Customizing data monitors in TaxCycle

by , , ,

by Elizabeth on Friday, January 25, 2013 1:00 PM

Whether you want to keep an eye on several amounts in your clients’ tax returns or just a few, customizing TaxCycle’s data monitor is an easy way to see details you want at a glance.

Balance owing or tax refund expected?

The data monitor appears at the bottom of TaxCycle windows. By default, it shows you the balance owing or refund expected for the client and a combined balance/refund for spouses together (in linked returns):

Data monitor shows the balance owing or the tax refund for client and the spouse combined

The colours also help you know at a glance what’s going on. Negative amounts appear in red and positive amounts in green. So, a red Balance/Refund of -1054.97 means your client is getting a refund.

Also any monitor that has just had a change in amount appears in bold text. So, it’s easy to spot changes.

Adding more monitors

If you want to add more items to the data monitor, move your cursor to a field, then click the plus button on the bottom right.

Say you want to add monitor to track the total donations claimed:

  1. Press F4 and type S1 and press Enter to jump to Schedule 1.
  2. Click in line 349 to put your cursor in the field.
  3. Click on the plus sign at the far right of the data monitor.

Click the plus sign at the right to add items to the data monitor

You can also drag a field and drop it on the monitor:

Drag and drop tax data onto the monitor

TaxCycle adds new monitors to the first empty space on the left. When there are no more spaces, it adds a new row. So, if you want to keep and eye on lots of numbers, you can:

Add unlimited tax fields to the data monitor

 

Modifying existing monitors

Want monitors in a specific order? Just drag it to a different spot:

Drag a data monitor to move it to a new place

Want to change the name of a monitor? Right click on it and select Edit data monitor:

Right-click to edit a data monitor

Use the right-click menu to delete a monitor or restore the default monitors.

Adding expressions

What if you want to combine two amounts into a single monitor or create some other mathematical expression?

  1. Click in the first field you want to include in the expression and add it to a monitor.
  2. Click in the next field you need for the expression and click on the field code on the bottom left of the window. This will copy the code to your clipboard.
  3. Next, right click on the monitor you just created and click Edit data monitor.
  4. In the Expression field, add an mathematical operator, like a plus or minus sign and then paste the field code in the right place.

That should be enough to get you started… Let us know how it goes and what you think. We’re interested in how tax preparers put the data monitor to work in their practice.

http://www.taxcycle.com/Blog/tabid/96/EntryId/50/Customizing-data-monitors-in-TaxCycle.aspx

Bert Mulder
Written by