The package gets read
W-2s, 1099s, K-1s, and brokerage statements. Every page is extracted and checked against the expected list from last year’s return.
Tax Prep & Review
From documents to a review-ready return
Cranston reads the client’s package, builds the workpaper, and keys the first pass into the tax software you already run. There is no second data-entry screen. Every figure in the draft ties to its source, ready for your judgment.
Get started
Entered in Drake, Lacerte, or CCH Axcess
Every figure linked to its source page
Review starts at the findings
How a return moves through Cranston
The same discipline on every return: read, verify, enter, flag, then hand it to your reviewer. Your preparers spend their time reviewing.
Entered into your software
The first pass is keyed into your Drake, Lacerte, or CCH Axcess file. Your file, your diagnostics, your review process.
Findings come to you
The wrong-year mortgage statement, the missing 1099, a figure that moved sharply year over year. Each is surfaced before review starts, with its source attached.
What Tax Prep & Review covers
Individual and business returns, from intake to sign-off.
Document intake that verifies
Uploads and emailed documents are read, filed to the right client, and checked against the expected list built from last year’s return.
Source-linked, uniform workpapers
Every figure links to the exact page it came from, with prior-year comparison alongside. Every workpaper follows the same template, so review looks the same on every return.
First-pass entry, in your file
Cranston keys the return directly into Drake, Lacerte, or CCH Axcess. There is no second data-entry screen.
Findings before review
Wrong-year documents, missing forms, unverifiable figures, and sharp year-over-year movements are flagged first, with evidence attached to each one.
Business returns
1065, 1120, and 1120-S alongside 1040s: trial balance tied to the return, book-to-tax adjustments proposed and shown, K-1 packages read at volume.
Review and sign-off on the record
Preparer and reviewer sign-offs are captured on the work itself. 8879 signatures carry evidence records: signer, timestamp, document integrity.
Cranston prepares. Your firm decides.
Cranston automates preparation. Your firm reviews and approves every tax decision.
Cranston prepares
Reads the package
Cranston compares each page with the prior-year return.
Enters the first pass
Cranston enters values in your current client file.
Links figures to source
Click a value to see its source page.
Flags open items
Cranston sends open items to your reviewer.
Your firm decides
Clears diagnostics
Your team reviews the return in its tax software.
Makes the tax calls
Your reviewer makes each tax election.
Approves and signs
Your firm signs each return.
E-files from your software
Your firm uses its own EFIN.
Tax prep & review questions
Legacy OCR tools misread forms and do not learn. Cranston reads the package the way a preparer does. It cross-checks against the prior year and the proforma, maps figures to the right fields, and flags anything it cannot verify.
One platform, four product lines
Use each product separately or together. All on shared data.
