Drake Tax – Home Menu

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Article #: 13781

The main window of Drake Tax is referred to as the Home window.

The Home Window features includes the following sections:

  1. Menu Bar – Allows you to complete various tasks in the program.
  2. Toolbar – Allows you to complete various tasks in the program.
  3. Recent Returns – Lists the last nine returns that were opened by the logged-in preparer.
  4. Appointments – Shows the logged-in preparer’s schedule for the current date (per the Drake Scheduler), and provides a link to open the Drake Scheduler.
  5. Alerts, Notifications, and Update Status
    • Indicates when e-file (EF) acknowledgments are ready to be processed, the status of GruntWorx jobs, (such as pending or completed); important announcements, dates, and reminders, and informs you of Drake Software systems statuses.
    • Your system must be connected to the Internet to receive alerts; alerts are refreshed every 15 minutes.
    • The Update section keeps you informed of program updates available to be installed. If all available updates have been installed, the status is listed as Software up to date.
  6. Status Bar – Provides system information about the logged-in preparer, program version, computer drive, and date
  7. Preparer Notes – Allows you to write brief notes—visible only to the preparer who wrote them—that remain in this section until deleted
  8. Personal Client Manager (PCM) – Allows the logged-in preparer to easily manage client records, which can be sorted by name, return type, status, transmission date, and more. See Drake Tax – Personal Client Manager Overview for details.
  9. Enable Privacy – Hides the Recent Returns list, PCM, and Preparer Notes sections. Toggle back to full visibility on the Home window by clicking the Disable Privacy button.

General Navigation

Navigate through Drake Tax via the following methods:

  • Click or left-click (mouse) — Select an item.
  • Right-click (mouse) — While in data entry, right-click anywhere on the screen or in a field to display a menu of common program functions. Other options are available by right clicking the Data Entry Menu.
  • Keyboard shortcuts (keyboard) — Use keyboard shortcuts to perform tasks from the Home window without using the mouse.
    • Press Alt to display the underlined keyboard shortcut and then press the desired keyboard shortcut. For example, from the Home window, press Alt, F, O (F for File, O for Open) to open the Open/Create a Return dialog box.
  • Keyboard combinations (keyboard) — Use key combinations as another way to perform tasks without using the mouse.
    • Key combinations are written as two or more key names connected by a plus (+) sign.
    • Press and hold down one key, and then press a second key. Key combinations are shown to the right of each menu item.

Screen Links

Use screen links to move quickly from one screen to a related screen without having to return to the Data Entry Menu. The example below shows that the Foreign Employer Compensation screen and the Household Employee screen can be directly accessed from screen 3 (Income).

Federal-to-state screen links (figure right) serve as shortcuts to related state
screens. For example, the state links on screen 2 link to state screens that need additional dependent information.

State links are located in the State Information section at the upper-right corner of a screen.

Screen Tabs

Screen tabs allow you to organize multiple instances of the same form and their associated worksheets. For instance, in the 1040 package of Drake Tax, the K1P screen contains two tabs for covering basic Schedule K-1 information, the Add’l entries tab (to facilitate more complete K-1 reporting), two tabs for the basis worksheet, two 6198 At-Risk tabs for the partner’s at-risk limit worksheets with a particular K-1 issued to the taxpayer, and tabs for the partner’s Pre-2018 Basis and Pre-2018 At-Risk.

For a new set of K1 screens, press Page Down.

Tip Many screens and windows contain links to helpful video tutorials