Cranston

Cranston reads client tax documents and enters and calculates the return in Drake, Lacerte, CCH Axcess, UltraTax or ProSeries, flagging items for a human reviewer. It is built for CPA firms, and nothing is sent or filed until a reviewer approves it.

It works through W-2s, 1099s, K-1s and handwritten notes, checks every figure against last year's return, rolls forward carryforwards and depreciation, and links each number to the page it came from. Before prep begins it spots missing or wrong-year documents and drafts one follow-up email to the client for approval.

For business returns it ties the trial balance to the 1065, 1120 or 1120-S and proposes book-to-tax adjustments. A planning tool models moves like an S corporation election on a copy of the return, and a research tool answers tax questions with IRC and ruling citations. It reads from TaxDome, Gmail and QuickBooks, is SOC 2 compliant and follows GLBA and IRS Pub. 4557 safeguards.