In this section, we describe working with tax forms, registration forms and uploading either of these types of forms from an external system.
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Maintaining Registration Forms
Maintaining Form Batch Headers
Maintaining Form Upload Staging
This section describes concepts related to forms processing.
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A registration form is a form that is used for taxpayer registration, for example a business registration form or demographic maintenance, for example, a change of address form. Forms of this type do not result in any financial impact for a taxpayer
Each registration form refers to a form type that includes configuration the may govern the validation and processing of the registration form data. Because registration forms are used for disparate purposes, the information captured on the form type will vary greatly from one type of registration form to another.
Your implementation defines your forms and the rules for processing these forms. Refer to Defining Form Processing Options for details.
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About Validating Registration Forms
About Suspended Registration Forms
Registration Forms May Wait for Information
A registration form must specify information required to identify the taxpayer such as the name, address and a personal identifier. Based on your registration form's processing rules, this information is used to determine whether or not the taxpayer is known to the system or must be created as a result of processing the form.
Other requirements may exist, depending on your system's configuration.
After a registration form's data has been entered into the system, it must be validated. A user may request the validation of a given form. Alternatively, a background process runs periodically to pick up registration forms awaiting validation and processes them.
If a registration form passes validation, it continues through to a state where the form is ready to post.
If there are any validation errors or missing information, the details are captured as issues related to the form.
When a registration form fails validation, the validation plug-in indicates whether or not the form should suspend. If one or more of the issues captured for the form indicate that it should suspend, it moves to the Suspended state. A To Do is generated. An appropriate user must review the suspense issue(s) and correct them.
Refer to Correcting Suspended Registration Forms for more information.
When a form fails validation, the validation plug-in indicates whether or not the form needs additional information. If there are no suspense issues and one or more of the issues for the form indicate that it requires more information, it moves to the Waiting for Information state.
At this point it may be that a letter is sent to the taxpayer requesting the missing information. This depends on the configuration of the form's processing logic.
The system monitors registration forms that are waiting for information to ensure that the forms are not waiting for too long. The number of days that are considered too long depends on your system configuration.
A tax form represents the fulfillment of an obligation to file a tax return for a given filing period. Tax forms may be interfaced from an external source or created in the system.
Each tax form refers to a form type that defines the form section and lines and includes the rules that govern the validation and processing of the tax form data. It also identifies the obligation type (and therefore tax type) for the tax form.
Your implementation defines your forms and the rules for processing these forms. Refer to Defining Form Processing Options for details.
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Tax Forms May Wait for Information
A tax form must specify information required to identify the taxpayer such as the name, address, personal identifier and perhaps an account id. Based on your form rules, this information is used to determine whether or not the taxpayer is known to the system or must be created as a result of processing the form.
A tax form typically represents a specific filing period. Depending on the tax type, a new form type may be required for each unique filing period. In this case, the determination of the appropriate filing period must be done before creating a tax form to ensure that the form is created with the appropriate form type. Other types of taxes may have a form type that spans many filing periods. In this case, once the appropriate form type is identified, information on the tax form should further identify the appropriate filing period.
Other requirements may exist, depending on your system's configuration.
After a tax form's data has been entered into the system, it must be validated. A user may request the validation of a given form. Alternatively, a background process runs periodically to pick up tax forms awaiting validation and processes them.
Tax forms are validated by executing rules that are configured for the form's form type. If a tax form passes validation, it continues through to a state where the form is ready to post.
If there are any validation errors or missing information, the details are captured as exceptions to the form.
When a form fails a validation rule, the configuration of the rule indicates whether or not the form should suspend. If one or more of the exceptions for a form indicate that it should suspend, it moves to the Suspended state. A To Do is generated using the message of the suspense issue with the highest priority. An appropriate user must review the suspense issue(s) and correct them.
Refer to Correcting Suspended Tax Forms for more information.
When a form fails a validation rule, the configuration of the rule may indicate that the form needs additional information. If there are no suspense issues and one or more of the exceptions for a form indicate that it requires more information, it moves to the Waiting for Information state.
At this point it may be that a letter is sent to the taxpayer requesting the missing information. A rule configured on the form type is responsible for initiating such a letter.
The system monitors tax forms that are waiting for information to ensure that the forms are not waiting for too long. The number of days that are considered too long depends on your system configuration.
