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. 

[B1G R3D ON3]

IF I COULD VOTE YES 100 TIMES ON THIS, I WOULD!

[RichardN]

Add my vote.  Fillable PDF would be much better than the electronic organizer.

I can't send the electronic organizer because of the reasons previously listed by others, including; requiring launching an executable file, tedious and archaic looking, too much work for client (why hire us, then?), etc.

[crbqb25230]

Agreed!  I switched from Lacerte to Pro Tax Connect and then switched back to Lacerte for the tax planner and organizer functions. A fillable organizer would make everyone's day!!!

[webcpa]

I cannot agree more, the tax organizer,( not the e-file organizer which does NOT resemble the "paper organizer" and is clunky ) needs to be a fillable PDF document that will add tremendous value in time savings for both clients and we as preparers.  The technology is there and Lacerte needs to step up their game on this most important part of the workflow process.

[Calneva]

Agreed, clients attempt to do this themselves to mixed results. 

[DatabaseRobert]

My office was looking for the same thing, and for several years we would generate the organizers as PDFs and put the custom pages up front.  Essentially this just moved our printing costs down one step to the client, in the same manner that the IRS moved their data input (from paper returns) out to the preparers, with e-filing.

A few years ago, though, a complete wizard with Adobe found a way to identify the pages--of the "complete" organizer only; NOT the "condensed", and also NOT the Fiduciary since those pages are laid out similarly to the Individual condensed--in the file and overlay them with fillable fields.

  Since then, we have been sending out fillable organizers every year.

All of the pages for the 2020 input sheets have now been updated--several states added ID PIN fields to page2/Dependents, and the issue with the year being duplicated one sheet has been resolved in recent Lacerte updates--and so this year's version is now available:

  [removed] 

Note again that this simply lays fillable fields over the PDF pages generated from Lacerte (with the "complete" organizer only).  Primarily this is useful for legibility--rather than reading each client's different chicken-scratch handwriting--as well as Find, Zooming size, and copy/paste for long entries.

  This WILL NOT take data from the Organizer and populate it into the Lacerte program.  (Though I do have some ideas towards that.)

And again, this works ONLY for the INDividual module.  (The page headers for the FIDuciary module are laid out differently, so they will take additional work...  and no other module even generates an Organizer.)  You MUST have the full ("Pro") version of Adobe Acrobat, NOT just the "Reader" version.

Robert Kirk

LTUGtools

[laccpa]

Just got a message from a 3rd party product that generates the fillable organizer. Nice enough and reasonable but I think the point here is that we should be able to generate a fillable organizer from our software to print directly to our doc mgt system. Better yet to email directly to the client from the software - what a timesaver that would be. This should include any questionnaires in the organizer. This year I gave up on Lacerte's and created my own that I will update each year. I thought Lacerte would take a stab at adding some new questions based on the tax law changes but I was wrong. Some might be using the AICPA version already. Lacerte's are very difficult to format and hard for clients to read if you reduce the font to make the page count reasonable. You are also limited to Y/N questions. God forbid that you need to correct an error by backspacing 1 space as the software tabs back and you may take out a whole phrase. Anything that I have to use outside of the tax product is a huge blow to efficiency and productivity not to mention that I have to send things manually. All so my clients think that I am legit and not using some hack software. This is truly an area that could be vastly improved. Obviously, many think the same since this has jumped to the number one enhancement idea. Nice Terri!

[CPATerri]

And the question is.......when will anyone from Lacerte read all these comments and votes?

[bud6319]

I strongly agree.  The E-Organizer is out of date and not workable.  Clients have a hard time to open and work with it.  It is frustrating.  

[LFM9600]

I agree a fillable PDF organizer would be a welcome addition. The intuit link is better than e-organizer for my clients, having an organizer that looks like the paper version would be best!

I also would love to be able to import a word document as an engagement letter and actually not have to work on the formatting to get this to print correctly in Lacerte software.

If we could send for e-signature with the fillable PDF organizer you would get an A++ rating from many of your users- including me.

I have used Lacerte for more than 20 years- most of my clients have been with me that long, we would all welcome change if the face looks the same.