UltraTax CS is a trademark of Thomson Reuters. This is general guidance, not Thomson Reuters documentation. Features and supported formats vary by version and license; confirm against current UltraTax CS help resources.
What are the main ways data gets into UltraTax CS?
Manual entry, prior-year proforma, and import or data-transfer features, which depend on your version, licensing and connected products.
Most firms already rely on proforma to carry forward client information. The remaining work, entering the current year's W-2s, 1099s and K-1s, is where import can help, provided the data is clean and reviewed.
How do you decide what to import?
Import what is structured, repetitive and verifiable against a source document. Keep manual entry for items that need judgment as they're entered.
- Information returns with clear box values (W-2, 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, 1099-R) are typical candidates.
- Brokerage composites can involve many lines and supplemental information, so plan extra review.
- K-1s often carry statements and footnotes that require a preparer's reading; see processing K-1s faster.
What should you set up before the season starts?
A tested procedure, named owners, and a consistent way to mark which documents have been imported.
- Test each import path with sample clients and compare results with source documents.
- Write a one-page procedure covering steps, who approves, and what to check after import.
- Define status labels such as received, reviewed, imported, so the team knows what's done.
- Decide how to handle corrected forms so they replace rather than duplicate originals.
What are best practices during the season?
Review before import, import once, then review the return as usual.
- Review at the source: confirm values against the document before they're imported.
- Check attribution: taxpayer vs. spouse, and the right entity for business clients.
- Watch state data: multi-state W-2s deserve a second look.
- Log exceptions: anything you had to fix manually after import is useful feedback for next year's procedure.
- Keep the return review: UltraTax CS diagnostics and your firm's review checklist still apply.
How do you keep client documents organized alongside imports?
Keep one intake channel and one status per document, so imports can always be traced back to a source.
When documents come in by email, portal and paper all at once, it's hard to know whether a given 1099 has been entered. A single portal and a documents-outstanding checklist make import status visible to everyone.
How should a firm train staff on imports?
Train on the written procedure with real examples, including a document that went wrong, before the busy weeks start.
A fifteen-minute walkthrough covering one W-2 client, one brokerage composite and one K-1 client usually covers most of what staff will encounter. Include an example of a duplicate or misattributed import so people know what to look for. Make sure seasonal staff know who approves data and where to ask questions.
What does a good import audit trail look like?
For every imported value you should be able to answer: which document did it come from, who approved it, and when was it imported?
- Source: the original upload, kept with the client's records under your retention policy.
- Approval: the reviewer who confirmed the values.
- Import: the date and the person who brought data into UltraTax CS.
- Changes: any manual corrections made after import and why.
An audit trail makes questions from reviewers, partners or clients quick to answer, and it makes duplicate imports easy to spot.
How do you handle mid-season changes?
Software updates, corrected forms and late documents all arrive in the middle of the season. Re-test your import path after significant UltraTax CS updates, and treat corrected forms as replacements, not additions. When in doubt, compare the return's totals against the source documents before moving on.
Where does NiniTaxBot fit for UltraTax CS firms?
NiniTaxBot covers intake: a secure client portal, AI classification and extraction, and a review queue where your team approves values against the source. An UltraTax CS export is coming soon; it is not available today. It doesn't calculate taxes or prepare returns. See NiniTaxBot for UltraTax CS firms.