Due Dates in Automators

Hi @Dee G! That’s a great question.

The Karbon Dev team are considering adding government due dates as an additional way to track work so that the actual date you want to complete the work isn’t mixed up with the legal deadline of the work.

In lieu of an additional due date, you have some options:

• Leave the due date as 4/15 (this is what our firm does)
  • We want to complete all the tax returns by 4/15, and if we don’t do that, we still consider the work past due and try to complete it as quickly as possible.
• When creating work, make the due date 10/15
  • 10/15 is the actual due date and 4/15 is basically arbitrary at this point aside from clients that need to send payments and estimates.
  • You can add a task within the work item that is due 4/15 called “File Extension” that will complete if the work completes early
• Use the API to make mass changes to due dates (this is something we have also done)
  • Must be comfortable with basic programming (I have a python script that I will share on the community)
  • Can quickly make changes to large batches of work items
• Manually change each one (you have already said that this is the least desirable option)

I don’t know if that helps at all.

I’m curious how other people handle it.

We set tax due dates at the original due date (ex 4/15) and when the extension projection is complete and extension accepted we manually move the date to the extended date (ex 10/15). We would love to see government due dates added to work templates for original and extension date. 

It would also be great to assign other dates for state filings.

API is super interesting and I would like to learn more about how to use it but we do not have a programmer on staff.

We leave all our due dates as the original 4-15 for personal and Corporate returns and 3-15 for partnership and S-Corp returns.  We then have Automators within the work that will reset the dates when triggered.  Once we receive all the tax documents and the return moves to preparation, an Automator sets the due date to 14 days later.  Once preparation is completed, the return moves to review and the Automator changes the due date to 7 days later.  This allows us to track where things are going over the time budget and why.  Is it us or are we needing additional information from the client?

I like @DianeK ‘s approach. It’s something we have considered but have not tried yet. It would help to manage first in, first out work. The only problem is that you have to keep the government deadline in your head and not in the system...