Drake Tax Software Training for New Preparers: A 30-Day Readiness Path

By Vincent Howard, CPA | Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges | SkillAbility for Accounting Firms

Last updated: July 28, 2026  |  49-minute read

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A new preparer completes an introductory Drake Tax webinar.

The employee can open a return, find data-entry screens, calculate the return, enter common W-2 and 1099 information, view forms, and locate EF Messages.

The firm assigns the employee a routine individual return.

When the return reaches review, the manager finds that:

• A prior-year brokerage account is missing, but the preparer never asked whether it was closed or simply absent.
• A corrected W-2 was entered on top of the original document.
• Estimated payments were copied from the organizer without verifying the dates or evidence.
• A K-1 export populated income, but basis and passive-loss limitations were not addressed.
• A state return disappeared because the preparer removed the state input that created an EF Message.
• The preparer used auto-balance on a business return without understanding the underlying Schedule L difference.
• DoubleCheck marks show that forms were viewed, but not what evidence was verified.
• An EF Message was cleared by changing data rather than resolving the client fact.
• The preparer selected the return for e-file before release approval and signed authorization were complete.
• The employee believed transmission meant filing and never processed the acknowledgement.

The employee knows how to operate parts of Drake Tax.

The employee is not yet ready to own the complete return workflow.

A professional return should form one visible evidence chain:

The return may calculate before that chain is complete.

The preparer should not call it review ready until the chain can be followed.

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Who I Am and Why This Matters

I have practiced public accounting since 1990. I founded my accounting firm in 1993, merged it in 2001 to form Howard, Howard and Hodges, and helped grow the organization from three people to approximately 50 staff across multiple Florida locations and states. Our firm was named PASBA Firm of the Year in 2015.

During filing season, weak development does not usually appear on a report labeled “training failure.”

It appears as:

• Reviewers finding missing documents after preparation is supposedly complete
• Managers tracing form amounts back to data-entry screens and client files
• Seniors rebuilding basis, state, and trial-balance work
• Returns moving backward through workflow several times
• EF Messages being cleared without understanding their cause
• E-file status being assumed instead of confirmed
• The same review note appearing on the next return
• Managers remaining the permanent help desk for routine preparation

Since 2020, I have built and run the SkillAbility accounting workforce development platform used by more than 1,000 accounting professionals across dozens of PASBA firms.

The lesson is consistent across tax software:

New preparers become useful when they complete realistic source-to-acceptance returns, receive structured review, correct the work, and demonstrate that the standard transfers to a different assignment.

A video teaches a function.

A practice return tests application.

A controlled live return validates readiness.

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What Is Drake Tax Workflow Readiness?

Readiness combines five forms of knowledge:

• Tax knowledge: The filing rule, tax treatment, form, limitation, basis issue, election, and professional standard
• Product knowledge: Drake screens, forms, Calculation Results, EF Messages, View/Print, LinkBacks, LookBack, DoubleCheck, Trial Balance Import, K-1 export, portals, and EF database
• Firm knowledge: Workpapers, review standards, workflow status, naming, authority, escalation, signatures, release, and retention
• Client knowledge: What occurred during the year, which documents should exist, what changed, and what the taxpayer intended
• Judgment: What is missing, inconsistent, unusual, unsupported, material, or beyond the preparer’s authority

A Drake-ready preparer can answer:

• Where did this material amount come from?
• Why was it entered on this screen?
• Which form and state result did it affect?
• What changed from the prior year?
• What does the EF Message actually indicate?
• What did the software import, export, auto-balance, or calculate?
• How was that automated result verified?
• What does the reviewer need to decide?
• Has every required filing been accepted?

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Why Software Familiarity Does Not Prove Preparer Readiness

Drake Software provides an unusually broad learning ecosystem for new users.

Current official resources include:

• Getting Started webcasts
• Quick Start videos and guides
• Classroom and virtual training
• Drake Tax Basics and in-depth courses
• Free live and on-demand webinars
• Short instructional videos
• DrakeCPE courses
• User manuals, desk references, and knowledge-base articles
• Current-year practice returns and built-in test returns

Those resources are the correct product-learning foundation.

The accounting firm still must teach its own:

• Client-intake and source-document standard
• Workpaper index and documentation expectations
• Return-assignment and access rules
• LookBack, LinkBack, and DoubleCheck procedures
• EF Message escalation
• State and related-return coordination
• Tax-research expectations
• Review-note and correction process
• E-signature, release, transmission, and acknowledgement controls
• Definition of a review-ready return

Software-learning evidence

• The preparer completed an introductory class.
• The preparer can locate common data-entry screens.
• The preparer can calculate and view a return.
• The preparer can identify EF Messages.
• The preparer knows where Drake support resources are located.

Readiness evidence

• The preparer recognizes missing or conflicting client information.
• Material form amounts trace to reliable source support.
• Prior-year items are validated instead of copied automatically.
• The preparer can explain a calculated result and investigate it using LinkBacks.
• DoubleCheck marks represent defined procedures rather than screen viewing.
• EF Messages are resolved for valid reasons.
• State, K-1, basis, and trial-balance issues are exposed to the right reviewer.
• The preparer carries the return through acknowledgement and acceptance.

Formal Drake training establishes the common product language.

The firm’s 30-day path should establish the work standard.

For the broader development principle, read How to Develop Accounting Staff Without Relying on Shadowing.

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What Current Drake, IRS, and Profession Research Says

Tax professionals still transmit most electronically filed individual returns

Through May 8, 2026, the IRS reported approximately 141.0 million electronically filed individual returns.

Approximately 75.3 million were transmitted through tax professionals, compared with 65.7 million self-prepared electronic returns.

Filing volume accelerates quickly

Cumulative individual e-file volume rose from approximately 59.8 million by March 6 to 77.6 million by March 20, 112.2 million by April 10, and 141.0 million by May 8.

