Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite. Planning and Implementation Overview

Transcription

1 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Planning and Implementation Overview

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3 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Introduction This guide will help your firm prepare for implementation of the next generation ProSystem fx Suite. You will learn about pre migration planning, training & consulting options, and key concepts around the new Suite and data migration. Your firm should review this guide in detail and follow the recommendations to help ensure a smooth transition to the next generation ProSystem fx Suite. Keys Quick reference to the key aspects of a particular function Icon Legend Tip Notes Write Best practice tips and shortcuts Informational notes about functions Steps or information to write down Caution Important warnings about a function Page i

4 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Table of Contents... 1 Planning... 1 Migration Overview Data Analysis Installation and Configuration... 4 Data Migration... 5 Post Installation Support... 7 Appendix A SaaS System Requirements Appendix B Active Directory Appendix C Organizational Structure Appendix D Security and Permissions Page ii

5 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Planning We recommend each firm take the following steps to successfully plan for your migration: Learn about the benefits of the next generation ProSystem fx Suite, its common client database, and SaaS o Visit CCHGroup.com/TheNextGeneration to: Learn about our next generation products and their new productivity features See whitepapers on SaaS, the benefits of a common client database, and the total cost of ownership in a SaaS environment Review FAQs o Visit CCHUserConference.com to download session materials from the 2009 User Conference o View recorded overview sessions on next generation Tax and Document products Identify your Next Generation Implementation Project Team including the following: o Executive Sponsor o Representative from each department (IT, Tax, Audit, Consulting) o Next Generation Implementation Champion someone who: Understands process and implications to firm Knows whom to inform and involve Acts as a change agent Functions as a liaison between your firm and CCH Review system requirements o See Appendix A for SaaS system requirements o Connectivity audit bandwidth to determine utilization o SQL (On Premise only) Determine if you will use Active Directory synchronization (see Appendix B) Determine how you want to set up your firm information/organizational structure in Next Generation prior to migration (see Appendix C) Determine how you want to set up security and permissions (see Appendix D) Consider individualized Best Practices Consulting as you plan your Next Generation implementation Estimate length of time required to migrate Develop a timetable working backwards from migration date o Attend Data Analysis Tool (DAT) training o Clean up data o Attend Installation and Configuration training o Attend Data Migration training o Perform Data Migration (other users cannot be in system during migration) Page 1

6 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite o End users attend training Migration Overview Page 2

7 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Data Analysis Data analysis should be performed to prepare firm client and staff data for migration to the new ProSystem fx Suite. You can download the free Data Analysis Tool (DAT) at CCHGroup.com/DAT. The DAT will help you: o Verify and compare your client and staff data, making sure that required data fields are present. o Identify duplicate data within a ProSystem fx product. o Compares client and staff information between multiple ProSystem fx products and identifies matching and non matching data fields. The Data Analysis Tool does not directly modify any data, but it will generate verification and comparison reports that will assist in standardizing client and staff information. Attend DAT training o This session is designed for personnel responsible for verification of client or staff data. It covers how to use the DAT to help you identify duplicate records, flag missing client or staff data, and identify mismatched data. We ll show your administrator how to use the DAT and the reports it generates to prepare you for a successful transition. Page 3