A form’s data is likely to be modified a number of times during its lifetime. The system stores a version of a form (a snapshot of the data for the entire form) when certain changes are made.
· After a form is created, just before validation rules are executed. This version is considered the As Reported version. Note that in addition to capturing a full version of the form at this time, any individual form line that has been configured in the system to include an As Reported element, this as reported value is visible to a user when viewing the current version of the form.
· If the form is changed while in the Suspended or Waiting for Information state, a version is captured. Based on how the form type is configured, the user may be required to provide an overall reason for changing the form or reasons for changing each individual line or both.
A version is not captured for the final posted version of the form. The current data in the form is considered the current version.
Many tax forms and registration forms are received in batches from an external source. In addition, many tax authorities have imaging equipment that captures paper returns and can produce files to upload to the system.
Forms that are uploaded to the system are created as Form Upload Staging records with a Form Batch Header record that groups together uploaded records that belong to a given batch of forms.
Each form upload staging record refers to a form upload staging type that defines the source of the information, the destination form type and tools for mapping the data received to the expected format in the resulting tax form or registration form.
Your implementation defines your form upload staging types and the rules for processing these upload records. Refer to Form Upload Staging Type Controls Everything for details.
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About Processing Batches of Forms
Forms uploaded in batch are grouped by form batch headers. The form batch header defines what types of forms can be included in the batch. It is also a control record as it can capture summary information about the included form upload staging records.
Refer to Designing Form Batch Headers for more details on what form batch headers can define.
Actual form data is uploaded through a 'raw' XML field in the form upload staging record.
A form upload staging record specifies a type, which controls how the uploaded data is mapped and stored into tax forms or registration forms.
After a batch of forms has been uploaded to the system, several steps are needed to successfully upload the batch of forms. The following steps highlight the process. Note that many of these steps are performed by background processes.
· The form batch header is validated. If there are any problems, it gets suspended and a user must fix the problems before continuing. Refer to Correcting Suspended Form Batch Headers for more information.
· If the form batch header is valid, the form upload staging records are validated. If there are any problems, the record is suspended and a user must fix the problems before continuing. Refer to Correcting Suspended Form Upload Staging Records for more information.
· Each form upload staging record that passes validation goes through the step of mapping the input data to the target form type. If there are any problems in this step, the record is rejected. The assumption is that this is a problem with the submission and not something a user is able to fix. If any form upload staging records are rejected, a user is alerted and may choose to cancel the batch. Refer to Reviewing Batches Where Records Were Rejected for more information.
· Once a form upload staging record passes the validation and mapping steps, it becomes Ready to Load state. If all upload staging records are ready to load, the next step is to create the resulting tax form or registration form.
To create a registration form, navigate using Main Menu, Forms, Registration Form +. Choose the appropriate form type to continue. Fill in the registration form details and click the save button.
Registration forms can also be created as part of processing uploaded forms. Refer to About Uploading Forms for more information.
Use the Registration Form transaction to view and maintain registration forms. Navigate using Main Menu, Forms, Registration Form. The section describes the tab pages that appear on the Registration Form portal.
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Correcting Suspended Registration Forms
Use the query portal to search for an existing registration form. Once a registration form is selected, you are brought to the maintenance portal to view and maintain the selected record.
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This portal appears when a registration form has been selected from the Registration Form Query portal.
The topics in this section describe the base-package zones that appear on this portal.
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Registration Form Actions Zone
This is a standard actions zone.
If the registration form is in a state that has valid next states, buttons to transition to each appropriate next state are displayed.
The Registration Form zone contains display-only information about the registration form.
Please see the zone's help text for specific information about the data displayed in the form.
This is a standard log zone.
If a registration form has suspense issues that prevent it from being posted, you must correct them and then validate the registration form.
· Navigate to the registration form portal and display the registration form you want to validate.
· If you have not already corrected the condition causing the issues, do so now. Click the Edit button in the Actions zone. Review the exceptions reported and use the down arrow adjacent to the exception message to drill to the data in error.
· Correct the error. Save the record. (Upon successful save, you are returned to the Tax Form portal.)
· Click the Validate button in the Actions zone.
The system attempts to validate the tax form. If validation succeeds, its status is updated and the tax form is ready for posting. If the system still detects issues with the tax form, the issues are displayed for your review.