Drake provides practice returns specifically for training

Drake Tax includes eight built-in test returns using taxpayer identification numbers 500-00-1001 through 500-00-1008.

Drake also provides current-year practice returns through its support site, prior-year practice materials through its Education Department, and demo-mode training options for certain future-year purchasers.

This is important because the first complete return should not be a live client.

Drake’s learning resources support several learning modes

Current Drake resources include:

• Drake Tax Basics and in-depth classroom or webcast training
• Free live webinars and recordings
• Short task-based videos
• Practice returns
• Quick Start and user manuals
• DrakeCPE self-study and on-demand courses
• Update Schools and preseason learning programs

The firm should combine these resources instead of expecting one course to create readiness.

The profession is focused on early-career capability

The AICPA’s 2026 Profession Ready Initiative is researching the technical, professional, and AI-related capabilities early-career accountants need as work changes.

That is directly relevant to tax preparation.

As software improves at data entry and technical validation, new preparers need to develop source skepticism, review habits, research, communication, and escalation sooner.

Professional standards remain human responsibilities

Circular 230 establishes competence, diligence, and ethical-conduct expectations for practice before the IRS.

The AICPA’s revised Statements on Standards for Tax Services have applied since January 1, 2024.

New preparers should learn that:

• A calculated return is not automatically a supportable return.
• An EF Message is not tax authority.
• A client statement may require clarification or corroboration.
• An imported value must be verified.
• Uncertainty must be made visible to the reviewer.

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Drake Tax Desktop and Drake Tax Online

Drake now offers both its established desktop workflow and Drake Tax Online, a browser-based environment.

The 30-day training plan should use the actual environment the employee will use in production.

Drake Tax Desktop

Desktop training may include:

• Home window and preparer setup
• Data Entry Menu
• View/Print
• Calculation Results
• EF Messages
• LinkBacks
• LookBack
• DoubleCheck
• Trial Balance Import
• K-1 export
• EF Return Selector and EF database
• Drake Documents and Drake Portals integration

Drake Tax Online

Drake’s July 2026 Quick Start guidance describes a browser workflow covering:

• Firm, ERO, and preparer setup
• Return creation
• Data entry
• Return viewing
• EF Message correction
• E-filing and Return Status
• Drake Portals integration

For tax year 2025 and later, Drake Tax Online can create several individual, business, fiduciary, exempt-organization, and estate-return types, subject to the firm’s purchased products and any desktop-integration requirements.

Do not mix instructions without labeling the environment

Firm procedures should state:

• Desktop, online, or both
• Tax year
• Return types supported
• Which functions require desktop integration
• Where documents, acknowledgements, and status information are stored

Teach the stable process beneath both environments

The interface may differ.

The professional questions remain:

• Are the facts and sources complete?
• Was information entered or imported correctly?
• Does the calculated result make sense?
• Are federal, state, and related returns coordinated?
• What remains unresolved?
• Has the filing been accepted?

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The Twelve Review-Ready Return Gates

A return does not pass a gate because the preparer reached the end of the Data Entry Menu.

It passes because the required evidence exists.

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Define the Firm’s Drake Tax Operating Standard

Drake provides flexible setup, screen entry, printing, review, and e-file options.

The firm should convert those options into one consistent operating standard.

Standardize the return file

Document expectations for:

• Client and return naming
• Return assignment
• Source-document and workpaper organization
• Prior-year review and LookBack use
• Screen descriptions, worksheets, and supplemental statements
• LinkBack investigation
• DoubleCheck procedures and flag meanings
• Trial Balance Import and K-1 export controls
• State-return activation and review
• EF Message disposition
• Reviewer handoff
• Ready-for-EF, release, signature, transmission, and acknowledgement procedures

Define authority by role

A new preparer may be allowed to enter routine source documents while lacking authority to independently:

• Add or remove a state return
• Change filing status when facts are incomplete
• Use a material estimate
• Select or revoke an election
• Force or suppress a form
• Change basis, at-risk, or passive-loss conclusions
• Accept an auto-balanced business return without investigation
• Transmit a return
• Communicate external tax advice

Define the review language

The firm should specify:

• What a green DoubleCheck mark means
• When an item should be flagged
• How open items are documented
• What belongs in a preparer summary
• Which questions require a senior, manager, state specialist, or partner
• When a return may be marked ready for review or ready for e-file

Use approved examples

For each major return type, maintain:

• A strong completed practice return
• A weak or incomplete version
• An indexed source packet
• A prior-year comparison
• A DoubleCheck review example
• An EF Message resolution log
• A reviewer handoff
• A final authorization and filing checklist

Define “review ready” before day one

The return should not enter review because the preparer has no more data to enter.

It should enter review when:

• Source completeness is proven or exceptions are visible.
• Prior-year data and changes are addressed.
• Material form amounts trace to support.
• Calculated results were reviewed for reasonableness.
• States and related returns are coordinated.
• EF Messages are resolved or explained.
• Reviewer decisions are stated precisely.

Use The Real Tax Season Bottleneck Is Review to connect the preparation standard to reviewer capacity.

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Preparer Setup, PTINs, Permissions, and Security

Readiness begins before the preparer opens a client return.

Create an individual user account

Drake’s current setup guidance requires each user or preparer to have a username and password.

Paid preparer setup may also require:

• Name as it should appear on returns
• PTIN
• Preparer number
• ERO relationship and PIN information when applicable
• Firm and office assignment
• Permissions and security-group assignment

Do not share preparer logins.

Verify PTIN requirements

The IRS requires anyone paid to prepare or substantially assist in preparing federal tax returns for compensation to have a valid PTIN, subject to current IRS rules and exceptions.

The firm should verify:

• Whether the employee needs a PTIN
• Current PTIN status
• Correct PTIN in the software
• Who may sign as paid preparer
• Who works under supervision without signing

Use least-privilege access

Access should reflect:

• Assigned clients
• Return type
• Demonstrated capability
• Electronic-filing role
• Portal and document authority
• Administrative responsibility

Separate technical access from professional authority

A user may technically be able to:

• Change firmwide options
• Select a return for e-file
• Transmit from View/Print if the option is enabled
• Modify payment information
• Suppress a filing

The firm may restrict those actions to administrators, reviewers, or authorized transmitters.

