Warning
Product support for the ended on September 30, 2020.
- Write Up CS
- Payroll CS
- Engagement CS
- Client Bookkeeping Solution
- Financial Analysis CS
Help & How-To Center content for the Creative Solutions Accounting platform may be outdated and is used at your own risk.
Your Creative Solutions Accounting (CSA) licenses (excluding Engagement CS) will permanently expire on March 1, 2017, and cannot be renewed under any circumstances. For detailed information about how this will affect you, see CSA license expiration 2017 - frequently asked questions. Note that the March 1, 2017, date does not apply to Engagement CS licenses. Your Engagement CS license will expire at the end of your normal cycle, and you will still be able to renew those licenses as usual, even after the other CSA licenses expire.
Note: The desktop version of Client Bookkeeping Solution (CBS), will continue to function as normal after this date. However, you will no longer be able to retrieve the client’s data into CSA after the grace period, and support for CBS will not be available.
Licensing options
We offer two types of licensing for the CS Professional Suite® Accounting Products (CSA): Perpetual or Annually Renewable. Neither of these licenses is currently available for purchase, except for Engagement CS.
- With existing Perpetual licensing, your products will continue to have full functionality even after your expired license grace period. However, you will no longer have access to technical support or program updates. Note: Perpetual licenses are not supported in a terminal server environment. You will need to reinstall the application on a regular network or standalone (desktop) environment.
- With Annually Renewable licensing, the software will continue to work with full functionality through the product grace period that begins immediately after your license expires. After the grace period has ended, you will have limited access to the software. Exact limitations are outlined below in the section: Product Limitations after license expiration
Questions about licensing should be directed to Customer Service.
As the Engagement CS license expiration date approaches
As that expiration date for your Engagement CS license approaches, our Customer Service team will send you an invoice and a reminder that your renewal time is approaching, along with information about renewal options available to you.
Renewing your Engagement CS license
When your firm is ready to renew its Engagement CS license, you have several main options.
- The fastest and easiest option to renew licenses is through our website at CS.ThomsonReuters.com. After logging in to the website, click My Account and then look for “Manage My Products (including Renewals)” under the My Products section. The Manage My Products page will list your firm’s CS Professional Suite products that are currently available to renew, along with current pricing information.
- The CSA Home Page displays a list of your expiring products under the Notices section. A Renew Online Now link is available for each expiring license; you may click that link to open the Renewals page on our website.
- If you have already received a renewal invoice, you can fill that out and fax it to us at 734.426.5946; please mark the fax as “Attention: Renewals.”
- During normal business hours, you can call 800.968.0600 and choose option 2 to reach our Renewals Department.
Updating Engagement CS Information
The Engagement CS update 2017.0.0 released on January 10th 2018 included:
- Updated Tax Codes to allow for integration with 2017 UltraTax CS and GoSystemTax.
- Updated Tax Exports to Lacerte, ProSystem FX and ProSeries for the 2017 Tax Year.
If you use Payroll CS and Write-up and are, also, licensed for Engagement CS and apply this update, you will lose the limited functionality for Payroll CS and Write-up CS. Before applying the 2017.0.0 update, you should keep a separate installation of Creative Solutions Accounting and not update Engagement CS on that installation.
Product limitations after license expiration
The following tables list the product limitations to expect beyond the extended grace period (ending December 31, 2017) after your Annually Renewable license has expired.
You must have the CSA platform version 2016.0.4 installed to take advantage of the extended grace period.
Note: The CBS client licenses never expire. However, with an expired Accountant’s Assistant license and/or Payroll Compliance module license, the accountant would not be able to retrieve the CBS client’s exported data after the grace period concludes.
