Why We Ask You to Use the Tax Organizer and Online Portal (and What Not to Email)

Believe it or not, it’s coming up soon – in a few short months we’ll be gathering all the tax forms, sending documents and requests back and forth, and organizing our tax returns. All the tools we have now make the process much easier for us than it was just a few years ago. I remember faxing and mailing documents, and the packets and boxes of paper stacked in the office. All the trips back and forth, and the phone calls. I don’t really miss all of that, and I’m glad we have better ways to share our information now. 

One unintended result of our technology is that we have so many different ways of sharing information (text, email, online portals, and document systems) that we sometimes scatter our information into different places, and lose track of it more easily than we did when we were shuffling papers around. Another unfortunate consequence of sharing our personal information electronically is the increased risk of that information being hijacked somewhere along the digital trail. Our email systems, whether Gmail or Outlook or any of the other providers, are not safe places for our personal information like dates of birth, Social Security numbers, or financial account numbers – what we call Personally Identifiable Information (PII). 

We take every step we can to protect and secure the information that you trust us with, the details we need to finish your work and your returns. One of those steps is our secure portal, called Canopy, which encrypts information as it comes in and while it resides in the system. Another way we dodge the time delays, inconvenience, and aggravation of lost and scattered information is to gather everything for your return in one place. The problem really shows up in tax prep: a W-2 in email, a photo in a text, a question in a voicemail, and pretty quickly nobody’s sure what’s still missing. That’s hard enough on your end, but imagine it times 200 on our end! So before we talk about where to send documents securely, it helps to talk about how we gather everything in one place: the tax organizer.  

The Tax Organizer is a structured checklist that we can use to work through the process of completing the tax return without missing something. You may have worked with organizers in the past, including some we’ve provided, that were long paper packets and not very user-friendly. This year – thank goodness – we are working on a digital form that we can send to you.  It will be much easier to complete – very short for those of you who have filed tax returns for us in the past. You will also have a link that will allow you to download and print a copy of the organizer if you need to complete it manually.

               When all of the answers are gathered into one place, and all of the documents are securely uploaded into your client portal, we cut our time delays down, and we skip a lot of the stress and aggravation of having to search for information and request documents over and over. That’s much better for all of us.

               Watch for that Tax Organizer to be sent out to you in December, about the same time the Engagement Letters go out. 

Once the organizer has everything listed in one place, the next question is how the forms and details get to us without getting scattered, or put somewhere they don’t belong. That’s where the client portal comes in: it’s the secure front door for documents and messages, and the reason we ask you not to put PII in ordinary email.

               The secure client portal is our system for maintaining all of our documentation. Think of it as a giant vault full of file cabinets and drawers, with a wizard at the door who can receive information and immediately file it where it needs to be, retrieve any document or file in a blink, and deliver a copy of anything that the owner of the vault (that would be us) requests. We trust our client portal with our internal documents as well, including working papers and all firm documents.

               You only have a key to your own folder in your client portal, and you and our staff are the only ones who have that key.  Have you ever needed a copy of your tax returns for a loan officer or mortgage company? You will have access to your returns in the portal, so you can download a copy to print or send to anyone you wish, but we strongly recommend not sending it in an email.  Here’s a better solution: if you need to send a copy to someone, just ask us to send it to their email address.  Rather than sending the document as an attachment, we will send them a link to that document, and only that document, directly in your client portal.  They have up to 2 weeks to download it, and then the link expires, so they don’t have access forever.  You can always request it again if needed.

               This system is more secure, and it conveniently keeps a record of what is uploaded, downloaded, or shared.  This helps us trace the activity if we ever have questions about it. There’s also a very handy app that you can use on your phone.

               The client portal is built for the sensitive stuff. Everyday email is still useful, just not for the same job. So here’s what belongs in ordinary email, what doesn’t, and why we get picky about it.

               Safe for email:              “Do you need _____?”

                                                             “Did you receive _______?”

                                                            Appointment and scheduling questions.

                                                            General questions about tax topics or bookkeeping.

                                                            Pretty much anything that doesn’t contain the following…

               Not for email:                Social Security numbers

                                                            Business Tax ID numbers (EINs)

                                                            Bank or credit card account numbers

                                                            Copies of driver’s license

                                                            Tax returns

                                                            W-2s

                                                            1099s

                                                            Bank statements if account number is visible

                                                            Payroll information forms

                                                            W-4s

                                                            W-9s

                                                            Direct Deposit forms

What to do next

·       Use email for general questions.

·       Use your client portal for documents and PII.

·       Watch for the Tax Organizer in December with the Engagement Letters.

Need portal help or a secure share to a third party? Reach out and we’ll walk you through it.