Accounting CS data sharing overview

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You can automatically share general client and employee data based on EIN or SSN in many of our CS Professional Suite applications and in Onvio. The data sharing features enable the application to do the following.

  • Share general client and employee data with UltraTax CS. In addition, for UltraTax/1040 (v.2010.x and higher), data sharing also includes information from W-2s and 1099s.
  • Share general client and employee data with Practice CS. Example.

    Your firm has an existing 1120S client already set up in Practice CS and you now want to set up that client in Accounting CS.

    1. Choose Setup > Clients in Accounting CS and then click the Add button. Enter a Client ID and Name in the Identification section and select the services your firm provides for this client.
    2. Click the Add button to create the new client record.
    3. Click the Accounting Information tab, click the Edit button, and select 1120S from the drop-down list in the Entity field.
    4. Click the Main tab and enter the client's EIN.
    5. If the EIN you enter exactly matches the client's EIN already recorded in Practice CS, Accounting CS prompts you (via a Data Sharing dialog) either to accept the client's basic information from Practice CS or to postpone that acceptance. If you choose to accept, Accounting CS automatically completes many of the fields in the Clients screen with current information from Practice CS (including names, addresses, phone numbers, and other contact information).
  • Share general client and employee data with Onvio.
  • Share general employee information between multiple clients in Accounting CS.

Setup details for data sharing

  • Before you can share data between two CS Professional Suite applications and/or Onvio Link, you need to define the data locations in both of those applications. In Accounting CS, click the CS Professional Suite tab of the Setup > File Locations screen and specify the data locations for all of your firm's other CS Professional Suite applications and/or Onvio.

    Note: Shared data files are created in the X:\WINCSI\Accounting CS Data\clientID folder and named as follows: AxxxxxXP.XX16 (where xxxxx represents the first five characters of the client's ID).

  • Be sure to first specify the client's correct entity (the default entity is 1120C) in Accounting CS before entering the client's EIN in the Setup > Clients screen. This step is critical to enabling the data sharing features to work correctly.

    Note: The primary address is the only one that is shared with other applications and that address is automatically defined as the mailing address for the entity.

  • For client and employee information to be shared, EIN and SSN information must match exactly across CS Professional Suite applications and/or Onvio.
  • Verify that the Enable data sharing checkbox is marked in the Setup > Firm Information > Firm > Preferences tab.
  • Rebuild data sharing if you have marked the Enable data sharing checkbox after it was previously cleared, or if the Allow use of the data sharing feature checkbox has been marked in the Data Sharing tab of the Setup > Office Configuration dialog in UltraTax CS. While in the Enter Transaction, Setup > Client screen, or Employees screen, click the data sharing icon to rebuild for all clients or the current client. Show me.
    rebuild

Sharing employee information between clients in Accounting CS

There may be situations in which a former employee of one of your clients starts to work for another one of your clients, or in which an employee works for more than one of your clients. When enabled, the data-sharing feature in Accounting CS, can help you keep your employee records updated for all clients.

You must set up an employee record for each applicable client in Accounting CS and use the same Social Security number in each employee record.

If you update information in any of the following fields for an employee (in the Setup > Employees screen) for one client, the next time you open that employee record in another client, the application will prompt you to make those same changes for the employee, as long as the employee records use the same Social Security number.

  • Street address - line 1
  • City
  • State
  • Zip code
  • Telephone number

    Note: Only the Home phone number is shared, not the mobile number.

  • Date of birth

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Data sharing

Sharing W-2 and 1099 data with UltraTax CS

Data-sharing features enable you to easily share W-2, 1099-R, 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC, and 1099-INT information from Accounting CS with UltraTax CS so that you can process 1040 tax returns more quickly. To ensure proper data sharing of W-2 and 1099 information, you should plan to review and verify the following setup information in each program.

Steps in Accounting CS

  1. Verify that the setup steps noted above have been completed in the CS Professional Suite tab of the Setup > File Locations screen.
  2. Verify that data sharing features are still enabled - that is, that the checkbox to enable data sharing has been marked in the Preferences tab of the Setup > Firm Information > Firm screen.
  3. Choose Actions > Process Payroll Tax Forms and process employee copies of W-2s or Copy B of 1099s to make the form data available to UltraTax CS.

Note: If data sharing is set up in Accounting CS after the Form W-2 copy was printed, be sure to reprint the W-2 forms to enable sharing with UltraTax CS.

Steps in UltraTax CS

  1. Choose Setup > User Preferences > File Locations tab, click the option for CS Accounting Products, and verify that the file locations are listed correctly for that application — for both the program files and the client data.
  2. Verify that the EIN/SSN that is listed in the File > Client Properties dialog is the same as the EIN/SSN in Accounting CS.
  3. Verify that data sharing features are enabled - that is, that the Allow use of the data sharing feature checkbox has been marked in the Data Sharing tab of the Setup > Office Configuration dialog.
  4. In the UltraTax CS client, go to File, then Client Properties.
  5. In the Advanced Properties tab, make sure the Exempt this client from all Data Sharing functionality is not marked. 
  6. Verify that the entity type for the client is the same in both applications.

Note: If you have already printed the payroll forms and need to re-populate the data-sharing files for any reason, you can save paper by reprinting the W-2 and 1099 forms to FileCabinet CS, by choosing Print to File, or by using another paperless option such as the Microsoft Document Writer.

Steps in Practice CS

  1. Verify that the setup steps noted in the Steps in Accounting CS section are complete.
  2. In Practice CS, choose Setup > Firm > Preferences tab and verify that the Integrate this Firm with other solutions is marked.

Sharing client and employee information with Onvio

You must be licensed for Onvio and have Onvio Link installed to be able to share client and employee information between Accounting CS and Onvio. Based on matching EIN/SSN, the client or employee information in Accounting CS is shared with a contact in Onvio.

Steps in Accounting CS

  1. Verify that the setup steps noted above have been completed in the CS Professional Suite tab of the Setup > File Locations dialog.
  2. Verify that data sharing features are enabled - that is, that the checkbox to disable data sharing has not been marked in the Preferences tab of the Setup > Firm Information > Firm screen.

Steps in Onvio Link

  1. Install Onvio Link.
  2. In Onvio Link, enable data sharing and set up the appropriate data locations for Accounting CS and Onvio.

Information that data shares

Client information

  • Telephone number
  • Address
  • Email address

Note: Client information can data share from Onvio Clients or Contacts.

Employee information

  • Address
  • Telephone
  • Date of birth

Note: Employee information data shares from Onvio Contacts.

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Internal only

Accounting CS requires a FIRM database for integration and data sharing to work with UltraTax CS. The format of the Accounting CS database name must be ACS_<FirmID>_Firm. (For example, ACS_0_Firm, ACS_999_Firm, ACS_798046_Firm_.) Also, integration and data sharing will not work if there are multiple FIRM databases.