Repeat this process to resolve the issues and then revalidate.
Use this procedure to cancel a registration form that has not been finalized.
You can only cancel a registration form if its current status supports it. If the action is not supported, the Cancel button will not be displayed.
· Navigate to the Registration Form portal and display the registration form you want to cancel.
· Click the Cancel button in the Actions zone. Enter an appropriate cancel reason.
The system validates the action and displays an error message if the action cannot be completed.
To create a tax form, navigate using Main Menu, Forms, Tax Form +. Choose the appropriate tax type and the form type to continue. Fill in the tax form details and click the save button.
Tax forms can also be created as part of processing uploaded forms. Refer to About Uploading Forms for more information.
Use the Tax Form transaction to view and maintain tax forms. Navigate using Main Menu, Forms, Tax Form. The section describes the tab pages that appear on the Tax Form portal.
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Correcting Suspended Tax Forms
Use the query portal to search for an existing tax form. Once a tax form is selected, you are brought to the maintenance portal to view and maintain the selected record.
This page appears when viewing the detail of a specific tax form.
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The topics in this section describe the base-package zones that appear on this tab.
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This is a standard actions zone.
If the tax form is in a state that has valid next states, buttons to transition to each appropriate next state are displayed.
The Tax Form zone contains display-only information about the tax form.
This zone also displays any existing tax form exceptions. The exception list includes a 'go to' button that allows quick navigation to the field in error.
This zone may also display the following when the tax form being displayed is a generated tax form.
· A Form Navigator appears on the left hand side and contains quick links to the various sections of the form and an option to display the full form.
· The Main section shows basic information that is common to all tax forms. It includes a dropdown that provides a way of quickly navigating to the obligation's other forms.
· Form Change Reasons / Comments are displayed when the tax form has history of changes (e.g. while in suspended state).
Please see the zone's help text for specific information about the data displayed in the form.
When a form’s data is validated the system may identify errors which it stores as exceptions. To see the exceptions associated with the tax form, navigate to the Exceptions tab.
This list of the tax form exception records is displayed. Select a specific exception to view detailed information about the exception.
Some form types require a form version to be created if the form is modified while in a certain state. If a form has versions, you can view them by navigating to the Versions tab.
The list of versions for the form is displayed. Select a specific version to view the snapshot of the form data in that version of the form and the exceptions that were in effect at the time of that version.
Navigate to the Log tab to view the logs for a tax form.
If a tax form has suspense issues that prevent it from being posted, you must correct them and then validate the tax form.
· Navigate to the tax form portal and display the tax form you want to validate.
· If you have not already corrected the condition causing the issues, do so now. Click the Edit button in the Actions zone. Review the exceptions reported and use the down arrow adjacent to the exception message to drill to the data in error.
· Correct the error. Depending on the configuration of the form type, you may be required to enter a change reason for the individual line being corrected or an overall reason for the change or both. Save the record. (Upon successful save, you are returned to the Tax Form portal.)
· Click the Validate button in the Actions zone.
The system attempts to validate the tax form. If validation succeeds, its status is updated and the tax form is ready for posting. If the system still detects issues with the tax form, the issues are displayed for your review.
· Any suspense issues that are resolved get closed.
· Any suspense issues that are still not resolved remain open.
· Any new suspense issues are added to the list.
Repeat this process to resolve the issues and then revalidate.
Use this procedure to cancel a tax form that has not been finalized.
You can only cancel a tax form if its current status supports it. If the action is not supported, the Cancel button will not be displayed.
· Navigate to the Tax Form portal and display the tax form you want to cancel.
· Click the Cancel button in the Actions zone. Enter an appropriate cancel reason.
The system validates the action and displays an error message if the action cannot be completed.
Use this procedure to correct line item details on a tax form that has already been posted.
You can only adjust a tax form if its current status supports it. If the action is not supported, the Adjust button will not be displayed.
· Navigate to the Tax Form portal and display the tax form you want to adjust.
· Click the Adjust button in the Actions zone. Enter an appropriate adjust reason.
· The system updates the state of the original tax form to Adjusted and typically reverses the financial impact of the original form, depending on your form type's processing rules for Adjusting forms.
· A new tax form is created that is a duplicate of the original tax form. At this point, you should make the appropriate line item changes, save the form and click Validate in the Actions zone to validate the tax form changes.
