Thomson Reuters — Source Document Processing

Thomson Reuters - Source Document Processing
800-968-8900
CS.ThomsonReuters.com

From the July 2011 Review of Tax Document Automation Systems

Best Fit:

• Firms who use the related Thomson Reuters applications (FileCabinet CS and UltraTax CS). Note: FileCabinet CS is required for labeling and organizing. UltraTax CS is required if firms want to take advantage of the data extraction feature.
• UltraTax CS users who have clients with significant securities trades or source documents.
• The least expensive scan, organize and populate tool reviewed here, at $6/return.
• Strong integration throughout the CS Professional Suite applications, including automatic search and import of tax data from the payroll, write-up and flow-through entity tax preparation applications.
• Requires firms to use FileCabinet CS, which must be used instead of Adobe Acrobat to annotate and reference source documents.
• Unlike many of its competitors, Thomson Reuters does not sell an Adobe Acrobat extension to assist practitioners with creation of workpapers.
• The application does not support any third-party solutions for document management or tax preparation.

The UltraTax CS Source Document Processing Service is the CS Professional Suite application from Thomson Reuters for scanning, organizing and populating data from tax forms into UltraTax CS.

Core Product Functions/Features:

The CS Professional Suite from Thomson Reuters has always been known for its high level of integration between the various applications, and the UltraTax CS Source Document Processing service is no exception. Scanned source documents are submitted using secure NetClient CS portals, or scanned and submitted to the UltraTax CS Source Document Processing service. Once data has been extracted from the organized documents into UltraTax CS, they are filed in FileCabinet CS. Proforma information from the prior year highlights missing documents that were included in the prior year’s return so administrative staff can retrieve these items before the preparer begins work.

Thomson Reuters is the only solution reviewed here that supports data entry by scanning barcodes on W-2 forms. Another integration point is the feature in UltraTax CS that imports tax forms prepared by the practitioner in Payroll CS, Write-Up CS, Accounting CS, or Accounting CS Payroll directly into new returns in UltraTax CS. K-1 forms from pass-through entities prepared by the same firm are automatically imported into UltraTax CS once the return is marked as complete.

Paperless Workflow:

The product takes documents scanned into FileCabinet CS and client-scanned documents delivered on NetClient CS Portals, and submits them to a secure data center for organization and data extraction. Once the images are processed by the Source Document Processing service, a bookmarked PDF is created and filed in the client’s folder in FileCabinet CS.

Unlike its competitors, Thomson Reuters has chosen to facilitate tick marks and referencing within its document management application, FileCabinet CS. Because of the use of this tool instead of creating an Adobe Acrobat add-in or a proprietary document format, customers of the UltraTax CS Source Document Processing service are strongly encouraged to also use FileCabinet CS to manage their firm’s documents.