Webinar and Q&A: TaxDome Q2 highlights

We recently hosted a live webinar covering three major new TaxDome product innovations: AI-powered reporting, client-facing jobs statuses, and redesigned invoices. More than 1000 people joined co-founder and chief product officer Ilya Radzinsky, chief revenue officer Petar Iliev, and special guests. Thanks to everyone who tuned in! 

If you weren’t able to attend, you can watch a full recording of the webinar below. We’ve also added a transcript of the Q&A session to answer any questions you may have.

Q&A transcript

Here’s the Q&A transcript from the webinar. We’ve grouped the questions and answers into the following categories to make it easier for you to navigate:

• AI-powered reporting
• Client-facing job statuses
• Invoicing and proposals
• Other

AI-powered reporting

Is reporting in TaxDome based on tags only?

You can create your own reports and base them on any piece of information you need: service, assignee, client, or any other field.

Is there a way to create a report so the whole team can view them?

Of course! The Reporting section is available for firm owners and managers by default, and employees can be granted access on an individual basis. See https://help.taxdome.com/article/194-assigning-removing-team-members-to-a-client-account for details on managing access for teammates and employees.

Is my data sent to another AI service? Is it secure? Are you aggregating my data with all of your clients? Is the data used to feed other AI models outside of Taxdome?

We take security very seriously. Please review all of our security policies, as keeping your information secure is one of our main priorities. You can find our security policies at: taxdome.com/en-int/policies/security.

Can we export reports in Excel?

Yes, that’s correct. You can export to PDF, CSV, or XLS. You can also set up scheduled reports via email automatically on schedule: https://help.taxdome.com/article/1416-reporting-alerts#8 

How does the *create formula* option work? For example, I wanted to add or subtract some data, but I couldn’t do it. Can you give a tutorial on that?

The create formula option allows you to generate a custom report based on your specific needs. Formulas work much like in spreadsheets, allowing you to combine data using mathematics and logic. For example, you can create a formula named ‘Task Type’ that will yield a type based on conditions applied to the ‘Task Name’. We’re working on additional help documentation outlining the full use of the formula tool.

It seems much of this reporting requires billing through TaxDome. Is there a time tracker for billing purposes?

Yes, there is a time-tracking feature in TaxDome that you can utilize for billing. You can also move offline payments to TaxDome from other systems. Both options will be available in our reporting tool.

We recommend invoicing directly in TaxDome to improve the customer experience and streamline your reporting. By having everything in one portal, your clients pay faster and associate your brand with all touchpoints, instead of multiple platforms.

I would like to make a report that shows profitability/realization by job or some kind of comparison between the amount billed and the amount of time spent (as billable dollars) on that job. Can you show me how to build a report for that?

Yes, we have a pre-built utilization rate report that compares time spent, revenue per hour, and the amount billed per employee and client.

How do you track revenue and other realization calculations if you don’t bill every time entry? We are struggling with how to structure services, bill time, and get the KPIs we need without having clients see every single time entry on an invoice.

Reporting has access to both billable and non-billable time entries. You can filter anything out to measure duration and revenue, or to view a specific set of time entries or invoice amounts.

Is there a way to only pull data for a specific service from an invoice and not the total of the invoice that has the specific service included in it? When I filter for bookkeeping, it shows the total of an invoice that also includes other services in that amount.

You can use the Bill Service Amount metric and Service field, which will break down your revenue by service.

How can we add budget targets in a report?

You can set up conditional formatting in visualizations that will change the color of graphs if they hit a certain threshold. We’re also looking into introducing Job estimates in hours. Stay tuned!

What is the link for the reporting webinar?

Please go to our webinars section at TaxDome.com, you will find it at the end. Here’s the link: taxdome.com/webinars

Client-facing job statuses

Can you choose which status the client sees?

That’s correct, client-facing statuses are fully customizable.

How are client-facing statuses integrated into existing pipelines?