Protect taxpayer information

Require:

• Approved devices and locations
• Strong passwords and multifactor authentication where available
• Secure portals rather than ordinary email for taxpayer documents
• Screen and workspace privacy
• Approved printing, download, and retention
• Immediate offboarding and access removal

Do not paste taxpayer information into an unapproved public AI tool.

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Client Intake, Organizers, Portals, and Source Completeness

New preparers often begin with the documents they received.

Review-ready preparers begin by asking which documents should have been received.

Build a source expectation list

For an individual return, the expected information may include:

• Prior-year return, notices, engagement information, organizer, and questionnaire
• W-2, 1099, K-1, brokerage, retirement, health, education, mortgage, charitable, and other tax documents
• Estimated-tax and extension-payment evidence
• Business, rental, farm, royalty, and foreign information
• Basis, at-risk, passive-loss, capital-loss, credit, and charitable carryforward schedules
• Dependent, filing-status, digital-asset, and foreign-reporting facts
• State residency, source-income, withholding, and estimated-payment information

For a business or fiduciary return, add:

• Final trial balance and financial statements
• Book-to-tax workpapers
• Ownership, capital, contribution, distribution, and beneficiary changes
• Fixed assets and dispositions
• Debt, interest, payroll, benefits, and officer-compensation support
• State nexus and apportionment information
• Related-party and intercompany activity
• Prior elections, credits, losses, and carryovers

Use four completeness statuses

• Complete: Expected sources are present, readable, and current.
• Complete with approved exception: A known item is unavailable and the treatment, limitation, and risk are documented.
• Incomplete: Material information is missing, contradictory, or awaiting client confirmation.
• Not applicable: Documented current facts establish that the item is not expected.

Train contradiction detection

Examples include:

• The organizer says an investment account was closed, but the prior-year return shows carryover activity that still requires current information.
• The taxpayer reports no digital-asset activity while a brokerage statement reports related transactions.
• A dependent’s age, residence, or student status conflicts with the organizer.
• A K-1 ownership percentage differs from the prior year without an ownership-change explanation.
• A state withholding form appears for an unreported state.
• A corrected form is uploaded without identifying which original document it replaces.

Use Drake organizers thoughtfully

Drake organizers are based on prior-year return data.

That makes them useful for identifying recurring sources and changes.

It also means the preparer should not treat an organizer question as proof that the prior-year item still applies.

Ask:

• Did the source continue?
• Was an account closed or an activity disposed of?
• Did the taxpayer move?
• Did ownership change?
• Is a prior-year estimate still unresolved?

Use Drake Portals as a controlled intake channel

Drake Portals can support secure document exchange, organizers, questionnaires, messaging, e-signatures, and payment workflows.

The firm should define:

• Document categories
• Client request wording
• Due dates and reminders
• Corrected-document replacement
• Staff ownership
• When missing information blocks preparation or release

A successful upload means a file arrived.

It does not prove that the correct file arrived.

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Prior-Year Analysis and LookBack

The prior-year return is a planning tool, a completeness tool, and a risk tool.

It is not a template to copy without current evidence.

Review the prior year before current-year entry

Identify:

• Filing status, dependents, addresses, occupations, and residency
• Businesses, rentals, entities, K-1s, and states
• Capital, charitable, passive, credit, NOL, and other carryovers
• Basis, at-risk, depreciation, and asset information
• Estimated payments, extension payments, and applied refunds
• Prior review notes, notices, estimates, elections, and unusual treatments

Use LookBack as a comparison control

Drake’s LookBack feature helps preparers compare prior-year information during data entry.

Use it to ask:

• Why is a prior-year field blank this year?
• Why did this amount change materially?
• Did the source end, or is the document missing?
• Did the treatment change because the facts changed?
• Did a carryover fail to reach the current return?

Do not enter a number simply to make the comparison look consistent.

Build a material-change list

Require the preparer to explain changes in:

• Income sources
• Business and rental results
• Ownership and entity structure
• Dependents and filing status
• States and local jurisdictions
• Deductions and credits
• Taxable income and effective tax rate
• Payments, refund, and balance due

Do not carry forward unresolved errors invisibly

If the prior year contains:

• An estimate
• An unsupported basis amount
• An e-file or state exception
• A forced form
• A pending notice
• An unexplained reconciliation difference

the current-year preparer should surface it before building on it.

Document knowledge of possible prior error

When the preparer discovers a possible prior-year error:

• Preserve the evidence.
• Do not change the current return merely to hide the inconsistency.
• Notify the reviewer.
• Follow firm procedures for research, client communication, amendment, and current-year treatment.

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Data Entry, Forms, Calculations, and LinkBacks

Drake Tax is known for efficient screen-based data entry.

Speed is valuable only when the employee understands how the screen entry affects the return.

Teach screen discipline

Before leaving a data-entry screen, confirm:

• Correct taxpayer, spouse, dependent, entity, owner, partner, shareholder, beneficiary, or activity
• Correct year and period
• Correct federal and state treatment
• Correct units, signs, dates, percentages, and ownership
• Source document agrees
• Supplemental information is complete
• Calculated forms changed as expected

Use the Calculation Results screen as a control point

After calculation, the preparer should review:

• Federal and state results
• Refund or balance due
• EF eligibility
• EF Messages
• Unexpected forms
• Missing forms
• Payment and direct-deposit information

A green e-file status means the product is technically eligible and has no blocking EF Messages.

It does not mean the firm has completed professional review and release.

Use LinkBacks to investigate form amounts

Drake LinkBacks can help identify the data-entry source behind many calculated form lines.

