Secure Instant Chats With Tasks
Covered here:
- Chats & Tasks
- Creating Chats
- Replying to Messages
- Your Chats List
- Managing Your Tasks
- Including Videos in Chats
- Managing Docs Inside Chats
Chats & Tasks
Chats let you create chat threads where you can securely communicate in real-time with your tax preparer:
- Both you and your preparer can use Chats to ask questions, get info and upload and download documents.
- Your preparer receives a notification that a question is pending and then answers it.
- Either a firm or you can start a chat thread.
- All messages and attachments are on one page.
- Your preparer might add tasks for you inside a chat thread.
- Once you’ve completed a task, either you or your accountant can check it off.
- All tasks are viewable on one page.
- Once everything in a chat thread is completed, your preparer may archive it.
Creating Chats
To start a chat:
1. Go to the Chats & Tasks section, then click New Chat, or go to the Home page and click New Chat on the dashboard.
2. Write a message. Apply formatting and add bullets or numbered lists. Give the chat a name (you can change it or edit it later).
3. Click Create chat. Next, your preparer receives a notification letting them know that they have a message from you.
Replying to Messages
Once you have a new message, you’ll see a notification in the main menu. All pending messages along with the tasks inside them are displayed on your dashboard. You can also access them by going to Chats & Tasks section.
Remember, you’ll always get an email notification when your accountant sends you a message or requests additional information. Click the link in the message to view and reply to it.
Read the message from your accountant, type a reply in the message field, then click the send icon when you're done.
Your Chats List
To see all your chats, go to Chats & Tasks from the main menu. If you have unread messages, you will see the Unread section on the top and the Read messages below. All the chats are sorted chronologically by the most recent response.
On the left, a list displays information about the last response time, author, subject and status of your tasks for each thread. The unread threads are marked with a green paper plane icon and a dot, and the read threads are marked with a purple paper plane icon. Archived threads are marked with a grey plane.
Managing Your Tasks
Your accountant can assign tasks inside a message.
If there are any tasks attached to the chat thread, a section called Your Tasks appears inside the thread. You will also see the number of tasks assigned/completed in the chat thread name.
Tasks look like the items of a to-do checklist. Once a task is completed, either you or your accountant can check it off.
You can also check your tasks right from the notification on your dashboard.
If you want to track your tasks from all your chats on a single page, go to the Chats & Tasks tab, click on the Filter button far to the right, and select:
- Incomplete: To view all the chat threads with your tasks to complete.
- Completed: To view all the chat threads with checked-off to-do items.
- All: To view all the chat threads with your tasks.
Then click Apply.
There are two other ways to filter chats. You can filter by:
- Time interval: see chat threads with responses or your tasks created from a selected range.
- Status: see only chat threads with Active or Archive status.
Including Videos in Chats
Sometimes words are not enough—and visuals are a big help. Embed videos from Loom, Vimeo, YouTube or Google Drive if you want to show your preparer something you feel is too difficult to explain. Click the embed-video icon (the push-play arrow) in the text-formatting toolbar, then paste the link to your video.
Your preparer will be able to watch the video right inside the chat thread.
Managing Docs Inside Chats
It's a good idea to use Chats as a quick and convenient place for exchanging documents (think: your W2, 1099-MISC, 1099-K, 1099-SA, etc.). The maximum allowed file size for uploading is 200 MB.
When your accountant uploads a document, and the thread is open on your device, you’ll see it upload in real-time. You can either upload from your device or link documents that are already uploaded to TaxDome.
Click on the 📎 Attach button at the bottom of the chat thread, then select your preference:
- Attaching files from TaxDome: Select From TaxDome, then click the folder and choose the documents.
- Uploading files from your computer: Select From my device, then locate the documents you want to upload.
- Uploading Zip archives: Select From my device, then locate the compressed file you want to upload. It will automatically unzip. Here's more on uploading zip files.
If there are any docs attached to the chat thread, a Documents tab appears inside the thread with the paper clip icon in the chat thread name. Open this tab to see all documents attached or click + Add document to attach more.
Deleting Documents
If you upload the wrong document, remove it by going to the Documents tab in the chat thread and clicking the trash can icon to the right of the document name.
Viewing documents
View any of the files you or your accountant uploaded to Chats by going to the Documents tab in the chat thread and clicking on the eye icon to open the document viewer. Click Close to return to the Chats screen.
Downloading documents
Download a document uploaded to Chats onto your computer or device by going to the Documents tab in the chat thread and clicking on the download icon.
Learn more about specifying where files are downloaded.
