Capturing an organizer print run

Printing organizers produces a few hundred PDFs, or one enormous one. The listen window catches them as they come out of your tax software and splits them by client automatically.

Where to find it

Start an organizer run and choose your source.

Open a listen window

Pick how long the agent should watch: Listen 30 min, Listen 1 hour, or Listen 2 hours.

Then go and print from your tax software. Everything that lands during the window is captured, matched to clients, and assembled.

Choose a window longer than you think the print run needs. A big batch takes longer than expected, and a window that closes mid-run means restarting rather than resuming.

If the agent isn't installed you'll see Set up the agent instead.

Printing from your tax software

Each package needs slightly different settings, and the run screen shows the right ones for whichever source you pick.

Lacerte — Tools › Organizer › Print Paper Organizer → Print To: File (PDF). One PDF per client, with the client number in the filename. Turn on Print page number and include the Client Information page.

ProSeries — print organizers to PDF (File), one per client, client ID in the filename, native text layer retained.

CCH Axcess — batch organizer print, Destination = PDF File so bookmarks generate. One PDF per client, with the client ID in the filename. The engagement letter splits from its bookmark.

Drake — Last Year Data › Organizers → Save to Drake Documents. One folder per client, named by SSN or client ID. Don't password-protect the files.

Why these settings matter

Two things recur across every package, and both determine whether matching works:

One file per client, with the client identifier in the filename or folder name. That's what makes matching deterministic. A single combined PDF has to be split by reading it, which is slower and less certain.

A native text layer. Printing to PDF keeps the text. Printing to paper and scanning it back does not, and everything downstream gets harder.

The Other option

If your software has no per-client export, choose Other / combined stream. That path OCRs the file, detects client boundaries, and reads the cover name.

It works. It's just not deterministic, and the run screen says so plainly: keep native export where you can.

Use it when you have no choice, not as a default.

Engagement letters in the packet

Two options:

• Included in packet — your software bundled it, so mail it as-is
• Separate — we add it — merged in per client, for a wet signature

Drake and CCH commonly bundle it. If yours does, leave it included rather than adding a second copy.

Checking the run

After the window closes, check the matched count against the number of clients you expected.

A count well below expectation usually means one of three things: the print didn't finish, the filenames don't carry a client identifier, or the client folders aren't mapped. All three are cheaper to find now than after you've mailed a partial run.

Notes and limits

• The listen window applies to one run.
• Deterministic matching is used wherever the export supports it, with OCR only as fallback.
• Password-protected files can't be read.
• Import history records what arrived.