SurePrep — 1040SCAN PRO, 1040SCAN Organize

by Brian Tankersley, CPA.CITP; Technical Editor
Created:

While it is beyond the scope of this review, SurePrep also offers a range of onshore and offshore options for preparation outsourcing.

Integration:

While SurePrep’s 1040SCAN is an independent application, it offers integration with SPBinder, a proprietary product similar to Adobe Acrobat that facilitates workpaper preparation and review by allowing users to insert tick marks, workpaper references, create bookmarks and repaginate documents. Users also have the option of creating files in PDF format and using Adobe Acrobat or other tools to annotate their organized documents.

SurePrep’s 1040SCAN is one of only two products in this review that will extract information for import into multiple tax products. SurePrep’s 1040SCAN currently supports data import into GoSystem Tax RS, Lacerte Tax, ProSystem fx Tax/Global fx Tax, and UltraTax CS.

The product does not offer any specific integration with either document management systems or portal products, although the files from the SPBinder product can be stored in most document management systems. The files created with SPBinder are in a proprietary format, and cannot be accessed or modified with any of the common PDF editing applications (e.g. Adobe Acrobat, Nitro PDF, etc.).

Help/Support/Training:

SurePrep offers training courses to assist customers with the transition to tax document automation, including courses on a wide range of topics such as soft skills like change management. The company has a new firm/new scanner certification process in place to verify the image quality of scanned documents prior to accepting documents from a new customer. The company has created detailed step-by-step documents that guide users through the process of configuring scanner hardware and related software (e.g. Kofax VRS Professional), as well as overview documents that present the optimal scanner settings for using their service. From within the application, users can chat with a SurePrep employee to solve issues associated with a return.

Executive Summary & Pricing

SurePrep was one of the earliest entrants into the tax document automation field, and has evolved and extended its offerings to meet the demands of practitioners. SurePrep’s 1040SCAN application is focused on reorganizing the workflow inside of tax and accounting firms. Although there are portions of the application that are installed on a user’s local computer, the actual source document recognition is handled at SurePrep’s secure onshore data center. The application provides its own input screens for supported applications, which include GoSystem Tax, Global fx, Lacerte, ProSystem fx Tax and UltraTax CS. This design simplifies the use of data-entry clerks to validate the data extracted by the application, and also eliminates the need for these personnel to work directly with the tax application.

Suggested retail pricing is as follows:

  • 1040SCAN Organize - $10/return
  • 1040SCAN TRADES - $20/return (regardless of the number of trades)
  • 1040SCAN Pro - S30/return

Significant discounts to these rates are available to users based on transaction volume and multi-year purchase commitments. A list of SurePrep’s 1040SCAN Supported Forms can be found at http://corp.sureprep.com/SUPPORT/FAQ.aspx.

2011 Overall Rating

 

 

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