Train the preparer to move both directions:

Use LinkBacks when:

• A form amount is unexpected
• The reviewer cannot identify the source
• A field appears to be calculated rather than directly entered
• A state result differs from federal treatment
• A change in one screen affects several forms

Use worksheets and detail screens clearly

When a CTRL+W worksheet, detail screen, or supplemental statement is used, include:

• Description
• Source
• Amount
• Taxpayer or activity
• State treatment
• Conclusion or reviewer note when needed

Do not force the output before understanding the input

Before forcing a form, overriding a payment, suppressing a state, or changing a result, ask:

• Are the facts complete?
• Is normal input available elsewhere?
• Is the calculated result understood?
• Does current authority support the desired treatment?
• Will the change affect another return, state, or year?
• Does firm policy require approval?

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DoubleCheck and Preparer Self-Review

DoubleCheck allows staff to verify or flag items while reviewing forms and documents in View/Print mode.

The firm should define exactly what those marks mean.

A checkmark should represent a procedure

Possible firm-defined meanings include:

• Agreed to source document
• Agreed to workpaper calculation
• Compared with prior year
• Reviewed state treatment
• Recalculated or reperformed
• Confirmed client response
• Completed preparer self-review

“I saw the line” is not a review procedure.

Use flags to expose open questions

A flagged item should have a corresponding explanation:

• Issue
• Relevant facts
• Source or workpaper
• Current treatment
• Preparer recommendation
• Specific reviewer decision
• Client action and deadline

Review more than the primary forms

The preparer should review:

• Federal return
• Every state and local return
• Supporting schedules
• Carryovers
• Payments and vouchers
• Direct-deposit and debit instructions
• Client letters
• Electronic-filing authorization forms

Use the preparer’s self-review sequence

Return appropriate corrections to the preparer

When safe and efficient, new staff should correct:

• Routine entry errors
• Missing descriptions
• Incomplete standard workpapers
• Unresolved routine EF Messages
• Failed source tie-outs

The reviewer should evaluate material tax positions, estimates, state issues, disclosures, and client risk.

Review notes become training only when later work improves.

Use the Workpaper Review Checklist to define evidence and self-review before the file reaches the manager.

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Individual-Return Training

A new 1040 preparer should learn the taxpayer story—not simply the screen sequence.

Administrative and filing facts

Train staff to establish:

• Taxpayer and spouse identity
• Filing status
• Dependents and qualifying facts
• Residency, domicile, moves, and addresses
• Occupation, household, and employment changes
• Digital-asset, foreign, and other required questions
• Bank information, payment method, and refund preferences

Income relationships

Teach staff to coordinate:

• Wages and withholding
• Interest and dividends
• Brokerage transactions, basis, wash sales, and capital carryovers
• Retirement distributions, rollovers, and Social Security
• K-1 income and supplemental information
• Business, rental, farm, royalty, and other activity
• State-source and foreign information

Adjustments, deductions, and credits

Require support for:

• Retirement and health adjustments
• Education expenses and credits
• Itemized deductions
• Charitable contributions
• Child, dependent, energy, adoption, and other credits
• Estimated and extension payments

High-risk areas for new preparers

• Filing status and dependents
• Investment basis and wash-sale treatment
• K-1 basis, at-risk, and passive limitations
• Rental versus business classification
• Retirement rollovers and distribution exceptions
• Health-insurance and premium-tax-credit information
• Digital assets and foreign reporting
• Multistate income and credits
• Estimated payments and applied refunds

Use Drake’s practice returns progressively

Do not assign eight practice returns and evaluate only whether they were completed.

Use a sequence such as:

• Return 1: Navigation, basic sources, common income, and calculated forms
• Return 2: Dependents, filing status, deductions, credits, and state withholding
• Return 3: Brokerage activity, basis, and capital carryovers
• Return 4: Rental or Schedule C activity
• Return 5: K-1, basis, and state complexity
• Return 6: Missing facts and planted EF Messages
• Return 7: Full self-review, reviewer handoff, and corrections
• Return 8: Signature, e-file, acknowledgement, and reject simulation

The exact scenarios may differ from Drake’s supplied practice-return content.

The firm can add sanitized documents and planted errors around the official test files.

Require a current-to-prior explanation

Before review, the preparer should explain material changes in:

• Adjusted gross income
• Taxable income
• Total tax
• Credits
• Withholding and estimates
• Refund or balance due
• Federal and state results

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Business Returns, Trial Balances, and K-1 Exports

Business-return training should begin with the entity and financial statements—not the tax screens.

Establish the business context

• Entity type and election
• Tax year and accounting method
• Ownership and ownership changes
• Business activity and industry
• Related entities and owner returns
• States and local jurisdictions
• Firm scope and source financial statements

Reconcile the final trial balance

Before import:

• Confirm the trial balance is final and balanced.
• Agree beginning retained earnings, capital, or equity.
• Agree book income to final financial statements.
• Review loans, fixed assets, payroll, benefits, compensation, and related parties.
• Resolve suspense, clearing, and unusual balances.
• Identify permanent and temporary book-to-tax differences.

Control Drake Trial Balance Import

Drake’s Trial Balance Import can bring Excel-based financial-statement data into Forms 1065, 1120, 1120-S, and 990.

Drake cautions that importing can overwrite existing data in the return.

The firm should require:

• Return backup or archive before import
• Approved template
• Current-year mappings
• Control-total reconciliation
• Review of overwritten fields
• Review of Schedule L, M-1, M-2, and related forms
• Documentation of manual adjustments

Do not use auto-balance as a substitute for investigation

Auto-balance can help produce a balanced Schedule L.

The preparer should still understand:

• Why the balance sheet did not balance
• Which account received the difference
• Whether beginning balances and equity agree
• Whether a missing asset, liability, contribution, distribution, or income item caused the problem
• Whether the result affects M-1, M-2, basis, or owner returns

Train K-1 exports with limitations

Drake can export K-1 data from partnership, S corporation, and fiduciary returns to applicable owner or beneficiary returns within the same tax year.

