Professional Editions: Client Portals - Interface and Settings (Firm/Preparer)
1

When you purchase Client Portals for TaxAct Pro, you will have access to a new tab within your desktop program. This tab is visible to the Firm owner once your purchase is complete (you may need to log out and log back into the desktop program to see the new tab).

Edit Access

To add Portals access for other preparers, the Firm owner (or another preparer with sufficient permissions) will need to go to Preparer > Master Information > Preparers. Under Portals Status, click the Active button and it will show them the Portals tab the next time they log in.

See Professional Editions - Setting Permissions for Preparers Invited to Your Practice for more information about preparer settings.

Clients

See the FAQ Professional Editions: Client Portals - Clients for details on using the Clients tab.

Firm Files

This tab is used to configure files that appear in public and private folders inside Client Portals.

  • Public files are displayed for all clients to see in their portal.
  • Private files are only visible to firm staff members.

You can Add Folders in both the Public and Private sections. Click Upload File to add files from your computer.

Guest Exchange

See the FAQ Professional Editions: Client Portals - Guest Exchange (Firm/Preparer) for details on using Guest Exchange.

Reports

Use the Reports tab to view and manage reports. You can run and export reports for Files, Questionnaires, Signatures, and Payments.

Each report has a variety of file actions that can be viewed to stay up to date on what's happening within your Client Portals. Filtering and display options vary depending on the selected report.

Firm Management

Use the Firm Management tab to delete groups of files or change the expiration date for files that have already been uploaded.

  • You can delete all files in Clients, Public, or Private folders that were uploaded on or before a selected date.
  • You can also set files in Clients, Public, Private, or Guest Exchange to expire on a certain date.

Account Settings

To access account settings for Client Portals from within the TaxAct Pro desktop application, click the Portals tab and select Account Settings on the left. Alternatively, click the profile icon at the top right and choose Account Settings.

You can also log into My Account, click Client Portals, and then select Account Settings.

Account Tab

The Account tab shows your basic Client Portals account details, including your available storage space.

Firm Name and Logo

You can enter your firm's name and select a logo to be displayed on the taxpayer-facing client portal website. The logo can be a maximum of 100 KB and has a recommended size of 290 × 75 pixels.

Scroll down and click Advanced Settings to choose display options and logo positioning.

Display options include:

  • Show firm name only
  • Show logo only
  • Show both firm name and logo

Logo positions include:

  • Right of firm name
  • Left of firm name

Notifications

Toggle the options Receive emails when client uploads file(s) and Receive emails when client downloads file(s), and enter a default notification email address.

Under Advanced Settings, toggle the options Receive email only the first time a file is downloaded and Allow client to select a preparer on file upload.

Under Send email notifications for Messages, choose either Immediately or Once a day.

Customize Emails

Click Advanced Settings to configure email options. You can enable Use logo on emails, customize the “sent from” email address clients see, and select an activation-link expiration period:

  • 48 Hours
  • 72 Hours
  • 5 Days
  • 7 Days
  • 2 Weeks

File Expiration

Click Advanced Settings and scroll to the File Expiration section to choose when Client Files, Public Files, or Private Files expire.

  • Never
  • 7 Days
  • 30 Days
  • 60 Days
  • 90 Days
  • 6 Months

This setting only affects the expiration for future file uploads. Existing file expiration values must be modified from the Firm Management tab.

Storage

Toggle the option to allow clients to create or edit folders. You can also configure low-storage warning emails when remaining storage falls below a specified threshold.

Account Owner

Select your time zone.

Email Tab

On the Email tab, you can add custom information to emails sent to your clients (taxpayers).

Connect Features Tab

Enable or disable which features your clients (taxpayers) will see in their Client Portals.