CRM (Basic): Contacts & Accounts

What are Contacts and what are Accounts? How do you set up your accounts and make them as convenient as possible? Let’s find out.

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Covered here:

• What are contacts and accounts?
• How to set up accounts
• Business, payroll and bookkeeping: one account with multiple contacts
• Spouses with a joint tax return: one account
• Spouses with individual tax returns: two accounts
• A dependent who requires their own tax return: a separate account
• Accounts with shared contacts: related accounts

What are contacts and accounts?

The first thing that’s helpful to know on TaxDome is the difference between Contacts and Accounts:

• Contacts are the actual people you interact with during your work hours. Our Contacts feature is where you store all their personal details. The email addresses listed there allow clients to have portal access to TaxDome (without an email in Contacts, clients cannot log on). Plus, you can use Contacts to store the details of coworkers, prospective clients, partners, and clients’ family members.
• Accounts can be either a company or an individual; they are the entities you work for and bill. An account is always linked to one or more contacts, depending on how many people use it. By linking accounts to contacts you allow clients to have access to their TaxDome portal.

Here's more on how to link contacts to accounts.

Note: You can't create a client account without contacts. At least one contact should be linked.

How to set up accounts

Generally speaking, you will want to create an account for each person or group that will be filing a return. Then you can link the contacts appropriately depending on the situation. This can vary from case to case. 

Below are examples of different situations and how you would set up the accounts to best suit your clients’ needs.

Business, payroll and bookkeeping: one account with multiple contacts

First, create an account for the company, then link all relevant contacts to it: business partners, controllers, managers, etc. For each contact, enable the desired toggles for their email addresses so that they can log into the portal, receive notifications, or sync their email.

Spouses with a joint tax return: one account

For a married couple who file jointly and both want portal access, create one account, then link the two contacts (their separate email addresses) to it. If there are other family members, such as children, grandparents, etc., who also need portal access, they too can be linked to the account.

Spouses with individual tax returns: two accounts

If you’re preparing two individual returns for a couple, create a separate account for each person. You would then link spouse one to their own account. Plus, if they want to have access to the other’s account, link their contact to it, then enable the LOGIN toggle for their email address. This way, they can log into either account—or even receive the same notifications and sync their email if they choose to.

A dependent who requires their own tax return: a separate account

If you’re preparing a tax return for a dependent, use a separate account—you can then link other contacts, such as those who claim this dependent, to the account. 

Please see a video below on different examples of how to set up dependents as TaxDome accounts and contacts.

Accounts with shared contacts: related accounts

When you are preparing a tax return for spouses with different accounts, you may want to check something in the spouse's account. The same option may be useful when you are searching for an individual account of the company's CEO who is also your company client. You don't need to search for that account, since all the accounts with shared contacts are listed in the Related accounts section of the account's Info tab. Clicking the account name will open this account's Info tab.