Summit Panel Q & A - Nov '22

Lots of exciting things happened for Canopy in 2022, and this next year won't be any different! Below are questions sent in by attendees of Canopy's Summit on November 10th, 2022.  Feel free to read through this table, as there may be answers to your own questions.  

Question	Answer
How can we merge duplicate contacts?	You can only merge duplicate contacts upon importing contacts to Canopy. If you find a duplicate contact following the import, you will need to manually transfer the information and files to one of the contact records and archive the other. Bear in mind that tasks and client requests, etc. are not transferable.
Will there be any Canopy integrations with Microsoft's OneDrive to allow for synching files automatically?	For now, there are no plans to sync with OneDrive. We welcome feedback on a use case for this question. Alternatively, the Virtual Drive is a great avenue for files to sync to your desktop automatically.
Do you have any partners who provide websites that work well with your portal? I don't have a website yet and need some guidance to make that work.	Our Client Portal is available as a custom domain (i.e. yourfirm.clientportal.com). You can easily integrate the portal with your website by adding a link to it on your site. Canopy doesn’t offer web design services and doesn’t currently have any partners that provide them. We suggest finding a firm of your choice and they can easily create a link to our portal.
Can you confirm that when we archive a client because maybe they are out of business or left us, we can access their files for the 7-year period we are required to keep on file?	Files, tasks, invoices, etc. are not available when a contact is archived. These elements will remain available once a contact is unarchived.
Now that a Client Portal login is not required to eSign, I am concerned that the links are not secure. Is there an increased risk for sensitive client data to be accessed in eSign links?	Our links are secure by allowing a limited set of permissions to a unique token and link sent to the signer's email. If the signer's email is not secure, this could add some vulnerabilities to the link. That being said, our team is actively looking into adding extra layers of security to our Secure Links.
We are Legacy users. As new features are being rolled out, we feel like we cannot quickly use new features because we are not sure how to use them or how they fit into our workflow. I'm not sure of the exact solution, but it would be great to see how a new feature might work in a real-world situation or learn of other best practices so we can implement them quickly.	With features released consistently, the Education Team at Canopy strives to keep our customers informed with every release. The best places to pay attention to are the monthly newsletters that you receive in your email and the monthly update and roadmap articles on the Knowledge Base. Canopy Updates and the Roadmap are released every month.
Is there a way to do a mass data export of all files on Canopy to save elsewhere as a backup?	You can back up your files through the third-party integration with odrive. To use odrive, you must have an account with them. The odrive integration is on our Integrations page in Canopy. You can also use our Virtual Drive and move folders easily to your desktop.
Is there a way to see when invoice reminders were sent out?	View the history of sent invoice reminders within the Activity Log in Canopy. Users can see details on when invoice reminders were sent.
The Virtual Drive initially took up too much space on my local hard drive. Is that issue resolved since recent updates?	We recently had a performance update that helps reduce CPU utilization even more. Please contact the team at [e-mail] if you still experience issues, and we can investigate further.
Is there anything in the works for the fillable PDF fields to be more transparent instead of the solid blue color? It is hard to use the Fillable PDF when it is hiding info behind the fillable boxes.	We welcome feedback on any ideas you may have for an improved experience. Please look at our feedback portal, where you can vote on existing requests and submit your own!
Can you please allow a CSV export of the Activity Log?	We welcome feedback on any ideas you may have for an improved experience. Please look at our feedback portal, where you can vote on existing requests and submit your own!
Are the "Teams" you are referring to the same as Microsoft Teams?	Teams in Canopy are team member groups with certain capabilities, like different access and permissions that you can apply to several colleagues. To learn more, reference this training video on creating teams.
For payments, will we be able to send client links to enter payment information to help make the engagement process more seamless and not require our team to enter payment data?	Your clients can make payments in the Client Portal. Team members at your firm will not need to enter payment data and the clients will fill out that info on their end. You can direct clients to save payment information and make a payment on the Client Portal.
Can I have detailed instructions for tasks linked to the workflow deadlines?	We recommend reviewing the Tools on a Task and Create Tasks sections of the Knowledge Base. If you are not able to find a solution, please feel free to reach out to our Canopy Customer Support for further assistance!
Can tasks be passed between staff members so they then reside on the new staff member's task dashboard, but aren't assigned to tasks?	The best way to do this is to change the status and assignments on subtasks. Users can set up a saved filter view to see their assigned tasks. Automation rules can also be set up to help streamline the process.
Does Canopy allow for integrated text messaging?	We welcome feedback on any ideas you may have for an improved experience. Please look at our feedback portal, where you can vote on existing requests and submit your own!
Can I run reports on clients based on tags, sources, or any other filter?	We welcome feedback on any ideas you may have for an improved experience. Please look at our feedback portal, where you can vote on existing requests and submit your own!