That saves data entry.

It does not transfer every analysis.

Drake’s current guidance specifically notes that individual partner or shareholder basis information should be entered and maintained in the individual return’s basis worksheets; business-return inside basis is not the same analysis.

Train staff to verify:

• Correct entity and recipient
• Ownership and activity
• Ordinary and separately stated items
• Federal and state information
• Supplemental statements
• Basis, at-risk, and passive limitations
• Final versus estimated or amended K-1
• Whether the item was also entered manually

Coordinate related returns

A business or fiduciary return may affect:

• Owner and beneficiary returns
• Related entities
• Composite and withholding filings
• Pass-through entity tax calculations
• Payroll and information returns
• Basis and carryforward schedules

Use reviewer gates for complex matters

New preparers should not independently conclude on:

• Entity elections and revocations
• Accounting-method changes
• Ownership restructuring
• Complex Section 199A or limitation issues
• Multistate nexus and apportionment
• Foreign transactions
• Trust distributions and fiduciary accounting
• Material credits and disclosure positions

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State and Multistate Readiness

A federal return can be accurate while the complete filing package is wrong.

Develop state facts before removing messages

• Residency and domicile
• Moves during the year
• Work locations
• Property, payroll, sales, and business activity
• K-1 and entity sourcing
• Withholding and estimates
• Credits for taxes paid to other states
• Composite and pass-through withholding
• Pass-through entity taxes
• Local filing requirements

Understand linked and state transmission behavior

Drake supports different state e-file relationships, including linked and other transmission types.

When federal and state returns are transmitted together in a linked workflow, the state may wait for federal acceptance.

A federal rejection can therefore affect the state transmission path.

New preparers should know:

• Which returns are selected
• Whether the state is linked, unlinked, or direct under the applicable rules
• Whether federal acceptance is required first
• How a federal reject affects the state
• How to verify each jurisdiction’s acknowledgement

Reconcile federal-to-state differences

Document:

• Additions and subtractions
• Depreciation differences
• NOL and credit differences
• Tax-exempt interest
• Entity-level taxes
• Apportionment factors
• State-specific elections
• K-1 state data

Use state escalation triggers

• New state or locality
• Residency or domicile change
• Remote employee or owner
• Property, payroll, or sales in a new jurisdiction
• Composite filing or pass-through tax election
• Conflicting K-1 state schedules
• Missing withholding or estimates
• Local return requirement

Do not remove a state merely to clear an EF Message.

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EF Messages, Diagnostics, and Exception Resolution

Drake EF Messages identify technical conditions that can affect electronic-filing eligibility.

They are valuable workflow controls.

They are not a substitute for tax analysis or source review.

Understand the Calculation Results indicators

Drake’s current guidance describes several EF-status conditions:

• Green check: The return type is technically eligible and has no EF Messages.
• Red X: EF Messages prevent e-filing.
• Accepted: The return has been transmitted and an accepted acknowledgement is recorded.
• Suppressed: The return may have no EF Messages, but a do-not-send or suppression option is selected.

None of these statuses replaces professional release approval.

Classify the underlying issue

• Missing fact: Obtain client information.
• Input conflict: Correct duplicate or inconsistent entries.
• Calculation question: Understand software logic and affected forms.
• Tax issue: Research and escalate the treatment.
• State or related-return issue: Coordinate other filings.
• Technical e-file requirement: Complete the required field, form, statement, or attachment.
• Form-release or software issue: Apply current updates and monitor official guidance.
• Approved exception: Document why the message or limitation remains.

Use the message link to investigate—not to guess

Drake may provide links from Calculation Results to relevant screens or current knowledge-base guidance.

The preparer should:

• Read the full message.
• Open the related screen.
• Identify the source or fact the field represents.
• Review affected federal and state forms.
• Consult current product guidance and tax authority where necessary.
• Document the resolution.

Do not clear messages mechanically

Unacceptable approaches include:

• Entering a guess
• Copying a prior-year value without current support
• Suppressing a filing that may be required
• Forcing a form without understanding the result
• Removing a schedule to make the return e-fileable
• Ignoring a message because the paper form looks complete

Use a message-resolution log for material issues

Capture:

• Message number or description
• Underlying cause
• Facts obtained
• Screen and form affected
• Guidance or authority consulted
• Resolution
• Federal, state, and related-return impact
• Reviewer approval

Prioritize risk over message count

A return with one unresolved identity, state, basis, or payment issue may be less ready than a return with several low-risk informational items.

Teach staff to consider:

• Materiality
• Filing eligibility
• Tax position
• Client risk
• State and related-return effect
• Whether an error could spread through imports or templates

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Authorization, E-File, Acknowledgements, and Rejects

The filing workflow does not end when a return is selected or transmitted.

It ends when required filings are accepted and the client receives the final instructions.

Before e-file selection

• Complete preparer self-review.
• Complete technical and release review.
• Resolve material and e-file messages.
• Confirm taxpayer and dependent identity information.
• Confirm bank, debit, payment, and refund information.
• Confirm federal, state, local, extension, and related filings.
• Confirm required attachments and elections.
• Confirm filing and payment dates.

Control Ready for EF and transmission options

Drake can be configured to require a Ready for EF indicator before a return appears as selectable.

Drake also offers administrative options that can streamline e-file selection or allow transmission from View/Print.

Streamlined functionality should not bypass:

• Reviewer release
• Client authorization
• Required signatures
• Payment review
• Firm transmission authority

Use Drake Portals and E-Sign under firm controls

Drake Portals can support online signatures for eligible forms and return types.

Verify:

• Correct authorization document
• Correct taxpayer, spouse, officer, partner, fiduciary, or signer
• Valid signature process
• Signature and date completion
• Identity or knowledge-based authentication when applicable
• No transmission before authorization

Know that transmission cannot simply be recalled

Drake’s current e-file guidance warns that once a return is transmitted, it goes directly to the IRS and cannot be stopped or recalled.

