NEW CLIENT

[BRUCERYCH]

When I get a new tax client, I always create the previous years tax return in Lacerte in order to produce a tax organizer with the previous years tax data.  Since I now REP all tax returns this can get costly as I have to REP 2 years of returns.  Does anyone else have other suggestions?

[abctax55]

Use all 9's for the SSN for the prior year. You still have to go thru the REP process, but there's no charge. 

Hopefully that doesn't print a watermark of "do not file" on the organizer tho.

[Karl · Accepted solution]

Back when I did this (I now use TaxDome for my organizer/questionnaire), I would just generate a blank condensed organizer to give to new clients, telling them that they'd have a prepopulated one next year. Respectfully, you're doing a lot of work that I would posit is not adding a ton of value to your client.

Along any true carryforwards, I just quickly fill in Screen 48 (federal only) for new clients in CY software to have a PY comparison summary, and that helps me more than the client to make sure I understand variances and am not missing a document.