Thomson Reuters — FileCabinet CS - CPA Practice Advisor

From the Sept. 2008 Feature on Scan/Fill/Populate
Systems

FileCabinet CS is part of the Thomson Reuters CS Professional Suite. Initially
designed as a paperless document storage system that houses scanned client documents
as images along with digital document files in a basic folder-based format,
FileCabinet CS has evolved over the past few years to include various organization
and management tools, including the ability to add annotations to documents,
track histories, integration of e-mail and fax functions, as well as reporting
and analysis features. Thomson Reuters also offers GoFileRoom ES, a more robust
document management system that provides digital workpaper output.

The most recent additions to FileCabinet CS have focused on workpaper organization
and the addition of optical character recognition (OCR) capabilities that enable
automated population of client 1040 returns processed using the UltraTax CS
professional preparation system. This year, Thomson Reuters debuted the optional
Source Document module, which offers form recognition, extraction of form data
and the ability to integrate with the tax package. This new module is specifically
geared toward use of the automatic population feature, since it does not result
in compiled, organized and bookmarked PDF or other advanced digital workpaper
output, but instead stores the data in a client folder as individual items.

While FileCabinet CS is generally locally installed (although it can be remotely
hosted), the Source Document module is a web-based feature through which users
scan documents and securely transmit them to the Thomson Reuters Data Center
for OCR processing, data extraction and page naming. When returned to the user,
the extracted tax data can be reviewed (best done with a dual monitor), edited
using the UltraTax CS Source Data Entry utility if necessary, and then imported
into the tax system.

For users familiar with any of the programs in the CS Professional Suite, navigation
will be familiar, and the entire process should be fairly intuitive, with only
a few steps to follow. First, documents are scanned and grouped, then placed
into a folder; they are then sent to Thomson Reuters for processing. When processing
is complete, the user receives individually named PDFs for each document and
is notified via the Message Center in UltraTax CS that client data is available
for entry into the system. After verifying the data, the user can select the
populate function, which routes data to appropriate entry fields.

Since the program is web-based instead of locally hosted, it offers the advantage
of being able to learn form formats and other information (not client data),
which enables it to operate increasingly more efficiently and quickly as tax
season progresses. Additionally, as a system designed for firms using an up-front
scanning process, it frees professional staff from the administrative tasks
associated with document scanning and management.

There is no separate fee for the Source Document Module; however, it will have
a per-return pricing fee, which was yet to be determined at the time this article
was written. FileCabinet CS starts at $1,500.

Forms Supported for Automatic Population: FileCabinet CS
with the Source Document module can be used to classify and extract data from
numerous forms (W-2, 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, 1098, 1099R, 1099MISC, 1099G, 1099B,
W-2G, 1099Q, 1098E, 1098T, 2439 and SSA).