2012 Review of Thomson Reuters — Source Document Processing

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

From the January 2012 Review of Tax Document Automation Tools.

Best Firm Fit

Firms using other applications of the CS Professional Suite. Specifically, a FileCabinet CS license is required for the labeling and organizing function. An UltraTax CS license is required for the data extraction and import into the tax software.

Strengths

• Integration throughout the CS Professional Suite.
• At $6 per client, this is the least expensive software performing all of the scan, organize and populate functions included in this review.

Potential Limitations

• Requires firms to use FileCabinet CS for annotating and referencing source documents instead of Adobe Acrobat (though files can be exported in standard PDF format).
• Source Document Processing only accepts image files. If clients send their source documents that they have scanned themselves in PDF format, the practitioner will have to go through additional steps to convert them to a format that will be accepted.
• Besides the CS Professional Suite, Source Document Processing service does not integrate with any other third-party document management or tax software.

The CS Professional Suite from Thomson Reuters offers an integrated set of tax, accounting and practice management applications. The Source Document Processing service integrates with both FileCabinet CS, the document management component of the suite, and with its tax application, UltraTax CS. This service will shortly be entering its fourth year of enabling users of the CS Professional Suite to have their clients’ source documents automatically and neatly labeled and organized, as well as transferring the captured data for individual income tax returns into UltraTax CS.

Core Product Functions/Features - 4 Stars

The interface for scanning client tax documents and adjusting the related settings is all done within FileCabinet CS. Because using the FileCabinet CS Source Document module does not require tax knowledge or familiarity with UltraTax CS, the tasks of scanning and data retrieval can be performed by administrative staff.

Paperless Workflow - 4.5 Stars

Under the “image” menu in FileCabinet CS, a user has the option to either retrieve a document from a scanner or copy an image file from the computer. Source Document Processing only accepts image files (including *.bmp, *.jpg, *.png and *.tif files), with the best results produced when working with TIF images. If clients send their self-scanned source documents as PDFs, the practitioner will have to go through additional steps to convert them to a format that will be accepted.

The OCR scanning takes place at the Thomson Reuters data center after tax documents are uploaded with CS Connect. The average turnaround time for the past tax season was approximately one hour. There are currently 85 standard forms that the product will label and organize and, of those, data can be extracted from 48 different forms. In the folder structure within FileCabinet CS, a colored square next to the client’s “drawer” indicates that OCR data has been retrieved, and a purple exclamation point directs the user to the applicable folder. Within this folder, the scanned documents are labeled with the form type and the issuer’s name. Firms can modify the default labeling and sort order to fit their workflow and preferences.

For the populate function, source data-entry screens show the data that was automatically populated in red text to indicate to the user that the data should be verified. Proforma information appears in blue. As the user clicks on each input field, the corresponding values on the source document are highlighted, providing an efficient way for the user to verify them. After verifying that the amounts are correct and making any needed adjustments, the user can click on the “export to UltraTax CS” button for each form. The next time the user opens the corresponding client in UltraTax CS, he or she will be prompted to accept the data.