That makes release controls especially important.

Process acknowledgements

After acknowledgements are received, Drake requires them to be processed into the local EF record.

Train staff to:

• Receive and process acknowledgements
• Search the EF database
• Review separate acknowledgement records for each transmission
• Confirm federal and state status
• Identify accepted, rejected, pending, or duplicate transmissions

Resolve rejects through the evidence

Drake’s recent enhancements provide direct knowledge-base links for many common reject codes.

The preparer should still determine whether the reject reflects:

• Identity or dependent information
• A prior-filed return
• Missing or inconsistent e-file data
• A form or attachment issue
• A federal or state relationship
• A software or transmission issue
• A matter requiring paper filing or specialist review

Acceptance is the filing evidence

Do not assume “transmitted” means “filed.”

Confirm acceptance for every required jurisdiction and document:

• Acceptance date
• Extension status
• Payment instructions
• Client delivery
• Any post-filing action

Use the Tax Season Readiness Checklist to test the firm’s broader people, e-file, workflow, security, and backup controls before filing season.

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The Complete 30-Day Drake Tax Training Path

The 30-day path is not a promise that every new preparer will be ready for the same work on the same date.

It is a structured sequence that gives the firm enough evidence to decide what the person is ready to do next.

Before Day 1: Preboarding and baseline

Complete before the employee’s first training day:

• User and preparer setup
• PTIN and credential review
• Device, security, portal, and document access
• Drake training-resource access
• Practice-return files and source packets
• Firm workpaper and review standards
• Baseline tax and software assessment
• Named manager, reviewer, and support contact

The baseline is not a pass-fail employment test unless the firm has designed and communicated it as one.

It should identify where the person needs more instruction and where the firm can move faster.

Days 1–5: Product and firm foundations

Training focus:

• Drake Tax Desktop or Drake Tax Online environment
• Home screen, return creation, screens, forms, calculation, and help
• Firm workflow, status, naming, document, and communication standards
• Source-document expectation lists
• Prior-year review and LookBack
• Calculation Results and EF Messages
• View/Print, LinkBacks, and DoubleCheck
• Security, PTIN, access, and professional authority

Practice:

• Complete Drake’s getting-started materials or the firm’s assigned equivalent.
• Open an official test return.
• Locate common screens from source documents.
• Calculate and trace selected form lines back to input.
• Use LookBack to identify prior-year changes.
• Classify sample EF Messages without changing data.

Day 5 evidence gate:

• Can navigate the assigned environment
• Can explain the firm’s evidence chain
• Can distinguish technical access from authority
• Can identify missing sources in a routine packet
• Can trace a form amount through LinkBack
• Can state why a green EF status does not equal release approval

Days 6–10: Routine individual-return practice

Training focus:

• Taxpayer information, filing status, and dependents
• Wages, interest, dividends, retirement, Social Security, and withholding
• Adjustments, itemized deductions, credits, payments, and direct deposit
• Routine state returns
• Source-to-screen-to-form traceability
• DoubleCheck and preparer self-review

Practice:

• Complete one or more routine official or firm-created practice returns.
• Use an indexed source packet rather than a list of answers.
• Identify at least three expected documents that are intentionally missing.
• Correct a duplicate or corrected source.
• Prepare a current-to-prior comparison.
• Submit a concise reviewer handoff.

Day 10 evidence gate:

• Routine data entry agrees to source documents.
• Material form amounts can be traced.
• Missing facts remain visible.
• Routine EF Messages are resolved for valid reasons.
• DoubleCheck marks follow the firm standard.
• Review notes are corrected and understood.

Days 11–15: Complete individual-return workflow

Training focus:

• Brokerage transactions and basis
• K-1 information
• Schedule C or rental activity
• Capital and passive carryovers
• Estimated payments and applied refunds
• Multiple states or a residency change
• Reviewer handoff and correction ownership

Practice:

• Complete a full simulated 1040 containing several activities.
• Use planted errors in basis, payments, source completeness, and state treatment.
• Prepare a workpaper or issue note for one unfamiliar tax matter.
• Review every federal and state form.
• Resolve or escalate every material EF Message.
• Correct manager review notes.

Day 15 evidence gate:

• Can complete a full simulated routine-to-moderate individual return.
• Recognizes issues outside personal authority.
• Produces a clear source, workpaper, input, and form trail.
• Explains material changes from the prior year.
• Submits a decision-ready reviewer summary.

Days 16–20: Business, K-1, import, and state complexity

Training focus:

• Entity context and final trial balance
• Trial Balance Import
• Schedule L, M-1, M-2, equity, and book-to-tax relationships
• K-1 exports and limitations
• Basis, at-risk, passive activity, and ownership
• State apportionment, withholding, and composite issues
• Import overwrite and duplicate risks

Practice:

• Back up a practice business return before importing.
• Import a trial balance containing mapping errors.
• Explain rather than accept an auto-balance difference.
• Export a K-1 and identify information that does not transfer.
• Coordinate the business and owner returns.
• Identify a state issue requiring specialist review.

Day 20 evidence gate:

• Can reconcile an imported trial balance to control totals.
• Can identify overwrite and mapping risk.
• Does not confuse exported K-1 data with complete basis analysis.
• Can expose federal, state, and related-return differences.
• Uses reviewer gates appropriately.

Days 21–25: Review readiness and e-file simulation

Training focus:

• Complete preparer self-review
• Risk-based EF Message resolution
• Review-note quality
• Ready-for-EF and release controls
• Drake E-Sign and portal workflow
• EF Return Selector
• Acknowledgement processing and EF database
• Reject classification and correction

Practice:

• Use a Drake test return to simulate online e-signatures where the firm has the applicable portal setup.
• Prepare a complete authorization and filing package.
• Identify why a return may be technically clean but professionally unreleased.
• Process simulated acknowledgements.
• Resolve a federal or state rejection scenario.
• Confirm acceptance and delivery steps.

