This update is packed with everything you need to have a productive tax season.

Summary of Changes with 3.6

• APX 2.0 is here!
• Team Dashboard - New Feature! 
• Lacerte Integration - Exporting Clients is back!

APX 2.0

We are excited that your firm is activating Abacus Payment Exchange 2.0. To ensure that you have a seamless upgrade experience follow the steps below.

Please note that this update will require your firm to go through the on-boarding process again to continue to process payments.

 

What's new with APX 2.0 

• One-click PayNow Experience
• Secure Portal
• In-depth Reporting 

STEP ONE: Collect Your Key Business Information 

To update your APX merchant agreement you will need to access some basic business-related information. Areas that will require your input include details about your business, details about the owner(s) of your business, and banking account information.

 

STEP TWO: Upgrade Your OfficeTools Solution

To successfully move to APX 2.0 your firm must upgrade to OfficeTools version 3.6. If you are running OfficeTools v3.5 or lower you will need to upgrade both your workstation(s) and servers with the latest OfficeTools software.

 

STEP THREE: Complete the APX On-Boarding Application

After the OfficeTools v3.6 update is applied the next step is to complete the APX 2.0 on-boarding application. This secure, online process requires you to insert details about your business, ownership and banking information as well as agreeing to updated T&C’s before being able to process electronic payments with APX 2.0. For instructions on how to apply please click here.

 

Learn More about APX 2.0

 

Team Dashboard

With a new dashboard attached to the Activity list, we've provided even more options to view your teams work and productivity.

 

How to access the dashboard

Toggle between your activity list and dashboard  

 

How we are visualizing your Team Dashboard  

The tiles are summarizing the events that are on your activity list. The focus feature controls the data that is being included/excluded.

Change the focus to filter to show the items that are important to you 

 

 

Dashboard Tiles included with this Update

 

Activity 

These tiles will summarize activity items by type, priority, and what is overdue. Click on the title to get a detailed list of items for a more focused session.

 

Time & Completed Events

The time tile summarize time entered; we hope it will serve as a reminder to capture every billable moment. Included is access to a list of recently completed events.

 

Appointments & Assignments

Review up and coming appointments and the Top 10 assignments  for an efficient way to work.  

 

Other features

• Click on the details of the tiles for you activity list to filter to those specific items (available on most tiles)
• Use the settings icon on each tile to set your preferred date range (available on most tiles)

Tell us what you Think!

Comment on feature up vote to tell us what you would like to see next!

Be on the lookout for a Firm dashboard. Tell us on feature upvote what data you want visualized.

Learn More about the Team Dashboard

 

Lacerte Integration Update for Tax Year 2021

We are pleased to announce we have brought back the ability to Add a new client from OfficeTools and have it sync directly to Lacerte.

A workstation update is required to establish compatibility with Lacerte 2021.

Next, update your OfficeTools to right tax year for the Lacerte integration to work. Please click here for instructions on how to do this.

 

Performance Recommendations: 

OfficeTools WorkSpace utilizes Microsoft Components such as SQL Express. It is recommended to use MS SQL Express 2017 or 2019, version 2012 is no longer recommended. 

 

OfficeTools Workstation Installation File

OfficeTools Server Installation File