Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed & Not Postal/Agreed & Postal)

The Tax Assessment AutoFile process automatically file batches of tax assessments (received electronically via Xero Tax). This is a trigger to let your team know when a notice of assessment comes in. You can use the process to send out the assessment, or as a trigger for your team to download and attach the actual assessment. 

The Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed) processes check that the tax assessment agrees with the original assessment. There is also another process, Tax Assessment AutoFile (Variance) which runs different steps for when the tax assessment agrees does NOT with the original assessment (refer to Tax Assessment AutoFile (Variance)).

Note There is an acceptable variance of 50 cents. If the assessed amount is within 50 cent plus or minus of the estimate amount, it is accepted as agreed,

There are two processes for Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed). These check the client details and default settings for the clients to determine how the tax assessments should be sent out. Refer to Send Attachments in Setting Filing Defaults for a Client.

• Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed & Not Postal)
  Assessment agrees with the Estimate
  AND
  The clients' preferred way to communicate is "Email
  AND
  An Email address is held for those clients
  
  
• Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed & Postal)
  Assessment agrees with the Estimate
  AND
  The clients' preferred way to communicate is "Postal Service"
  OR
  An Email address is NOT held for the clients

For the Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed) the following actions are taken:

• FYI will call out Xero Tax on a scheduled daily basis to retrieve all newly issued assessments since the process was last run.
  
  
• The tax assessments are compared with the original assessment from Xero Tax to check they agree.
  
  
• For tax assessments that agree with the original assessment, the tax assessment is filed as a document with the relevant Cabinet and Categories.
  
  
• For Agreed and Not Postal
  A Word document is created for the tax assessment.
  An email is created with the tax assessment as an attachment.
  The document and email are pre-filed and include the relevant template wording, the year, etc.
  
  For Agreed and Postal
  A Word document is created for the respective client. The document is pre-filed and includes the relevant template wording, the year, etc.
  A task is created which is assigned to the relative client's manager asking them to check and send the email.

Editing the Tax Assessment AutoFile (Agreed)

1. From FYI, click the Automation menu option.
2. Go to the Processes tab.
3. In Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed & Not Postal) and Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed & Postal) for , click the cog icon to edit this process.
   
   

The following is an example of the Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed & Not Postal) process.

The following is an example of the Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed & Postal) process.

The Trigger for the Tax Assessments AutoFile is "Scheduled Daily".

The Filter for this process is "Notice of Assessment agrees with estimate".
For Agrees & Not Postal the Filter is additionally set as "Client Contact method is Email".
For Agrees & Not Postal the Filter is additionally set as  "Client Contact method is not Email".

To make the process active, change the Status to "Active".

The Owner is set by default as the user who made the process active and this can be changed if required. If the process fails, an email will be sent to this user as notification. You can set this as "Me" to set yourself as the owner.

Start From allows you to enter the date from which you want to start retrieving the documents. If you enter a date in the past, this will import documents from that date, This will only import documents that have not already been imported.

Last Run shows the date the process was last run. It includes a green tick or a red x icon to indicate if the process ran as a success or with an error. Clicking the View history link displays the Process History tab filtered to show the history of the specific process, Refer to Automation Process History.

Step 1 - Create Word Document

The first step in both Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed) processes is to import from the Application Xero Tax and Action set to check the tax assessment agrees with the original assessment, and to file the assessment.

The options for Filing are set up with Merge Fields to include the tax year in the filing Year category. The Workflow is set with the Owner as the respective client's Manager and the Status as "Completed".

The Word document is created using the selected Template as relevant for whether this is Not Postal or Postal. Depending on the requirements of your practice, the Templates can include merge fields. 

An sample Word template for the Notice of Assessment is available from here.

For the Agreed & Postal process, a Task is created so that the document that has been generated is sent to the client by post.

For Agreed and Not Postal: Step 2 - Create Email

The second step for the Tax Assessments AutoFile (Agreed & Not Postal) creates an email.

Action
The Action creates the email.

It is created using the selected Template which, depending on the requirements of your practice, and can include merge fields to create the email text

The document from Step 1 is attached and sent as a PDF to the client's OneDrive.

For Send or Save, select whether to save as "Draft in FYI", "Draft in Outlook" or Send Immediately". Refer to Creating an Email in FYI.

Filing
The Filing settings determine how the email is filed.

Name - the Name is  set as Notice of Assessment.

AutoFile - AutoFile is disabled so the document will be filed using the settings in the process step.

Cabinet and Categories - are set as relevant for the type of document being processed.
For Year, this includes the merge field "TaxYear" so the email will be automatically filed in the relevant tax year for the Year category.

Filing - defaults to "Filed" so the email will be automatically filed.

An sample template of the email for the Notice of Assessment is available from here.

Information that is not Included in Tax Assessments

There is certain information that is not sent either by Xero Tax or by the ATO and the following is not included for tax assessments:

• Tax Assessment reference number
• Tax Assessment payment details

If your practice needs to include these in what is sent to the client, you can change the Automation Process to allow your practice to leverage the power of the FYI process so you are automatically informed when an assessment is issued, but then allow you to attach the actual assessment. We recommend the following as best practice. 

• Use all the default settings in the Tax Assessment automations.
  This will stream them into the agreed method for sending the assessments (email or postal) and also checks if there is a variance.
• For Not Postal, change the default setting in the Create Email step so that a facsimile of assessment is not attached.
• Change the Task that is created so the manager can download the actual assessment, check it and then send it to the client.
  - For Not Postal, change the subject of the Task in the Create Email step, for example, to "Attach actual assessment, check and send".
  - For Postal, change the subject of the task in the Create Word step, for example. to "Download actual assessment, check and send via post".