Day 25 evidence gate:

• Can complete a return through review-ready submission.
• Understands release and transmission authority.
• Can distinguish selected, transmitted, pending, rejected, and accepted.
• Can process acknowledgements and document filing status.
• Can explain client payment and filing instructions.

Days 26–30: Independent simulation and controlled live work

Training focus:

• Planning the work without step-by-step instruction
• Prioritizing sources and open items
• Completing a full return within a benchmark
• Using help resources before interrupting the manager
• Making precise escalation requests
• Applying prior feedback to a new return

Practice:

• Complete a new, unseen simulated return from source packet through accepted-filing simulation.
• Receive only the client file, firm checklist, deadlines, and authority limits.
• Track time, questions, rework, and interruptions.
• If the employee passes the simulation, assign one or more low-risk controlled live returns.
• Use predetermined checkpoints and full review.

Day 30 readiness decision:

• Continue structured practice
• Ready for defined return sections
• Ready for complete routine returns with full review
• Ready for selected added complexity
• Not ready for independent release, transmission, complex states, or material tax positions

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Controlled Live-Work Progression

Practice should lead into client work.

It should not be replaced by immediate client work.

Level 1: Defined return sections

Assign:

• Routine source-document entry
• Specific schedules
• Standard workpapers
• Frequent checkpoints
• Full review

Level 2: Complete routine return

Expand to:

• Complete source review
• Prior-year comparison
• Routine federal and state preparation
• Preparer self-review
• Reviewer handoff and corrections

Level 3: Selected complexity

Add:

• Investments and basis
• Rental or business activity
• K-1s
• Additional states
• Research questions
• Import controls

Level 4: Routine portfolio ownership

The employee may manage a defined group of returns with normal professional review when the firm has evidence of:

• Consistent accuracy
• Source completeness
• Review-ready workpapers
• Diagnostic judgment
• Deadline reliability
• Clear communication
• Feedback transfer

Level 5: First-review preparation

After consistent preparation performance, begin developing:

• Review of defined junior work
• Feedback quality
• Issue prioritization
• Client-question preparation
• Workflow coordination

Use the Staff Accountant Competency Checklist to define readiness for controlled work and the Senior Accountant Promotion Criteria to define the later transition into review.

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Copy-and-Use Drake Tax Development Template

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100-Point Drake Tax Readiness Scorecard

Suggested interpretation

• 85–100: Strong evidence for complete routine returns with normal professional review.
• 75–84: Ready for controlled complete returns with targeted restrictions and coaching.
• 60–74: Developing; continue structured practice and defined return sections.
• Below 60: Foundational gaps remain; do not assign complete live-return ownership.

A confidentiality breach, falsified work, hidden missing source, unauthorized tax position, unapproved transmission, or deliberate misrepresentation should override the numerical result.

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Realistic Drake Tax Training Scenarios

Scenario 1: The missing prior-year brokerage account

LookBack shows a brokerage account that is absent from the current packet. The preparer must determine whether the account was closed, transferred, or omitted and keep the return incomplete until the current facts are known.

Scenario 2: The corrected W-2

The client uploads an original and corrected W-2. The preparer must identify the replacement, prevent duplicate wages and withholding, retain the correct source, and verify federal and state forms.

Scenario 3: The payment copied from the organizer

The organizer lists an estimated payment, but no date or evidence is supplied. The preparer must request support or document the approved treatment instead of assuming the payment was made.

Scenario 4: The EF Message cleared with a guess

A missing date generates a message. The preparer enters an assumed date. The learner must reverse the unsupported input, identify why the date matters, obtain the fact, and document the result.

Scenario 5: The state removed to eliminate a message

An unfamiliar state return creates an EF Message. The preparer suppresses or removes the state. The learner must develop residency and source facts, restore the appropriate filing, and escalate the jurisdiction.

Scenario 6: The misleading DoubleCheck mark

A form line carries a green mark, but the employee only looked at it. The preparer must trace the amount through LinkBack, agree it to evidence, and apply the firm’s actual procedure.

Scenario 7: The unexplained auto-balance

A business return balances because Drake auto-balances Schedule L. The preparer must identify the underlying difference, correct or explain the accounts, and evaluate M-1, M-2, equity, and owner effects.

Scenario 8: The trial-balance overwrite

A second trial-balance import overwrites reviewed data. The employee must restore the archived return, reconcile the new import, identify changed fields, and improve the import-control process.

Scenario 9: The K-1 export without basis

K-1 information exports from an S corporation to the shareholder return. The preparer assumes the loss is deductible. The learner must complete the individual basis and limitation analysis before accepting the result.

Scenario 10: The final K-1 replaces an estimate

A final K-1 arrives after an estimate was entered. The preparer must replace—not layer—the data, review supplemental statements, update states, and reassess related returns.

Scenario 11: The technically clean but unreleased return

The Calculation Results screen shows a green status, but manager review and signed authorization are incomplete. The preparer must keep the return out of the transmission workflow.

Scenario 12: The transmitted return with no acceptance

The return was transmitted, but acknowledgements were not processed. The preparer must retrieve and process the acknowledgement, search the EF database, and confirm every federal and state result.

Scenario 13: The reject near the deadline

An identity or dependent reject arrives near the deadline. The preparer must classify the reject, verify client information, coordinate the correction or alternative filing path, retransmit when appropriate, and confirm acceptance.

Scenario 14: The reviewer cannot trace the number

A material deduction agrees to the Drake screen but not to an indexed workpaper or source. The preparer must rebuild the chain from client fact and document through the screen and calculated form.

Scenario 15: The payment override

The payment screen contains an override that no longer agrees with the balance due after extension payments are entered. The preparer must reconcile the payment instructions, remove or correct the override, and verify the client-facing result.

Scenario 16: The product update changed the form result

A software update changes a form or clears a prior development message. The preparer must recalculate, review the affected return population, compare results, and document the retest before release.