8 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite o We ve customized our DAT training content depending on whether you currently use one or more than one of our ProSystem fx products. These sessions are 1 and 2 hours, respectively. o Registration link For data analysis preparation before running DAT please refer to the ProSystem fx Data Analysis Tool Checklist and Best Practices document (provided during training) Identify your firm s primary (best) database Download the DAT at CCHGroup.com/TheNextGeneration or CCHGroup.com/DAT Use the DAT Clean up data as recommended in DAT reports Installation and Configuration Attend Installation and Configuration training o This 2 hour session is designed for IT staff and system administrators. It covers installation of the new Smart Client and provides training on setup and configuration of firm wide settings. o Topics include: recommended system configurations, bandwidth recommendations, and workstation hardware and software requirements. It also provides instruction on firm, staff, client and security setup and configuration including some new setup options. o Registration link Follow the Pre Migration Checklist (provided during training.) Please note: Specific Pre Migration Checklists exist for migrations from each of the following products: o ProSystem fx Tax/Global fx o ProSystem fx Document (Enterprise) o ProSystem fx Document ASP o ProSystem fx Practice Management o ProSystem fx Practice Install the Smart Client software from the URL in your Welcome from CCH o The Smart Client is a group of files installed on the user s (client s) workstation that interact with the hosted application to provide a rich user experience. A Smart Client may take advantage of the local machine s resources, but is a part of a larger distributed solution to help maintain, deploy and update services. o Before downloading the Smart Client note that it may require up to 3 GB of free disk space. o Set up your firm information and organization structure (see Appendix C) o Set up security and access groups (see Appendix D) o Set up Active Directory synchronization (optional see Appendix B) Page 4

9 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Data Migration Attend Data Migration Training o This session is designed for personnel responsible for implementing our next generation products and personnel responsible for verification of client or staff data. This session covers our Pre Migration Checklist that provides step by step guidance in implementing our new products and includes best practice recommendations for data migration, training on the data migration process and interpreting data migration reports. Identify pre migration tasks Understand data included in and excluded from migration Prioritize migration tasks Create a migration plan o DAT Training is a prerequisite to Data Migration Training except for customers with a single ProSystem fx product, less than 300 clients and no inactive client data to migrate. We ve customized our Data Migration training content depending on whether you currently use one or more than one of our ProSystem fx products. These sessions are 1 and 2 hours, respectively. o Registration link Install Data Migration Utility Launch Data Migration Utility Run Migration Utility Diagnostics Migrate Data o Migrate data from your primary database (best source of client and staff data) first o Migrate data from your secondary database second o Migrate data from your tertiary database third Page 5

10 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Post Installation After you migrate and install your products, we recommend the following: Tax o Return Configuration Sets (RCS): Contain the tax configuration options previously associated with Office Groups Are created at the firm level Can be created for as many configurations as you need Must have one configuration set as the default RCS for the firm. May be set as a default for any organizational unit May be overridden as the default selection by a user during return creation or from the Return Manager grid o Return Groups Are a replacement for the filtering provided previously by Office Groups Are created at the firm level Contain all returns for a specific client Only need to be selected when a client has returns Can be selected in the client profile or when the first return for a client is created o Print Sets Contain rules and sequencing for forms for printing purposes Are created at the firm level Must have one print set specified as the default print set at the firm level May have a default print set specified for any organizational unit Are determined at the return level by the lowest level default print set o Correspondence Manager integrates the ProSystem fx Suite with the word processing power of Microsoft Word to: Create new letter templates Edit existing letter templates Create custom paragraphs Add a standard or custom paragraph to a letter template Insert an object into a template Attend post installation training o ProSystem fx end user training 1 hour sessions are available for end users of our next generation ProSystem fx Tax and Document products to cover new features and functionality Page 6

11 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite o ProSystem fx Tax Administrator training A 2 hour session that includes firm settings and defaults, global lists, return print sets, return configuration sets and electronic filing status o ProSystem fx Tax Correspondence Manager training A 1 hour session for administrators that covers how to create custom letters for your firm and how to use the system defaults to create new letters o Registration link Support For questions or assistance, please contact ProSystem fx Support at You may also contact Support online at Page 7

