Tax returns, from engagement signed to year sealed
Tax returns move through a firm in a predictable way, so the flow now mirrors it exactly. A firm-wide pipeline board groups every signed tax engagement across eight stages, from engagement signed to year sealed, and each engagement has its own eight-stage rail. The entry to the auto-chase loop is an auto-generated request list plus a Power of Attorney, and review now persists and notifies the people who need to act. External steps that depend on an outside service show honest connect-in-Settings blocks, and once connected, any action not yet implemented says so rather than reporting a false success.
One pipeline for every signed return
A firm-wide board groups the whole book of tax work, with a per-engagement rail underneath.
- →The pipeline board groups every signed tax engagement across the eight stages, restricted to tax engagements and including returns out for signature.
- →Each engagement gets its own eight-stage rail, from engagement signed through to year sealed.
- →An auto-generated request list and a Power of Attorney (Form 2848) are the entry to the auto-chase loop, so missing documents get chased without anyone remembering to.
Review that routes and remembers
Comments reach the right preparer, stick around, and tell people when there is something to do.
- →Review comments route to the preparer with cleared and uncleared tracking, and each person gets a what's-on-your-plate queue of their items.
- →The queue persists, the preparer is notified, and the reviewer is pinged when the last comment clears.
- →Delivery carries a plain-English balance or refund summary, per-signer signature tracking, and a post-signature re-tie check that nothing changed after sign-off.
Seal the year, honestly gated
The year locks read-only, and outside connections are shown as exactly what they are.
- →Year-seal applies a read-only lock backed by a stage audit trail, so a filed year stays put.
- →External steps (DocuSign KBA, SurePrep, CCH e-file, IRS-TDS) show as honest connect-in-Settings blocks until you add the key.
- →Once a connection is in place, any action not yet implemented says so plainly rather than reporting a false success.
Fixes & improvements
- •Review comments now persist and notify the preparer (they were previously in-session only).
- •The tax pipeline board is restricted to tax engagements and includes returns already out for signature.
- •Connected integrations that can't yet complete an action say so instead of reporting a false success.