and that will let us create the return. Notice too, there are two separate tabs here because if you have more than one activity, we'll break it up in different tabs at the top. You can add a new activity, in this case, a new w two, by hitting that plus icon, and as you enter the name of employer, it will also label that tab for you. If you wanna see all the activities, you can kinda click this drop down to see them all listed. You can also click on the three bar, what's sometimes called the hamburger icon. That will take you to all the activities listed out as well that you can see in kind of a high level view to see all the information at once. And if you need to go into this particular activity, clicking on details will do that. So you can click details, that will jump you back into the data input screen. And just so you know that I'm not making it up when I say this will carry across tax types, but even in a in a return, if I jump over to my interest income, you'll see that same grid view that will let you jump into that particular input where you can make the additional entries as needed. As we're looking at this data info, we talked about sourcing the input. And so I'll I'll call this out too. As you're working through, and one of the most the first areas where firms will get into this question of how do I source the input. On w twos, the state wages, if different, notice there's an in help question mark icon. Clicking that will open our help panel to the right, and it explains when you should use this versus when you should use this if you have some other type of multistate return or you're wanting to allocate or enter multistate amount. So that help in in the program is especially beneficial because it's going to appear in areas where firms like yours most commonly have questions or potentially even make mistakes doing the data entry. So you can enter and use this field, and it mentions here in the help too that use this field essentially when you're wanting to have taxable state wages differ from federal. But if you're wanting or you have a multistate return, that's where you're gonna wanna source or allocate up in the first box or any of the boxes up top for wages or income tax withheld, etcetera. And you do so by clicking on that plus icon. In this case, you can see I already have two different allocations here. And this is where you can then break this up to say, this amount should be reported to this state, this amount reported to this state. And this is where you can essentially start to break down those multistate amounts. Now the other piece of this, and then the w we're still looking at a w two, but this is gonna be true anywhere where you may have multistate amounts that are different across the various, for the various activities for, in this case, a w two. If you had any input that you wanted to be reported only to the state, but not flow through to the federal, you could use this s identifier. So in this case, that 28,000 would be reported for California, but only this 9,000 would be reported for the federal and for Indiana. If I wanted to adjust this and put an n, now this 28,000 would be reported only on the federal side or not state. That's how I remember it, not state. And so it wouldn't appear on the California return, but would appear on the federal return. Leaving it unsourced or blank will do the default. So in that case, we'd have the 28,000 for California, the 9,000 for Indiana. Each of those would be re reported respectively in each of those states. And the summed amount, which is that 37,000 would be reported on the federal. So in certain situations, you need to get really specific on what amounts belong to which states and the sourcing for does this go to the federal or to the state, that's where you can use this source column. Again, this information or guidance will be found within the, presentation deck. You can also find the end product help, these question mark icons, as well as the Help icon here at the tip top, and Help for this screen can be found on the right hand side, you see that here, on how to enter that information into the program. Another or two other areas of input we wanted to mention were Overrides and Adjustments. Now, as mentioned, most of your input as you're working inside of the program are going to be calculated automatically. So you typically, but not always, but typically don't need to use, any adjustments or any type of overrides. But sometimes they are needed, sometimes they're preferred by you, and that's your choice to adjust how those calculations are input. But for example, if I go to my, depreciation screen, I'll be able to see something here right away like this adjustment. And I can see these, excuse me. I said depreciation screen, my itemized deduction screen. Sorry about that. But this is where I wanna be. I can see the adjustment. You'll see it labeled as adjust in brackets. It may also just be the letter a in brackets depending on the input screen you're at. But anywhere you see those fields, that's going to increase the calculated amount or decrease it. So if we put in a positive amount, it's going to increase the calculation, and a negative amount would decrease the calculation. The other input that you may see is an override, and you may see some of those in, you know, for example, our estimated tax screen where things will be calculated by default, but you can also override things like the first through fourth quarter estimated tax. So the program will calculate this by default, where applicable. But if you wanted to override any of these fields, like the estimated tax for the next year or any of these quarterly payments, you can override these fields as well. Most of our overrides and adjustment fields will have that in in screen help, that question mark icon you can click on to see more. You can also see the help for that screen specifically. Again, best practice is generally to avoid those as needed or is unless they're needed because most of that will be done. Most of our instructions too, if you need an override or adjustment, you'll see that explicitly called out in the help or in the step by step guide as well. The final piece we wanted to talk about was the or the second to last piece was this data input tab on the right here. This is where and we'll go into more deep I think we'll go into more detail about this in a separate session, but just to highlight this particular, area. This is where you can see if you're using Intuit link, which is our client collaboration and portal. You can see the questions and the details from that client. You can see the documents that have been uploaded. And this is important too