CloudTax An introduction to the CloudTax application on CaseWare Cloud

Index What is CloudTax? ........................................................................................................................ 3

How does CaseWare Cloud and CloudTax work together? ............................................................ 3

What you need to know about your data in CaseWare Cloud ...................................................................................... 3 Entities, Staff, Contacts and Groups terminology when working in CloudTax .............................................................. 4

Where to start with CloudTax ...................................................................................................... 5

Upskill yourself on CaseWare Cloud first ....................................................................................................................... 5 Ascertain your role in CaseWare Cloud / CloudTax ....................................................................................................... 5

I am the Firm Champion / CaseWare Cloud administrator ....................................................................................... 5 I am the Tax Practitioner (Staff Member of the firm) performing work for my Taxpayers (My clients) ................... 6

Then upskill yourself on CloudTax ................................................................................................................................. 6

Familiarising yourself with the CloudTax dashboard (Practice Overview): .................................... 7

Practice Admin: ............................................................................................................................ 9

Importing Taxpayers in bulk from the Practice Admin Screen ...................................................................................... 9 Information Validation for Staff and Taxpayers from the Practice Admin screen ......................................................... 9 SARS Sync ..................................................................................................................................................................... 10

Manage Taxpayer Information from the My Taxpayer screen: ................................................... 10

Taxpayer Information screen ....................................................................................................................................... 11 Taxpayer year of assessment screen ........................................................................................................................... 11

CloudTax Provisional Returns ..................................................................................................... 12

How to use the Tax Tables .......................................................................................................... 14

Checklist: A recommended user journey when using CloudTax. ................................................. 14

Additional resources .................................................................................................................. 16

Additional resources on CaseWare Cloud .................................................................................................................... 16 Additional resources on CloudTax ............................................................................................................................... 16

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What is CloudTax? CloudTax was developed to help you manage your entire practice from a Tax point of view in one system. Powered by CaseWare Cloud, this application enables you to have a centralised system whereby you and your firm can perform seamless tax management for your clients where you have a direct link with the SARS eFiling data and a workflow that simplifies this process to save you time and increase your ability to execute this with accuracy. CloudTax was designed to offer you a simple and intuitive interface so that you can get up and running fast and manage your taxpayers efficiently as well. This guide offers you all the information you need to refer to when working on CloudTax. Here you will be able to see how CloudTax works from a tax process point of view as well as a feature point of view. There are videos, step-by-step workflows and eLearning modules to help you along the way. Click on the thumbnail below to access the CloudTax Brochure.

How does CaseWare Cloud and CloudTax work together? CaseWare Cloud is our flagship online platform that makes CaseWare Working Papers even more effective and along with that we have developed a range of applications that help you perform specific tasks without the need to install a separate system with a separate data set. Whether you are using CaseWare Cloud for your audit engagements, managing your secretarial tasks with the CloudSec application or your Tax clients in CloudTax, you now have all the tools you need to do this anytime, anywhere from a secure cloud—based platform.

What you need to know about your data in CaseWare Cloud CaseWare Cloud removes duplication of effort irrespective of the application you use. Be it CloudTax or even CloudSec, your existing Entity, Staff and Contact information will pull through. This means that you have one source of truth that frees you up to focus on your clients and not managing multiple databases.

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Below is an illustration that shows you how your core data relationships in CaseWare Cloud work.

Entities, Staff, Contacts and Groups terminology when working in CloudTax

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Where to start with CloudTax

Upskill yourself on CaseWare Cloud first CloudTax was designed to get you up and running quickly and easily. To get started, first consult the CaseWare Cloud Getting Started Journey on the CaseWare Africa Success Community. Here we give you step-by-step learning resources to get you started.

Ascertain your role in CaseWare Cloud / CloudTax

Then determine the role you will be per (Are you the administrator / champion that needs to set everything up for your firm), or are you a Staff member (Tax practitioner / designated person in your firm that needs to work in CloudTax that would like to begin managing Taxpayers and submitting Provisionals? Whatever your role, refer to the below to see who does what.

I am the Firm Champion / CaseWare Cloud administrator

This individual will be the one that takes care of all the back-end processes to get your instance of CaseWare Cloud and CloudTax up and running from a settings and data point of view. Further down in this guide we provide you with all the self-help information that shows you exactly how all of this is performed. The Firm Champion should first go through the section that deals with what everyone needs to know to get a foundational understanding of how CaseWare Cloud and CloudTax works. Then you can move on to the Firm Champion / Administrator specific learning resources.