12 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Appendix A SaaS System Requirements This document provides important information relating to the system requirements for the SaaS deployment of the ProSystem fx Suite of products. Please review prior to installation. If you have any questions, please call Customer Support at PFX (9739) or contact Support online at Workstation Operating System Windows XP Professional 32 or 64bit with SP2 or greater Memory Minimum 2GB Recommended 4GB Windows Vista 32 or 64bit Business, Ultimate, Enterprise with SP1 (Note: Use of Windows Vista Home Edition is currently not supported) Memory Minimum 4GB Recommended 8GB Windows 7 32 or 64bit logo certified (Note: Use of Windows 7 Home or Starter Edition is currently not supported) Memory Minimum 4GB Recommended 8GB Processor Minimum Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon Recommended 64bit dual core or higher processors using AMD x86 64 or Intel EM64T technology Disk Space 4GB of free local disk space Microsoft Office Requirements Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007 Professional/Enterprise (Must be installed on client workstation) Smart Client Install Prerequisites Microsoft.NET 3.5 SP1 Framework Recommendation: To shorten installation running time download this directly from the Microsoft Website prior to running the Smart Client Installation Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System (version 3.0 runtime) Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition runtime Microsoft Word 2003 Compatibility Pack for Word 2007 (Office 2003 users only) Microsoft core XML Services 6.0 (Office 2003 users only) Page 8 Appendix A SaaS System Requirements

13 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Microsoft XPS Document Writer Print Driver (Office 2003 users only) Microsoft Office 2007 Primary Interop Assemblies (Office 2007 users only) Microsoft Save As PDF or XPS (Office 2007 users only) Microsoft Office 2003 Primary Interop Assemblies (Office 2003 users only) Microsoft SQL Express 2005 (installed only with Data Migration) Microsoft SSRS Report Writer Note: Prerequisites will be installed by the Smart Client installer if not present Internet Bandwidth Requirements Internet connectivity is required. The table below provides guidance on the recommended connection type based on anticipated usage by active users. The number of users and the other network traffic will determine the final amount of bandwidth needed to run the programs. Active Users per Office Internet Tunnel Smart Client Download 700kb/s 3.5mb/s 7mb/s 14mb/s 35mb/s 70mb/s 350mb/s Application Load on Firm Bandwidth 25kb/s 125kb/s 250kb/s 500kb/s 1.25mb/s 2.5mb/s 12.5mb/s Cable x x X x x DSL x x X x x T1 x x T3 Printer PCL5e compatible printer driver ProSystem fx Suite Version Compatibility To integrate with SaaS Tax (latest version), the following product versions are necessary: ProSystem fx Document v. 4.0 ProSystem fx Engagement v. 6.1 ProSystem fx Fixed Assets v ProSystem fx Portal v. 1.0 ProSystem fx Scan Autoflow v. 5.2 Additional System Requirements NOT installed by the Smart Client installer Adobe Flash 9.0 or higher Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.0 and higher Microsoft Silverlight Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 SP2 and higher Screen Resolution 1024x768 and higher Appendix A SaaS System Requirements Page 9

14 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Appendix B Active Directory Before using the Active Directory setup wizard, you must have the following information available: Name [Smith, John] and e mail of the Active Directory user that should be used to log in to ProSystem fx as the default administrator. The domain where ProSystem fx users log in to Active Directory. The name of the ProSystem fx staff template you will use when importing users. The name of the Active Directory group used to identify all users who need to log in to ProSystem fx Suite. You will need to create a group in active directory to identify all Active Directory users within ProSystem fx. This applies to all products in the ProSystem fx Suite. Information you should be aware of when setting up Active Directory integration with ProSystem fx Suite: Ensure all users have exited all ProSystem fx applications prior to switching to Active Directory authentication. NEVER remove the designated administrator account for the ProSystem fx Suite from the ProSystem fx group in Active Directory and use caution when removing other users from the Active Directory ProSystem fx group. Do not disable the user in Active Directory that is linked to the default administrator profile in Active Directory as you may be disabling the only person with full rights across the ProSystem fx Suite. If all users who have rights to Active Directory Integration, including the default administrator, are unlinked in the ProSystem fx Suite, there will be no way to re link users because anyone with the permissions required to perform the integration will also be unlinked. When switching your mode of authentication from CCH to Active Directory, you will need to link existing staff to AD users; otherwise, existing staff will not be able to log in once the switch is made. Page 10 Appendix B Active Directory

