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Secure portal?


Janitor Bob

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They have one I used last year.  It works great, but I never could get it to integrate.  I had to create a pdf and upload it.  They give you some good training and help you set it up.  It was rather expensive, over $500.  This year I switched everything out to Drake and there portal works just as good but is at least 1/2 the price.  My clients that used it, loved it.  It can be used either thru a pdf upload or clients could take pictures and upload them.

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2 hours ago, Janitor Bob said:

I want to start a secure portal so I can exchange documents with clients.  suggestions?  Which one integrates best with ATX?

Bob...I purchased and just sat through CCH's iPortal training that Deb is referring to in her post.  It looks fairly straight forward and syncs with the ATX Tax Program.  Here's some additional information on the product:

https://taxna.wolterskluwer.com/firm-management-and-workflow/ifirm/portal

I hope to set it up this weekend. 

 

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My website from CCH's SiteBuilder includes FileShare, a simple portal that works fine for my biz at no additional cost. CCH also offers a more robust portal. Try a demo of CCH's products first, if you use ATX. If neither of those work the way you work/your clients work, then see if your email or phone or accounting software or...has something already included or available in your budget.

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4 hours ago, Yardley CPA said:

Bob...I purchased and just sat through CCH's iPortal training that Deb is referring to in her post.  It looks fairly straight forward and syncs with the ATX Tax Program.  Here's some additional information on the product:

https://taxna.wolterskluwer.com/firm-management-and-workflow/ifirm/portal

I hope to set it up this weekend. 

 

Yeah, it's suppose to sync, but whenever I would try to send something from ATX program to the portal, nothing would happen.  Maybe they improved it for this year.  Also please watch out for any return that you change the address on.  Part of the training I went thru was to get all of my ATX clients into the portal data base.  That went very smoothly, however whenever I would make a change on the tax return thru ATX (such as address) then you will get a pop up asking if you want to sync with the portal, I said yes of course, but what happened was instead of changing the address in the portal, it changed it on the tax return.  I had several of these happen throughout the filing season and didn't figure it out until then end when I counted the number of returns that had been filed with the old address.

Not saying it will happen this year, but check it out.  Make sure that before you transmit the return, the address did not change back to the old one.

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On 1/11/2019 at 8:05 PM, Tax Prep by Deb said:

Yeah, it's suppose to sync, but whenever I would try to send something from ATX program to the portal, nothing would happen.  Maybe they improved it for this year.  Also please watch out for any return that you change the address on.  Part of the training I went thru was to get all of my ATX clients into the portal data base.  That went very smoothly, however whenever I would make a change on the tax return thru ATX (such as address) then you will get a pop up asking if you want to sync with the portal, I said yes of course, but what happened was instead of changing the address in the portal, it changed it on the tax return.  I had several of these happen throughout the filing season and didn't figure it out until then end when I counted the number of returns that had been filed with the old address.

Not saying it will happen this year, but check it out.  Make sure that before you transmit the return, the address did not change back to the old one.

Thanks, Deb.  I will keep an eye out. 

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I just set up the iFirm Portal from ATX, and this cleared things up....there are two 'sync' dialog boxes, on on the way into a return, and one on the way out. This should help:

Q: When I rollover a client and then open the return, I am prompted by ifirm to sync client information to the information in the client portal. If I say yes to sync, it is DELETING the dob of the spouse as well as phone numbers and email.
If I do not agree to the sync it opens fine. Then will sync correctly upon closing.

This may be normal behavior as I am new to the portal, but doesn't seem like it should be deleting things from my return.

 

A:  I will try my best to explain what is happening when opening and closing returns in ATX that is linked to client information in iFirm. I hope I don't confuse you more.

When opening a return in ATX, ATX checks to see if the client information already exists in iFirm and if it does is the client information is different. If the information is different, then ATX asks if you want to take the info from iFirm and update the tax return in ATX. That means if iFirm does not contain the DOB of the spouse, phone numbers or email then it will remove them from the return once you say sync.

When closing a return in ATX, ATX checks to see if the client information in iFirm is different than what is in the tax return in ATX, if the information is different then ATX ask if you want to take the info from the tax return in ATX and update iFirm. If you say yes to sync, then the information in the tax return in ATX will be pushed into iFirm and now iFirm will contain the DOB of the spouse, phone numbers and emails will be added to iFirm.

I really hope this helps.
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12 hours ago, NYTaxLady said:

I just set up the iFirm Portal from ATX, and this cleared things up....there are two 'sync' dialog boxes, on on the way into a return, and one on the way out. This should help:

Q: When I rollover a client and then open the return, I am prompted by ifirm to sync client information to the information in the client portal. If I say yes to sync, it is DELETING the dob of the spouse as well as phone numbers and email.
If I do not agree to the sync it opens fine. Then will sync correctly upon closing.

This may be normal behavior as I am new to the portal, but doesn't seem like it should be deleting things from my return.

 

 

A:  I will try my best to explain what is happening when opening and closing returns in ATX that is linked to client information in iFirm. I hope I don't confuse you more.

When opening a return in ATX, ATX checks to see if the client information already exists in iFirm and if it does is the client information is different. If the information is different, then ATX asks if you want to take the info from iFirm and update the tax return in ATX. That means if iFirm does not contain the DOB of the spouse, phone numbers or email then it will remove them from the return once you say sync.

When closing a return in ATX, ATX checks to see if the client information in iFirm is different than what is in the tax return in ATX, if the information is different then ATX ask if you want to take the info from the tax return in ATX and update iFirm. If you say yes to sync, then the information in the tax return in ATX will be pushed into iFirm and now iFirm will contain the DOB of the spouse, phone numbers and emails will be added to iFirm.

I really hope this helps.

Thank you NYTaxLady.  I appreciate this info.  

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Can someone with iPortal experience offer information on how to import clients into the portal.  I know the instructions indicate using a .csv file.  But does that information come from 2017 ATX or 2018 ATX.  I normally rollover clients only when I am working on them.  I do not do a mass rollover from the previous year to the current.  So I'd like to produce the .csv file from ATX 2017.  I assume that isn't an issue?   Then, when I start working on a client this year, I'll rollover from 2017 into 2018.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

I only have 150 clients...that is all I can do as a part-time preparer.  Since I will likely only need a secure portal for roughly 20 of those clients, cost is a factor,  I am doing a trial of Citrix Fileshare, and will like pay for that when trial is over.  It does not integrate with ATX, but the cost of ATX Client Portal, is simply not justified at my quantity.

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