16. The Case of the Status Check

PREVIOUSLY: THE CASE OF THE FORM UPDATE

Walter puzzled over what could be done with a form that was scheduled to be submitted to the IRS. That is, until he talked to one of Tax1099’s customer support specialists over live chat. A specialist explained that Walter could edit his forms until the scheduled date. This would keep Walter from having to file a corrected form, when he could edit the form instead.

Walter was happy to hear of this feature. He was sure he’d have to edit a box amount or a vendor’s address before the forms were finally submitted to the IRS. This got Walter thinking, though. What would happen after the forms’ submission? He was determined to find out.

THIS WEEK

Walter logged into Tax1099. There, on the Dashboard screen, he saw two places to check the status of his forms.

First, under “What would you like to do,” Walter saw a “Check on Status” option. Clicking on the option, he was asked for his reference number. Walter hadn’t kept record of his reference number, so he went to Forms > Manage Forms. He pulled up his forms, and saw the reference numbers listed in the table.

In that same table, he saw a column labeled, “Status.” It would seem that this was another way to check on the status of his forms.

Walter returned to the Dashboard screen. He glanced down the page, and saw, “Approval Status.” To the right, the text read “View All.” This launched Walter into the “History” tab of Tax1099.

In this screen, Walter could sort by payer. The table contained a column for “Time” and for “Message.” The legend to the left of the table allowed Walter to drill down deeper into the filing history. He could select submissions, approvals, rejected, accepted with errors, and so on. There were also options for state filing and state reconciliation statuses.

It was good to know that Walter would be able to track the progress of his forms through the IRS’ system. But why stop there? Walter wanted reports on anything and everything. It never hurt to keep good records.

NEXT WEEK

Walter explores the reports available through Tax1099. Walter encounters the Submission History Report, TIN Match Report, Forms Delivery Report, and much more.