Transitioning from CSA to Accounting CS services

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Warning

Product support for the Creative Solutions Accounting platform ended on September 30, 2020.

Help & How-To Center content for the Creative Solutions Accounting platform may be outdated and is used at your own risk.

For licensed users of Engagement CS

The information below does not apply to your Engagement CS product. We have continued to support Engagement CS (which includes the Trial Balance CS and Financial Reporter functionality) beyond June 1, 2017. However, your Engagement CS licenses will permanently expire on March 1, 2020 and product support will conclude on September 30, 2020.

For more information, see Engagement CS license expiration 2020 - frequently asked questions.

Important (historical) dates

  • Jan. 1, 2017:
    Payroll CS & Payroll Compliance Functionality
    All payroll clients must be fully transitioned to replacement software.
    CSA & CBS are not updated with 2017 Tax Tables or 2017 Tax Forms, including W-2s & 1099s.
  • Mar. 31, 2017:
    Final License Expiration
    Final expiration date for Write-Up CS, Payroll CS, Payroll Compliance, Financial Analysis CS and Trial Balance CS (if not bundled with Engagement CS). An extended grace period allows full program functionality until Dec. 31, 2017 for all products except Financial Analysis CS.
  • Jun. 1, 2017:
    Support Ended
    Phone, Email and Chat support is no longer offered for Write-Up CS, Payroll CS, Payroll Compliance, Financial Analysis CS, Trial Balance CS (unless bundled with Engagement CS) and Client Bookkeeping Solution (CBS).
  • Dec. 31, 2017:
    Grace Period End
    Final day for extended grace period.
    Product capability moves to limited functionality for all expired products.
    If a perpetual license was purchased for Write-Up CS, there will be no loss of functionality

    This is the final day to import data from CBS as this functionality is tied to the Payroll Compliance license. This license cannot be renewed and was not offered for perpetual licensing.

  • Jan. 1, 2018:
    VO/SAAS/CBS ASP Removed
    Virtual Office: the software will no longer be accessible and the icon will be removed from the Virtual Office desktop for all customers, unless licensed for Engagement CS
    Software as a Service (SaaS): the software will no longer allow access to the expired modules and all data conversion and data retention must be complete prior to this date

    CBS ASP: the software will no longer be accessible for your clients and the option to open will be removed

    NetClient CS: All Web Employee, Remote Payroll and Remote Authorization will be removed on this date - NetClient CS portals and user accounts will also be removed for users who had access to only CSA related functionality

Client Bookkeeping Solution Firms

For firms whose clients used Client Bookkeeping Solution:Accounting CS Client Access is the replacement for Client Bookkeeping Solution (CBS). Accounting CS Client Access uses the same interface as your Accounting CS application, and it uses a shared database. This eliminates the need to import and export data from your client's application, enabling you to work seamlessly and in real time with your clients. Because Accounting CS and Accounting CS Client Access share a common database, both are required to run in a hosted environment - our Thomson Reuters servers using Virtual Office CS or Software as a Service (SaaS) are the preferred environments for Accounting CS Client Access. Other options are available for firms that have in-house IT professionals who are proficient with supporting terminal services, or offer 3rd party hosting services. Here are some tips for Introducing Accounting CS Client Access to your clients. Contact your CS Sales Representative to discuss these options.

Steps to Success

Step 1:

Evaluate and purchase Accounting CS

To learn more about Accounting CS, please review our Accounting CS Overview. This resource contains an overview of the Accounting CS product and Accounting CS Client Access service, our replacement for Client Bookkeeping Solutions (CBS). Please see the Explore This Product tab to access videos, demos, trial versions of Accounting CS and to review the System Requirements. If you have additional questions or are ready to move to move forward, please contact your dedicated Sales Representative.

Step 2:

Install Accounting CS

Review the system requirements

Accounting CS is a powerful application that not only enables multiple staff members to work concurrently to process data for the same client, it also processes reports in the background while your staff continues to work. We recommend that you review your hardware and server needs with a trusted IT advisor to be sure that your system will enable the application to perform at a level suitable for professional production work.

To ensure that our application will operate at its peak performance in your environment, see our system requirements for Accounting CS

Install Accounting CS

When you're ready to install Accounting CS, review the Accounting CS: Installation and Program Essentials PDF, which guides you through the installation process. We strongly recommend that you have a certified IT professional perform the installation to ensure that the application functions as you expect. For further information, refer to the following resources.

For users of Virtual Office CS or Software as a Service (SaaS): Although you do not need to install the application on your local machine, you still need to review our system requirements. When you are ready to activate Accounting CS, please call 800.968.0600 and follow the prompts, or send an email to CS.Service@thomsonreuters.com.

Step 3:

Review the Accounting CS Transition Overview

This recorded presentation aims at getting you started by covering transition services, timeline, planning and basic navigation within your new product. We highly recommend that you watch this video prior to consulting with a Transition Specialist, and make a list of items you'd like to discuss. This will help ensure that your time is spent effectively and that all of your questions are answered. 

Step 4:

Review the Creative Solutions to Accounting CS Conversion Tutorials

You are now ready to begin converting! This recorded tutorials take you step by step through a conversion, including pre-conversion steps, a demo conversion of a client, reports to verify the conversion was successful, post conversion steps and additional resources. We have included specialized conversion tutorials to assist with additional steps involved in converting a CBS or Payroll client. If you need assistance at any time during the conversion of a client, many answers can be found in our Help & How-To Center and our knowledge support staff is available to you.

Step 5:

Convert your CSA data

Step 6:

Sign up for Accounting CS training classes

Even if you have a solid foundation working with CSA and a working knowledge of our terminology, you will greatly benefit from Accounting CS training. Accounting CS is a completely new application, not an upgrade to CSA. Our training offerings help you learn to navigate through the application, cover best practices for client setup and processing workflows, describe reporting procedures, and much more. Firms that have completed training have realized an abbreviated transition timeline and accelerated the path to the efficiency gains Accounting CS offers.

We strongly recommend that your firm have a training and implementation plan to educate and transition your staff so they can successfully use all of the features in Accounting CS.

We offer many solutions to fit your firm's needs. For example, our comprehensive Web-Managed Implementation Program is an easy-to-follow action plan that will guide your firm through implementing Accounting CS.

To sign up for the Web-Managed Implementation Program or other training offerings, contact your CS Sales Representative at 800.968.8900.

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Internal only

Transition tutorials: Recorded tutorials are available in step 4 above.

Support note: If a user has specific questions about the conversion process or is running into technical issues/error messages, you should be supporting them and taking ownership of that call.

There is no longer a dedicated Transition Team to which you can direct customers.