Discussion:ProSeries HomeBase - Client Status Question
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| 17 April 2007 | |
| To ProSeries users - when in the "homebase" screen is there an option or any way to update/refresh all of the client status in one step as opposed to having to open up each client and checking their individual status? I efiled a few extensions last night and when I checked homebase this morning I didn't see the client status updated so I opened up each client, checked the status found it updated and when I returned back to homebase (only after opening a client) then I noticed the status changed. I would like to avoid going through each client though. Any help would be appreciated. | |
| 17 April 2007 | |
| Normally when I switch tabs (homebase/ bank products / efile, etc) itll update the list thats in that section by itself. If it doesnt you may want to call tech support | |
| April 17, 2007 | |
| I also have to open each client, if you find a way to update all at once. Please let us know. | |
| 17 April 2007 | |
| I've been working with ProSeries for several years and would kill for a function like that...but still haven't found it. It's something that is there more for your convenience than anything. Since my boss doesn't live breath and die by that (only me) then I can't stress with it anymore. I update my status this year using Microsoft Outlook. I like that a lot, I can put information in the tasks that is more applicable to what I need than the queriees that ProSeries does... | |
| 19 April 2007 | |
| Go to START ... Go to PROGRAMS ... Go to ProSeries 2006 ... Go to HomeBase Tune-up | |
Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said: | 19 April 2007 |
| And you will receive a message that X Clients are not up to date, which might mean something as simple as an acknowledgment is not posted in the status report, or like two years ago, might mean software updates have been made which require recalculation of certain returns.
In the 2004 debacle, on April 2nd or so, Proseries discovered that Delaware resident returns where the t/p worked in another state/city were eliminating the City taxes when doing the Delaware Sch A computation. If you chose to update all your clients automatically, amounts on previously filed returns would change. Proseries warned about this, but it does show that such 'automated' steps should not be taken lightly. The odd thing in the 2004 case was that the software was computing the Non-Resident correctly, after years of we preparers having to do so manually. | |
Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said: | 19 April 2007 |
| Pull down the Home Base Menu, select Data Base Maintenance, a window opens, select Proseries Data 2006, or it will, and then let it rip. This is handy when you use a memory stick: here I have my trusty housemate do data-entering on her computer [not networked] then I take the files off on a memory stick, put them in my computer but they do not appear in the database until I do the maintenance, where I get a message that '2 files are not showing up.' It asks if I want to fix it, which I do and then the files appear.
Same thing happens when my paid associate 75 miles away emails a file to me that she has done the data-entry, or when I take my second laptop with me to see a client and use the stick. | |
| 19 April 2007 | |
| Thanks, D&T!
This is great! I've been using ProS for 14yrs and never knew bout this! One quick question....how often do you back up your files? DJ | |
Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said: | 19 April 2007 |
| Not often enough, though it was what I did while I nibbled some dinner Tuesday evening after mentally shutting down for the year. I tell the backup process to a separate hard drive to override all; I've learned the hard way this is better than incremental backups.
I use laptops exclusively and buy a new one every third or fourth year. Each time I transfer last year's clients from the backup drive [ZIP drives in the past, this time an external hard drive], but have found that with incremental backups, I might forget someone who needed to supply additional information, and thus the copy on the new computer is not the final one. With this laptop, a wide screen Dell Inspiron that is 18 months old, I tried to use Aloha Bob to transfer from the old Dell, but could never get it to work. btw, that homebase maintenance is supposed to help the program load faster, or so I was told, but once the homebase gets up to 500 or so names, it opens as fast as a glacier. | |
| 19 April 2007 | |
| Thanks! Don't have to worry about the glacier syndrome ....I'm still hovering at 200 +/-...have lost "10" this season due to DEATHS!! We're dropping like flies up here!! But I did pick up 8 new clients....
Do you ever send a letter out to clients AFTER the season? I used to send a 'newsletter' during the summer...but then I got lazy and stopped it....did that for 4 years (in the beginning) but NO ONE ever mentioned it....good or bad....so I stopped...and NO ONE mentioned that either!! So now I just send a post card with a cartoon on the front (about making appt) and on the back I say when I'm starting interviews/drop-offs and my last acceptance date....A lot cheaper that way, too. I'm going to back-up this afternoon....still putting away decos...\
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Death&Taxes (talk|edits) said: | 19 April 2007 |
| I send a 'summer' letter that comes out about Labor Day and a 'I'm taking appointments' letter in December. Both contain a self-written 'bulletin.' It is discouraging when people come to their appointment with these envelopes unopened. Or worse, two years ago I lead off the year end one with the Form 1099-C(?) about auto donations, telling clients changes were coming the next year, so donate your car now. First telephone call of that next year was from a client asking about donating his car, and this on January 3rd.
I'm not good at keeping stats; I know of one I definitely lost because my type of practice simply does have the time he needs, and there were a few deaths, but I picked up perhaps 15 new ones: three from the Philly Orchestra and four from one landscape architecture firm. Since my practice is 70-75% mail, I never know but there was quite a few come in after April 1st. | |
