The Home Page for the CS Professional Suite Accounting Products software provides useful client, firm, and product-specific information in one easy-to-view area. It provides links to frequently used commands, and it can also inform you when program updates are available via CS Connect and when payroll tax forms become available and approved for filing. You can also view your electronic filing (ELF) transmission status and access ELF reports.
The Home Page appears by default only when you start CSA, and it closes when you first open a client.
To open the CSA Home Page at any time, click the Home Page button at the far right of the toolbar.
To change the default setting for when the CSA Home Page is to be displayed automatically, choose Setup > User Preferences. On the System tab of the User Preferences dialog, select one of the following options from the drop-down list in the Display the Home Page field:
- When CSA is first opened
- When no other screens are visible
- Never
For the Home Page to refresh with the latest notices, updates, and ELF status, you must have both the Direct (LAN) connection to Internet and Internet connection is always online options marked in the Communication Setup dialog for CS Connect. To enable those settings, open the Communication Setup dialog by clicking the CS Connect button in the upper-right corner of the CSA Home Page, click those two options, and then click OK.
CSA Home Page features
You can expand or collapse the items in each section of the CSA Home Page by clicking the double arrows in the section headings. Click the + sign next to an item to view additional information for that item.
The CSA Home Page includes the following sections.
The Tasks section includes links to invoke frequently used File menu commands such as Create new client, Open existing client, Open Engagement CS, Backup client, and Restore client.
On the Web includes links to important CSA-specific websites such as the home page of the CS website, our Help & How-To Center, the ARNE Community, the Forms CS website, and more. There are also links to useful research websites, such as Checkpoint, the PPC Online Library, the IRS Home Page, and more.
CSA Guides includes links that open several of the many PDF guides available with the CSA applications, and there are also links that open the Frequently Asked Questions help topics or the Bulletins dialog.
Support lists contact information and your system information, which you can easily copy into an email message and send to CS Support, if asked to do so by a Support Representative.
Last Generated lists the date of the currently displayed version of the CSA Home Page. The Home Page automatically refreshes itself when it opens the first time after CSA is opened, or you can click the Refresh link in this section to download the latest version. If a newer version of the CSA Home Page exists, the date of the update release is also listed.
This section displays links to re-open any of the four clients most recently opened in CSA. It also lists the client address as specified on the General Information tab of the Client Properties dialog and whether they are a Payroll CS or Engagement CS client.
This section displays your firm's name and address as recorded in the license agreement when you ordered your CSA software.
This section displays the CSA data locations specified in the File Locations tab of the Setup > User Preferences dialog. You can expand each link to see how many clients are in each data location and the amount of disk space for that location.
This section lists information for all users currently working in the CSA program, the clients that are currently open in the program, and any clients currently checked out by Engagement CS. The ELF Reports link directs you to the My Account section of our website where you can view electronic filing reports.
This section (at the top of the CSA home page) displays any important alerts regarding your CSA software, plus information about any program updates that are available for download via CS Connect and any updates that have been downloaded but not yet applied.
This section lists status and availability information for federal and state payroll tax forms, and it identifies the types of electronic filing that are supported for each form.
CREATIVE SOLUTIONS ACCOUNTING
