Document Import Disappointment

[RebSteMag]

We decided to utilize the Lacerte Scan/Import tool this year figuring the product had years of development and improvement behind it.  Unfortunately, the tool has proven to be disappointing and one in which we have zero confidence.  We have discontinued use of it and a call to Lacerte Support availed little help as well as a notice that we'd exceeded out 30-day trial period.  I wanted to post my experience with the program in hopes that someone might have ideas to improve my experience with this product.

I scanned/imported documents ranging from 1 page to many.  Because I was trying out the tool and I'm overly cautious, I imported one client at a time.  The statuses would sometimes take the "expected" 20 minutes and sometimes I'd come in the next day to no status change.  Figuring 12 or more hours was ample time for the import to do its thing, I'd refresh Lacerte, update the Import Statuses via the link, and still receive no change.  At this point, I'd make the decision to import another client's documents and see what would happen.  At times, this would cause the original client's status to update; other times, it had no impact.

Because I can review each document for client accuracy, I didn't worry about the documents going to the wrong client.  I did, however, have an instance where one client's documents imported to the correct client but also to another unrelated client simultaneously.  I called Lacerte regarding this but they were unable to explain it.

During import, I was not assigned the responsibility of "reviewing" them as they imported because individual preparers could do that during prep.  However, I still checked each document for client accuracy and, in the process of doing so, noticed many amounts and data that did not import.  I'm not sure what % percentage accuracy there truly was on the imported data, although Lacerte says there should be 98% accuracy.

As the preparers began working with the clients with imported documents, it immediately became obvious that the proforma information and the new imported W2's, etc. were being duplicated simply because the tool wasn't matching by EIN, the unique entity identifier.  Nor have I found any access to settings that might be beneficial.  The imported documents are now being deleted by preparers just to be safe and to alleviate confusion.

We assumed the Import tool was designed to save time during the busy tax season.  However, my experience with it is the same as another poster on here in that it would be faster for me to key the data in than scan, import, wait for the import for 20 minutes to 12 or more hours, review each document which is time consuming, correct what is incorrectly imported, as well as identify and delete duplicated items.

Being that it's tax season and time is precious, I've stopped culling through all the posts here for help in using this tool that makes it worth the cost.  So, if I'm missing something that the rest of you have found to be of assistance to you, please pass it along for consideration.

Thank you,

Reb