Intuit unveils latest software tools and features to ensure tax season success for SMBs

Author: ASBN

Intuit, a technology platform that makes TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp, announced enhancements for its products and services including Intuit Tax Advisor, Intuit ProConnect Tax, Intuit Lacerte Tax, and Intuit ProSeries Tax, for the upcoming tax year.

Intuit Accountants offers a range of products and services to help tax and accounting professionals stay ahead. The 2023 tax year product updates offer improved reporting capabilities, strategies, and streamlined workflows, while also providing accountants with access to new tax-related insights, advisory strategies, and reports to help firms achieve their goals.

“At Intuit, we are constantly striving to innovate our tax preparation software and develop new tools and capabilities to help our customers save time and maximize their success,” said Jorge Olavarrieta, VP of Product Management and Design at Intuit.

“We are committed to providing the best resources to tax and accounting professionals so they can focus on what matters most today while investing in solutions that will power the future of the profession,” he added.

Updates to Intuit Tax Advisor

New updates and features include:

• Client OneView – Allows users to preview up to five clients simultaneously and gain insights into potential tax savings, the number of probable strategies, and the potential strategies for each client to create a personalized tax plan for each client with confidence.
• State Tax Analysis and Projections – Expands capabilities that include primary state returns, in addition to federal returns. Switch between federal and primary state modes and adjust income, deductions, credits, estimated payments, and create custom strategies for the upcoming year for more precise state planning. All taxable states are now within reach, and for California and New York, potential adjustments are also available.
• Smarter recommended strategy insights – Adds new strategies to client plans offering updated insights based on that strategy resulting in a more customized tax plan.
• Visibility into tax savings and net out-of-pocket calculations – Provides more visibility to tax fields impacted by a strategy and details about the calculations to help users more confidently implement tax saving strategies and explain values to clients.
• Worksheets experience – Answers questions to evaluate if a client may qualify for items such as business use of home, business and personal travel, or day trader status.
  • Net operating loss carryforward (Coming Soon).
• Strategies for real estate professionals – Determines if a taxpayer qualifies as a real estate professional and can deduct losses from real estate activities against ordinary income and whether the net investment tax applies.
• Strategies for like-kind exchange – Examines certain real property for another property that’s like-kind, without recognizing a taxable gain for the transaction.

Featured Improvements to Intuit Accountant’s product suite for 2023 include:

Updates to ProConnect Tax

• IRS transcripts direct access – Pull client’s data, straight from the IRS into ProConnect Tax, with the IRS transcripts feature to complete fast, accurate returns with less client back and forth.
• Customized client letters – Create and send templated letters to clients, with preset and customized tax return data fields and signatures.
• Firm performance insights – Grow your firm with full insights into its performance. The easy-to-read dashboard reports annual client growth, time spent on returns at both the firm and user level, and comparison reports.
• Task Accelerators – Set up an email to yourself and/or others when an eFiled return is rejected by the IRS.
• Custom print settings – Customize digital templates of your client’s tax return documents for easy client review while standardizing and automating your workflow. Select documents and forms to include, rearrange the order, mask SSNs, add a watermark, and more.
• Batch extension eFile – Batch extend up to 10 multi-modular (individual and business) federal, state, and local extensions. Preview a dashboard to help ensure returns pass all required diagnostics and payment requirements before e-filing.
• Hot Keys (shortcuts) – Accelerate productivity with a compiled list of convenient, accurate, and fast shortcut key combinations while using the main navigation, client tax returns list, and return navigation.
• Intuit Link client reminders – Send clients reminders to join Link and complete their organizer every seven days until the client marks the task as done.
• Expanded tax filing capabilities – Access 20 new e-file capabilities and 73 new e-file forms.

Coming soon in ProConnect Tax

• Prep for Taxes (New! Tax adjustments) – Reconcile tax adjustments to QuickBooks imported trial balance in ProConnect Tax, and update or reclassify tax mapping prior to importing books data to the tax return. QuickBooks is sold separately.
• 1040 direct data import – Create a new client using pertinent data extracted directly from their prior-year 1040 form and generate a tax summary comparison for the current tax year.
• K-1 package delivery – Create and distribute individual K-1 packages to partners via email using a secured link.

Updates to Lacerte

• SafeSend integration – Send clients’ returns to SafeSend directly from the Lacerte client grid – no downloading and uploading – to assemble and deliver completed tax return packages more efficiently.
• Simplified Intuit Tax Advisor plan creation – Start tax plans for 1040 clients with a quick click from the client grid to open and sign into Intuit Tax Advisor.
• Quick Employer Forms Accountant – Create and e-file an unlimited number of W-2s and 1099s for your client’s employees and contractors. E-file and print forms within a business and across multiple businesses individually and in bulk. It supports Forms W-2, 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, 1099-INT, and 1099-DIV and supports W-3 & 1096 forms for your records automatically.

Updates to ProSeries

• Hosting onboarding automation enhancements – Move data with end-to-end automation from your existing infrastructure to the Hosting environment. This automation includes packing data from all current ProSeries tax years, transferring it to the Right Networks’ environment, and unpacking it to their respective ProSeries folders, to start working online as if nothing has changed.
• TurboTax Online import – Transfer current-year TurboTax individual 1040 returns to current-year ProSeries returns in just a few clicks.
• Quick Employer Forms Accountant – Create and e-file an unlimited number of W-2s and 1099s for your client’s employees and contractors. E-file and print forms within a business and across multiple businesses individually and in bulk. It supports Forms W-2, 1099-NEC, 1099-MISC, 1099-INT, and 1099-DIV and supports W-3 & 1096 forms for your records automatically.

Coming soon to ProSeries

• Financial institution download – Download client financial data directly from all supported banks with an updated authentication method.
• eSignature – Batch electronic signatures on documents from 2 to 100 clients and set reminders for them all at once.