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CaseWare Cloud | How to activate CaseWare Cloud Applications for Staff and Groups

I am the Tax Practitioner (Staff Member of the firm) performing work for my Taxpayers (My clients)

This individual can only start working on CaseWare Cloud and or CloudTax once the environment has been set up and he or she has created you as a Staff member so that you are able to log in. Your Firm Champion also associates you to the Taxpayers you will be working on. You will only ever see the Taxpayer/Contact and Group information that pertains to you. In this guide we will help you get upskilled on what CaseWare Cloud is and how CloudTax works. You will be able to access all the self-help tools to help you to perform the functions you need to perform in this incredible application. As is the case with the Firm Champion, you should first go through the section that deals with what everyone needs to know to get a foundational understanding of how CaseWare Cloud and CloudTax works. Then you can move on to the Tax Practitioner specific learning resources.

Then upskill yourself on CloudTax

Once you are ready, then proceed to deep dive into the CloudTax Getting Started Journey.

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Familiarising yourself with the CloudTax dashboard (Practice Overview):

To make sure the content in this guide makes sense, please familiarise yourself with the CloudTax dashboard. Upon logging into CaseWare Cloud and accessing the CloudTax application, you will be presented with a dashboard, which provides an overview of your tax engagements within your practice.

Below is a short breakdown of all the elements you have available when you land on the CloudTax home screen (also known as your Practice overview screen). Each item has been numbered so that you can see which menu item does what. Carefully study each of them to get a good understanding of the layout and how they are all positioned to make the provisional tax submission process simple and effective.

NR Menu item Description 1 Practice overview The Practice overview button here can be used to navigate back to

the Practice Overview screen. This button and the CloudTax button both act as your home screen.

2 Processes. Provisionals or Income Tax Returns (ITR14)

Click here to access and process all your provisional or ITR14 returns.

3 My Taxpayers Clicking here will take you to your Taxpayer database

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4 Search Function CloudTax also comes with a useful search function to help you find information quickly and easily.

5 eFiling Notification Centre

Here you can get instant access to all your SARS eFiling notifications that pertain to your taxpayer submissions to SARS.

6 SARS Sync Here you access the screen that will enable you to sync your CloudTax application with SARS. It is recommended that you Sync with SARS daily to ensure you have the most updated assessment, provisional and taxpayer information. SARS correspondence is also downloaded after the sync through a secure channel into our system.

7 Practice Admin The Practice Admin menu is where you will be building up all the CloudTax data you will be working on (As an administrator).

8 Active Provisionals Active Provisionals are a graphical representation of the status of your taxpayer’s provisional. For example, In Progress, Awaiting Taxpayer Review or Awaiting SARS Feedback. Simply click on the chart portions or the legend to drill down to the Provisional Return view where you can see a detailed list of Provisionals in that respective status. The Provisional process workflow statuses are automatically updated after an action is performed.

9 Provisionals Due Provisionals Due are a graphical representation of how many Provisionals are due within the respective timeframes; example Overdue, Due within 30 days and Due in 31 to 60 days. You can click on the chart portions or the legend to drill down to the Provisional Return view where you can see a detailed list of Provisionals in that respective status. Reminders and notifications will be based on the due date of Provisionals.

10 eFiling Overview Here you get a quick overview of all the eFiling statuses and it gives you a bird’s eye view to track your Taxpayer submissions. This helps you to see what is going on between SARS and your practice in the eFiling overview. This saves you from having to rely on emails or going into the SARS eFiling site to check for correspondence or status of submissions.

11 Active Income Tax Returns (ITR14)

Here you get a birds eye view of all your ITR14 returns and their statuses.

12 Income Tax Returns Due This pie chart allows you to see which ITR14 returns are due by which date range. This will help you manage your workload.

13 Missing Assessments for eFilers

When you did the SARS Sync, you will be able to see if there are any missing assessments for one of your clients.

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Practice Admin:

I wouldn’t go there in the demo unless you're answering specific questions i.e. viewing tax tables, importing data. Practice Admin provides a central firm view of all entity related data. Users can manage taxpayer information, staff members and assign tax practitioners to taxpayers. User’s will be able to capture and/or in-line edit information which will write back to CaseWare Cloud. The user will also can perform bulk actions.

