Entity-specific options overview

Show expandable text

New (tax) year, new help!

Fixed Assets and UltraTax CS 2023 help is now on Help and Support. We're still moving articles, but you can find most content for the 2023 tax year there. Continue using the Help & How-To Center for tax years 2022 and older.

You can set a variety of options for each entity. Each entity has a separate Product Information dialog with tabs for the federal entity, each state application, and if applicable, organizer.

Federal applications are released before state applications, so you will need to set federal options before you proforma client data. Then, set individual state options as each state is released for the tax season.

Interest rates

We provide current interest rates entered in the Product Information dialog with each release of UltraTax CS, and we update this information automatically with frequent application updates. UltraTax CS uses these interest rates to calculate penalties for the underpayment of estimated taxes and late-filing interest. Even though it is not necessary if you keep your application current, you can update interest rate information manually.

For information about updating interest rates and entering other federal and state information, see Updating interest rates and entering product-specific information. See CS Connect overview for information about keeping UltraTax CS federal and state applications current.

Client documents

You can print and send documents provided with UltraTax CS to clients without modifying the documents, or you can customize the documents to better meet the needs of your firm. You can use the built-in word processor to edit or create various documents, such as transmittal letters, filing instructions, emails, tax elections, and custom paragraphs.

For more information about client documents, see Client documents overview.

Invoices

Before you set up invoices, you need to decide if you want to charge on a per-form basis (in which case you need to enter the per-form charges) or if you want to charge a flat rate for each client (in which case you need to enter an amount in each client's Screen Letter). Note that you can override application defaults, such as listing the forms prepared for the client on the invoice.

For more information about setting up invoice prices, see Setting up the invoice.

Input screen collation

You can print a client's input screens with or without data. By default, each input screen prints only if it contains data. However, you can choose to either always or never print input screens. Choose Setup > [Entity] (such as 1040 Individual), click the Input Screens option, and choose Input Screen Printing to view and update these settings.

For more information, see Customizing the input screen print collation.

Tax return collation

UltraTax CS has a default tax return collation. You can use the default collation or you can override the default order in which forms print, force certain forms and schedules to print, or exclude forms and schedules from printing for the government, client, and preparer collations of the return.

For more information, see Customizing the tax return print collation.

Data entry display

While all input screens and folders are visible in UltraTax CS by default, you can decide which input screens and folders display. You can choose to show or hide input screens and folders, or change the order in which they are displayed in data entry.

For more information, see Configuring the order and visibility of folders and input screens.

Client complexity

The client complexity factor is a numeric value that represents the approximate time and effort involved in preparing a client's tax return. This value is assigned to each UltraTax CS client, and is automatically calculated by the application based on the complexity of the federal forms and schedules that comprise that return. The complexity value also includes other details such as the number of assets, number of partners or shareholders, rent and royalty properties, and so on. These constituent factors are assigned default values by UltraTax CS, but you can assign your own values in place of the defaults.

Note that you can return the client complexity values to the defaults included in UltraTax CS. In addition, you can print a report detailing the complexity values set for federal and state tax returns, federal input screens, and other items such as assets, shareholders, and partners.

For more information, see Assessing the complexity of a client's return.

Extensions

UltraTax CS enables you to customize how you prepare each type of extension. You can set options on a per-entity basis.

For more information, see Preparing extensions in UltraTax CS.

Watch fields

You can add watch fields to monitor important values in a client's tax forms via the Federal Diagnostics window. Each watched field and the data it contains is displayed in the Watch tab of the Federal Diagnostics window. To open the window, press CTRL+D or click the Diagnostics button on the toolbar.

For more information, see Adding or modifying watch fields.

Was this article helpful?

Thank you for the feedback!