This month we’re excited to introduce two highly requested features: a native PDF editor to mark up documents and add annotations (so you can stop paying for that Adobe subscription) and we’ve added itemized services to contracts & invoices (which sync with QuickBooks Online) so your clients can see specifically which services you’re preparing and for how much.
We’ve also been working on simplifying a core functionality: document upload. We’ve decreased the time it takes to upload documents by over 200% and added drag and drop directly to the documents page (so you can upload documents quickly and easily without losing context).
Organizers have also been improved: You can now edit client answers and fill them out on the client’s behalf (should you need to do so). Last month, we added conditional jumps to questions and coming soon, conditions will be added to entire sections (stay tuned for upcoming webinar announcements).
On the team side, we’ve introduced the ability to ‘Follow’ accounts which allows you to receive notifications from an account without being assigned to it. Sneak peak – we are in the final stages of rolling out @mentions (so that you can tag your team in notes, jobs, etc) and a mobile app for firms.
Read on to learn about what else has changed in TaxDome.
📚 Document Workflow
Built-in PDF editor
TaxDome’s built-in PDF editor allows you to highlight, rotate, make notes, add images, and more inside your PDF files.
You and your team members can edit any PDF document in TaxDome and clients will see your highlights and be able to markup PDFs that they’ve uploaded, as well. If you were previously paying for a standalone PDF editor in your tech stack, that’s one more subscription that you can now stop paying for.
Faster document upload
A core functionality, we’ve worked hard to make uploading documents seamless & instantaneous. Granted, we underestimated how critical an optional feature was to our community (we’re in the process of adding it back in a redesigned format to ensure speed).
Document drag and drop
You can now drag and drop directly from your computer into the desired client folder when you’re in the document tab of the client account. You can drag and drop one file/folder, or many at once.
Firm members can now e-sign documents
Previously, you could only request signatures from your clients. Now, firm owners and employees can e-sign documents, as well.
Soon, you will be able to add your signatures to contacts, as well.
Firm members can now modify client organizer answers
You can now edit organizer answers for clients, change client’s answers or fill out the organizer on their behalf.
Sometimes, you may want to conduct a client interview on the phone or fill in a missing answer for the client – you can now do that. Your changes can be seen by you and the client in the audit trail.
💰 Billing & Invoicing
Itemized contracts and invoices
You now have the ability to add itemized services to invoices and contracts by using Services.
Services is a new tab in Settings that consists of the services and products your firm offers. Every service has its respective rate and syncs to your QuickBooks services.
You can add services as itemized line items in an invoice or contract so that your clients fully understand the services they will receive, their individualized price and resulting sum.
Services can be added to one-off invoices and templates (to use in pipeline automations).
This is the first iteration of itemized invoices – we have more changes on the way including modifying the rates on the fly and syncing already created services from QuickBooks to TaxDome.
Firms can set their first invoice number
If you have thousands of invoices in other systems, starting numbering from 1 may not be ideal (and may break your QuickBooks sync). To avoid that, set the number of your next generated invoice in Firm Settings.
Reminder: You can always set the invoice number manually or edit it later, and it will be automatically updated in QuickBooks if you have synced it with TaxDome.
🤓 Team Management
Followers – notifications on account level
Previously, notifications were sent to all assignees on account. This did not allow you to have access to an account, but not receive notifications for it. We are happy to introduce the ability to follow an account, which will control whether you receive notifications or not. With this more granular approach, you can have account access and turn off notifications (unfollow) or vice versa.
All team members who had account access prior to the Followers feature release are following all of these accounts by default.
Soon, you will be able to modify follow settings as bulk actions (select 50 clients, follow, or unfollow) as well as @mention your colleagues in tasks, notes, jobs, etc.
🤖 Workflow Automation
Job templates in client sign-up forms
Last year, we released the ability to automate your onboarding process by routing your clients to your customizable sign-up form, which would trigger new jobs based on client answers. In this release, we’ve added the ability to apply job templates to the newly created Jobs.
How is that beneficial?
Job templates can include predefined due dates, priority, descriptions, assignees, comments for your team, dynamic data in job names and more.
So, when a client signs up for your firm and indicates they are interested in Bookkeeping services, a new Job can be created with predefined assignees, priority (say, medium priority for new bookkeeping clients), a unique job name such as New Client: [Date Created] where the placeholder becomes the date the client signed up and an email automation that explains how you work as well as a contract for them to sign.
And even more useful updates in Workflow:
- Pipelines can be created from the Workflow page (not only via +New).
- Job Templates include assignees: If you have an employee responsible for bookkeeping, add them as predefined assignee to the bookkeeping template. Once you add a job with this template, it will be automatically assigned to this employee. More>>
- Linking jobs to payment when adding a payment. You can link payments to existing jobs when creating a manual payment, which means fewer clicks to gather context in one place. More>>
- We have also added a Link to Jobs button in the payment info screen so that you can ensure that the payment is linked to the corresponding job. See it in action>>
🖥️ Desktop Apps
TaxDome Printer 2.0 in Windows app
A new virtual printer, TaxDome Printer 2.0, has been released. This printer driver supports Remote Desktop Services (such as Verito and RightNetworks, amongst others).
Please note that this release contains both the (old) TaxDome Printer driver and the new TaxDome Printer 2.0. You can use the old driver if you want, but we recommend you switch to the new one and make sure that it works on your computer. We plan to deprecate and remove the old driver in future releases.
🔥 Other
- Linking accounts to contacts made easier. You can link accounts to contacts either when creating a new contact or anytime after, for example, when your corporate client has a new contact person, you can quickly link it to their account. When your client has a new company, you can quickly create their account and link them, too! More>>
- Attach files from TaxDome in bulk emails. If only one account is selected as a recipient, you can attach documents from TaxDome. If you put two or more accounts in the To field, you can still attach files, but only from your computer. More>>
- Alert on unsaved changes. If you have unsaved changes and leave the page, you’ll receive a warning prompt about unsaved changes. See it in action>>
All of the above +68 more tweaks and fixes!
In case you missed it, here’s a summary of the major features that we covered in the previous post.
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