12 Useful Drake Tax Software Features You Are Not Using [Infographic]

Drake tax software is a complete tax software solution, best suited for small and medium-sized businesses. If you are already using DrakeTax Software for your business, then you may know some of its basic features like Drake Documents, Drake Scheduler, Drake Tax Planner, and many more.

But still, many tax professionals might not know some other useful features to get the most out of it.

Here are some useful Drake software features that you might not be using –

1. DoubleCheck

In the enhanced view of Drake tax software, you can check off items using DoubleCheck. You can flag and verify the items on the tax forms to review them in the future and can even add or delete notes to these items.

The icons used in DoubleCheck are green tick, red flag, and yellow note. Green Tick indicates that the field is verified, Red Flag indicates the field is marked for review, and the Yellow Note indicates that the field has a note.

2. LinkBacks

With the LinkBacks feature, you can locate the source of data in the tax return. You can view the forms, schedules, and worksheets to which information flows and can easily find the source.

For example, if you want to know from where the data on line 5 of 1040 was entered, you can open LinkBacks of line 5 and view the screens from where the program pulls the data in line 5.

3. LookBack

LookBack feature of the software will allow you to see the last year’s data on the current year’s screen without opening both versions of the software. This feature is available in almost all forms.

Identifying the previous year’s data helps to rectify and fix the errors in the current year’s data. F11 is used to highlight fields that contained data last year, and F12 is used to highlight last year’s data.

4. Amortization

With this feature of Drake, you can calculate the loan amount for various loan scenarios. To calculate that, you have to enter fields like amortization period, annual interest, payment per year, loan amount, payment amount, payment type, and date of first payment. You can even schedule to print the data and save it to view in the future.

5. D Imports

Using this feature, you can schedule the import of loss transactions and capital gain data from the Excel sheet or any other worksheet to the Drake software directly without any manual data entry. The sheet must be saved in Excel, TAB, or CSV files to schedule the import. The columns in the worksheet should be in the same field as in the screen 8949.

6. Printing Labels

With the Printing Labels feature, you can print a single client label or group of labels in Drake Tax Software.

Some types of labels are Mailing Label, Folder label: SSN/EIN, Name, Folder Label: Name, Folder Label: SSN/EIN, Name, Tax Year, and many more. Before printing the labels, make sure that the label printer is installed properly as per the instructions of the manufacturer.

7. Hide Screen

This hide screen option suppresses some notes on the Federal NOTES Page. To hide the note, choose the HIDE option in the miscellaneous tab. To hide the note in the view mode, use three-digit code so that only you can view the information, and nobody else can.

8. Side By Side Comparison

With this feature of Drake tax software, users and their clients can see the impact of the new tax laws on returns easily. The side by side comparison table compares the effect of new tax laws over totals.

9. Multi-Factor Authentication

Drake tax software has a multi-factor authentication feature to make sure all the crucial data client’s data is safe and sound. In multi-factor authentication, system security verifies the identity by asking multiple credentials.

10. Drill-down Reports

This new feature will help you to know the detailed breakdown of any element. For instance, if you want to how much money is spent on travel, you can double-click on the travel element and get complete insight, and in the future, decide what to spend.

11. Graphical Reports

This feature represents reports in graphical formats alongside the raw data. With the help of this feature, you can easily explain the clients their financial situation. Not only this, but you can also compare the revenue of the previous year with the revenue of the present year with these graphical reports.

12. Research Tool

This is a user-friendly tool that helps you to stay updated with the latest changes in the tax laws. You can add favorite sites, tax forms, and keyword in the research tool and make your research easy.

Wrapping Up

Drake tax software has many features to smoothen the tax filing process and reduce the tax season stress. Additionally, hosting Drake on a cloud adds features like remote accessibility, enhanced security, multi-user collaboration, and many more.

Do you know more such features of Drake tax software that others may be unaware of? Please write to us in the comment section.