The Property Tax module, also known as Opti.Tax Land Tax, is finally being rolled out. This powerful software includes cloud-based features that take collaboration between law firms and clients to a whole new level. Paul Liese outlined the new developments and features of Opti.Tax Release 22.0 in „hsp live at 11“. He also demonstrated functions of the Property Tax module that were not shown in the livestream on 10 December.

First of all, Paul makes it clear that law firms and consultancy firms must start communicating on this matter now, at the very latest. Clients must be made aware of the obligations arising from the property tax reform so that they can prepare and submit their declarations to the authorities in good time. At the same time, law firms must consider as a matter of urgency how they intend to price this service – or in what order they should approach which clients.

We now have a few important announcements to make. The functions for accessing the DATEV DMS and fixed assets will be activated in the course of February. In addition, Paul has announced interfaces with Wolters Kluwer’s solutions, such as ADDISON, tse:nit and cs:Plus. Development of these is now getting underway, as all the necessary information is now available.

Importing data from a PDF document

Having put forward these promising suggestions, we move straight on to the Opti.Tax software. First, Paul demonstrates how to use data from a PDF document. This is, in essence, almost self-explanatory. Paul creates a sample project and can then immediately scan upstream systems for property data. If you select this option, you can easily choose PDF files from the file system and have them searched accordingly. The programme extracts information such as the property type and owner details from the sample document. With a simple double-click on the sub-project, the software highlights any missing information. This can then be added step by step, ensuring that nothing is overlooked.

This is a general feature of hsp’s software solutions. The user is taken by the hand and guided through the projects. Consequently, even those staff members who do not possess the level of experience and knowledge of a seasoned professional receive assistance. The programme checks the data entered or already present for validity and provides useful guidance on an ongoing basis.

For privacy reasons YouTube needs your permission to be loaded. For more details, please see our Datenschutz.

Processing large volumes of data made easy

He then demonstrates how bulk data can be imported from an Excel file. The Excel template can be found on hsp.community in the „Documents“ section. It can be downloaded free of charge and made available to the client. The template has already been prepared in such a way as to minimise the workload for the law firm. The file thus contains important information for the client.

In addition, hsp provides an instructional video which the practice can send to the client. To import the Excel file into Opti.Tax, Paul goes to the „File“ menu and selects the „Import“ option. The template can then be selected there. A handy extra feature: the software checks whether the data is correct as soon as it is imported. In the example, a house number has been assigned twice – the software recognises this and immediately draws attention to it.

Further useful new features

Paul demonstrates another handy feature with just a few clicks. With Opti.Tax, you can extract data from any project, such as a Procedural documentation or a Transfer pricing documentation, a document can be created which can be sent to the client for review. Approval is granted via the Opti.Tax Cloud. Logically, this also applies to the property tax reform. Whilst reviewing the document, the client can highlight any issues directly within the document. If this happens, the document can no longer be approved. The law firm can update the document and resubmit it for approval until everything is satisfactory.

There is also some news from the hsp.community. For example, webinars on the federal and state models for property tax reform have just been made available. Each webinar consists of three parts. The first part provides a theoretical explanation of the relevant calculation model. The second part demonstrates how this is implemented in the Opti.Tax software. The third part consists of a question-and-answer session, during which specific points can be raised and discussed.