15 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Appendix C Organizational Structure Organizational units are a means for you to define your firm s organizational structure The structure can consist of up to four levels o Firm o Regions (optional) o Offices o Business Units (optional) Organization units can be used for o managing client and staff data o filtering lists o reporting by organizational unit o controlling access to client and staff data o defining user functional rights o assigning defaults for return configuration sets and print sets You should decide in advance prior to installing the software what organizational structure will best fit your firm s procedures and policies When the ProSystem fx Suite is installed, a default Firm, Office, and Business Unit are automatically created Sample organizational structure: Appendix C Organizational Structure Page 11

16 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Firm o Firms can range from multi national to single office in size o A firm can be defined as an entity that manages a collection of distinct offices that want to process and maintain data collectively Region o A large firm may organize its offices into regions o Regions are optional o Each region must be unique Office o An office represents either a specific geographic location or a logical partitioning of a firm o At least one office must be defined for the firm or region o Each office must be unique Business Unit o A business unit represents a lower level organizational unit available within an office o Examples might be Tax, Audit, Consulting, etc. o All offices must have at least one business unit o May be assigned to more than one office What to consider prior to setting up your firm s organizational structural in the next generation of ProSystem fx Suite o Organizational Structure What structure would work best for your firm? Clients and Security/Permissions are tied to the organizational unit Custom print sets can only be assigned at the organizational unit level o Return configuration sets o Using Client Access Groups in place of password protected returns Provides for easier management of the returns More secure as the client will not even appear on any list if the user does not have access o Workstream integration with Tax Setup master/types within Workstream for easy project creation within Tax. Define the Return status points as well as project level statuses Page 12 Appendix C Organizational Structure

17 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Organizational unit associations example: Organizational structure example with division at business unit level: Appendix C Organizational Structure Page 13

18 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Organizational structure example with division at top: Organizational structure example with no regions, division at office level, and offices as business units: Page 14 Appendix C Organizational Structure

19 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite Appendix D Security and Permissions A Full Rights Security group is available by default to assign rights to access all products and their areas that are licensed by the firm. Security groups define the functional rights staff should inherit regardless of the roles they act in. Client, project and staff related rights of the security group will be applied to assigned organizational units of client, staff and projects. Functional rights can be defined for all of the licensed products that are installed. Rights can be granted, never allowed or defined in other security groups or roles. Rights for each staff member are cumulative across all of the security groups and roles where the staff member is assigned. Staff can be assigned to the security group based on the staff member s home officebusiness unit or position. Staff can also be specifically included in and/or excluded from the security group. Client Access Groups limit access to subsets of clients and/or limit access to clients in particular product modules (project and staff access groups can also be defined). o Provides the capability of securing clients based on their office business unit and staff assignments (e.g., Partner). o Provides the capability of specifically including/excluding clients. o Staff can be assigned based on their office business unit and/or position attributes. Or teams of staff can be given access to the clients. Appendix D Security and Permissions Page 15

20 Next Generation ProSystem fx Suite o Provides the capability of specifically including/excluding staff. Staff Access Groups limit access to staff profile information. o Provides the capability of securing staff profile information based on their officebusiness unit and position o Provides the capability of specifically including/excluding staff members. o Provides the ability to secure the staff profile within a specific suite module o Provides the capability of selecting which staff members can access the secured staff profile. Role Based Permissions define permissions staff should inherit only when acting in a particular role. o Security rights are defined for the role rather than for the staff member. o Staff would inherit the rights only when acting in a role. o Only security rights applicable when staff act in roles will be available. For example, staff acting in the preparer role for a 1040 project would inherit edit rights to the return. Page 16 Appendix D Security and Permissions