# The practice behind the returns

Your firm runs on more than tax software. Clients upload, sign and pay. Staff track time and send bills. Do it all in the same place as the returns, with one record for each client.

## A portal for every client
Each client gets one secure portal and a phone app. They see their returns, their organizers and their papers. They upload, sign forms and pay their bill there. A family can link its members, so a parent can help a grown child with that child's consent. Clients sign in without a password. Your firm's name is on what they see.

## Document requests that get answered
Ask a client for just what you need. The request lists each paper, and the client checks each one off as they upload it. Reminders go out by email and text until the list is done. Each upload lands in the client's folder and on the right return. You see every open request across the firm on one list.

## E-signature for every form
Send engagement letters, Form 8879 and IRS authorizations for signature online. The client signs from the portal or their phone, with their identity checked. Signed copies go into the client's record. You see who has signed and who has not, and reminders go out for you. Nothing waits on a fax or a stamp. Each signed form carries the date and time.

## Time and billing
Track time against each client and each return. Bill by the hour, by the return or by a fixed fee. Bills are built from the work done and sent to the portal. Clients pay by card or bank. Unpaid bills get reminders. You see the work not yet billed, by client and by staff member. Your managers see who billed what.

## One record for each client
Each person, business and trust is one record in a shared CRM. A family's returns, its business and its trust sit together. Notes, calls, emails and files are kept with the client. When the client's advisor or attorney uses Rutledge too, work passes between you with the client's consent. Nothing is typed twice. See [the shared CRM](/crm).

## Every call, email and meeting, captured
Texts, emails, calls and video meetings with a client land in that client's record on their own. Calls and meetings are written out and summed up. A promise made on a call becomes a task with a due date. A text on a personal phone or a talk in the hall can be logged too, with screenshots, so nothing is lost. Write to clients through the portal, by email or by text, and the reply joins the same thread. Every message and file is kept, and your staff can search it. See [how communications work](/communications).

## Records kept as long as the law asks
The law asks a preparer to keep a copy of each return, or a list of the returns, for three years after the return period ends. Signed e-file forms are kept for three years too. Each of these is kept for you, and cannot be deleted before its time is up. Set longer periods for workpapers to match your state board and your firm's policy. Export a client's whole file for a review in minutes, and keep working while you wait.

## Client trust money
Hold client money in a trust account, kept apart from the firm's own. Each deposit is tied to the client and where it came from. Each payment out is entered by one person and approved by a second. The trust account is matched to the bank each month. You always know whose money is whose, and you can show it.

## Staff and access
Give each person on your staff the access their role needs. A seasonal preparer sees only the returns given to them. A manager sees the whole firm. Every action is logged with who took it and when. Each person signs in with their own account. Add or remove staff in minutes as the season grows and shrinks. [Try the platform](/try?for=accounting) to see the workspace your staff would use.