Difference between e-file complete and federal accepted

[KMB14 · Accepted solution]

Federal accepted means the return has been filed and accepted by the IRS, but you have not printed the e-File Acceptance Letter. e-File Complete means you have completed all steps in the filing process - including printing the acceptance letter. 

[Janet910]

I appreciate your reply but I did print the e-file acceptance letters for all of our clients that we have e-filed so that would not be the case for us.  We only have 5 that indicate e-file complete and the date completed is over a month after they were accepted and their e-file acceptance letters were printed.  It is very odd.  Lacerte support says that they have no explanation for this other than it's the way it is encrypted at the end of the day.  I do not even know what they mean by that.

[KMB14]

Hm, that IS very odd. Once you print the acceptance letter the status should always switch to e-file complete. There are some instances where the status gets "stuck", and you have to manually update it by going to e-File --> Step 3: e-File Acknowledgement Statuses --> Update Acknowledgement Status for Selected Return(s), but I've never had that happen to more than one file at a time...I will tag a few Lacerte folks below and see if they can help out here.

[KMB14]

@IntuitAlicia @Kathi_at_Intuit

[Janet910]

Wow!  You have just taught me something about lacerte I was not aware of in all the years I have been e-filing returns.  I figured out that once you go through the steps you indicate above the client will then have e-file complete status.  The interesting thing is that I have never printed client acceptance letters in all the years I have been e-filing.  We have only printed the e-file activity reports once a client's federal and state returns have been accepted and we do so by clicking on the icon on the tool bar.  So I still have no idea why only 6 of our clients would have e-file complete if I am the only one who processes the e-files and I only print the activity reports.  I guess I will just chalk it up to a fluke.  I appreciate your time.

[Kathi_at_Intuit]

@KMB14 thank you for tagging me @Janet910 welcome to the community and thank you for posting your question. I have to clarifying something... In your first paragraph you stated that you have printed the e-file acceptance letter, however, in the last one you stated that you have never printed the client acceptance letter, but the e-file activity report. If the e-file activity report is printed, it will not change the e-file status column. You have to print the e-file acceptance letter in order for this column to change. Here is a knowledge base article that we have on this:

Printing E-file Acceptance Letters in the Lacerte Tax Program
https://accountants-community.intuit.com/articles/1607829&src=lsccom

I personally have never seen this column not change when printing the e-file acceptance letter. It could be that the client database need to be updated or it could be that Windows Sync Center is turned on and this is causing it not to update.

You could try and update the client database to see if that helps:

How to update client database with proper amounts when detail has changed
https://accountants-community.intuit.com/articles/1607881&src=lsccom

Here is how to check on Windows Sync Center:

Windows Sync Center with Lacerte and ProSeries
https://accountants-community.intuit.com/articles/1608557&src=lsccom

Hope this helps and I hope you both have a great weekend!

[Janet910]

In my initial question I was not aware of the "e-file acceptance letter" as a separate item from the "e-file activity report" which for me was the acceptance.  We have never printed e-file acceptance letters so I am still perplexed as to why any of our clients would have the e-file complete status.  Thank you for your responses.

[COOP8687]

but i have a couple that still show "e-file complete" after printing the ack letter...

[COOP8687]

I've done that too, and more than once for a client - and it still shows "e-file accepted"

Now what?

[George4Tacks]

@Kathi_at_Intuit This is a very useful response, but two of your three links no longer exist. Could you please find the new ones and edit this post to make it useful again.
Thank you,