Tax export to Lacerte (Export Client Data Wizard)

Show expandable text

We moved!

Help articles have been migrated to the new Help and Support. You can find help for your products and accounts, discover FAQs, explore training, and contact us!

Use the Export Client Data Wizard to export client tax data to your Lacerte tax application from Accounting CS. Specify the export files (or files), tax year, balance type, and format of the data to export. The tax code assignments that you make in Accounting CS for specific general ledger accounts enable Lacerte to carry account balances to the proper lines on the appropriate tax forms.

Before you transfer account balances from Accounting CS to Lacerte, verify that the data paths are set up correctly in both applications. To do this in Accounting CS, choose Setup > File Locations > Export tab to set up file locations for Lacerte and other applications.

Pre-export steps in Accounting CS

Assign the appropriate tax codes for the selected client in either of the following screens.

Notes

  • Accounting CS creates and saves the export data and in a file and uses the following naming convention: <ClientID>.?By, where ? represents the entity type and y represents the last digit of the year of the return. Show me.
    ? = entity y = year
    C = Corporation 6 = 2016
    P = Partnership 7 = 2017
    R = Non-profit 8 = 2018
    S = S Corporation etc.

    For more details about the Lacerte export see, Lacerte export troubleshooting.

  • If a file of the same name already exists in the specified location for the export file, the application overwrites the existing file.
  • If client data does not exist for the selected tax year, Accounting CS creates the export file but includes only header information.
  • During the creation of the export file, the Accounting CS tax codes are converted to the Lacerte tax codes.
  • You can create custom tax codes in Accounting CS. When a custom tax code is assigned to an account, the standard Accounting CS tax code is mapped to the appropriate Lacerte tax code.
  • Accounting CS always exports custom tax codes in a summary format, which means that it combines all accounts assigned to the same custom tax code into a single record in the export file.

Fields & buttons

The Export Client Data wizard presents the following pages as it steps you through the export process.

  • Client name. Select a client from the drop-down list or to select multiple clients at the same time, mark the Perform batch export of client data checkbox.
  • Export to program. Select Lacerte.
  • File Location. Enter the path or browse to the client data file. (The default data file location for each export type can be defined in the Export Data tab of the Setup > File Locations dialog.)
  • Tax Year. Select the tax year for which to export client data.
  • Balance Type. Choose the balance type for which to export data — Tax or Adjusted.
  • Format. Choose the format for the export data — Detail for an itemized format or Summary for a condensed format.

    Note: Lacerte does not allow detail format for every tax code.

  • Include prior-year balances. Mark this checkbox to export the client's prior year's ending balances for balance sheet accounts.
  • Search and Filter. Use these fields to filter the list of clients in the Clients grid below. See Searching and filtering data for details.
  • Clients grid. Mark the checkbox for each client to include in the export file. (The application creates a single export file for each selected client.)

Diagnostics. The application automatically displays a summary of the information included in the export files — Accounts, Description, Tax Code, Beginning Balance, and Ending Balance.

To print the diagnostic information, click the Print button.

Was this article helpful?

Thank you for the feedback!

Internal only

Per ADO 971563, the Lacerte tax files should be placed in the following locations:

  • 1120 – C:\Lacerte\xxTAX\CDATA
  • 1120S - C:\Lacerte\xxTAX\SDATA
  • 1065 - C:\Lacerte\xxTAX\PDATA
  • 990 / 990PF - C:\Lacerte\xxTAX\RDATA

Instead of the XDATA folders, the application is creating a folder with the entity type. For example, 1120 files are being placed in the C:\Lacerte\xxTAX\1120 folder.

Development is hoping to fix this by Q1 2017. Until then, we need to tell users that they need to copy the files to the Lacerte data folders listed above.