backwards proforma

[cpa4ski]

we often have new clients where we prepare current year return and then find out a prior year return requires amendment. it would be extremely helpful to proforma backwards to avoid manually setting up an existing client in a prior year version of lacerte.

[IRonMaN]

Wouldn't it be easier to look at the prior year return first, amend that return and then prepare the current year return?

[cpa4ski]

sure if you knew what was missing but you don't always know until you prepare the return for the new client for the first time. 

[macwilliamson]

Great idea!  This would be a huge time saver since you wouldn't have to setup the client for each amended return.

[calebljenkins]

I'm 100% with you @cpa4ski! This has been a request of mine for quite some time!

I would also love a proforma forwards on top of an existing file but only to update the carryforward amounts for the reasons that you gave about starting on one return and then realizing we need to go back and amend but then we've already input the next year so either we have to proforma it forward again and re-input everything or we have to figure out what carryforward fields changed and manually go update them.

A proforma forward to update carryforward amounts would also allow us to work on a client that has 5 years of returns that need filed but they don't have all their information together. We could input all 5 years, use the missing data utility to red-flag everything that's missing and keep track of where we are on all 5 years simultaneously. The way it works currently, we have to start with the oldest year and finish it and then proforma it forward to the next year, then finish that 2nd year completely and proforma it to the 3rd year and so on.

[cpa4ski]

great idea

[darrellp]

It would be really helpful if Lacerte would let you copy client’ s data backwards from 2020 to 2019 and again to 2018 if necessary. You can copy a client from one year to a subsequent year but not to a prior year. Often, with new clients, we start at a more current year. If we later find a mistake in the previous year’s return, and we choose to amend it, we are required to again input the client’s address, the clients Social Security numbers, the dependent’s name and Social Security numbers, and also 1099R name address and EIN. Etc. etc.

[IntuitGabiU]

The team is considering this idea as they plan for the future of the product. Thank you! 

[DatabaseRobert]

This is a fairly straightforward exercise, since Lacerte has been using the same "Series/Property/Code" setup for many years.  You will have to have some modicum of computer and/or programming knowledge to get it done, however.
 - Create an ODBC connection to the NEWER year;
 - read all of the detail from the binary file for that client into a data table;
 - create either an XML-schema Pro Forma file, or a fixed-with Bridge file, to get all of the codes onto the correct pages.

Once you are done, the next time you enter that year's module you should see the client bridge in, and then be usable on your Client List.

I did precisely this in program years up through TY2017 (before the ODBC connection was created, the data were available for the asking by reading the binary file).

.

This is not without its own set of problems, however!
 - All of your page48/prior year summary/Two-Year Comparison numbers will be off.  (Calculating your 2017 return, showing on the paper as "2016"/prior year numbers will be whatever was in your 2020 file as having been used in 2019.)
 - Depreciation "prior" numbers will be out of whack by however many years' difference you went back.
 - Essentially ALL of your actual CarryOver numbers will be useless (ST/LT losses, IRA basis, and so on).
 - Some codes get added new each year (having the ACA checkbox field filled in, on a year earlier than ObamaCare was active), or get repurposed.

Still, all of your page18/rental properties with their corresponding page22/depreciable assets will be right where you expect to see them.



Robert Kirk
LTUGtools

[DatabaseRobert]

(As an addendum, after re-reading my own message:

If you first set up the client--just page1/client info, and page2/dependents--in the year being bridged TO, making NO other entries in any of the tax detail pages, then with an ODBC connection to BOTH years open you can just start at the top of the new/source year, and copy/paste each line of detail into the old/target year.  It's a database record.  You're done.

I would *not* fiddle with "add client to database", which even the SDK instruction book contains cautions for.  [And does not work with all software.]



Robert)

[Accountant-Man]

Whenever we get a new client, they give us the prior year's returns and we input them, then transfer to current year.

This way we have the two year comparison all ready. And at least one prior return to amend, if necessary.

We also find mistakes made by the prior preparer or client.