Importing Taxpayers in bulk from the Practice Admin Screen

The user will be able to add multiple taxpayers into the system using a csv import file. This will also create the taxpayers as entities and contacts within CaseWare Cloud. The Entity Take On process will prompt the user to correctly map their uploaded document with the mandatory fields required for both CloudTax and CaseWare Cloud. Refer to the CaseWare Africa Success Community on how the import process works.

Information Validation for Staff and Taxpayers from the Practice Admin screen

The system is designed such that information is validated on the input of data. The field will be highlighted if information is missing or captured incorrectly. Hovering over the highlighted fields will provide the user with a tool tip on why the field is highlighted and/or on how to resolve the validation. Refer to the CaseWare Africa Success Community on how the import process works.

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SARS Sync

The SARS Sync button is CloudTax’s integration with SARS e-Filing. Providing the user, the ability to submit to SARS, track submission status and receive correspondence from SARS. It is recommended to perform a SARS Sync daily to ensure that you get the correct information pulling through for your Taxpayers.

Manage Taxpayer Information from the My Taxpayer screen:

Each Taxpayer (individual, corporate and trust) has a profile in CloudTax, directly linked to CaseWare Cloud, where you can easily manage their personal, company and contact details. A taxpayer can be searched for via the "Quick-find" search bar, or via the "My Taxpayers" tab. You can edit details of the entity here and it is automatically saved to CaseWare Cloud. There is also an overview of all correspondence received for that taxpayer, easily discoverable and searchable on the profile.

The Taxpayer information and it only becomes available once you click on a taxpayer’s profile from the My Taxpayers screen. This screen doesn’t show any validations, but if there are it will display. It is however recommended to always action validations from the practice admin screen that we will cover a bit later. To go into a specific Taxpayer’s profile from this screen, simply click on the name to access.

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Taxpayer Information screen

Taxpayer year of assessment screen

The logged in user can gain access to the tax periods created and allowed for creation for the taxpayer. He/she can then gain access to the first, second or third Provisionals as well as manually create them. The user will can create and delete tax years; and create, cancel and delete Provisionals. There are validations which can prevent certain actions to be performed and messages will pop-up to warn the user when they are performing certain actions.

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CloudTax Provisional Returns

Upon clicking on the Provisional Returns button, you will land on a view where you can see the detail of all your Provisionals that you would like to submit. In this view, you can see which entity the provisional is for, which provisional it is (i.e. 1st, 2nd, 3rd) and other important information to help in deciding what step to take next.

Based on the data received by SARS, the Tax Payable is automatically calculated and presented on this view. The Tax Practitioner will be assigned to the Taxpayers he or she needs to submit Provisionals for. The Tax Practitioner will also be able to approve Provisionals in bulk.

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Active Provisionals are a graphical representation of where in the provisional process their taxpayers’ Provisionals are; for example, In Progress, Awaiting Taxpayer Review or Awaiting SARS Feedback. The user can click on the chart portions or the legend to drill down to the Provisional Return view where they can see a detailed list of Provisionals in that respective status. Provisional process workflow statuses are automatically updated after an action is performed.

Provisionals Due are a graphical representation of how many Provisionals are due within the respective timeframes; example Overdue, Due within 30 days and Due in 31 to 60 days. The user can click on the chart portions or the legend to drill down to the Provisional Return view where they can see a detailed list of Provisionals in that respective status. Reminders and notifications will be based on due date of Provisionals. From here, you can apply additional filters to narrow down the list; for example, perhaps you want to only see the "Due in 30 days" for individuals - so you can filter the view:

From this view, you can process multiple returns into the next workflow stage. For example, those returns that are set as "Nil Returns" may require very little further work and CloudTax allows you to manage these returns in bulk, eliminating the need to review each one individually and submit 1-by-1.

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How to use the Tax Tables

CloudTax has the Tax Tables built in and is completely aligned with SARS. Important to note on this screen is how the SARS estimates are already loaded and you can easily view the last assessment information to compare to this year's actual figures. If you change any of the actual figures; the Total Amount Payable is automatically calculated and presented on screen. Other features to note:

Checklist: A recommended user journey when using CloudTax. # Step Description 1 Set up your practice via the Firm

Settings menu on CaseWare Cloud.

Note this only applies to new CaseWare Cloud or CloudTax firms. If you are an existing user, kindly ensure your Staff are marked as Tax Practitioners and that your Taxpayers and Contacts are loaded. Refer to the CaseWare Cloud Getting Started for CaseWare Administrators eLearning module where the Firm Settings are demonstrated. Please pay specific attention to the Work Hours and Staff Rates Section (Time, Expenses and Billing) from a CloudTax point of view.

