Carrying forward NOTES to 2025 PTO version

[CaryNC-CPA]

It appears that PTO has taken a step backwards in the name of "collaboration" (a large percentage of users are sole practitioners so we don't need to collaborate with ourselves).  I key in 2 sets in the Notes field - one is Carryover applicable year after year, and the other relates to the upcoming year only.  The sections are separated by a space.

When you set up a 2025 return from a 2024 return (1040), the Notes section is now gone and replaced by a BLANK "Comments" section, again in the name of collaboration (thanks for thinking of us sole practitioners).  None of the Notes automatically carry over to the Comments section.  If you go back to the 2024 file, the notes are grayed out (as in faded and hard to read) and they are "read-only", which many will assume that you can't copy & paste them to the 2025 Comments section.

I went through a lengthy tech support call and the only good thing is that you CAN copy/paste (manually - tedious process) each set of Notes to the Comments section for the following year, but you lose the formatting so my 2 sections all run together and have to be reformatted.  I have roughly 200 clients and if nothing is fixed, I will have to do this 200 times.

The EASY fix, which should have been obvious to the coding folks, is to have the prior year Notes automatically copy/pasted to the Comments section during the conversion routine from 2024 to 2025.  There is still plenty of time before tax season so I IMPLORE the coding folks to fix this and maybe in the future when you are testing a new year's changes to the software, actually pull in someone who has done a tax return online before, because forcing people to go back to the previous year for critical Notes and having them squint at a faded version of the notes is beyond belief, AND also forcing them to do hundreds of manual copy/paste routines to get their years of critical notes into the current year file is NOT fun.  The program is supposed to get better every year, not worse.

Thanks for fixing this. 

[IRonMaN]

Sorry, but you are about the 37th person to request this.  This has been posted here almost daily for the last month or so.  

[CaryNC-CPA]

IRonMaN,   I was on the phone with Christina at tech support for an hour and she said this was the first time the issue had been raised, but hey, 1st person, 37th person, whatever.  This was the first time for me on this forum.  Sorry I didn't check through all the postings, but thanks for your input and support.

[sjrcpa]

You had a quick lesson about how Support is mostly useless.

Welcome to our zoo.

[silbernagels]

https://accountants.intuit.com/community/proconnect-tax-idea-exchange/notes-are-going-away-now-we-ha...

I have been using notes for years to keep specific client information top-of-mind as we start new returns.  It has been a great place for items that we did  not want to forget one-year later.

Notes have been discontinued for 2025.  So to test, I went back to a 2024 return and copied the note over to "Comments", then transferred the return data to 2025...the comments did not come through.

We NEED a place for client notes to move forward year to year.

Please bring back the NOTE feature!!

If not that, allow the comments to carry forward each year.  (however, this is less desirable because we would still need to find all the old notes, copy, paste and then transfer the returns)

[Jordan-Peak]

If you do copy the notes to the comments section for 2025 you will quickly realize that those notes will NOT carry forward to 2026 so you will be right back where you started. It would be better to just create an excel spreadsheet for each client and keep the comments/notes there. 

This is a HUGE step backwards and another example of how the developers are NOT accountants and only trying to make things "look pretty" but it ends up just making everything harder. 

Please bring back the NOTES, transfer them to the comments section if needed, and create an option for "permanent comment" so those comments will carryforward from year to year. 

[barb.dornseif@me]

Our requirement as committed ProConnect users - in programmer/Product Manager speak....

Request: Please provide a Client level field for notes and client data that does not fit in existing client field definitions. 

Purpose: to remove the need for external applications to record client information that is fundamental to tax preparation for multiple years, or multiple returns per year for the family (i.e. child, grand-parent, business inter-relationships)

Data Requirements: Field should allow for long text data entry with formatting for:

• Carriage returns
• Headlines
• indentation/bullets
• underlining and BOLD - something like this field entry sub-routine. 😍
• Make field available in page header alongside Assignee and Status fields as well as the client menu with Tax Returns, Tax Plans, Documents etc

Business Use case: is to allow on-going reference to important information that allow quick memory refreshers that prompt accurate implementation of important Tax circumstances that are on-going at the client level - and MUST be accounted for in each or select future tax years.  Promotes efficiency and one source of truth record of critical client facts and circumstances WITHIN the tax prep software.

Solution is NOT a rollover of information from year to year (aka carry forwards) - but rather client level information that is learned in year 1 that will impact year 3 and may go unnoticed when preparing year 2 return.  Items should be movable within the field to facilitate reordering of importance year to year.

Simple Example: When onboarding in 2024, note twins turn 16 in 2026 - account for lower CTC of 3,000 and remind clients to adjust w-4 during 2025 return prep, confirm it is done when doing summer tax planning and watch out for the impact/need for further adjustment with 2026 prep. Yes, the birthdates are in dependent screens, this factoid is easy to miss when doing 2025 return as the dependent screen often does not need updating/attention after onboarding. But a 3k swing in credits will create cash flow pain and likely penalties thus is a significant value-add to be caught proactively.

Urgency: If technically possible, implement before opening of 2026 tax season to replace old Notes field that has been connected at the tax return level and is no longer viewable at the client level. Loss of critical information in this already f&$%%-ed up tax season will drive users to alternative software offerings. 

Please feel free to cut and paste and send up the management chain.

Barb

[Kathi_at_Intuit]

Hi! Thank you all for taking the time to post about the Notes in the Community. We have some additional information about them for you: 

Prior year notes are currently available within tax years 2024-2019. Comments is the note functionality for new return notes for Tax year 2025 moving forward. The product team is working to make Tax year 2024 notes available read-only within tax year 2025 to help with the transition.

More updates are to come on timeline of release and persistent comments across tax years.

[Jordan-Peak]

@Kathi_at_Intuit No only do 2024 notes need to be available in the comments of 2025 but they need to continue to carryforward to 2026 and every future tax year there after. It is like the "Permanent" folder where we keep notes to remember for next year or notes that need to be remembered year after year for that specific client. It is not only about "workflow" between teammates its about having a place to remember the little details about a client that without having to use an outside Proconnect spreadsheet. 

I highly recommend the comments have a button feature or toggle on/off feature that allows for some comments to be carried forward from year to year. If the feature is toggled on for a comment then it will show up in the all future tax returns until it is toggled off. If it is never toggled on then the comment will remain in the tax year it was created and not move forward to future tax years. That option would primarily be for the "workflow" feature you are trying to create while also giving us accountants a place to put notes that will carryforward. 

[Kathi_at_Intuit]

Hi @jordan-somervill Thanks for taking the time to give feedback! We have passed this along to our development team. More updates are to come and we will post when we have one. 

[Lizhoh]

I just realized that all of my meeting notes I put in the 2024 COMMENTS section are gone.  Completely gone.  I am putting notes in the 2025 comments section for this year.  Can someone tell me if those will copy forward to future years or at the very least still be in the 2025 tax portal section in comments?