Ed Zollars, CPA" <ezollar[at]mindspring.com> wrote:
- quote -

Ed, you are showing your age Mine too! I believe the
next format to die will be the Zip drives, followed closely
by floppy disks.

Drew Edmundson, CPA (NC)
e-mail is my first name at nccpa dot com

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"Joel Berry, CPA" <joelDELETE[at]sugarlandcpas.com> wrote:
- quote -

I usually get a signed release from the client, however in
the case I mentioned the client himself called from the
dealership and needed a copy right away. This particular
client lives in SC while my office is in MD. I've known him
for years and started doing work for him when he was working
here in MD. There was no quick way for me to send the
return to the client directly and since he was at the
dealership I say no issue in sending it directly to him via
the dealer's fax.

When I send data via e-mail I use a Digital ID from
VeriSign. This helps to ensure to the recipient who sent
the e-mail and also helps to ensure that it was not tampered
with. Please note that I said "helps to insure" and not
guarantees!

I have never had a third part, except for the taxing
authorities, request my signature on a tax return.

Gene E. Utterback, EA

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Thanks to everyone for the great comments so far. While I am
digesting them, let me just comment on the "backup" issue.

I definitely agree that you shouldn't even ~think~ of going
paperless until you have a tried, true, and preferably "war
tested" backup procedure in place.

MTW

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Michael T Wing CPA <mtwingcpa[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -

For those using CD-Rs as backup you should read this
article:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/32593.html

Some CD-Rs die in less than 2 years after recording.

Drew Edmundson, CPA (NC)
e-mail is my first name at nccpa dot com

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- quote -

Been relatively paperless for a number of years. PDF format
is the way to go.

Director structure I use is like this

2002taxes
BNA - portfolio Plus software
Data
FAM - Fixed Asset Manager software
PM - Practice manager software
PR - CFS Payroll software
Proseries - Tax prep software.

Other years with the same basic setup.

PDF files are stored in the data directory. Most of my work
papers are in XLS format in another directory on the same
level as 2002taxes called WTB. I use the tabs very much and
thus have up to 10 years of workpapers in a single XLS file
with my client code as the file name. For Word files a Word
directory and client directory.

I use ATB and those files are stored in the Data file under
the year of the tax form

Very little kept in paper format - usually only w-2's for
e-filer and brokerage statements. Though I do plan on
scanning W-2's this year.

I find that this works well as all the year specific
software and data is under one directory and all the none
year specific software is located elsewhere.

--
Regards,

Mark X Rigotti

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Drew Edmundson wrote:

- quote -

I am just an observer in this regard, but I like this above
description best.

I would comment that in Windows, you can do a Start|Search
of your "Tax Files" outer folder for all folders named, for
example "1997". If you wanted to copy all of the 1997
folders to a CD, it would be easy to select them all.
(Ctrl+A or shift+mouseclick) If you wanted to delete all of
the 1997 folders at some future time, the same would apply.

My point is that you are not giving up the ability to access
the year folders by having the years under the client-named
folder. If the folder were grouped by years, I wonder if
your folder-naming within each year would be so consistent
to allow the same method of mass selection of the files for
a particular client.

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Michael T Wing CPA wrote:

- quote -

If you were to do this by [calendar] year, then each year on
January 1 (of the following year) could then be dumped onto
a CD-ROM disk.... This gives a preference to grouping by
time instead of by client.

- quote -

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"Michael T Wing CPA" <mtwingcpa[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -

First - Adobe PDF is the ONLY way to go! IMHO, you have
passed the first and biggest hurdle.

As for the directory file structure, we start with a folder
named CLIENT DATA. In that folder we have 2000 CLIENT
FILES, 2001 CLIENT FILES, 2002 CLIENT FILES, and so on and
so for each year. In each year we have the clients by name
AND year again, for instance Smith 2001, Jones 2002. So
that the structure looks like this

Client Data\ 2000 Client Files\ Smith 2000 - or
Client Data \ 2001 Client Files \ Jones 2001

We do this for several reasons:

First, when we back up we use an encrypted FTP application
to copy all the files to an offsite Linux server.

Second, we all lose and gain clients from year to year. By
using YEAR Client Files we only have to set up a folder for
a real client and not keep stuff for clients that are long
gone.

Third, by archiving the folders older than the statute of
limitations onto a CD we can effectively delete the really
old stuff from the workstations.

Fourth, we supply our clients with a DATA CD instead of a
paper copy of their returns. By titiling their folders with
their names AND years we can simply drag and drop their
entire folder onto the CD when we finis with their return
for the year. This way they have a copy of everything we
had when we delivered the return.

I highly recommend getting as paperless as you can, it saves
a ton of space and can really simplify your life. Last week
a self employed client called from a car dealership almost
600 miles away. He was buying a car and needed a copy of
his return. It was very simply to bring up the PDF file
with his return and fax directly from that program to the
dealership. I didn't have to print anything - even the bill
for an additional copy of the return was e-mailed to the
client.

Good luck and please keep us posted about your progress and
how like it.

Gene E. Utterback, EA

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Michael T Wing CPA <mtwingcpa[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -

Not an answer to your query but three words of advice:
Backup. Backup. Backup.

Alan
http://taxtopics.net

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"Michael T Wing CPA" <mtwingcpa[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -

I would organize the directories by year then by client and
after tax season copy on a data CD, Keep in mind nasty
things can happen to a pc - viruses, failed hard drives
,etc. so having an indexed backup on CD by year is
important.

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Michael T Wing CPA <mtwingcpa[at]yahoo.com> wrote:

- quote -

Well... I am largely paperless and I am struggling with
your specific problem. I have been using years as
subdirectories under clients. Like this:

John Smith
1998
1999
2000
Bill Jones
2001
2002
2003

This seems to work very well when I need to go back into
previous years. However, I am buying a much larger practice
and back-ups will become a problem. I will be limited to
about 30Gig of storage per removable media. If I cannot get
all the data on one removable media, I will have to switch
to having one or more years on each removable disk. Hope
this helps...

--
Christopher Mewhort, EA, CGA

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I finally got one of those snazzy all-in-one printer copier
scanners. So now I'm thinking about going largely "paperless,"
by which I mean that copies of tax returns and related
documentation (such that I choose to retain) would be stored in
online format only. The returns would be printed directly to
file using the related print drivers, while other documents
would be scanned and linked to the return file.

I know others around here are doing this, so I wondered how you
have organized your online filing system a/k/a directory
structure. Seems like I could set up one directory for each tax
year and put all clients' stuff for that year in it. Or, I could
set up a separate directory for each client and add successive
stuff each year. Or, I could get more involved than that with
separate year subdirectories under each client, etc., etc.

So, what has worked well in this regard? I'm using Paperport 9
with PDF file formats, if that makes a difference.

Thanks for the spins!

MTW

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