Preparer Step-by-step Guide - Lacerte

💡Important: If you haven't yet downloaded the Juno Desktop App you can do so by clicking here.

To start tax preparation for a client you’ll want to select the “Start Tax Preparation” button. Upon doing so you can select a client from your client base.

In order to proceed, you’ll need to select which year you want to prepare the return for. Note: you cannot create multiple preparations for a single year.

Now you’re ready to start uploading source documents. You can add source documents by dragging and dropping them into the upload container or via an integration with file storage platforms. We currently support integrations with SmartVault and Box.

The source documents you have added will display on the right side of your page like below:

While Juno classifies your source documents it is important to double check the classification assigned to each document. If a document is misclassified please correct it via the dropdown option. There are three options for classifying your documents:

For a full list of source documents that we can process please click here.

Upon proceeding to the Source Document Review screen, your source documents will begin processing. As they become available for review you will see the status of each document update accordingly.

Once your source documents display a status of “Awaiting for Review” they are ready for you to begin validation, which you can do so by clicking “View.” You can always return to the previous step to add more source documents.

It’s important to note that some of your source documents may immediately receive the “Validated” status. This means our software was highly confident in extracting all the data fields and there weren’t any instances that required review. You can of course click in to view these documents.

Once all your source documents receive the status of “Validated” you’ll be able to proceed to the next step and download both a workpaper and a bookmarked PDF of the uploaded source documents. Be sure to scroll down to see how much work Preparer saved you.

You may click ‘view’ on any document in the table once it has been processed. This will display the document on the left side, with the extracted data on the right.

PDF documents may contain multiple distinct tax forms. Each tax form found in the document will be displayed in sections on the right. These sections are collapsable and expandable by clicking on the header as seen below:

There are a few useful tools in the header. It will first display the form type, followed by the page numbers that data for this form is found on.

You may also click the ‘Jump to Form’ button to instantly display the page associated with this form in the document viewer on the left.

Finally, if you would like to remove a tax form you may hit the trash icon to delete that form from the document.

In very rare cases, Preparer may miss a tax form on a PDF. In these rare scenarios, first delete the source document and reupload it. If the issue persists, there is a button below the tax forms which will allow you to manually enter data for that form. Clicking this button will display a list of possible tax forms you may wish to add, and selecting anything from the list will add that form to the document.

Once you click “View” you’ll be able to validate your documents. We call this the “Human in the loop” process. It’s important to know what each field status means:

In order for a document to receive the status of “Validated” you must either validate all individual fields or select the “Mark All as Validated” button at the bottom of the page.

You'll notice if you're validating Schedule C, E or F documents that the interface is a bit different than the above. For a quick walkthrough on how to validate Schedules, please check out this video.

Now you're ready to see all that extracted data moved to Lacerte. You'll want to open the Juno Desktop Application to initiate the export. For detailed steps on how to do so please view our Exporting Tax Preparations to Lacerte - Step By Step Guide.