Crosstie Practice Live

Organizers that feed the return

In most products the organizer is a form the client fills in and someone retypes. Here the answers go straight into the workpaper.

• Built for each engagement: a document checklist and questions that follow the client's situation — a mortgage, rent, a 529 plan, school costs — so they answer only what applies.
• Done in several sittings: on a phone or a computer, with every answer and upload saved as they go, picking up where they left off.
• Answers that reach the return: filing status, dependents and ages feed the computation directly. Nothing is keyed twice.
• Reminders that know when to stop: outstanding items are chased after 3, 7 and 14 days, every 2 days near the deadline, then handed to you rather than nagging forever.

Client portal

• One place for the client: uploads by photo or PDF, questions, open-items requests, and the delivered return to review and approve.
• Duplicate and corrected documents: the same file uploaded twice is caught, and a corrected form replaces the original only after you accept it.

Engagement letters, e-signatures and payments

• Engagement letters signed online, with the scope and fee recorded. Adding a service later is an addendum the client signs.
• E-signatures for any document you send for signature, such as a proposal.
• Paid when they sign: in full, or billed monthly or annually by card, through Stripe.
• Access tied to payment: if a payment fails, the portal pauses new work until it's settled. The client can still see and download their records.
• Service packages: quote from your own tiers, with a price for each service on its own and a credit when it's bundled.

Time, WIP and pricing

• Which clients are costing you money, and what to charge them next year. From the time actually spent, each engagement's real hourly rate, and a list of what to reprice at renewal. Each new price is built from hours at your target rate, the cost to file, a margin adjustment and tax, with every step shown so you can check the arithmetic.
• Time that tracks itself. Work in a client's file and your time is recorded, sorted by what you were doing, and carried to the engagement's WIP. No one has to remember to start a timer. It pauses when you step away, and you confirm each block before it's logged.
• Cross-selling, suggested for you: services each client could use but doesn't have yet, with the reason — bookkeeping for a sole proprietor, planning for a landlord, payroll for a corporation. One click drafts an addendum to their engagement letter.

Documents and workflow

• Domestic and international file rooms. The engagement letter asks for the client's consent to international preparation (IRC §7216). Their files go to the international file room only if they consent, and to the domestic one otherwise.
• Mark up PDFs in the client's file, and export the marked-up copy.
• One view of the day: what needs attention, what's waiting on the client, and what's due.
• Every return's status, from documents requested to delivered, with deadlines by entity type.
• IRS notices logged against the client, with their response deadlines and status.
• Estimated tax payments: quarterly amounts recorded and reminders sent before each due date.
• Team roles and seats: preparer, reviewer, partner and admin, with sign-off levels set by role and a seat for each active user.

Coming soon

• E-signature for Form 8879, with the identity verification (knowledge-based authentication) the IRS requires for a remote signature.
• Export to the tax software you already use, so a firm that keeps its own software doesn't key the workpaper again.
• Payments through CPACharge, for firms that take payments there instead of Stripe.

Pricing, in short: one plan, priced per user per month. Everything is included, the Workpapers module too. Accounting, for the firm’s own books, is the one paid add-on module: built and in daily use at an active tax practice, available to firms in early 2027.

From demo to liveHow a firm starts

Five steps. The first three are a conversation and two signatures; the last two are ours to do. Deployments open October 15, 2026.

1. Demo

   A walk through Crosstie Practice against the way your firm actually works, not a scripted tour.

2. Contract

   Terms for your firm, sent for signature.

3. Agreement

   The engagement letter, signed electronically — the same flow your own clients sign through.

4. Deployment

   Your firm’s own deployment is provisioned at yourfirm.crosstietax.com, under your name and your logo.

5. Live

   You add your logo, firm details and payment settings, and start working — on your Crosstie address, or on your own domain*.

* Depending on your DNS provider.

Every firm goes live on a Crosstie address. Point your own domain at your deployment whenever you’re ready, or stay on the Crosstie one — Crosstie doesn’t register domains for firms, so nothing above waits on one.