Once you’ve signed up for LodgeiT and connected it to QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA), you’re ready to start preparing your client’s tax lodgements.
This article will cover the following topics to get you started with LodgeiT
- Completing LodgeiT Setup
- Nominating LodgeiT
- Completing your organisation’s details
- Adding clients
- Defining relationships
- Importing financials
- Creating a new tax return
- Using LodgeiT after exporting from QBOA
- Bring in data from QBOA without using Export to LodgeiT
- Navigating LodgeiT
- Mapping accounts
- Using the form editor
Before you start
When the firm and client setup is complete, LodgeiT will prepare the necessary forms ready for you to review. After you've reviewed the data you can use the Validate function to check for anything missing.
- Complete the form and select Complete.
- You can then send out the forms to your client for their digital signatures.
- After they’ve approved the forms, you can submit them to the ATO directly from within LodgeiT.
Completing LodgeiT Set up
First thing you'll need to do is complete the setup for your Firm. The first time use experience from Export to LodgeiT covers things like the organisation’s phone and address, but there are additional settings that need to be configured before you can complete and lodge tax forms.
You don’t need to start here in order to see all the value of LodgeiT, so feel free to give it a spin before you complete this information. LodgeiT allows you to update these details at any time and does a great job of checking for the information you are missing before continuing through a crucial step. For example, you can choose a form before importing financials, but LodgeiT will prompt you to import if you skipped that step.
Naturally, you’ll be blocked from sending out or lodging forms until this information is complete- LodgeiT will prompt you when you have missing information it needs before completing a form or lodging.
These steps are completed through the Getting Started section, always available through the top right question mark menu.
Nominating LodgeiT
This notifies the ATO that you will use LodgeiT as your hosted SBR software service provider. You’ll need to provide this software ID to the ATO in order to nominate. LodgeiT has provided instructions on this process: https://lodgeit.desk.com/customer/en/portal/articles/2292928-connect-lodgeit-to-ato
Completing your organisation's details
General information about your firm like signatories, addresses, bank accounts, etc. Navigate through the sections and fill out any pertinent details.
Adding Clients
This can be done by selecting Add while in LodgeiT - you can do so manually, or import their details from QuickBooks Online Accountant (QBOA).
To import from QBOA, start by clicking the QB icon.
- Choose your QBOA Firm from the dropdown under Which company would you like to connect to?
- The client list will populate. Select the client you would like to bring in to LodgeiT and select Confirm
- Select Connect to authorise LodgeiT to access the file
- LodgeiT will bring in the relevant data found in the QBO file.
Defining relationships
This is done if you are completing Individual tax returns, and company/trust/etc returns for individuals and entities that are related. Select Add to define these relationships, keep in mind each entity or individual will need to exist in the LodgeiT client list in order to be linked.
Importing financials
Here is a jumping off point to bring in QB data via the integration. Watch out though, the Firm may auto populate here and you may need to jump off into another client, otherwise the Your Books information will be imported. We will cover this more when walking through populating a return for a client.
Creating a new tax return
You can access this section after completing the initial setup. There are multiple ways to get to this step, and we will cover this when we go through importing financials.
Using LodgeiT after exporting from QBOA
After you have exported data from a QBO file, you may need to come back into LodgeiT to continue with the next steps on a form, to accept a signature, or to lodge a form. Here’s the details you’ll need to know.
- Sign into LodgeiT.
- Select Sign in with Intuit
- Enter in your QBOA credentials.
From the dashboard you will see any forms that are in progress, you can drill into an existing in progress form, or select a client from the top left list to use additional features or to create a new form.
Bringing in data from QBOA without using Export to LodgeiT
You don’t necessarily have to use the Prep for Taxes/Export to LodgeiT functions in order to get data into LodgeiT- this should typically be used for softwares other than QBO.
Here’s how to get client financial data into LodgeiT, how to map accounts, and how to create the return.
- Select a client (or add a new one), and navigate to the Forms page.
- Choose Add Form and select the type of form you want to use. The majority of forms will be CTRs (Company Tax Returns).
- Choose the tax year and select Create and prefill
- Select Import Financials to bring in data from a software
- Select your software from the list of providers
- Follow the prompts to sign into that software and pull in a client file
- LodgeiT will then import the financial data
- Choose the items for the tax return that are applicable to this client. This interview will turn on the applicable sections of the form then select Compete.
- Your data is now in LodgeiT
Navigating LodgeiT
The structure of LodgeiT is quite different from QBOA so it can take some getting used to. Here’s how it works:
When you sign in, you’re brought to the Dashboard. Here you’ll see Getting Started if you haven’t created any forms yet, or a list of forms if you have some in progress.
