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You've helped put Christmas decorations away and made your New Year's resolutions. That can mean only one thing. No, not the Superbowltax season!
If you are a tax-return preparer, or soon to be one, a partial solution to your tax headaches is TurboTax ProSeries for Windows by Intuit. Based on the latest Tax Software Buyers ' Guide (Journal of Accountancy, September 1996, page 63), TurboTax ProSeries is one of the most widely used tax software packages today. We will take an in-depth look at the initial version of this tax-return preparation package by taking you from the installation of the program to finalizing your clients, returns.
Installation
The installation of this product takes very little time and is relatively painless. Keep your invoice slip handy as it contains a customer number and installation code needed during the setup phase. When these numbers are requested by the setup utility, use the mouse or Tab key to move from one field to the next, instead of the Enter key as it will cause an error message to appear. Before you get started, don't forget to take a quick look at the ReadMe file as it contains important information regarding the program. From this point on, the manual accompanying the software is very useful and detailed, and will become your companion throughout the tax season.
Getting Started
Each time you start TurboTax ProSeries, the HomeBase screen appears (Figure 1). This screen serves as the access point for all other program operations. It is here that you may create a new return, open an existing return, transfer previous-year client data, print client returns, or set global options. Other features, such as the Menu bar, Toolbar, Status bar, and onscreen help, will be discussed below.
In addition to individual returns, TurboTax ProSeries also supports the preparation of corporate (regular and S), partnership, fiduciary, not-for-profit, and non-resident returns. Data for these returns may be keyed in by hand or may be imported from a variety of sources. These sources include most trialbalance and general-ledger packages, any financial software product that can create TXF (tax exchange format) files, or Fixed Asset Manager.
The Menu bar, shown at the top of the HomeBase screen, appears on all program screens and allows...