Build an organizer template
Sections, field types, conditional follow-ups, and the carry-forward setting that does the heavy lifting.
An organizer template is built from sections, and each section is built from fields. The structure is what makes it feel short to a client even when it collects a lot.
Where to find it
The three section types
Standard — ordinary questions.
Repeating — the client adds one entry per item. A row per dependent, per W-2, per rental property. Every entry collects the same fields.
Checklist — a list of yes/no prompts, like Did you buy a home this year? A yes can reveal follow-up questions.
Repeating and checklist can't be combined in one section.
Checklist sections are the ones to lean on. A client faced with forty questions answers badly. A client faced with twelve yes/no prompts, where three of the yeses open up detail, answers well and finishes. Ask the short question first and let the detail appear only when it's relevant.
For repeating sections, set the Add-button label to something concrete — Add a dependent, not Add item.
Fields
Each field carries a Label, a Field type, a Key, optional Help text, Options where the type needs them, and whether it's Required.
Add standard field pulls from a set of known fields rather than making you define common things by hand.
Use Help text generously. It costs you nothing and it's the difference between a right answer and an email asking what you meant.
Follow-up questions
A field can be a Follow-up of another, appearing only when the parent is answered a particular way — When answered….
This is what keeps an organizer short. The home-purchase questions only exist for the clients who bought a home.
Carry forward year to year
Carry forward year to year is the setting that determines whether next year's organizer arrives pre-filled with this year's answer.
Turn it on for anything stable: dependents, employers, properties, bank accounts, filing status.
Leave it off for anything that must be answered fresh each year — amounts, dates, and this-year-only questions.
Some field types can't carry forward, and the builder says so with This field type doesn't carry forward.
Pre-fills
A field can pre-fill from data you already hold — Pre-fills from. That's separate from carry-forward: pre-fill draws from the client record, carry-forward draws from last year's organizer.
Visibility
Both sections and fields carry visibility settings, so parts of a template can be shown only to some clients. One template can serve individuals and business owners without the individuals seeing a page of entity questions.
What happens on submission
When submitted, start work from attaches a job template. The client submits, and their return job is created automatically in the right pipeline.
Leave it unset to just collect answers.
This is worth setting up. Otherwise submitted organizers pile up and somebody has to notice each one and create the work by hand, which is the step that silently fails in February.
Publishing
A template must be published before it can be sent. Where something's incomplete you'll see Can't publish yet with what's missing.
Notes and limits
- Editing a published template doesn't change organizers already sent.
- The section library lets you reuse a section across templates instead of rebuilding it.
- A starter library is available if you'd rather adapt than start blank.
- Keys are how answers are identified. Changing one on a live template breaks carry-forward for that field.