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
All CBS client modules |
Available. |
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
Change to a different processing period |
Not available. |
Convert client data from other software applications |
Not available. |
Set up report profiles from the Print dialog |
Available. |
Print reports, client documents, and Financial Statements |
Available. |
Export reports via the Utilities > Export command |
Available. |
Print or preview the client listing |
Available. |
Create or modify and print transmittal letters |
Available. |
Print mailing labels |
Available. |
Transfer data between clients |
Available. |
Network access for users of CSA |
Available with an expired network license but with a limit of 24 users. |
Open and use CS Connect™ |
Available. (Allows access to software updates that apply to the product year for which you are licensed, but does not allow you to download expired license files.) |
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
Set up multiple journals |
Available. |
Set up locations/departments in the Chart of Accounts |
Available. |
Record GL transactions |
Available. However, if you have an up-to-date license for Trial Balance CS® but have not yet renewed your license for Write-Up CS, you can enter no more than 10 GL transactions. |
Record special type journal entries |
Available, but the user cannot see the full effect of special type journal entries (such as tax adjusting, reversing, recurring, or recurring templates) because the user cannot change the processing period with an expired version of the software. |
Set up automatic journal entries |
Available, but the user cannot see the full effect of automatic journal entries because the user cannot change the processing period with an expired version of the software. |
Record adjusting journal entries |
Available. |
Import generic files via the Utilities > Import commands |
Available. |
Process bank reconciliations |
Available (includes advancing the statement). |
Create and modify financial statements |
Not available. |
Process after-the-fact payroll |
Available. |
Set up employees |
Available. |
W-2, 1099, and all state forms |
Not available. |
Process Forms 940, 941, 943, 944, and 945 |
With an expired license for the Payroll Compliance module, processing is available for federal forms. However, because the period cannot be changed with an expired license, you would need to manually enter all YTD amounts in the earnings history for each employee; and some portions of report data that pull from payroll check dates (such as the 941 Sch B) would need to be corrected manually. Note that processing for state payroll tax forms is not available with an expired license. |
E-file 940 / 941/ 944 & various state payroll tax forms |
Not available. |
Export payroll data to govOne Solutions |
Not available. |
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
Import client data from CBS |
Not available. Note: The Payroll Compliance module must be renewed annually for Accountant’s Assistant features to be available beyond the renewal date. |
Import client data from BusinessWorks, Microsoft Office Accounting, Peachtree, Paychex, or QuickBooks Pro |
Available (maximum of one time for all products). |
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
Process live, calculating payroll for clients |
Not available. |
Set up checkbooks |
Available. |
Set up payroll departments |
Available. |
Set up employee templates |
Available. |
Set up employees |
Available. |
Set up vendors |
Available. |
Set up check printing fees |
Available. |
Enter payroll checks |
Available. |
Print calculating payroll checks |
Not available. |
Enter and print vendor checks |
Not available. |
Print reports |
Available, but (because printed checks display a zero net amount) reports based on payroll check information, such as the Payroll Journal, may not include correct information. |
W-2, 1099, and all state forms |
Not available. |
Process Forms 940, 941, 943, 944, and 945 |
With an expired license for the Payroll Compliance module, processing is available for federal forms. However, because the period cannot be changed with an expired license, you would need to manually enter all YTD amounts in the earnings history for each employee; and some portions of report data that pull from payroll check dates (such as the 941 Sch B) would need to be corrected manually. Note that processing for state payroll tax forms is not available with an expired license. |
E-file 940 / 941/ 944 & various state payroll tax forms |
Not available. |
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
Create ACH files |
Available only through the Prenote function. |
Transmit ACH files |
Not available. (With a fully licensed version of Payroll CS Direct Deposit, this function is handled either by InterceptEFT from within the program or by using the bank's software.)
|
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
Print reports |
Available, but the word “TRIAL” prints across each page of a custom payroll report. |
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
Remote Payroll Export |
Available, but an active portal site is required. |
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
Web Employee Export |
Not available. |
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
Set up or edit grouping schedules |
Not available. |
Set up tickmarks |
Available. |
Set up consolidations |
Available. |
Record adjusting journal entries |
Available but limited to 10 entries. |
Import generic files via the Utilities > Import commands |
Available. |
Import data from spreadsheets |
Available. |
Process tax exports to Lacerte, ProSystem fx, or ProSeries |
Not available. |
Create, modify, and print financial statements |
Available. |
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
Set up engagements |
Limited to two engagements. |
Assign multiple staff members to an engagement |
Available, but with a limit of two staff members per engagement. |
Roll forward an engagement |
Not available. |
Convert financial statements and workpapers from GoSystem® Audit or GoSystem® Fund |
Not available. |
Important! The grace period for Financial Analysis CS ended on April 30, 2017, and was not part of the extended grace period for other products.
Financial Analysis CS®
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
All program functions |
Not available. |
Integration with other CS Professional Suite software
Program function |
Product limitations after license and grace-period expiration |
FileCabinet CS® |
Available, but the word “Expired” prints on each page of any document printed directly from FileCabinet CS. |
Fixed Assets CS® |
Available. |
UltraTax CS® |
Available. |
Data-sharing features with non-CSA products in the CS Professional Suite |
Not available. |
Internal only
To verify the type license go to Flash > CSI Products > License Column:
Unlimited = Perpetual
AnnRen = Annual Renewable
Note: For Client Bookkeeping Solution (CBS), Intercept EFT will continue to work as long as CBS continues to function. We will not support Intercept issues after 6/1/17 even if it is still functions within CBS.
Financial Analysis CS - This application is not part of the CSA program. It is (was) an entirely separate program, and therefore not part of the grace period extension. There is not an application that Thomson Reuters offers which Financial Analysis customers can transition to.