Automatic client review copy

Before a client signs, they review a draft of their return in their portal. Normally a preparer uploads that draft by hand. If your firm uses Journey's tax prep, you can let Journey send its own draft instead, at the moment a reviewed return is ready for the client. This page explains the switch, exactly when Journey sends the copy, what the client sees, and how to take a copy back.

What it does

When the switch is on and a return moves from In Review to Awaiting Signature, Journey makes its own draft PDF of the return, the same file Download draft PDF gives you in Prepare, and uploads it as the client review copy. The client gets a notification that the draft is ready, and the copy appears in the Draft return row of the return, just as if a preparer had uploaded it.

It happens once, as part of the move itself. Nothing is sent later, and nothing is sent for any other move.

Where to find it

Go to Settings, then Workflow, and look for Send Journey's draft to the client automatically. Only owners and general managers see the switch and can change it, and changing it asks for your second sign-in step, like other firm-wide settings. The card appears only in firms that use Journey's tax prep. It starts out off for every firm.

Journey's draft is unverified

The tax rules behind Journey's figures have not yet been verified against IRS sources. Every page of the draft says so: it is marked "DRAFT - NOT VERIFIED - DO NOT FILE", with a line across the top explaining that the figures are unverified. The client sees the copy the moment it is sent, so turn the switch on only if your reviewers check Journey's draft as carefully as they would check any other.

When Journey sends the copy

Journey sends its draft only when all of these are true at the moment the return moves into Awaiting Signature:

• The switch is on for the firm the return belongs to.
• The return is one Journey prepares, and your firm's tax prep is on.
• The return moved from In Review straight to Awaiting Signature. A return moved there from any earlier stage gets nothing, so a return can never skip review and still get a copy.
• Nobody has ever uploaded a client review copy for this return. A copy that was uploaded and later removed still counts, so Journey never replaces a copy your team chose to take down.
• A reviewer has ticked Reviewer approved in the In Review panel, and that approval was given to the return as it is saved now. If the return changed after the approval, the approval no longer counts until it is given again.
• The person who ticked Preparer signed off and the person who ticked Reviewer approved are two different people, and the reviewer is still an active member of your firm. A one-person firm uploads the copy by hand until Journey's rules are verified.
• Journey's draft is calculated, up to date, and Journey did not stop on the return.
• The return has a client, and that client belongs to your firm.

The copy is stored as if the person who moved the return had uploaded it, so it follows the same rules as any upload they could make by hand.

What the client sees

The client's notification reads:

A draft of your return is ready for you to review

The copy then appears in their portal under Review your return before signing, exactly where a draft a preparer uploads appears. Journey sends no email or text for it, only the notification. A draft a preparer uploads by hand keeps its usual notification, which says the preparer uploaded it.

If the client has no portal account yet, the copy is still uploaded and waits for them, but no notification is sent.

What your team sees

Every automatic send adds one line to the return's Activity: who moved the return, and which approval and saved version Journey relied on. When the switch is on but Journey did not send a copy, Activity says why in one line (for example, "no reviewer has approved this return" or "a client review copy was already uploaded for this return"), so you can see afterwards what happened. The move goes through whether or not a copy is sent. It can take a few seconds longer while Journey makes the PDF.

Taking a copy back

If a copy went out that should not have, open the return's Draft return row and choose Remove on the draft. Removing a draft takes it away from the client at once: it disappears from their portal, any link to it stops working, and its file is deleted. Because the file is deleted, a removed draft cannot be restored. You can then upload a corrected copy by hand.

Owners, general managers and managers can remove a draft. This applies to every draft, whether Journey or a preparer uploaded it.

Turning it off

Turn the switch off at any time. From then on nothing is sent automatically, and preparers upload the client review copy by hand, as before. Copies already sent stay where they are until someone removes them.