AH CPA

Thanks for everyone's responses. I realize everyone has their own style on how they like there returns collated. I do realize some people do like the combined federal/state instruction letter format although I am not a fan. As I mentioned in my original post I'm not using paper printouts of the returns at all but only use a PDF file for both my preparer copy and the client copy. It is obviously very easy to move pages around if they are printed out on paper and although pages can be moved around in a PDF that is a real hassle. Since I am using PDF's I obviously have the whole return available without the digital cabinet. My PDF in the client folder is my digital cabinet. In addition, since I am only sending PDF's to my client I make a separate PDF file titled IRS & State Efile Signature Authorization Form for Signature. In this file I only put the federal instruction letter, the IRS efile signature form, the state instruction letter, and the state efile signature form. This way there are only 4 pages in this file for the client to deal with and they read the letters and sign the efile forms and return them to me. I use the same idea for the quarterly estimates using a separate file just with the instruction letters and estimate coupons. This gives the client just the pages they have to deal with in those files. I then include another PDF with the Client Copy watermark on it with all the pages of the returns and estimates where they can go through it and review the returns. I even instruct my clients in my email that in an effort to be greener they should save the Client Copy PDF file to a folder on their computer called Taxes and only printout a paper copy if they need it. My PDF file is encrypted so it should be safe on their computers. Although nothing is safe these days. Richcpaman and Abby Normal you guys get what I'm talking about. Richcpaman, I too put my letterhead logo into the client instruction letters and my signature too and that makes the letters look very professional. Abby Normal if they did implement my suggestion to make a Federal Client Letter section and a State Client Letter section you would still need to create custom print packages to get things to print in the order you want them in but the way it is designed now with not being able to move forms between print sections that is impossible. Rfassett, why would you expect to pay more if ATX allows you to print instruction letters either in the federal or state form sections or in the federal client documents and a state client documents section? I don't believe this is a very extensive change to the ATX software. CCH must have spent a lot of money integrating the research feature into most of the fields in ATX for 2016 but they didn't charge us a lot more money for this enhancement and although I see the merits of adding this feature I haven't had to use it yet. The programming changes to the output sections are far less involved than that and I would not expect ATX to charge us anymore for the product. They might just raise their prices in general but not for this enhancement. And, I do expect the program to do all the work. That's what computer programs are supposed to do, improve your efficiency. The efficiency that I have gained by using the software to prepare the actual tax returns is lost for me in creating the collated PDF output. The output should be the easiest and most efficient part of the program for the end user. I would like to urge all the ATX users that agree with me to start a support case for this enhancement. If they get enough user asking for this they might do something about this.

Thanks Abby Normal I really appreciate your response. I guess I'll have to tinker around with it to see if I can get something usable. However, it would be great if the ATX community could all start writing in that they want this feature. If they get enough requests maybe they will add this to their product. This would really take very little time and money for ATX to implement.

So, I have a big problem with the way ATX only gives you Client Letters, Cover Sheets, and Efile Signature forms in the Client Documents section. What tax professional is going to give their client the federal & state instruction letters in front of their federal tax return only. Logically the federal cover sheet, federal instruction letter, & federal efile signature authorization form belongs in front of the federal tax return. While the state cover sheet, state instruction letter, & state efile signature authorization form belongs in front of the state tax return. And then in some parts of the USA you have local returns too. So, the local cover sheet, local instruction letter, & local efile signature authorization form belongs in front of the local tax return too. An example of a local return would be a NYC Corporation tax return. The way ATX is designed these state and local cover sheets, state and local instruction letters, and state and local efile signature authorization forms print out before the federal tax return only which may be 50 pages out of order. The documents can't be moved down to other print sections and therefore can't be printed in front of their respective returns. This might have been OK years ago when we sent paper copies to our clients or put paper copies in our file cabinets and we could just move the pages that are out of order in front of these tax returns. However, in today's world of PDF's this doesn't work. So, to get my PDF print collation in a professional order that makes sense I must first print my federal cover sheet, federal instruction letter, federal efile authorization form, and federal tax return. I then must print the return a 2nd time and print my state cover sheet, state instruction letter, state efile authorization form, and state tax return. Then if I have a local return I must print the return a 3rd time. If I have federal and state estimates I then must print it a 4th time for the federal estimates and a 5th time for the state estimates. I have to do this for the Preparer Copy and I have do it all again for the Client Copy. So, I might have to print one tax return up to 10 times to get a professional looking collation for the PDF output. Luckily I have a PDF printer product that allows me to accumulate all the PDF's into one PDF file before saving it. This is crazy and quite a waste of time. I'm new to ATX but the way the output sections are designed I don't see any way to make a custom print package in the order I mentioned above to overcome this problem. If anyone could give me some guidance on how I could design a custom print package to accomplish printing the covers and letters in front of each applicable tax return I would welcome your help. I'm not a programmer but my suggestion to ATX on how to easily fix this based on their current output design would be to create a Federal Client Documents section in front of the Federal Forms section like it is now, a State Client Documents section in front of the State Forms section, and a Local Client Documents section in front Local Forms sections of the output. ATX it's time to deal with this issue before the 2017 tax season.

Pre-written extension letter templates should be included with ATX for all returns that can be put on extensions. ATX customers have been complaining about this for years. I don't know of any of their competitors that don't included pre-packaged out of the box client extension letters with their tax software. Not all extensions have $0 tax due and eFile signature authorization forms are required. Therefore, the product should be able to generate an instruction letter telling the client that $X dollars are going to be paid on X date from there bank account and that they have to sign and return the eFile signature authorization form to the tax preparer before their extension will be transmitted just like the tax return itself. It's shortsighted of CCH to refuse to put pre-written client extension instruction letters in their product. This would probably take their programmers a day or two to create this template for all federal and state returns that can go on extensions.

Abby Normal is there anyway for you to export that template and share it with us. If you can't export it then maybe you could cut and paste a copy of the template showing the variables that you used.