On the market: Scan-and-populate solutions

1040SCAN

Developer:	SurePrep
Compatible tax software:	CCH Axcess™ Tax, GoSystem Tax RS, Lacerte, UltraTax CS
Workpaper management solution:	SPbinder
Integrated client solution:	TaxCaddy
Cloud storage?	Yes, with FileRoom. Included in cost.
Includes verification software?	Yes, Review Wizard.
Verification outsourcing option?	Yes, with 1040SCANverify.

Note: 1040SCAN recognizes 4–7 times more source documents than alternatives and is the only product that recognizes and extracts data from K-1 supplemental pages. In addition to OCR and one-click export to tax software, 1040SCAN bookmarks and organizes workpapers into an index that follows the flow of the tax return. Users can view and manage their workpapers at an elemental level in SPbinder, which is included at no extra cost. Only 1040SCAN can auto-verify OCR data for 65% of standard documents, thanks to SurePrep’s patented, AI-powered technology.

Lacerte Tax Scan and Import

Developer:	Intuit
Compatible tax software:	Lacerte, ProSeries
Workpaper management solution:	Document Management System or SmartVault.
Integrated client solution:	Integrated client solution: Intuit Link or SmartVault
Cloud storage?	Available with SmartVault. Starts at $360/year per user.
Includes verification software?	Data can be reviewed in Excel.
Verification outsourcing option?	No.

Note: Out of the box, Lacerte Tax Scan and Import includes the ability to OCR documents, review data in Excel, and import documents from a number of financial institutions. Users can choose to purchase Document Management System for $445/year or SmartVault for $360/user/year to manage the resulting digital workpapers.

According to information publicly available on the product website as of January 2021.

CCH ProSystem fx Scan

Developer:	Wolters Kluwer
Compatible tax software:	CCH ProSystem fx Tax, CCH Axcess Tax
Workpaper management solution:	None, but workpapers can be prepared using a combination of Adobe Acrobat and CCH’s PDF plug-in, PDFlyer.
Integrated client solution:	CCH Axcess Client Collaboration is available from the same vendor, but it is not integrated.
Cloud storage?	Yes, with the SaaS edition.
Includes verification software?	Yes.
Verification outsourcing option?	No.

Note: CCH ProSystem fx Scan’s OCR technology cannot recognize documents without a cover sheet. Special page dividers must be created in auxiliary software (CCH ProSystem fx Funnel) and placed between digital documents—or, for paper documents, printed out and manually inserted between scans. Because there is no corresponding workpaper management software into which workpapers can be organized, CCH ProSystem fx Scan exports each client’s documents as one long, bookmarked PDF. These PDFs can then be annotated with PDFlyer.

According to information publicly available on the product website as of January 2021.

GruntWorx Populate

Developer:	Drake
Compatible tax software:	Drake Software, GoSystem Tax RS, ProSystem fx Tax, UltraTax CS (desktop setup), and Intuit Lacerte.
Workpaper management solution:	None.
Integrated client solution:	None.
Cloud storage?	No.
Includes verification software?	No public information.
Verification outsourcing option?	Yes, required. You can’t perform the verification in-house.

Note: GruntWorx Populate only recognizes 20 forms and is not truly competitive, but we frequently receive questions about this product. It is a web-based application and there is no corresponding client solution nor workpaper management software. Client documents are returned as one long, bookmarked PDF. For 15¢ per trade, GruntWorx can also export some Brokerage Statement data into Excel.

According to information publicly available on the product website as of January 2021.

Analysis

Intuit, Thomson Reuters, and Wolters Kluwer create state-of-the-art tax software. However, their scan-and-populate solutions are ancillary products designed to support their main offering. SurePrep’s only focus is the development of 1040 workflow solutions like scan-and-populate, workpaper management, and taxpayer collaboration. 1040SCAN is one of our flagship products.

In order to support a fully digital workflow, a scan-and-populate solution must also integrate with workpaper management software to create a digital binder. Otherwise, there is no benefit to digitizing workpapers aside from storage. Therefore, we encourage firms to review the workpaper management solutions on the market while evaluating scan-and-populate solutions.