If validation succeeds, its status is updated and the tax form is ready for posting. If the system detects issues with the tax form, the issues are displayed for your review.
Use this procedure to correct the taxpayer or the obligation for a tax form that has already been posted.
You can only transfer a tax form if its current status supports it. If the action is not supported, the Transfer button will not be displayed.
· Navigate to the Tax Form portal and display the tax form you want to transfer.
· Click the Transfer button in the Actions zone. Enter an appropriate transfer reason.
· The system updates the state of the original tax form to Transferred and typically reverses the financial impact of the original form, depending on your form type's processing rules for Transferring forms.
· A new tax form is created that is a duplicate of the original tax form. At this point, you should make the appropriate changes to correct the taxpayer information and / or the filing period information to direct the tax form to the appropriate taxpayer and/or obligation. Save the form and click Validate in the Actions zone to validate the tax form changes.
If validation succeeds, its status is updated and the tax form is ready for posting. If the system detects issues with the tax form, the issues are displayed for your review.
Use this procedure to cancel a tax form that has already been posted and is not valid.
You can only reverse a tax form if its current status supports it. If the action is not supported, the Reverse button will not be displayed.
· Navigate to the Tax Form portal and display the tax form you want to reverse.
· Click the Reverse button in the Actions zone. Enter an appropriate reversal reason.
· The system updates the state of the original tax form to Reversed and typically reverses the financial impact of the original form, depending on your form type's processing rules for Adjusting forms.
Use the Form Batch Header transaction to view and maintain form batch headers. Navigate using Main Menu, Forms, Form Batch Header.
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Correcting Suspended Form Batch Headers
Reviewing Batches Where Records Were Rejected
Use the query portal to search for an existing form batch header. Once a form batch header is selected, you are brought to the maintenance portal to view and maintain the selected record.
This page appears when viewing the detail of a specific form batch header.
The topics in this section describe the base-package zones that appear on this portal.
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This is a standard actions zone.
If the form batch header is in a state that has valid next states, buttons to transition to each appropriate next state are displayed.
The Form Batch Header zone contains display-only information about the form batch header.
Please see the zone's help text for information about this zone's fields.
This zone lists the form upload staging records that are included in the selected form batch header.
This is a standard log zone.
This zone is only visible for form batch headers that are directly linked to tax forms and registration forms.
The base product functionality for form batch headers does not support directly linking a tax form or registration form to a form batch header so this zone typically will not appear.
Although, most form batch headers are uploaded in batch, it is possible to create a record manually. To create a form batch header, navigate using Main Menu, Forms, Form Batch Header +, select an appropriate form batch header business object to continue. Fill in the form batch header details and click save button.
After the form batch header and its form upload staging records have been entered into the system, they must be validated. A user may request the validation of a given form batch header. Alternatively, a background process runs periodically to pick up form batch headers awaiting validation and processes them.
To request validation of a form batch header,
· Navigate to the form batch header portal and display the form batch header you want to validate.
· Click the Validate button in the Actions zone.
If a form batch header passes validation, it continues through to the Form Upload in Progress state and the related form upload staging records can get processed.
If there are any validation errors, the details are captured as issues related to the form and it transitions to Suspended.
If a form batch header has suspense issues that prevent it from continuing, you must correct them and then validate the form batch header.
· Navigate to the form batch header portal and display the form batch header you want to validate.
· If you have not already corrected the condition causing the issues, do so now. Click the Edit button in the Actions zone. Review the issues reported.
· Correct the error. Save the record. (Upon successful save, you are returned to the form batch header portal.)
· Click the Validate button in the Actions zone.
The system attempts to validate the form batch header. If validation succeeds, its status is updated and the form upload staging records may now be processed (orchestrated by a background process). If the system still detects issues with the form batch header, the issues are displayed for your review.
Repeat this process to resolve the issues and then revalidate.
Use this procedure to cancel a form batch header that has not been finalized and all its related form upload staging records.
You can only cancel a form batch header if its current status supports it. If the action is not supported, the Cancel button will not be displayed.
· Navigate to the Form Batch Header portal and display the form batch header you want to cancel.
· Click the Cancel button in the Actions zone. Enter an appropriate cancel reason.
