E-FORM RS QUICK REFERENCE

Transcription

1 E-FORM RS QUICK REFERENCE Use e-form RS (Remote Server) to access the most current tax forms. Pass-Thru Users: Access e-form RS from Speedlink or by clicking the link under Go to. Direct Login Users: If your administrator has created direct login credentials for you and e-form RS is already installed, you should launch from Start>Programs> Thomson Reuters>eForm RS or from a desktop shortcut. First-Time Install: For a first-time install only, go to Note: Direct login requires an account #, plus Login ID and password from your e-form RS administrator. Direct logins are not the same as your Checkpoint User Name/Password! For support, go to or call Thomson Reuters/Tax & Accounting. All Rights Reserved.

2 E-FORM RS HOME PAGE Access useful tax links, such as Checkpoint and the official IRS website. Click Clients to set up a client database. Access form instructions, IRS publications, and state publications in PDF format. Use Options & Security to define your user preferences for various data field options. As an e-form RS Administrator, add, modify, or delete user IDs in your account. Select Forms to add to a client s records or to print. It is highly recommended that all new e-form RS users take this tutorial. Add, modify, or delete Paid Preparers for your account. 2

3 PROGRAM OPTIONS SCREEN On the Program Options screen, the options are workstation specific. You can set options at the form level (see the bottom of page 10), and you can set them at the program level: You can revert back to the default settings by clicking Restore Default Settings. Select your startup page for whenever you log in. After you select your options, make sure you save them! Most of the options are selfexplanatory. However, if you need more information, click Help. 3

4 PREPARER INFO SCREEN You can enter a preparer s name, address, SSN, employer ID, telephone number, etc., which will automatically flow to the appropriate fields on the forms. This data is stored by account number in the client database and is available to all account users. Select the My Preparers link under Administration in the left frame. Save your changes. You can delete existing preparers. To add a new preparer to the database, click Add New Preparer. Select an existing preparer. (The screen populates the selected preparer s data in the right frame.) Each client in an account can use a different paid preparer. If a default preparer is selected, the default preparer information is assigned to any new clients automatically. 4

5 ADDING A NEW CLIENT To set up a client database from the My Clients screen, click Add New Client. Alternatively, you can select Add Client in the Clients pane of the quick launch menu (left side of screen). Click here to add new forms to a client. Select Client Form List to view lists of previously saved client forms by tax year. You can also print multiple forms without displaying them and open form instructions. Select Column Chooser to select the columns that appear on the My Clients tab. Select Display Notes to display notes that pertain to your clients. Note: Custom forms are not year specific, and any changes you make to the form saved to a client do not affect any Searching: Search methods are common throughout e-form RS. Select any criteria that is pertinent to your search, and the screen will be updated instantly, based on your criteria. Also, whatever you type in the brownish area, which is actually a filter like those used in Excel, will update the list automatically as you type. 5

6 SETTING UP CLIENT PROFILES Type your client s account data in the appropriate fields either the client name information (First Name, Last Name, SSN) or the company information. This information carries over to any forms added to this client. From the Administration menu, select Rollover Text Data to roll over a client s previous year tax form information and use it for the current tax You can assign a password to your client. Remember to save your input. Note: The rollover Text Data feature applies to text fields only. Currency fields and profile fields do not rollover. Also after the rollover from one year to the next, any form names in red text are currently not available (but will become available as the forms are released). 6

7 LISTING CLIENT S FORMS/UNDELETING CLIENT S DELETED FORMS To see a list of all forms associated with a client, first select the client from the My Clients tab. Then click the Client Form List button to open the Client Forms tab: If you ever need to recover a client form that has been deleted, you can use the e-form Undelete feature: First, display the deleted forms by right-clicking the button at the right (see red circle) and select Undelete Client Forms. Note: Depending on your screen resolution, this button to open the drop-down menu may or may not be visible. Then select the box next to any of the forms you want to undelete. Finally, click Undelete the Client Forms. 7