You can incorporate updates to client-facing statuses as automations. Here’s how to do it: go to your workflow pipeline and edit the stages you want to add the client-facing status to. Simply click “edit automations” and add “client-facing status”. 

For more information, see https://help.taxdome.com/article/1296-client-facing-job-status, and a direct link of adding automations is explained in detail here: https://help.taxdome.com/article/1413-automation-examples-basic-update-client-facing-status 

Are new changes activated by default? Do I need to turn statuses off, make tailored changes, and then turn them back on?

Your clients won’t see the statuses unless you turn them on. You can set them up first and activate them when you are ready.

Can you save client-facing statuses as templates, or do they need to be set for each individual job?

Yes, you can create client-facing job status templates. Simply go to your Template library, then set them as automations in your pipeline so they are triggered for each stage. See here: https://help.taxdome.com/article/1420-create-modify-client-facing-job-statuses

Do client-facing statuses need to be set manually for each task in the pipeline?

No, you can set client-facing statuses to update automatically based on the stage of a pipeline, or you can update each job individually — it’s up to you! See here: https://help.taxdome.com/article/1413-automation-examples-basic-update-client-facing-status 

Can you create an option under each client, so we can always see a screenshot picture of what the client sees right now?

Sure! you can set each client-facing status manually for each client with individualized text and content — it’s fully up to you. As mentioned above, you can do it automatically, as well.

To see what a client is seeing and working on at any moment, you can log in directly to a client portal from your admin portal.

Invoicing and proposals

If you don’t use TaxDome for payments and usually take payment in the office or offline, is there a way to integrate the revenue?

Yes, you can record offline payments in TaxDome. See here: https://help.taxdome.com/article/176-offline-payments-and-promotional-credits 

Is there a way to add a recurring payment? I know we can send recurring invoices, but our clients sign a recurring payment authorization. If not, is this a feature that’s in the works?

Yes, you can do this right now if you integrate your TaxDome account with Stripe and set it as your default provider. Your clients will receive a payment authorization letter, and the system will collect payment on the date you set. Please see: help.taxdome.com/article/931-recurring-invoices-overview

Is TaxDome going to be integrating with Xero this year?

We’re looking into this right now! Reach out to our team at success@taxdome.com. They’d be happy to set up a quick call to discuss your needs further.

When are packages in proposals going to come out?

We’re looking to have this by the end of the year. Stay tuned for more information!

Have you considered integrating PayPal into TaxDome for invoice payment processing? More of our clients have PayPal than Square.

We’re working on offering you more payment processing options throughout this year. Please stay tuned to find out if PayPal will be one of them!

Will billing always be based on time or do you anticipate having more options in the future?

Our billing is already based on a flat fee or value-based model, as well as a subscription model with auto-payment. As a TaxDome client, you can suggest various features or improvements through our feature request board or directly with our success team. Feel free to email your ideas to success@taxdome.com.

Any idea if TaxDome will eventually allow people to create and send proposals/contracts without the client having to activate their account??

Yes, we’ve added options for more non-login requirements. Invoices have already been released, signatures are coming soon, then proposals and engagement letters will come later.

How can we pass on merchant fees on an invoice?

We’re looking to have this option in the future. For now, the workaround is to add a line item with the merchant fees and manually calculate the percentage of the total invoice.

Most of our clients pay 50% of the invoice, but unfortunately, when we send an invoice in TaxDome, they can’t pay the 50%.

We’ll release the option for partial payments soon, directly addressing your needs for better financial management and customer service.

Other

Can an invoice payment trigger a job to move through the pipeline?

Yes, an invoice payment can indeed trigger a job card to move to the next stage of a pipeline. Remember, any automation that requires an action from the client will move once triggered, as long as you have automove toggled on. See here for more info: https://help.taxdome.com/article/719-automation-examples-basic-sending-invoices 

We want to use remote workers from Indonesia. Can we provide them with access to just the clients assigned to them?