because as you are working in this screen, a lot of these fields can be a lot of these source documents of the ten forty can be imported directly into the return. So when it comes to data input or data entry, if you can just take the w two and bring it directly in, either create a new w two or update one that exists, then you're not going to have to adjust this information. You're not going to have to hand enter it. All you'll need to do is essentially say, these fields are there. Maybe you wanna see all possible fields and make adjustments to something that's not part of the source document, but this input will match very closely to what we've seen on those data input screens already, except the fields are being prepopulated based on what was in or what is on this source document coming from either the client or if you've added these documents yourself either directly or sync those to something like Google Drive or Dropbox. The other pieces of this tab to call out are the flagged items. So any field, you're gonna be able to flag it if you need to maybe come back to that later or if someone else is working on this return and you wanna flag it as an action item, you can do so. They'll be listed here in this section. You can also leave comments and tag other people. This will alert them via email as well as the notification section up top so that if you're wanting to collaborate, leave comments, star things to make them important, you can do so as well here. You can keep comment chains alive, reply to people. This is wonderful for when more than one person is working on a return so that anyone working here doesn't have to figure out what you've done. You can leave a note for them or a comment for them to so that they know exactly what needs to be done or what was done. Now the final piece on this input return tab is the review return. This will allow you to review the source or the output, the forms themselves. And usually, this is nice, you know, to have it on another monitor, to have it side by side so that as you're doing the data entry, you can come back to this screen and see in real time or update it in real time to see how your input is affecting the output. This view is going to look very similar to this next tab we're gonna look at, which is that check return view, except we won't see the summary information and we won't see diagnostics and suggestions. But you'll see all of the states listed out along with the federal. You can see all of the forms being used if you have those applicable, or we can see all possible forms if we select all. In that case, the forms that are being used will be listed out here along with all possible forms that maybe would be helpful to get to. So for example, if schedule two is not populating, I could click on that form, find any of my fields in blue, click on that to take me, and you'll see behind the screens, it navigated, to a field. Let's double check here. Yep. Same screen we were on where I can see that input that applies to some of these, inputs in the form itself. So that's a wonderful way to be able to jump to, you know, where these are coming from on the data entry screen. And, again, I have this laid over top of my data entry. This is best if it's on another monitor. So you can have it side by side, but this will let you jump to those various sections. And any of these fields as well, you'll be able to, essentially take these, jump to and work your way back to those forms or search through. Just like we saw the search on the data input screen, search for any applicable forms or forms in use that you're wanting to find. And I mentioned this is for federal and state, so you can see both of those listed here. The final piece on these forms that we wanna talk about is as you're working on these, and it mentions it here, you can highlight those fields with a check mark. So we have those audit check marks built in, where you're going to be able to essentially mark these fields as reviewed. And if that changes, it will change to that red field, that red x that will alert you to say, something has changed for this particular, field, this data input field will adjust. I clicked on this box. This is the final piece that kinda jumped to. For those fields that have more than one area where things may be calculated from, we're gonna give you a breakdown of those amounts. So we're not just gonna take you to the most common field. You'll see where those amounts are flowing from, and you can click on those different fields to take you to that data entry screen where it's coming from. So it's a wonderful way to navigate, but also to see a quick summary of where amounts are coming from. That in combination with those check marks will let you see when something has changed and how it's changed very easily. So I know we're coming up. We don't have much time left, but I've already kind of, proceeded into our next tab or our next section. So looking at that very quickly on where we're at, we are in that check return tab. And so this is where we picked up we already talked about that check return tab as far as the review looks to see that screen. But we're gonna look at this Check Return tab, the two pieces we didn't look at, which were the summary and the diagnostics. So jumping again back into the program, we'll continue on where we left off. So going into Check Return, we can see the summary information, which is very handy to have for the federal and all the states. So I can see the current, the prior year, the differences, and see that information at hand. The Forms View, we just looked at that essentially so there's not much that will change here, but be aware that it's also included on the Check Return tab. You don't have to use that review button on the Input Return screen. Also located here will be your diagnostics, your overrides, and your suggestions. Your diagnostics, fairly straightforward. They're, you know, something's off here. What's nice about the diagnostics inside of PropeNex is you don't have to navigate back to the input return screen. You can make the change here. If you do need to go to the input return screen, we let you jump to it also so you can quickly view that on the input screen or ignore it as needed. The eFile diagnostics are one type of diagnostic. The critical diagnostics are also listed here. These are laid out in the handout materials. So you can see in general, if they're critical or eFile critical, they're usually gonna need to be resolved before you can either e file or file the return. But I also wanna call your attention to overrides. Any of those screens, any of those inputs that have been overwritten, we'll call those out here