We do not track time, but we track tasks completed and have KPIs around the work completed. Will some of the new Productivity Reports help us determine the tasks completed each month?	The Productivity Report improvements we are currently focused on tie directly to time. Task completion rates aren't included in these reports quite yet. However, we welcome feedback on any ideas you may have for an improved experience. Please look at our feedback portal, where you can vote on existing requests and submit your own!
Are invoices downloadable to Quickbooks?	You can sync your Canopy account with Quickbooks Online here. Service items and invoices are included in the QBO integration!
Can you add the ability to print notes/emails to the client file? What is the timeline for this?	This feature is not currently on our roadmap. The current way to do this is to print the email as a PDF to your desktop, and then drag or save the PDF into the Canopy Virtual Drive or upload it to the web version of Canopy. However, We welcome feedback on any ideas you may have for an improved experience. Please look at our feedback portal, where you can vote on existing requests and submit your own!
Can you request and send secure attachments to third parties (e.g., bankers, prospective clients, etc)?	You can send secure attachments and eSign requests to Clients, Prospects, and Other contacts as long as they are marked as "Active" in Canopy.
When will the Notice tasks include all the functionality of regular tasks? The reminders and other tools are not available on the main task, but the Comments feature isn't.	We are discussing a feature to add a Comments feature to Notice tasks. However, our team welcomes feedback on any ideas you may have for an improved experience. Please look at our feedback portal, where you can vote on existing requests and submit your own!
Are there plans to enable formatting and hyperlinks in the internal messaging system?	We have a goal to have a more robust text editor in this area of Canopy, but we currently do not have a set timeline for this. However, our team welcomes feedback on any ideas you may have for an improved experience. Please look at our feedback portal, where you can vote on existing requests and submit your own!
What is the best way to charge clients for advisory services?	The best way to charge a client for a specific service is to set up a service rate. To learn how to add service items and rates, click here.
We want a task to be assigned automatically to a preparer. Then, for instance, they will move it to the reviewer but we don't want the task to always go to the same reviewer. How can this be done?	Automation rules can be added to update the status of a task when the previous task is complete. Those tasks can show up in saved filter views where users can pull from review work that’s ready to be worked on or they can be assigned out from there. We are also working on expanding team assignments within Canopy to assign the task to teams (Tax Prep, Bookkeeping, etc.), not individuals. Be on the lookout for release updates here!
Are any improvements on the horizon for Tax Resolution tools?	The best places to stay up-to-date on releases are through monthly emailed newsletters and the monthly update and roadmap articles on the Knowledge Base. Canopy Updates and the Roadmap are released every month.
Will Canopy be adding an Excel feature to edit spreadsheets inside Canopy and not have to download and upload them again?	At this time, Canopy does not support the ability to edit Excel spreadsheets within the Canopy file previewer. For this scenario, we recommend that you utilize the Desktop Assistant to edit files.
We currently use ShareFile to request documents from prospective clients who are not necessarily set up in our system yet. Also, we may send client tax documents to a third party (i.e., bank). Will Canopy handle those situations? Should we keep ShareFile? Is there a timeframe for this release?	The ability to request documents from prospects or third parties is a common request we get from customers. At this time, the only way you can request documents from clients through Canopy is through the Client Portal, not through secure links. Our team plans to add features regarding file sharing and uploading documents using secure links in the first half of 2023.
We would like a feature that can automatically select the correct folder and file name for tax returns that are printed from ProSeries or similar tax preparation software.  When we print into SmartVault, tax returns are automatically printed into the correct folder and named properly. If the client and associated folder don't exist already, they are created in the process of printing.	We welcome feedback on any ideas you may have for an improved experience. Please look at our feedback portal, where you can vote on existing requests and submit your own!
Some feedback I get from our billing professionals is that there is no way to bring up a specific invoice by invoice number within Canopy. We can sort in numeric order but then have to scroll through thousands of invoices to find the one we are looking for. We would also like to have a report that shows not only what was billed but also what was paid on the same report. Also having the invoice number and payment number on the same report would be nice.	You can type Control + F (PC) Command + F (Mac). You would still need to click the "Load more" option at the bottom of the page if it isn't visible on the page yet. Another good workaround for this is to Export a CSV of the invoices and within your selected application (Excel, Google Sheets, etc.) you can type Control + F (PC) or Command + F (Mac) to search the entire spreadsheet for the invoice number.  We welcome feedback on any ideas you may have for an improved experience. Please look at our feedback portal, where you can vote on existing requests and submit your own!
I need an easier way to add time to already paid invoices. It is a huge waste of time to have to reduce the payment so we can open and edit the time associated with an invoice. On fixed-fee projects, we often get paid before all the time required to complete the work that is spent. We add time to those jobs and then write up or write down the time charges to match the amount billed. That way we can compare the amount of fixed fee billed to our standard time charges based on hours.	You can link time entries to any invoice through the WIP report in Canopy. Alternatively, you can record an account payment for the client in Canopy or your client can make an account payment through the Client Portal.