Tax software that checks its own work.

Crosstie Practice

Run the firm from one place: clients, engagements, documents, deadlines and billing. Keep the tax software you use today. Crosstie Practice works alongside it.

Organizers that feed the return

In most products the organizer is a form the client fills in and someone retypes. Here the answers go straight into the workpaper.

• Built for each engagement: a document checklist and questions that follow the client's situation — a mortgage, rent, a 529 plan, school costs — so they answer only what applies.
• Done in several sittings: on a phone or a computer, with every answer and upload saved as they go, picking up where they left off.
• Answers that reach the return: filing status, dependents and ages feed the computation directly. Nothing is keyed twice.
• Reminders that know when to stop: outstanding items are chased after 3, 7 and 14 days, every 2 days near the deadline, then handed to you rather than nagging forever.

Client portal

• One place for the client: uploads by photo or PDF, questions, open-items requests, and the delivered return to review and approve.
• Duplicate and corrected documents: the same file uploaded twice is caught, and a corrected form replaces the original only after you accept it.

Engagement letters, e-signatures and payments

• Engagement letters signed online, with the scope and fee recorded. Adding a service later is an addendum the client signs.
• E-signatures for any document you send for signature, such as a proposal.
• Paid when they sign: in full, or billed monthly or annually by card.
• Access tied to payment: if a payment fails, the portal pauses new work until it's settled. The client can still see and download their records.
• Service packages: quote from your own tiers, with a price for each service on its own and a credit when it's bundled.

Time, WIP and pricing

• Which clients are costing you money, and what to charge them next year. From the time actually spent, each engagement's real hourly rate, and a list of what to reprice at renewal. Each new price is built from hours at your target rate, the cost to file, a margin adjustment and tax, with every step shown so you can check the arithmetic.
• Time that tracks itself. Work in a client's file and your time is recorded, sorted by what you were doing, and carried to the engagement's WIP. No one has to remember to start a timer. It pauses when you step away, and you confirm each block before it's logged.
• Cross-selling, suggested for you: services each client could use but doesn't have yet, with the reason — bookkeeping for a sole proprietor, planning for a landlord, payroll for a corporation. One click drafts an addendum to their engagement letter.

Documents and workflow

• Domestic and international file rooms. The engagement letter asks for the client's consent to international preparation (IRC §7216). Their files go to the international file room only if they consent, and to the domestic one otherwise.
• Mark up PDFs in the client's file, and export the marked-up copy.
• One view of the day: what needs attention, what's waiting on the client, and what's due.
• Every return's status, from documents requested to delivered, with deadlines by entity type.
• IRS notices logged against the client, with their response deadlines and status.
• Estimated tax payments: quarterly amounts recorded and reminders sent before each due date.
• Team roles and seats: preparer, reviewer, partner and admin, with sign-off levels set by role and a seat for each active user.

Coming soon

• E-signature for Form 8879, with the identity verification (knowledge-based authentication) the IRS requires for a remote signature.
• Export to the tax software you already use, so a firm that keeps its own software doesn't key the workpaper again.

Pricing, in short: one plan, priced per user per month. Everything is included, workpapers too. The only paid add-on will be accounting, which is still in development.

Workpapers, included in both

The workpaper comes with Crosstie Practice and with Crosstie Tax, at no extra charge. Client documents are read into it, every figure traces to its source, and nothing is computed on a guess. With Crosstie Practice alone, you keep your own tax software and prepare the return there.

Coming soon Exporting a finished workpaper into the tax software you already use, so nothing is keyed twice.

• Incomplete, never confidently wrong. A figure that can't be supported isn't computed. You get the reason instead of a number.
• Tie-outs. The return's key totals checked against the workpaper. A difference ties only when it's explained.
• Entries that know the entity. Suggested from the client's ledger, and sorted into book, reclassification and tax-only entries, with book-tax differences carried to Schedule M-1.
• A review queue sign-off can't skip. Everything unresolved stays open until it's fixed or answered with a reason.
• Sign-off at every level you choose: preparer, reviewer and partner in order, each freezing the workpaper. If one person signs two levels, the file says so, rather than presenting it as an independent review.

Crosstie Tax

The filing engine, with workpapers included. The return is prepared from the workpaper and filed, with no export and no second system. It's in development: Crosstie isn't yet authorized to e-file with the IRS, and no date has been set.

From the workpaper to the return, without re-keying

Real screen Workpaper · trial balance, tax column

1234

→

Preview — in development Return · design mockup

Form 1120-S · Page 1 · Harbor Lane Design, Inc. (fictional)

1 1a Gross receipts or sales from 4000 Design Revenue	186,500
lines 1b–6
2 7 Compensation of officers from 5000 Officer Compensation	60,000
3 8 Salaries and wages from 5100 Wages	24,000
lines 9–10
4 11 Rents from 5200 Rent	14,400

Return preparation, coming soon

• The return comes from the workpaper, so figures aren't keyed twice and can't drift apart.
• Each line shows its source: which accounts, which entries, which documents.

Better together: one system, not two

Use them together and there's nothing to move between them. They aren't separate products joined by an integration. They're one system.

Demo: from engagement to sign-off

A walk through the working software, one step at a time. Every screen is real, shown with fictional clients. Return preparation isn't part of this walk-through because it's still in development.

1. Step 1 of 5 · Working today

   Start the day on the dashboard

   

2. Step 2 of 5 · Working today

   Every engagement and where it stands

   

3. Step 3 of 5 · Working today

   The workpaper raises what a reviewer would catch

   

4. Step 4 of 5 · Working today

   Entries suggested from the client's ledger

   

5. Step 5 of 5 · Working today

   It stops instead of guessing