Open CloudTax. 2 Create staff members or do an

import of staff members.

This task is completed from within CloudTax | Practice Admin. Refer to the eLearning module that demonstrates how this is done. We recommend importing your Staff as this will increase accuracy and save you time. There is an FAQ on the data requirements for your CSV.

3 Create Taxpayers or do an import of Taxpayers

This task is completed from within CloudTax | Practice Admin. Refer to the eLearning module that demonstrates how this is done. We recommend importing your Taxpayers as this will increase accuracy and save you time. There is an FAQ on the data requirements for your CSV.

4 Create CaseWare Contacts or do an import of contacts - if contacts are not loaded, the entity (Taxpayer) cannot be emailed.

Please refer to the CaseWare Cloud learning material on how this is done. We recommend doing an import. Expand the CaseWare Cloud menu, click on Contacts, click on New where you can either manually create or import Contacts.

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5 Set up Practice integration with

SARS. In CloudTax, click on the SARS Sync button and populate it with your eFiling Credentials. This will ensure that all your Taxpayer information will pull through. Note, therefore data accuracy is important when it comes to your Taxpayer SARS reference number.

6 Mark relevant staff members as practitioners.

This task is completed from within CloudTax | Practice Admin. Access your Staff List and check the tick box to enable them to be Tax Practitioners.

7 Process SARS Sync.

Click on the SARS Sync button and fill in your credentials. This may take a few minutes to pull all the information from SARS. We recommend that this is done daily.

8 Correct validation errors with Practice Admin.

This task is completed from within CloudTax | Practice Admin. Refer to the eLearning modules that cover validation error management.

9 Check eFiling Notification Centre.

Click on the eFiling Notifications Centre button and work through all the notifications received.

10 Go to “My Taxpayers” to view all taxpayers

Go to the My Taxpayers list and click on the Taxpayer to open their profile. Confirm information supplied in Taxpayer Information Screen. Go to “Year of Assessment”. On SARS Sync, Tax Years and Provisionals will automatically be created 60 days prior to their due date.

11 Open provisional.

Go to the Provisional Return menu. When viewing your taxpayers, click on the hyperlinked section entitled navigate through the provisional process. (Gathering information, Provisional Calculation, Review / Sign-off and Submit) Note all progress meters in this area. Upload Documents. Do calculations. Send emails. Review, Sign-off and Submit.

12 Practice Overview will show the

current state of all work for taxpayers.

As part of your daily checks, click on pie chart portions to go to Provisional Returns and drill down in the table provided to find your taxpayers from the Practice Overview screen. Note all progress and/or validation indicators. Do bulk approvals. Set Filters. Export.

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Additional resources

Additional resources on CaseWare Cloud

The learning resources below helps position CaseWare Cloud. It is important to understand that CloudTax is an application that rests upon the infrastructure of CaseWare Cloud. CaseWare Cloud can be seen as your operating system, where CloudTax is an application that draws on it. First familiarise yourself with what CaseWare Cloud is, and then explore the CloudTax application.

Title Delivery type Link to the content

CaseWare Cloud | Prerequisites to using Cloud FAQ Click here CaseWare Cloud | How secure is my data when using CaseWare

Cloud and add-on apps? FAQ Click here

CaseWare Cloud | Understanding data security in CaseWare Cloud

FAQ Click here

CaseWare Cloud | How to Guide | Cloud Administrator Guide Click here What is Two-Factor Authentication in CaseWare Cloud? FAQ Click here CaseWare Working Papers | How to integrate CaseWare Working

Papers with your Cloud Instance Video Click here

CaseWare Cloud | FAQ | How to create user Groups FAQ Click here CaseWare Cloud | FAQ | How to create and or import Contacts FAQ Click here CaseWare Cloud | Getting the most out of CaseWare Cloud |

Setting up your instance Webinar recording

Click here

Additional resources on CloudTax

Once you are comfortable with the CaseWare Cloud content, you can now dive into the CloudTax specific resources that are going to help you with your Provisional Returns submissions.

Title Delivery type

Link to content

CloudTax | Userguide | Manadatory information checklist when importing taxpayers into CloudTax

Guide Click here

CloudTax | ISV Activation on SARS eFiling FAQ Click here CloudTax | How do I filter my Taxpayer list by missing Year-Ends? FAQ Click here