Jump to content
ATX Community

Rant - Electronic Documents


Edsel

Recommended Posts

More and more documents are not being sent to clients, except via electronic means.  Seems like no one wants to go to the trouble to print out, stuff, and pay postage.  If this causes problems for anyone else, they don't care.  The rest of us are told to "move into the 21st century electronic age - this is the new world."

God forbid they should print these out so I can look at them.  I'm getting so sick and tired of clients scrolling through 350 pages of telephone messages to find 1098s and 1099s, inquiring at a website and having to ask the wife if she remembers the password, and having to look at a screen with partial information.

Had a new return tonight and spent three hours with them.  This could have been completed in half the time.  I billed them for the full 3 hours, much of which was spent waiting on them to dig up information from electronic sources.  They didn't have the first document, not even their W-2s.

I told them how to save on my hourly fee next year.  I'm so sick of this I've decided not to give breaks on my time.

  • Like 7
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hate the smartphone pictures.  Shadows.  Only part of the document shows in the email they send me.  And, it has all the folds and creases and is at a weird angle.  I have to contact them to find out what's in the other boxes.  Not to mention that I suggest they NOT use email but use the portal I provide them or fax.  I used to send semi-retired hubby to pick up from some of my elderly clients who don't drive in winter weather and are not computer savvy, but now it's the young texters that I send him after to get real paper copies instead of those poor pictures.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hate the ones who download a landscape brokerage 1099 and print it in portrait mode so it's tiny. How can they think that's acceptable?! If they email them to me, it saves me time because I don't have to scan them, and they're already searchable documents, so I can copy/paste if needed. Social Security numbers are masked almost universally now, but I encourage them to use Virtru or bring them to me on a flash drive.

The ones I really hate are the ones who scan every document as a separate file. If they use Virtru I have to download each document separately, then merge them into one PDF.

I'd rather have a photo than the scan I had last week. They used some Apple jotnot scanner and it looked worse than a bad fax from the 80s. The tiny font used by the bank made it almost impossible to tell a 6 from an 8.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 hours ago, Edsel said:

More and more documents are not being sent to clients, except via electronic means.  Seems like no one wants to go to the trouble to print out, stuff, and pay postage.  If this causes problems for anyone else, they don't care.  The rest of us are told to "move into the 21st century electronic age - this is the new world."

God forbid they should print these out so I can look at them.  I'm getting so sick and tired of clients scrolling through 350 pages of telephone messages to find 1098s and 1099s, inquiring at a website and having to ask the wife if she remembers the password, and having to look at a screen with partial information.

Had a new return tonight and spent three hours with them.  This could have been completed in half the time.  I billed them for the full 3 hours, much of which was spent waiting on them to dig up information from electronic sources.  They didn't have the first document, not even their W-2s.

I told them how to save on my hourly fee next year.  I'm so sick of this I've decided not to give breaks on my time.

Next time send them packing, I once made a mistake letting a former tax client use my computer to access their files, didn't remember the login info, wanted to call tech support etc...  Now I say no.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

But, they email me that photo in the body of the email and not as an attachment that I could work with.  I can see only part of the page.  Even an older woman who used to give me a cloth bag full of originals now snaps a photo on her phone and puts it in the body of an email to me.  A new email for every page!

  • Like 3
  • Haha 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, Lion EA said:

But, they email me that photo in the body...

Well, I first read that as "but, they email me that photo of the body..." 

Yesterday was brutal, y'all.  I did hug a couple people, but they were sweet little ladies and one brought apple butter.  I swear.

  • Like 1
  • Haha 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've had multiple text and email message with a client. We were waiting on her mortgage statement as we discussed that her refund was cut by 75%. Told her yesterday afternoon that I'd have the return completed last night. This morning she informs me she made charitable contributions of $150 and needs it on the return. You couldn't tell me that at any time over the last week?

  • Like 3
  • Angry 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I cannot stand getting a text message with a photo of a tax document.   My phone is for talking, not for tax prep.   But they all think they are so smart that they saved "their" time by sending me something I have a hard time reading on a 27" monitor, let alone a 3" phone screen.

Rant over.

