PDF Version of Organizer

[CPATerri]

My clients are requesting FILLABLE organizers.  Can you make this happen so we can stop with the paper organizers?   The e-organizer is not something most of my clients can work with so a fillable PDF would be great. 

[DatabaseRobert]

Thanks for the run-down, Pam!  You're speaking to someone who still has a Treo smartphone (no data plan...  just a working Palm OS 4 device) plugged in keeping charge, because my Tungsten finally died.
  (I would carry the Tungsten with me on the trail hiking, because the form factor was "flat rectangle" rather than "antenna sticking out to get broken".  Water purification timer, alarm in the morning to get up, dinner is done cooking, make a note of odd/funny occurrence, whatever.)

And I used "DateBk6" for my personal organizer (calendar & contacts), which was a phenomenal upgrade from the Palm's built in DateBook app.  Check out Pimlico Software.

Fortunately, they came out with an Android version(-ish) of the same software, called PimliCal.  Extremely worthy of investigation.

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Lacerte's Appointment Manager always had their own data table; in "the old days" I could open that right up and view it, but WRITING to it would for some reason corrupt the table.  We never stored appointments in Lacerte anyhow, so this was merely something that I ran across and was noodling with to see if I could get anything good to happen.
  (Like for example, a printout that was NOT a functionally useless mess of "all lines the same size, nothing bolded, and no indenting" [such as "days in all caps & bold & larger, indent appointments, with the client name/number in bold"].)
  Yeah, completely UN-impressed with Lacerte's default printout.

Now, with their redesigned data tables, I cannot even open the Appointment Manager's data table.  (It got a new name, as well.)  And since it is stored in a completely different directory (specifically, your "OPTIONS" location) than client data, no ODBC connection to help there.

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TL;DR: No technical help.  Sorry.

Robert

[pamdory]

@DatabaseRobert Thanks for the background and the always appreciated TL;DR. I figured the advent of Practice Management was the demise of innovation to the Appointment Mgr.

It's always fun to reflect on our prior tech devices.  I remember commenting to my former business partner about how nice it would be if a single device could replace my cell phone, Palm and iPod.  As I often say, "It's a wonderful time to be alive."

Well...in some respects.  In other respects it would be nice to go back to living in spots like Mayberry.

[tom5]

Mayberry, indeed.  How nice that would be.  No purple hair and no metal radar antennas on people's body parts, no question what gender you are and no worry about saying the wrong pronoun.  Then there's the tech world, where everything is broken always to some degree.  Nothing works right anymore.  I wonder if we're ever get sensible again.  PDF organizers.  Now there's an idea, but don't hold your breath.  Intuit: the place where good ideas and innovation go to die.  

[IntuitGabi]

Thank you for your feedback and votes. 
We understand this is an opportunity not only for Lacerte but for many accountants using Intuit products. This idea continues to be Under Review as the team is researching options for a holistic approach on this topic. 

Please continue to share your feedback as we develop and scope next steps for bringing this enhancement to life. 

[DatabaseRobert]

Interestingly enough, I recently had some conversations with David about how we could move forward with taking "what is typed into the PDF fields" and bridging that over into the Lacerte program as actual inputs of tax detail.

Offhand, it looks pretty promising and like a fun little "over the summer project" to work on, maybe to have as an adjunct product in time for Tax Year 2023.

Just to gauge interest level: how many people might be inclined to use something like that?  (It would *require* the use of our little utility to add the fields, since that incorporates the field names that we would be using to make the data line up.)



Robert Kirk
LTUGtools

[JCL]

PDF Organizer is a must have with no additional cost. Bridging with a nominal cost has some potential in my estimation.

[B1G R3D ON3]

Having this isn’t just something to noodle over. This is a necessity!! GIT-R-DONE!! And for what we are paying already it should be included for no additional fees.

[rhibbscpa]

We have been asking for an organizer that the client can input into for years. Now you claim (as progress) that you are looking for a way to take that idea, and rather than implement it, you are going to see how you can make it more complicated than we are asking for, and to charge us  extra. Just give us the organizer that a client can input data into and return the data to us. 

[CPATerri]

I posted this  suggestion OVER TWO YEARS AGO.  I don't even care if the data can be directly upload from a fillable PDF organizer to the Lacerte program, I am interested in giving my client an updated method to send me data rather than using an outdated PAPER organizer.   Paper organizers are a wasteful use of paper and antiquated.  Our fees to you go up every year, for what we pay, this should be an included option and not an extra add on.

[DatabaseRobert]

Recent respondents, please note that there is a huge difference between "IntuitGabiU" (a staffer there at the company) and "me" (a user of Lacerte, who happens to have fillable PDF organizers because I paid a Wizard with Acrobat to MAKE it for me...  and then we are selling that capability).

Having been involved in that process, trust me when I say that what is involved with making a fillable PDF out of the Organizer is not a trivial task.

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Then, separately from Gabi's comment, I posted that I have a good line on being able to move that filled-in information over into the tax program for the next year.  For that, I was attempting to gauge interest.



Robert Kirk
LTUGtools