because those can often cause, you know, head scratches as you're doing troubleshooting. But the suggestions in particular are important. They may not need to be resolved before you can file the return, but these are those heads up diagnostics, things we want you to be aware of so that you can see when something may not quite be right and needs to be adjusted. They may not cause e file rejections, but they may cause amended returns because something was overlooked. Our final stop here is the file return tab. This is where you can file this return. We'll have a final check for diagnostics. You can also use this to send out your 8,879 or any other e signature requests. And you're going to be able to print, or view those esignature docs, print or view any of these documents as well. This is where you can, again, send this to PDF. You can also send this into a link if you need to. This is where that process comes in. Again, you'd not there's no credits needed until you create that PDF or you e file the return itself. Wonderful. I think we have, two more polls here before we wrap up, and we are getting close to the end, so let me go ahead and share that next polling question. And switch things over here just quickly so we get the full view. It's printing or you find the same tax you return multiple times. We utilize multiple return credits. This is false. So I mentioned that, you know, you do it once, we'll authorize that return. But unless you change something like the social or EIN, you're not going to have to use multiple credits on the same tax you return for that client. So you'll use one the first time you print or e file, but having to e file again or e file an amended return and an extension in the main form, just one credit for all of that. You're not having to authorize it multiple times. So the answer to this polling question is false. Now our final section, we already took a peek at really, I called those out already, but as we move through to those workflow utilities, just to highlight those again, the flagged items are going to be there so that you can mark and denote anything that needs further attention. They'll appear on that list. You'll find that again in the data input or the data import hub. Comments are also available. We looked at those already, but wanted to show this just so you can see again that those will be visible to anyone that has access to this client, and they'll get, alerted and notified via email and in product notification. The documents tab is where you can upload those documents. Now I just did one at a time, but you're gonna be able to do multiple uploads as well. And the final piece that we also looked at as we were going through kind of our in product navigation are some of those help options. So the help portal, being able to search and clicking on that help option in the upper right is beneficial. Just quickly to jump over there real quick. Seeing this help option in the upper right, that help portal, this is a fantastic utility to find help options and to search through. But that combined with, those in product help options, the assistant that is also available in that help icon, and as well as the education resource center, the community, and the tax pro center, all of these pieces really come and consolidate in a way that will help you when you need help depending on what you need. So, again, to highlight that one more time, under the help option, wherever you're at in ProConnect, you can find these resources to find, you know, maybe you wanna use our assistant to ask a question. You wanna find more webinars like what the one you're attending now. Ask your community, your peers about questions, or read about what leading tax firms are doing today or see training videos to show you concise video formats of what to do or how to do something in the program. As forms are being released too, this form status is very helpful to show when forms are expected. There's our view there on that screen so you can see it. Again, call your attention to the handout so you can have that as a good reference piece on where to find those and what each of those topics are about. So I think that about wraps us up here. Let's go ahead and ask our last polling question here for about thirty seconds. Would you like a personalized sales demonstration or consultation about what you've learned in today's training event. So if you're still considering ProConnect, if you're wanting to learn more about how about how to get started, this is your chance. I wanted to give you an option to reach out. There's no wrong answer here. I'm not gonna hold it against you if you say no. But if you're already using ProConnect, right, I understand you're not needing additional help. But this is for any of those any of you, any of those firms that are still considering ProConnect that would like to know more about how to get started, maybe that's conversions, getting things set up. This is where you can have us reach out to you if you still need that assistance. As already mentioned, you can find additional help in our community, in the support channel, you can find more training in the Education Center and the Tax Pro Center as well, This is just included in all of our presentations, but I've already covered this in the session notes that we had. Wonderful. Well, I don't want to take up too much more of your time, so I just wanna end with saying thank you. We covered a lot in an hour. That was a lot of information, so I encourage you to review the slide notes, the presentation slides. Also, use the end product help. Use those help to find step by step instructions on how to enter things in the program. Hopefully, you have a good basic understanding of how ProConnect tax is laid out so you can easily follow those step by step guides when it explains, go here, do this. But I encourage you to use those as you're using ProConnect because they will help you and ensure that you're doing that data input correctly. The good news, and I'll end on this, is that as you're learning, maybe in the individual tax type, maybe another tax type, a lot of these processes, the vast majority are gonna be able to be carried over to any other tax return you're doing. So just know this, the learning curve isn't really sharp, it's pretty shallow, but if you learn how to do it one way, we're not gonna change it up on you and adjust how you do data entry somewhere else. So keep that in mind as you're learning and using ProConnect tax. Don't hesitate to reach out if you need help with any questions to our team to use that knowledge base. And I wish you the best of luck in the tax season ahead. And, until next time. Bye for now.