Of course! In the Team Management tab, you can toggle the specific accesses for each team member!

You can even have the account access update automatically. For example, account access can be added to a specific staffer during the admin stage, then removed automatically once they finish their part of the work.

Set up the job to automove when the task is complete, and use the “update account access” automation in the next stage. See here for more info: https://help.taxdome.com/article/727-automation-examples-basic-updating-account-access

What other software does TaxDome integrate with?

We integrate with multiple software platforms, including CPA Charge, Stripe, QuickBooks, Zapier, and your tax software. We even offer an IRS integration. You can check out our integrations within your settings in the Integration tab.

Is TaxDome automatically WISP compliant?

A WISP is a Written Information Security Plan. As part of this plan you should ensure that the systems you use implement  and maintain technical safeguards to protect against data breaches. Additionally, you should ensure that any third-party service providers also maintain robust security measures.

Within this link, you will find all our security reports and compliance information, including SOC-2 Compliance: https://taxdome.com/policies/soc2  

Are there any plans for a dark mode?

We recently upgraded our user interface, and while dark mode is something we’re considering, it’s not yet on our roadmap. 

You can add dark mode at the browser level in Chrome by going to chrome://flags and choosing “Auto Dark Mode for Web Contents”.

I usually add the signature request from the app when I’m about to export my return from my software into TaxDome. I’ve never seen a way to request a signature from anyone in my team, other than the clients.

We’re actually working on a new desktop app with more functionality. If this is a common use case for you, please reach out to our team at success@taxdome.com. We’d love to chat with you.

To the readers, you can print [from any tax software] and request e-signature [and apply a signature template] and link it to a job automatically with two clicks. This enables you to

1. Get document to TaxDome from your tax software
2. Request e-signature from clients
3. Create an invoice and link the document to an invoice [if you wish]
4. Link it to the job you’re working on.

#4 is critical because it enables additional actions to happen when the requested client actions (signature, approval, invoice) are complete. So an example would be to print form 8879 from Drake, click ‘apply 8879’ template to put in the signature boxes in the right places, tie the document to an invoice and link it to the job. Then, when the client pays, they will be asked to sign the document. As soon as they sign, the job can automatically move to the next stage where an administrator can be tasked [automatically] to e-file the return and the client can receive an automatic communication [chat or email] — that their return will now be e-filed.

I bill a standard monthly retainer. I have been hesitant to have anyone track time through TaxDome because I felt it would create more work in clearing time away from the client (not going to bill them for it). Is there a good way to do this, so I can see how long people are spending without having a billing problem as I do the standard monthly bill?

When you use our time-tracking tool, you can always enter them as non billable time for tracking purposes. This way, you can run reports on time utilization through our reporting feature. You can accomplish the entire workflow in TaxDome:

1. Send client proposal with monthly recurring payment
2. Client accepts proposal, payment automatically debited every month
3. If you wish to track utilization to understand if you are billing enough and which of your clients is most profitable, you can track time in TaxDome and use the utilization report to understand your effective hourly rates.

Is there a way for a client with a business account and an individual account to have one login and then select which account they want to choose at that moment?

That’s correct. Your client can be linked to multiple accounts and is able to switch from one to another with the same login.

With the phone app, if you send a chat message, are clients alerted, or do they have to log in to the app to see it?

They will be alerted — they will get a push notification and the push will take them directly to the chat.

Any plans in the near future for integrations with tax software and/or the Canada Revenue Agency?

We’re always looking at integrations to improve our platform. We currently integrate with all tax software as an electronic printer, allowing you to print directly from your tax software into TaxDome. 

Reach out to our team with any suggestions you have! success@taxdome.com 

Any chance you will implement internal forms that can be edited, like checklists, etc.? We have a quality control checklist for tax preparation. It would be nice to have it integrated in TaxDome for internal use only. Or will Excel be editable in the future?

This is something we’re thinking about — please reach out to our team at success@taxdome.com to schedule an interview.