Use Scenario-Based Training for Accountants to teach issue recognition and judgment before equivalent client risk appears.

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Completed Example: From Drake Orientation to Controlled Client Readiness

The employee did not become ready because 30 days elapsed.

The employee became ready for a defined scope because the firm collected enough evidence.

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What Should the Firm Measure?

Preparation-quality metrics

• Missing items discovered before review
• Source-to-form traceability
• Data-entry and transcription errors
• Incorrect prior-year carryovers
• Failed LookBack explanations
• Unsupported DoubleCheck marks
• EF Messages unresolved at submission
• Material current-to-prior changes explained

Business and automation metrics

• Trial-balance import differences
• Fields overwritten during import
• Auto-balance differences left unexplained
• K-1 export corrections
• Basis or state items missed after export
• Other returns affected by a shared mapping or template problem

Review metrics

• First-pass acceptance
• Review notes by completeness, input, evidence, tax, state, diagnostic, or workflow cause
• Repeated review-note rate
• Reviewer time by return type and preparer
• Returns returned more than once
• Manager or partner rescue time

Workflow and e-file metrics

• Time from complete documents to first submission
• Time from first submission to accepted completion
• Age of client and reviewer open items
• Signature and authorization turnaround
• Returns transmitted before complete release controls
• Acknowledgements not processed timely
• Reject rate and resolution time
• Post-filing corrections

Development metrics

• Baseline-to-day-30 assessment improvement
• Practice-return accuracy
• Time to accurate completion
• Questions resolved through approved resources
• Manager interruptions
• Feedback applied to later returns
• Return types and complexity successfully prepared
• Responsibility progression

Measure time to accepted work—not only time to first submission.

A fast return that requires manager reconstruction is not productive output.

Use Accounting Onboarding KPIs to connect new-hire development with quality, capacity, and role progression.

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Common Drake Tax Training Mistakes

Making the introductory webinar the finish line

Use product learning as the foundation and require complete practice-return performance before client ownership.

Teaching screens without source expectations

New preparers should know what information should exist before they learn where to enter it.

Using live clients as the first complete practice

Use Drake’s test and practice returns, sanitized packets, planted errors, review, correction, and later validation first.

Judging completion instead of accepted work

Track accuracy, support, review notes, rework, manager rescue, and acceptance.

Copying prior-year information without LookBack analysis

Validate carryovers, payments, states, entities, ownership, basis, and unresolved items.

Using LinkBack only when the manager asks

Preparers should use it during self-review to prove where material form amounts came from.

Using DoubleCheck as decoration

Every mark should represent a defined procedure and supporting evidence.

Clearing EF Messages instead of resolving their cause

Identify whether the issue is missing facts, input, tax treatment, state coordination, form release, or e-file mechanics.

Assuming green EF status means review ready

Technical eligibility does not replace reviewer release, client authorization, or payment review.

Trusting auto-balance without understanding the difference

Investigate Schedule L, equity, book-to-tax, and owner effects.

Importing a trial balance without archiving the return

Drake warns that import can overwrite existing data. Back up, reconcile, and review changed fields.

Assuming K-1 export completes basis and limitation analysis

Verify supplemental information, states, basis, at-risk, passive treatment, and duplicates.

Removing a state to eliminate a problem

Develop residency, sourcing, nexus, withholding, and filing facts before suppressing a return.

Allowing preparers to transmit merely because the option is available

Define release, signature, payment, selection, and transmission authority.

Calling a return filed when it was only transmitted

Process acknowledgements, review the EF database, resolve rejects, and confirm acceptance.

Correcting returns silently

Return appropriate corrections and verify that feedback improves the next return.

Stopping at preparation

Progress strong preparers toward research, explanation, first review, workflow ownership, planning, and leadership.

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How SkillAbility Builds Drake Tax Readiness

SkillAbility helps CPA firms separate tax-software exposure from demonstrated professional capability.

The firm gains evidence for the questions that matter:

• Can the preparer identify missing sources before review?
• Can the person trace material amounts through Drake and back to support?
• Can the employee use LookBack, LinkBacks, and DoubleCheck meaningfully?
• Can the preparer control trial-balance imports and K-1 exports?
• Can the person resolve EF Messages for the right reason?
• Can the employee submit a decision-ready reviewer handoff?
• Can the preparer carry the filing through acceptance?
• Can the person progress into first review and client responsibility?

For the complete system, read Accounting Workforce Development.

For the path beyond preparation, read Tax Manager Development Program.

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Frequently Asked Questions

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External Research and Authority Sources

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The Bottom Line

Use Drake’s training resources.

Use Drake’s practice returns.

Do not confuse course completion with client readiness.

Teach the return from expected source documents—not from empty screens.

Use prior-year information and LookBack to ask questions rather than copy answers.

Use LinkBacks to trace calculated results.

Use DoubleCheck as a defined review procedure.

Control trial-balance imports, auto-balance, and K-1 exports.

Develop federal, state, related-return, basis, and ownership facts.

Resolve EF Messages through evidence.

Require preparer self-review and a precise reviewer handoff.

Separate technical e-file eligibility from professional release.

Carry every filing through acknowledgement and acceptance.

Then decide what the employee is ready to do next.

Protect Knowledge. Develop People. Scale the Firm.

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To tax preparers whose work your reviewers can actually review,

Vincent Howard, CPA
Managing Partner, Howard, Howard and Hodges
SkillAbility for Accounting Firms

Drake Tax, Drake Tax Online, Drake Documents, Drake Portals, Drake E-Sign, DrakeCPE, SecureFilePro, and related product names are trademarks or services of Drake Software and its affiliates. SkillAbility is not Drake Software and does not represent that this article replaces current Drake training, documentation, licensing, terms, software updates, tax-law guidance, or professional standards.

© 2026 SkillAbility for Accounting Firms. This article provides general educational information and does not replace tax, accounting, legal, employment, human-resources, cybersecurity, software, professional-standards, or regulatory advice.