Returns
A return is a tax return your firm is preparing for a client: a 1040, an 1120-S, a 1065, and so on. It's the central kind of work in Journey and the one with the most structure behind it, because a return isn't a single task so much as a journey through several stages, from first collecting documents all the way to filing. (A ticket without a return type is a request instead. See the four kinds of work if you're sorting out which is which.)
The pipeline
Every return moves through a sequence of stages: received, waiting on client, in preparation, in review, awaiting signature, ready for filing, filed, and completed. That sequence is the backbone of how Journey tracks a return: at any moment, its stage tells you and the client roughly where it stands and whose move it is.
Some of the transitions between stages can happen on their own. When your team finishes the required work for a stage, Journey can carry the return into the next one automatically. This is covered in stage checklists & auto-advance. The final steps, moving a return to ready for filing and then actually filing it, are always deliberate; Journey never files a return by itself.
What the client sees
Clients don't see your internal stage names, which are geared toward your workflow rather than theirs. Instead their portal shows a simple six-step tracker with plain-language status, and, crucially, tells them at each step whether anything is needed from them:
| Step | What it means |
|---|---|
| Awaiting Documents | Action needed: upload the missing items. |
| In Progress | Your firm is working on it; nothing needed. |
| In Review | It's being reviewed. |
| Awaiting Signature | Action needed: sign. |
| Ready for Filing | Your firm is filing it. |
| Complete | Filed. |
When you create a return
Creating a return sets three automations in motion at once, so it arrives ready to work rather than as a blank shell. It's routed to the right department by its return type; it's assigned to a suitable preparer, with complex business returns (1120, 1120-S, and 1065) going to senior staff; and its document checklist is filled from your template for that return type, which the client immediately sees as a list of exactly what to upload. Each of these is covered in How the automation works.
The return detail screen
Opening a return brings together everything about it in one place: its status and stage, the assigned preparer, the client, the due date, the document checklist with live status, the documents uploaded so far, the internal stage tasks, the comment and message thread, and the state of any signatures. It's the working surface where staff advance the stage, manage the checklist, upload drafts, request signatures, and message the client.
The Stages tab
The bar of eight stages across the top of a return opens the Stages tab at any stage. Each stage shows one list of what should be true before the return moves on:
- Journey's own checks, tagged Automatic (Journey ticks them from what it already knows, such as a signed engagement letter) or A person (someone on your team ticks them, such as "Reviewer approved").
- Your firm's steps, tagged Firm step, copied from Settings when the return reaches the stage.
- One-off steps added on this return only, tagged This return.
A count at the top says how many are done; an item that doesn't apply to this return shows grayed out as "Doesn't apply" and isn't counted, on a stage the return hasn't reached yet as well as the current one. Ticking a row records who ticked it and when. The person who ticked it, or a manager or above, can clear the tick, and clearing is recorded in the return's Activity too. Nothing on the list blocks a move: when you move a return on with something still open, the move dialog lists it so the choice is a deliberate one.
The draft, the signature requests, and the final return live in the rows that describe them. "Draft return uploaded" in In Review carries Upload draft, "Form 8879 sent to the client" in Awaiting Signature carries Send for signature, and "Client copy delivered" in Filed carries Upload final return. Each button opens the full screen for that deliverable in a side panel. Later stages are read-only until the return reaches them: there, Upload draft, Send for signature, and Upload final return are grayed out with "Opens when the return reaches this stage". Once something is on file, Open draft, Open signatures, and Open final return work from any stage, and buttons that only take you somewhere else (such as Open filing or Open billing) always work.
Five of the eight stages take firm steps. Received, Awaiting Signature, and Filed don't: Journey's own checks cover them, and they are the same for every firm. See stage checklists.
Comments: internal versus client-visible
Conversation on a return comes in two kinds, and the distinction is a real safeguard. An internal comment is staff-only and never shown to the client, which makes it safe for candid discussion about the file. A message to the client, on the other hand, notifies them and appears in their portal. Journey keeps the two clearly separate so an internal note can never accidentally reach the client. See Notifications.
Delivering the finished return
When the work is done, staff upload the final, filed copy and mark it delivered. The client is then notified, by email and in their portal, that their completed return is ready to download, closing the loop without a separate "your return is done" email to write.
Ready to file
Only a supervisor or above can move a return into Filed or into Completed; a staff member who reaches that point is told to ask a supervisor. So supervisors and above get one place that collects everything waiting on them, instead of relying on a notification for each return.
The list is split into three groups: returns that are ready to move to Filed, filed returns that are ready to move to Completed, and Ready for Filing returns that are not ready yet, each with what is still open so nothing waits silently. A filed return only appears once it is ready to move to Completed; one still waiting on something else (an acknowledgment, an unpaid invoice) stays on the ordinary Returns list instead. Moving a return from here opens the same confirmation as everywhere else in Journey, and nothing about a return is ever blocked from moving; the list only tells you what is still outstanding.
What you see depends on your role: supervisors see the returns in their own departments, plus any assigned directly to them; managers and above see every return across the whole firm. Staff don't see this at all, since there is nothing they could do with it.
Find it two ways: a Ready to file card on the Dashboard with a count and the first few returns, and a full Ready to file tab in Queue Management.
Archiving a return
Managers and above can archive a return from its detail screen, which removes it from active lists while preserving the record. Nothing is deleted: an archived return can be restored later from Archived Records, in the Admin section of the sidebar.