Overview

GruntWorx is a secure, web-based application that automates the time-consuming tasks of organizing data and entering it in Drake Tax. This cutting-edge technology is integrated into Drake Tax and uses Drake Documents for scanning, printing and file management. It is accessed from the GruntWorx icon on the home window of Drake Tax or from Drake Documents.

Product Types

GruntWorx offers different "job" types to improve your office productivity:

• Organize – the core product that provides you with a bookmarked client PDF, organized by categories that follow the standard tax return order.

• Populate – an add-on product that extracts taxpayer information from a variety of common tax forms and provides you with an .xml data file that you can import into Drake Tax.

  • Populate is available for current year individual and business packages 1040, 1041, 1065, 1120, and 1120-S.

  • Locality information is not currently supported and must be manually entered where applicable.

• Trades – an add-on product that extracts brokerage trades from 1099-Bs and consolidated brokerage statements and provides you with an Excel spreadsheet (.xls file) that you can use with the Drake Schedule D import function.

• Trades import is available for individual and business package types 1040, 1041, 1120, 1120-S, and 1065.

• Organize LITE- GruntWorx Organize LITE, a page processing product that offers access to the GruntWorx Organize service for individual income tax-related documents, with the exception that documents are processed strictly with no human validation. With acceptable scan quality, you receive an organized document back in minutes. See the GruntWorx section on the Drake Software Support website for more information (Drake Support login required).

• Populate LITE - a do-it-yourself product featuring a quicker turnaround time and lower cost than the traditional Populate product. It provides you with an .xml data file that can be imported into Drake Tax. See GruntWorx - Populate LITE for details.

The Populate and Trades add-ons extract data from forms submitted and incorporated in the bookmarked Organize PDF. Populate and Trades add-ons substantially reduce, but do not eliminate all data entry, and you are still responsible for reviewing imported data to ensure it is correctly entered in the software.

Using GruntWorx

There are six steps to using GruntWorx:

1. Gather your client’s tax documents.

2. Scan the tax documents as a PDF document into the client's Drake Documents folder. You can scan them into Drake Documents as separate PDFs or as a single PDF, in any sequence, as long as each tax document is scanned as a separate page and the pages of multi-page documents such as brokerage statements and K-1 papers are scanned sequentially.

3. Submit the PDF as a job to GruntWorx using Drake Documents interface. You may opt to receive an email when your job is done processing, which can take just a few minutes or up to 24 hours on peak production days.

4. Download the completed job using Drake Documents by checking the box next to your completed job in the Job Status window and then selecting Download. The product returned to you will consist of the client's Organized job (the bookmarked PDF) and any Populate and/or Trades add-ons for importation.

5. Review the bookmarks and the Excel Trade sheet for accuracy.

6. Import your client’s tax data by selecting the Import icon on main data screen of the return in Drake.

The Organize product is a PDF that is bookmarked to allow you to immediately select and view a document. The bookmarks classify, organize and label IRS documents in a standard order.

• “Income” documents

• “Adjustments” documents

• “Deductions” documents

• “Credits” documents

• “Supporting” documents

  • Medical, Donations, Correspondence, Statements, Invoices, Other Taxes, Instructions, Extensions, and EF-Authorization.

• “Poor Quality/Handwritten Notes”

Turnaround time depends on file size. When uploading, you can schedule an email to be sent to you when files are ready to download.

Although you can scan and upload individual clients separately, you probably will want to use the batch scan/upload feature so that you can scan documents for multiple clients at one time and upload them to GruntWorx together. An individual does not need tax training to perform this task.

Payment

GruntWorx products are charged on a per-page, per-form, and per-trade basis, depending on which service you choose. The following products are available:

• Organize LITE

• Populate LITE

• Trades Summary

• Organize

• Populate

• Trades

Detailed pricing information may be found by logging into the support website and going to Products > GruntWorx. Please note that the cost to populate or process trades is in addition to the cost of the organize for the same form. Use the GruntWorx cost estimator to calculate approximate costs.

Preparing to Use

System Requirements: To use GruntWorx, a computer meeting Drake Tax system requirements also needs:

• Drake Documents

  • Drake Documents requires Microsoft .NET Framework version 4.7 or later.

  • If you have not kept up with regular Window updates and are running an older version of .NET Framework, you will automatically be directed to the Microsoft website, where you can download (at no charge) the newest version of .NET.

• Adobe Reader (required), Adobe Standard (recommended)

• Microsoft Excel 2003 or later (for Trades)

  • Must be the full program downloaded from Microsoft, not the Microsoft store (app store). Check to ensure that the full program is installed under your computer's control panel > Add/remove programs.

Drake Tax system requirements are detailed in Drake Tax – System Requirements.

For information about using GruntWorx as a Hosting on Rightworks user, see Rightworks – Frequently Asked Questions.

Photos and Images

GruntWorx is able to process images of documents for any job type. PDF, JPEG, and PNG files are all supported. This fosters integration with Drake Portals where taxpayers can upload image files to preparers who can then use those images to send a GruntWorx job.

Scanners

Scan clarity affects the accuracy of GruntWorx products. Documents that do not scan properly are included in the Organize PDF, but they may be bookmarked "Poor Quality/Handwritten Notes" and may not permit data extraction for Populate or Trades files. See GruntWorx - Scanning Documents for best practices.

Drake Documents' features necessary for using GruntWorx are supplied in Drake Software's January release.

Troubleshooting

If the Select Client drop list is not showing all of your clients, you can correct this by repairing the index. Go to Tools > Repair Index Files (or press Ctrl + R from the Drake Tax home window), then select Name Index (Client name list for File > Open) and click Continue. Make the desired selections on the Name Index Additional Options window, then click OK. When the repair is complete, the GruntWorx Select Client list has been updated with all client names.

Assistance

For assistance with using GruntWorx inside Drake Tax, contact Drake Software's GruntWorx Support line at (828) 349-5505.

For questions about GruntWorx purchases, including more specific information about costs or their refund policy, contact GruntWorx at (877) 830-6059 or review the GruntWorx website for additional options.

More information, tutorials, and cost estimators are available at Drake Support > Purchasing > GruntWorx.