Tom
Modesto, CA

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We (reluctantly) agreed to do someone else's W2s this year.  I suggested they send me a back up of QuickBooks.  instead they created a PDF report of the employee earnings summary.  Apparently that means it goes to 1 page no matter how much information is on the report.  I had to blow it up to 600% to be able to read the information.  Why won't people send the information in the format that you ask for?

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Abby Normal said:

You should be able to right click and save photo to drive. I use Thunderbird and photos show inline but also as attachment.

I keep forgetting I'm not on the official board and I don't have to keep my sentences short. Sorry if I sound Russian!

Why is everybody so mean on the official board?  And on TheTaxbook?  OK, not everybody, but the hateful people post soooooo much...

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

People are not self sufficient and just want ATX to hold their hand and make everything ok whenever something goes wrong. When all they need to do is search the forums. Of course, 90% of them suck at computers so when you tell them to clear the windows temp folder, they have no clue.

I hope they all switch to Drake. ATX isn't making any money off them if they're tying up support every day.

  • Like 5
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Abby Normal said:

People are not self sufficient and just want ATX to hold their hand and make everything ok whenever something goes wrong. When all they need to do is search the forums. Of course, 90% of them suck at computers so when you tell them to clear the windows temp folder, they have no clue.

I hope they all switch to Drake. ATX isn't making any money off them if they're tying up support every day.

 

Oh no, you keep them over at ATX!  Those are some of the *cough* (not) preparers that also NEED forms-based entry as a crutch and would tie up Drake's tech support when they can't figure out the entries because of their own shortcomings.

  • Like 2
  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, RitaB said:

Why is everybody so mean on the official board?  And on TheTaxbook?  OK, not everybody, but the hateful people post soooooo much...

I can't speak for the official ATX board, but TTB is like some of those people are protective of their own little internet kingdom even when others give correct answers, or God forbid correct them when they are wrong. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, jklcpa said:

I can't speak for the official ATX board, but TTB is like some of those people are protective of their own little internet kingdom even when others give correct answers, or God forbid correct them when they are wrong. 

It's ridiculous.  And the correct answer can be post #3 and the same old ones will think of all the 0.03% possibilities and confuse every issue out the wazoo.  There will be fifteen posts below the one helpful post where the fat heads argue with each other.  I once suggested a "like" button so we could at least help people know what to research further.  A fat head told me it wasn't a popularity contest.   Uh...

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, jklcpa said:

I can't speak for the official ATX board, but TTB is like some of those people are protective of their own little internet kingdom even when others give correct answers, or God forbid correct them when they are wrong. 

I am a long-time member of the TTB board, and it was maintained by great people for long time.  TTB is a great family-owned company and I buy their products every year.  In the last couple years, some of the new people are downright rude, ugly, and hateful with their responses.  Many of the favorite people on this forum are refugees from TTB and are now free from the scowls and sarcastic statements that happen over there.

The TTB board has rules about personal attacks, but the remarks are so truncated and generic that really nothing can be done with them.  I hope none of those people find out about this board.  If so, I would support getting rid of them.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

So, as we're talking about electronic documents and I'm struggling with tech support at my church's bank (I'm assistant treasurer and was paying bills online when I was caught in a loop) a Facebook Message popped up with a picture of a bank statement with a deposit from the IRS and a picture of a check to CT.  Now I need to learn yet one more new skill during tax season to do something with those tiny pictures so I can see them, save the, anything!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

To each his own, but I really appreciate clients who use technology.  I've been pushing them in this direction for years and it has paid off.   If a texted or scanned document is too small, it's usually fairly easy to blow it up.  If the blown-up version loses too much clarity, I tell them to send it again at higher resolution.  But that's a rarity. 

I return phone messages in a day or two, emails within a few hours, and texts instantly unless I'm really occupied. So that alone encourages them to text me or email me because they know how to get the fastest reponse.   If someone leaves a message on my voice mail but I have their email or cell phone, I'll reply with a text or email most times.    Email and text keeps the clients off my phone and out of my office, which means I have more time to get work done (and send  invoices - that is what we are in business to do). 

What I find fascinating is how quickly many of my older (especially retired) clients have adopted technology in recent years - most of them routinely communicate with me by text.  For the most part, only the very old ones (80+) are out of the loop technologically these days.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...