Because of the potentially large number of related form upload staging records that must be canceled as part of this procedure, the record is updated to Pending Cancel and the cancellation will be finalized by a background process.
Use this procedure to review a form batch header that has been marked as needing review. This may occur when one or more of the related form upload staging records has been rejected.
· Navigate to the Form Batch Header portal and display the form batch header you want to cancel.
· Using the Form Upload Staging list, review the upload records that have been rejected.
· If the rejected upload records highlight a possible problem with the entire batch of records, you may choose to Cancel the batch and its upload staging records. Because of the potentially large number of related form upload staging records that must be canceled as part of this procedure, the record is updated to Pending Cancel and the cancellation will be finalized by a background process.
· If you decide that the rejected upload records are an anomaly that does not affect the rest of the batch of forms, click the Complete button to complete the batch and upload the forms. Because of the potentially large number of related form upload staging records that must be processed as part of this procedure, the record is updated to Pending Complete and the upload of the forms will be finalized by a background process.
Use the Form Upload Staging transaction to view and maintain form upload staging records. To maintain form upload staging records, select Main Menu, Forms, Form Upload Staging.
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Adding Form Upload Staging Records
Validating Form Upload Staging Records
Correcting Suspended Form Upload Staging Records
Canceling Forms Upload Staging Records
Use the query portal to search for an existing form upload staging record. Once a form upload staging is selected, you are brought to the maintenance portal to view and maintain the selected record.
You can click the Add link on this portal to add a form upload staging.
This page appears when viewing the detail of a specific form upload staging record.
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The topics in this section describe the base-package zones that appear on this tab.
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This is a standard actions zone. Edit and Delete actions are available.
If the form upload staging is in a state that has valid next states, buttons to transition to each appropriate next state are displayed.
The Form Upload Staging zone contains display-only information about the form upload staging.
Please see the zone's help text for information about this zone's fields.
This portal contains a standard log zone.
The product does not provide a user friendly mechanism to add a form upload staging record manually such that the detailed data from the form can be entered. The expectation is that form upload staging records are created by a background process.
After the form batch header has been validated, the related form upload staging records may be validated. This typically occurs through a background process that runs periodically to pick up form upload staging records awaiting validation whose form batch headers are valid and processes them. However, a user may request the validation of a form upload staging record.
To request validation of a form upload staging record,
· Navigate to the form upload staging portal and display the form upload staging you want to validate.
· Click the Validate button in the Actions zone.
If a form upload staging passes validation, it continues through to map the received form data to the appropriate form type. If that step succeeds, the upload record transitions to Ready to Load. At this point, it cannot proceed further until all the form upload staging records for the batch are ready.
If there are any validation errors, the details are captured as issues related to the form upload staging and it transitions to Suspended.
If a problem is detected as part of the mapping step, the form upload staging record is Rejected at which point it cannot be fixed. This should occur rarely and only when there is something corrupt with the transmission.
If a form upload staging record has suspense issues that prevent it from continuing, you must correct them and then validate the form upload staging record.
· Navigate to the form upload staging portal and display the form upload staging you want to validate.
· If you have not already corrected the condition causing the issues, do so now. Click the Edit button in the Actions zone. Review the issues reported.
· The system renders the upload staging record in a simple editable form allowing the raw received data to be fixed. Correct the error. Save the record. (Upon successful save, you are returned to the form upload staging portal.)
· Click the Validate button in the Actions zone.
The system attempts to validate the form upload staging record. If validation succeeds, it continues through to map the received form data to the appropriate form type. If that step succeeds, the upload record transitions to Ready to Load. At this point, it cannot proceed further until all the form upload staging records for the batch are ready.
If a problem is detected as part of the mapping step, the form upload staging record is Rejected at which point it cannot be fixed. This should occur rarely and only when there is something corrupt with the transmission.
If the system still detects issues with the form upload staging record it returns to Suspended and the issues are displayed for your review.
Repeat this process to resolve the issues and then revalidate.
Use this procedure to cancel a form upload staging record that has not been finalized and is not a valid record.
You can only cancel a form upload staging record if its current status supports it. If the action is not supported, the Cancel button will not be displayed.
· Navigate to the Form Upload Staging portal and display the form upload staging record you want to cancel.
· Click the Cancel button in the Actions zone. Enter an appropriate cancel reason.