8 DISPLAYING THE FORMS LIST Click My Forms to display the list of forms. In addition to tax year, the options you select at the top of the screen, such as Federal and Individual, determine which forms are displayed. Click Y (Yes) under View Instructions to access instructions for completing a form. Important - You must have Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the PDF instructions. Searching: Again, to perform a search from this screen or from other e-form RS screens, select any criteria that are pertinent to your search, and the screen will be updated instantly, based on your criteria. Also, whatever you type in the brownish area, which is actually a filter like those used in Excel, will update the list automatically as you type. 8

9 CLIENT FORM CHECK BOX If you are an administrator or a Power User, you can check Show Existing Client Forms to display these columns on the Forms screen. (Clear the check box to remove this column.) When you click a number in the Existing Client Forms column, the Client Form Count screen displays which forms a client has or which forms have been deleted for a client. Note: Adding the Existing Client Forms column could slow down form list retrieval. 9

10 COLOR-CODED DATA FIELDS The different types of fields on a form are color-coded: Data Field Color Type of Field Blue represents a simple data-entry field. You can type any data into the blue fields. Some blue fields are used in calculations whose results are then placed into the yellow calculated fields. In addition, if you type a letter into a field that requires a number, the field will change to pink automatically. Lavender represents a field that has word-wrap capability. Calculated or carried from page to page. The three types of yellow calculated fields are Calculated (number) fields, Client data fields, and Preparer data fields. Limitations may be applied to a green field. Check the result carefully. Pink represents a number that is normally calculated automatically but has been overridden by the user. You can override any calculated field simply by typing data into it. All calculations using this field use the overridden data instead of the previous calculated value. (To revert back to the previous value, right-click in the field and select Reset from the drop-down menu.) In a gray typewriter emulation field, you can use the Typewriter command on the Forms Viewer menu bar to add these fields anywhere on the form. (Typewriter emulation fields are never used in calculations.) Orange represents a mandatory entry field on certain machine-readable forms. (Before you can print a form, all mandatory fields must have an entry.) 10

11 DISPLAY FORM TOOLBAR The Display Form toolbar at the top of a form contains several navigation buttons and functions: Toolbar Options Form Save Save As Print Export to PDF Save, close, print or export a form to a PDF. Description Saves the active form in the Display Form window. Saves the displayed form to another client. Sends the active form to your printer. Exports the displayed form to PDF format. Add Forms to Client Access the My Forms screen to add forms to the client s form list. Page Level Options Calculate Typewriter Form Instructions Wizard Set specific options for the form, such as Currency Fields, Date and Time Stamp and Font size. Saves the active form and calculates the formulas in the form. Activates the Typewriter Emulation feature so you can type outside of the normal data entry areas. View the instructions (in a separate browser window) for the active form, if available. View special instructions or completion requirements for some forms. Note: Unavailable buttons are grayed out. Also note that the toolbar options change, depending on which tab is active. Each function has its own tab. 11

12 FORM DISPLAY OPTIONS If you are using a schedule and you run out of room on a form that has two or more pages, you can add an unlimited number of additional copies of pages to the form set. To add a page, save the form to a client. Then click Display Client s Forms. Open the form and right-click the form name in the form tree. Select add a page copy. From the pop-up window that opens select the page you want to copy and click OK. To create a memo for a displayed form, rightclick anywhere on the screen and select Add/ Edit Memo Type your memo. After you close the Memo window, notice the red dot, which indicates that there s a memo for this form. To set form-specific options, click Page Level Options. Then change any of the settings and click OK. PUBLICATIONS & RESEARCH To view publications from the e-form RS browser, select the Publications & Research tab at the top of the e-form RS Home page. Double-click a publication title to read it. Note: You can also select a publication from here. 12

13 USER RIGHTS To set user rights, an administrator can customize the rights given to user types. Open the Set User Rights tab by selecting Set User Rights at the bottom of the left frame (circled in red below). For pass-thru accounts into e-form RS, all user types are designated by one of these three options: Note: Pass-thru users have e-form RS assigned to them by their administrator. When they try to access e-form RS from Checkpoint because they are a recognized user they will bypass the e-form login screen and go directly to the e-form Home page. Click My Users to assign a user type to the different users of the account. 13