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SS Suite Feature Requests After 1st Season with Software

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Brandon Farmand
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This is the first filing season we have used the suite, after implementing last summer. Overall the experience have been a very net positive for us but there are some feature requests that could make this even better.

Gather

  • More document recognition, including (for UltraTax firm) Social Security statements on the organizer
  • The UltraTax organizer settings that Gather requires leads to a bunch of organizer pages being included in the return with fillable fields. We don't really want clients filling in their W2 information into the W2 organizer page. We just want the W2. But we can't exclude the organizer because we may need other information from the organizer, like charitable contributions. It would be nice if Gather supported alternative versions of the UT organizer, so the DRL can still be generated but without all the extra fluff in the organizer pages.
  • Improved navigation and messaging screen to screen for the client. Some moved on from the questionnaire to organizer and then the DRL upload, without realizing they were locked out of the previous step. They should be able to navigate back and forth, if need be.
  • The DRL list redesigned to show the full text of the document. If you have a document with a long file name, you have to hover over the doc to see the full description. That's not ideal. Maybe rather than a horizontal lay out, it's a vertical lay out, where the full description is visible.
  • Ability to annotate organizer documents that are not recognized by the Gather software. For example, ultratax has a questionnaire for due diligence questions. Gather does not recognize this form, so the client has no way to answer it or leave yes/no answers on the page. Realizing that coverage of all forms is not feasible, how about the ability to manually annotate an unrecognized page or leave a note on any/all pages? 
  • The key for document collection is high quality pages. Many clients give us the native PDF of their 1099 but some documents still arrive on paper. What you end up with is clients uploading images of documents from their phone camera. This is not good. The file size is larger than a PDF would be (depending on camera settings) and overall the quality is poor. A couple options: integrate a document scanner into the Gather platform, when using a cell phone. Or give the firm option to restrict certain document types from upload (JPEG, BMP, etc).
  • When downloading the completed package, it would be nice if a single file downloaded rather than a zip that has the organizer in one PDF and the merged source docs in the other. Again a firm option here would be ideal so firms could choose their own adventure.

Returns

  • For UltraTax firms please auto recognize the bank account verification forms for esign tab! This is the biggest time suck in processing for us.
  • For vouchers, if we set up a payment for auto withdraw, we usually would do that for all payments. It would be nice if SSR had a "apply to all vouchers" option if I change one estimate to include a watermark for "do not pay, scheduled for auto withdraw". Right now, all vouchers have to be updated individually.

Client Management

  • It would be nice if Groups/Grouped Returns could be managed through the client management screen, rather than just during the processing stage.

Voucher Reminders

  • We would like the option to send reminders to taxpayer and spouse on a joint return.

Thank you.

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  • Official comment
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    Annie M.

    Hello Brandon, 

    Thank you for your feedback! 

    Gather

    • We are continuing to expand document recognition for Gather. 
    • You can customize the print collation in UltraTax as long as the general lite info page is included. Most pages are recognized, except custom pages or Due Diligence letters. If you have specific forms in mind for recognition, please let us know. 
    • We have had many requests to change client navigation, and our teams are considering updates to improve this. 
    • We are planning to update the display for clients in the Upload Documents section to help address this file name display concern. 
    • For individual organizers, you can add fillable fields to the forms during processing. See the Organizer Section of the following article for more information. This feature is not available for batch requests because there may be discrepancies between organizers, so field placement may not be the same for all clients. https://safesendgather.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/31136307893523-Processing-a-Gather-request
    • We have submitted requests to add a scan feature and to change how files are downloaded. 

    Returns

    • We have submitted requests to recognize bank verification forms and bulk update vouchers.

    Client Management

    • We have submitted a request to add Group management to Client Management.

    Voucher Reminders

    • We have submitted a request to allow the firm to choose who receives voucher reminders (taxpayer, spouse, or both).

    These requests are reviewed and, if accepted, will be implemented. These changes can take some time to complete. 

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  • Avatar
    Sherry Schwenderlauf

    We also have issues with clients who moved on from the questionnaire to organizer and then the DRL upload, without realizing they were locked out of the previous step.

    Also agree, that they should be able to navigate back and forth, if need be.

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