The philosophy behind the design of the BRS Tax Preparer

We believe that the main focus of an estate tax preparation program should be to produce the tax return itself.  This is why our program allows you to edit the values directly on the pages of the return.  What you see is definitely what you get in this program.

We believe that an estate tax preparation program should be as easy to use as the typical "fill-in forms" product while automating the tasks that make a "fill-in forms" product laborious to use.

We believe that an estate tax preparer program should provide all of the forms that you need and not just the most popular forms. It should be a complete solution.

We believe that an estate tax preparer program should provide flexibility when preparing returns that include decoupled states.

We feel that entering data onto a tax form should not be complicated.  You should not have to guess where your entry will be carried to on the form, you should be able to enter it right on the form. 

We believe that entering data onto the tax form should not be as laborious and tedious as entering it on a sheet of paper.  The software should act intelligently and use automation to reduce your labor wherever possible.  This is why in our program we perform all of the defined inter-field calculations automatically and instantaneously. Values are not just calculated between fields on the current page, but instead they are carried through the return and across pages to produce the final result.  Don't worry, if you need to override a calculated value it is a simple as pressing a button and making your entry in the field.  And your entry will be carried though to all dependent calculated fields in the return. 

We believe that you should not have search through the pages of a return to find the source of a calculated summary field.  The program should take you there automatically.  This is why our product has the Drill Down feature.  Just press the Drill Down button and the program takes you to the field that is the source of the active summary field.  And if the source field is on a schedule that is not yet included in the case file then the program will prompt you to add this schedule automatically.  For example, in Form 706's Recapitulation line 1, pressing Drill Down will take you to the total field of Schedule A.  Pressing Drill Down again will take you to the first item row. Its that easy!

Likewise we believe that you should not have to search through the return to find for the summary field where a the detail field that you are editing is carried.  This is why our program has the "Drill Up" feature.  Just by pressing the Drill Up button and the program takes you to the summary field where its value is carried.  For example, if you are editing an item row's Value column on Form 706's Schedule A and press Drill Up it will take you to the column total field on that schedule. Press Drill Up again and it takes you to Form 706's Recapitulation line 1.

Dealing with spreadsheet based schedules should be easy

One the of most laborious tasks, when filing a return using a "fill in forms" program can be the entering of items on a spreadsheet based schedule like those found on Form 706. A spreadsheet based schedule is one containing rows and columns. These schedules usually allow an unlimited number of item rows to be entered and use continuation schedules. 

Some programs force you to manually add continuation schedules, and to manually split the items between them. Other programs only show a single row at a time while editing so you can not see the relative height or position of an item on the schedule without printing it. Other programs do not allow you to enter your data directly on the form but instead require that you enter data in a separate entry pane only to see the results after they are applied.

In our program all item rows can be entered on the main schedule.  And if you enter more item rows than will fit on the schedule it will show a scroll bar next to it while editing.  Then at print time the item-rows are automatically spread across continuation schedules and all totals are carried forward to the main schedule.  This is key when preparing estate tax returns.

By having all of the item rows in one scrollable schedule the common editing operations are greatly simplified.  Operations like searching, sorting, moving, cut&pasting, copy&pasting of schedule item rows is as easy as the press of a button in our program.

Scroll through the item rows of the schedule as fast as you can click.  Watch the rows of the schedule scroll like a small spreadsheet right there on the form.  Go to the first or last item in the schedule with a single button press.

Arranging and sorting item rows within a schedule is as fast and easy as scrolling.  Just select the row to move and click one of the row moving buttons (Move-Up, Move-Down, Move-to-Top, and Move-to-Bottom).

Moving item-rows between schedules is as easy too.  Just select the item-row to be moved, press the Cut-Row button, then go the the target schedule and press the Paste-Row button and you are done.  Its that easy! And yes, this even works for schedules that are not exactly the same.  Our program can handle it.

We believe that you should have the power to format the return as you see fit.  Whether you want to show or hide zero amounts; to align values to the right, left, or center; to use a specific font for a field, to place a custom value anywhere on the page, etc.  We give you this power and more.

It should be visually obvious how an item row will appear on its schedule after its height has changed. The height of the row should be adjusted automatically when the description is edited.  Our program adjusts the height of the item-row as new lines are added to the description field and then the amount fields are realigned to the bottom of the row automatically. 

Ease of use:

Novice Users: In this day and age software programs should be easy to use.  You should have to take a course or study the manual for a week to be proficient in its use.  The software program is a tool and not a skill to be learned.

Infrequent Users: We realize that not all users will use a program every day.  They should be able to open the program six months later and still be able to use it without repeating a long learning curve. 

Our product solves these issues with features like the Guide Me wizard to allow the novice or infrequent user to easily find and execute any program operation by simply answering a few questions.  Its as easy and browsing the web.  There is no need to look through all of the menu items, just use the Guide Me wizard.

Power Users: The person that uses a program every day should have access to powerful shortcuts to every operation.  This is why we have accelerator key combinations for all commonly used program actions.

Speed and mobility are very important to us

Speed and mobility were major factors when designing this program.  Many products today require a full time internet connection and can be slow even with a high speed connection.  We believe that you should be able to work anywhere your laptop can go.  And that you should not be limited by the availability to an internet connection.  This is why our product runs 100% from your personal computer and does not require a connection to the internet.  Its about freedom and speed.  Work on you case files from anywhere at blazing speed.  Work from a plane, a train, on the bus, in the limo, in the library, anywhere!

You should not have to worry about not being able to access your files in the future.  Since our product runs entirely from your personal computer you will always be able to use it to access your saved files.  Once you install the program you can use it forever.

Data security and accessibility

In our product your customer's returns are stored as files and not in a central database.  This allows for their security and availability to be managed by your file system.  This also allows for a wide variety of storage accessibility options.  Store your files to any drive be it your hard drive, a network drive, a floppy disk, a removable drive, or even an internet virtual drive.  It should be up to you and it should be flexible.

These are just a few examples of the philosophy with which our program was designed to make your life easier. For a complete list of its features please visit the features page.

See the product page of the BRS Tax Preparer.

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Copyright © 2007 Bold River Software, Inc.
Last modified: 1/19/2008