Welcome to our step-by-step guide to prepare your firm for organizer season and make your experience with Gather easy and seamless.
Getting Started
Review Your Print Settings
CCH Axcess™ Best Practices for Printing Organizers for Gather
CCH® ProSystem fx® Best Practices for Printing Organizers for Gather
GoSystem Tax RS® Best Practices for Printing Organizers for Gather
UltraTax CS® Print Settings for Organizers and Engagement Letters for Gather
Lacerte® Print Settings for Organizers and Engagement Letters for Gather
Ensure the Following Conditions are Met
- Include at least one standard organizer page in the print for a successful upload.
- The PDF has bookmarks generated by your tax software (CCH® only).
- The questionnaire should be the default; it cannot be edited.
- Questions cannot be added or removed.
- The default font and margins must be used.
- Due Diligence letters are not currently recognized for all tax software types.
- Condensed organizers for Lacerte® are not currently recognized.
- Summary organizers for GoSystem® are not currently recognized.
Batch Gather Requests
See Uploading Batch Gather Requests.
- .ZIP file containing all organizer PDFs and a .CSV file containing client information is required for batch uploads.
- The outlined file naming conventions must be used for the batch to upload correctly.
- Ensure .CSV file cells are formatted as plain text; Excel automatically truncates some numbers.
- Do not add or remove any columns from the .CSV file.
- Do not add any text in any fields outside of the columns provided.
- Ensure clients are sorted in the same order they are sorted in the .ZIP file.
- The number of .CSV line items should match the number of PDFs in the .ZIP file.
- The following fields are required to be filled out:
- Client ID
- Taxpayer First Name
- Taxpayer Last Name
- Taxpayer email address
Review Firm Wide Settings
- Use our Settings: General guide to make sure your clients and users will have the options and defaults they need.
- Enable or disable source document gathering, firm notifications, and automated reminders for clients.
- Set up Custom Questions to create questions to expand or replace the standard questionnaire.
- Text should not be copy/pasted into this section. It can cause display issues.
- Set up Saved Messages and Client Instructions as needed.
Recognized Forms and Fields
- Only 1040 organizers are currently recognized.
- Any version of the organizer can be used if one standard organizer page is included.
- Due diligence forms are not currently recognized.
- Custom forms are not recognized.
- Organizers for the tax year 2020 and later are recognized for CCH®.
- Organizers for tax year 2021 and later are recognized for GoSystem®, UltraTax®, and Lacerte®.
- To review fillable fields, select the Taxpayer Preview option in the Delivery Options tab.
- Fillable fields appear green but cannot be filled in the preview window.
Uploading and Processing
Review Processing Guides
- For individual Gather requests, see Processing a Gather Request.
- For batch Gather requests, the processing is very similar to individual requests except:
- Pages cannot be moved.
- An error tab may appear outlining batch errors. These errors can be corrected (in most cases) or ignored.
- If you are unable to deliver a Gather request, see the Unable to Process a Gather Request article for troubleshooting steps.
Engagement Letters (Optional)
- The engagement letter must be printed with the organizer and be included in the same PDF for CCH®.
- The engagement letter must be printed as a separate PDF and uploaded alongside the organizer for GoSystem®, UltraTax®, and Lacerte®.
- For batch Gather requests, the engagement letter template must be the same for all recipients.
- If the signature location differs from letter to letter, the signature will be misplaced on the signed document.
- Alternatively, the engagement letter can be uploaded to the E-Sign Documents section during processing.
- For batch Gather requests, the engagement letter template must be the same for all recipients.
- Signature controls must be added to the engagement letter during processing; they are not added automatically.
- If your firm does not add signature controls, the client is not prompted to sign.
- You can mark the signature block as required or not during processing.
Managing Delivered Gather Requests
Reports Dashboard
- See the Delivered Gather Reports Overview article to review your delivered Gather request options.
- There is a separate status column for Engagement Letters, Organizers, and Source Documents.
- All Gather requests, individual and batch, are in the same Delivered section.
- Column headers can be used to filter and sort delivered Gather requests.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How do I allow the client to upload source documents?
- An administrator can enable source document gathering under Settings > General.
- How do I know if the user uploaded new source documents?
- The status show “Uploaded” any time new documents are uploaded.
- An administrator can enable email notifications for source document uploads under Settings > General.
- How are client email notifications delivered for married filing jointly Gather requests?
- If an email address is entered for the taxpayer and spouse, the Gather request is delivered to both at the same time.
- If an email address is only entered for the taxpayer, and there is no spouse signature control, the spouse does not receive an access link unless the taxpayer clicks Next > Send for Review.
- If the taxpayer clicks Next > Complete Organizer, the spouse does not receive an access link.
- If an email address is only entered for the taxpayer, and there is a spouse signature control, the taxpayer is prompted to enter an email address for the spouse. The spouse gets an access link after the taxpayer signs.
- Why is there an "Errors" section during processing for my batch Gather request?
- This section appears if the system detects missing or incorrect information in the batch.
- The section shows a description of the error.
- Some errors can be corrected in this tab, others cannot.
- You can choose to ignore the errors and deliver anyway, but those Gather requests are not delivered and appear in the Undelivered Batch reporting section.
- Please note: Not all data mismatches are recognized. It is important to make sure you have the same number of PDF files and .CSV line items to prevent incorrect delivery or other errors.
- For additional frequently asked questions, see our Gather FAQ.
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