From the top left you’ll see a dropdown for Clients, any entity that is associated with the LodgeiT file shows up here: business names of clients from QBOA, as well as signatories within those accounts, your Firm name. This is because people and clients in LodgeiT can be interconnected- a signatory for a business might also have an Individual tax return within Lodgeit, and these can all be linked together to form a comprehensive tax package including both personal and business tax obligations.
The Clients link at the top right brings you to the LodgeiT client list. The best way to populate this list is by Exporting from QBO to LodgeiT, but you can manually add clients here as well.
The create icon or plus sign changes depends on your context- if you have not selected a Client yet, you get the option only to add a client. If you have selected a client and can see the forms in progress for them, you will now see new options under Create allowing you to add new forms.
The gear icon contains settings. The Settings option is your organisation setup. Team allows you to invite and track other users to the LodgeiT file- note that LodgeiT works completely independently from QBOA in this sense, so the team members from your firm would need to be invited into LodgeiT directly if they need their own login. Settings also houses a few other options:
- Billing details: Edit or update your billing information for LodgeiT.
- Branding: Allows you to add a logo and other brand details that will be used in email templates
- Esign: This houses the details that are auto-populated when sending esign requests to clients
- Software ID: Links you to the getting started option to grab the software ID to use on the ATO site.
- Organisation log: The Lodgeit version of the audit log
Dashboard
This screen will show Getting Started when Firm setup is not yet complete. If you have completed setup tasked and move on into creating forms, then you will see any forms in progress here.
Getting Started
Ideally, you’ll want to see all green ticks on this page to indicate you’ve completed all setup tasks. This is the page that makes sure you’ve got LodgeiT all the info it needs to populate and lodge forms for your clients. You can always get back to this page by selecting the question mark and choosing Getting Started.
Clients and Forms
List of all clients brought into LodgeiT. You can do this manually one by one, import from your QBOA client list, or have LodgeiT import from an excel file.
Tools
Once you choose a Client, you’ll see all of LodgeiT’s tools across the top. The client landing page shows all forms started for them and their current status. Both Add Form and the Plus (+) icon will allow you to add a new form for the client. Under Add Form, you can see all the possibilities based on how this client was set up.
Other tools
You can access tools like SPFR and Working Papers from the top menu, these will all be specific to this client. Starting the form process for a client will guide you through the necessary steps to populate financials.
Mapping accounts
One crucial setup task in LodgeiT is mapping accounts, with the QBO integration through Export to LodgeiT mapping is done automatically. LodgeiT takes the QBO chart of accounts and assigns the appropriate tax categories to each account. \
After importing financials, you’ll see a message at the top of the page asking you to review the mapping. Click on the alert or the Accounts button at any time to review the mapping.
Note: The lightning bolt icon indicates that LodgeiT prepopulated the account mapping.
e.g. GST Liabilities Payable in QBO becomes Net GST Payable to align with ATO account structure.
If LodgeiT was not able to find a corresponding tax mapping, you will have an alert. Click into the account and choose from the account mapping tree and override any mapping if you wish. If you are importing financials from another software, you’ll need to complete this mapping exercise manually.
LodgeiT resource: https://help.lodgeit.net.au/support/solutions/articles/60000609338-getting-started-with-mapping-accounts
Using the form editor
You can use the form editor answer individual questions to populate the tax form. Answer the interview questions, and select Validate to confirm everything is completed. You can select the validation errors to be taken to the right spot in the form. Once you have completed a section, move on to the next tab.
The Company tab is an overview of the company, fill out any details missing and answer the interview questions to make sure you have filled out any applicable settings. This information needs to be updated from the General Settings menu.
The other tabs fill in the financial details and map them against the tax form based on the interview you filled out. Once completed select Validate to check the data, and then Complete.
Note: If you find there is a section of the form missing, it has not yet been turned on. To edit which sections of the form are turned on, click the 4 squares icon on the top right and answer the interview questions.
Form Statuses explained
- Draft: This is the status while completing the form.
- Complete: After the whole form has been filled out, it is marked as Complete.
- Out to Sign: After completing the form, you can select Out to Sign to either mark this for sharing with your client to obtain their signature, or you can use the integrated e-signature function.
- To Sign: Client has signed the form and it is awaiting the accountant signature. After a form is in To Sign status, tick the box next to it and choose the options to Sign and Lodge in order to Lodge this with the ATO.