Deleted Preparer Still Assigned to Clients - Fix?

[kbroccoli]

We recently hired a new CPA at our firm, and when I entered her info into Lacerte at Settings - Primary Options - Preparers, I discovered that the slot she was entered into was apparently still assigned to a number of clients and auto-populated her name as the Staff Preparer.  I ended up finding her a previously unused slot # through trial and error, but am wondering if there's a better way to do this?  Can I remove a slot # from all the clients it's been assigned to when I delete a previous employee, so it's unattached and ready for a new person to take it over?  Or is it better to just leave the previous employee's name in the slot it's been in so we know not to use that slot # again down the road?

[George4Tacks]

I think you found the answer. NEVER change a preparer once they are entered in the Options. Every new preparer gets a new number.

When you go back to amend an old return, you then would change the preparer number in the return to match the person doing the amendment. When you go back to an old return and want to print a return, it should print with the original preparer on the return. 

[DatabaseRobertLTUG]

As opposed to the Name/PTIN info associated with a particular Preparer # in your Firm Info, which George already addressed...

To change the Preparer (or Staff Preparer) # itself, in the Client Info for each client:

 - either use an F3/Filter (pre-built for Preparer, build your own for Staff) and go into Page1/client Info to change EACH ONE individually (not a great solution if there are more than a handful, just from the time it will take),

OR

 - set up an ODBC connection for *each* year/module combination that you need to change.  Open Data1/Client Info file for each, find-and-replace <old #> with <NEW #>.

Robert Kirk

LTUGtools