Intuit Tax Advisor - Editing actual amounts loaded from return

[robertstxcpa1]

For new clients that have already filed a return, but are in need of tax planning, it would be helpful to be able to edit the actual amount column in the tax plan instead of having to prep the return before it's loaded into Intuit Tax Advisor. 

E.g., new client in mid 2024 already has filed all returns for 2023.  In order to have correct actual 2023 amounts in tax plan, the return must be prepared first in Proconnect (even if it's a pro forma version).  We should be able to manually edit that column the same as the base year column.  It's often significantly more efficient to do that vs. preparing the return in PTO. 

[IntuitJim]

Thanks for the feedback. The Actual amount in the PSB is designed to tie to the tax return imported so users have confidence the data imported is accurate, and we have no plans to change that, based on hundreds of user interviews. Also, there are too many hidden fields that support the calculated values in the Actual column to just 'edit' the values. 

Today, you must start a tax plan with a tax return. The more detail included in the tax return, the better the strategy recommendations will be. There may come  a day when you can create a tax plan without a tax return, but that is not currently on our roadmap. 

If you don't want the precision of preparing the return in ProConnect and importing it as filed, then the fast method is leave the Actual amount incorrect or $0 and edit the PSB baseline column as needed to get a starting point for 2024.  Depending on the complexity of the client, that may be an 'efficient' way to start. 

[robertstxcpa1]

I think you missed my point regarding new client planning.  Most practitioners are not going to spend the time to prep a return (especially a complex return) that's not going to be filed, but it's commonplace for the new clients to need some mid-year planning.  

Just FYI, your competitors' planning tools (e.g., Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg) allow this.  But obviously those tools are more expensive (and robust) than the basic planning tool Intuit offers. I think a user that is a CPA should be able to manually input prior year return numbers.  Intuit needs to step up their game up for CPAs and not just serve the lowest common tax preparer.  

[IntuitJim]

Thanks for your feedback, minus the jabs. We hear the request to plan for new clients, easily. Got it. That is not our priority today as we try to solve for existing clients very well.