Level 5

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I'm a new customer, and finding I have a lot of questions that the videos, webinars, and help menus (which are not helpful at all) are just not addressing. Suggestions?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
December 7, 2019
18 replies
45 views

Classic case of "the demo is better than the delivery version." As I was getting the hard pitch, I was told that Intuit would "help me train my entire staff." What that meant is they would provide these videos that show me what the home menu looks like. I know what the home menu looks like. I can see it, thank you very much. I've gone through at least a dozen of their videos and webinars, and find them very un-helpful and a waste of time. The "help menus" are likewise not helpful at all. I've called their support line several times, and they're very nice on the phone, and help me out, but it seems like they should have a better system of training. Once tax season starts, I won't be able to call them and wait on hold for 5-10 minutes each 3-4 times in a return because I can't figure out what they mean when they say "access the state options menu by opening the state options menu." (Like, you don't say! Where IS the state options menu!!!!!) I am trying to be patient with them, but my staff is starting to get angry with me and complain about every single line item not knowing how to enter things, and I can't answer them, because I don't know how to. It really can't be this hard. I must be doing something wrong. Any ideas?

ProSeries Professional

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Best answer by Just-Lisa-Now-

There's no substitute for just getting in there and preparing a return and getting a feel for the program.

Its forms based, so you can enter things directly from the tax return line by line, double clicking a line will open a worksheet to enter what needs to go there, so if you are familiar with looking at tax returns, it really shouldn't be too steep of a learning curve.

The WHERE DO I ENTER button still saves me on almost a daily basis, finding what I'm looking for (since they changed the forms for 2018!), it saves time rather than scrolling through all the lines of the new forms they gave us.

This group is a great place to ask questions, much quicker than calling support! There is ProSeries Facebook group as well for questions about using the program.

Just-Lisa-Now-

Answer

Intuit Community Champion

There's no substitute for just getting in there and preparing a return and getting a feel for the program.

Its forms based, so you can enter things directly from the tax return line by line, double clicking a line will open a worksheet to enter what needs to go there, so if you are familiar with looking at tax returns, it really shouldn't be too steep of a learning curve.

The WHERE DO I ENTER button still saves me on almost a daily basis, finding what I'm looking for (since they changed the forms for 2018!), it saves time rather than scrolling through all the lines of the new forms they gave us.

This group is a great place to ask questions, much quicker than calling support! There is ProSeries Facebook group as well for questions about using the program.

♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥Lisa♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

rbynaker

Level 13

Instead of "Where do I enter", I've been using F6 a lot more lately. It's a keyboard shortcut to the forms list.

A few tips that I have to add:

Spend some time going through the Options menu. There's a lot of stuff in there for you to customize (like whether you want the date printed automatically, SSN masking, etc.) These are going to be system-wide defaults so for the most part I just spend an hour or two at the beginning of tax season making sure everything is how I like it (including which forms print and in what order) and then ignore this for the rest of the year.
Get very familiar with dozen or so sections of the Federal Information Worksheet. This is where you'll find things like "Force Itemized Deductions". It's also where you tell the software what states you're filing, where the refunds go, etc.
As you enter tax return data, the "forms in use" section on the left side will populate and will also start creating red flags of things that the software really wants you to enter.
One of my favorite tools is F8. Client forgot to give me their car tax amount? No problem. I'll put $0 in for Sch A personal property taxes and press F8 to "Mark as estimated". Then it shows up as a red flag and you'll be reminded in final review.
That leads us to final review. Use the Review button when you think you're done. ProSeries will go through red flags, other diagnostics and then tell you all of the calculations that you have to verify by hand because they are "unsupported."

Rick

Just-Lisa-Now-

Intuit Community Champion

I struggle with F6, it doesnt always give me the form Im looking for....I've never used F8 for anything, I 'right click' to Mark as Estimated. I guess we each just get used to doing things a certain way....and theres always more than one way to accomplish the same thing!

♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥Lisa♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

IRonMaN

Level 15

"It really can't be this hard"

No it can't be. When I first purchased ProSeries back in 1942 I believe, I opened up the software and just fiddled with it and found it was pretty easy to navigate since it is form based. Between being able to work backwards from the 1040 using the little magnifying glass to find where to enter stuff and the little green "where do I enter" button, it is pretty user friendly as to data entry. As a side note, if you have called support several times, I think you have called support more often than I have in all of the years I have been using the software. It sounds like you are trying to learn how to swim by only sticking your toes in the water. Go ahead and just jump into the deep end of the pool -------------- it can't be more than a couple of feet deep --------------------- you won't drown.

Slava Ukraini!

hillsboro15269Author

Level 5

Well, you're quite the expert! I'm guessing you meant 1992? I don't think this product existed in 1942

Even so, almost 30 years makes you an expert in any book.

Yes, jumping in is way easier than the videos. Unfortunately, it's not just me, but 5 employees who are all asking me questions that I just can't answer.

So, let me ask you:
How do you change the preparer on a return?
What are the different options on "TSJ indicators"?
How do I enter the ERO practitioner PIN?
Is there a place where I can compare the differences between the 3 different banks that do Pay-by-Refund (Santa Barbara, Refund Advantage, and River City Bank), and/or which one should I chose, etc.?
Is there a place where you can enter a 1099-INT or 1099-Bs? I see where to enter the information from one, but some of my clients have more information than the worksheets (even the "advanced" worksheets) allow. For example: I'd like to be able to enter all the 1099-B information that is covered, no adjustments, and have the software add it up and put it on line 1a or 8a. How do I do this? It puts it on 1b or 8b, which is wrong.
Where do you enter a child's qualifying disability for Oregon?
How do you tell it to print forms 2-sided?
How do you enter state pricing?

And before you say anything, I have tried the "where do I enter" on all of these that it's reasonable, and not gotten a good answer. So thanks in advance!

Allan at Intuit

Level 5

The article in the link below has most of the program shortcut keys.

https://accountants-community.intuit.com/articles/1861828-proseries-basic-keyboard-shortcuts

Lord Happy

Level 5

Happy day...just as a bump to this topic, the "What's New in Proseries" video is from 1/9/19, and deals with what was new in the 2018 software. One might have thought that with all the little tweaks that happen each year, the new video would be up, but maybe we have to wait a year for that video to be posted 🙂

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