How to build a digital tax document organizer for accounting and tax prep firms in Formaloo

By the end of this guide, you'll have a digital tax organizer that replaces your static PDF. It's a multi-page form that walks clients through filing status, dependents, income, and deductions, only asking follow-up questions when they apply. Every submission generates a clean PDF summary for your preparer, triggers status update emails, and lands in a portal where your team tracks who's still missing documents. With Memory Form turned on, returning clients see last year's answers pre-filled each new tax season.

This is the form clients fill out each tax season. Rather than building five sections field by field, describe the whole organizer to Magic Create and let it generate the structure, including the admin-only fields your team needs behind the scenes.

1. Open Magic Create: From your Formaloo homepage, click Magic Create.

2. Describe your organizer: Paste a prompt describing the full organizer across five sections: filing information (tax year, name, date of birth, SSN or ITIN, mailing address, email, phone, filing status, spouse details), dependents, income (W-2, 1099, self-employment, other income), deductions and credits (itemized expenses, retirement contributions, dependent care), and documents and consent (prior year return, supporting uploads, an accuracy confirmation checkbox). Include three admin-only fields: a Status dropdown, an Assignee field, and an internal notes field.

3. Generate the form: Click Create. Magic Create builds the form, fields, and field IDs for you.

4. Verify your fields: Your form should look like the sections above, split across five pages. Magic Create will have generated most of it, so check each field and field ID matches what you described, especially the admin-only fields.

5. Publish the form: Click Publish in the island bar at the top of the editor.

Instead of showing every question to every client, use logic to reveal follow-up fields only when they apply. A married filer sees spouse fields, a client with 1099 income sees an upload field, and so on.

1. Open advanced logic: In the form settings panel on the right side of the editor, click Advanced logic, then go to the Logic tab.

2. Open Magic Logic: Click Magic Logic in the top right corner of the Logic panel.

3. Describe your rules: Paste a plain-text prompt covering every condition: show spouse fields when filing status is married, show dependent details when dependents are claimed, show the matching upload or amount field for each Yes/No income and deduction question, show the prior year return upload only when it isn't already on file, and require the accuracy checkbox before submission. State that all of these fields should be hidden by default.

4. Generate and review the rules: Click Generate Rules. Approve, redo, or cancel each rule the AI proposes.

5. Save your logic: Once every rule looks right, click Save in the top right corner.

Clients need to hear back at each stage: when their organizer is received, when something's missing, and when their return is filed. Your preparer also needs an internal heads-up the moment a new organizer comes in.

1. Open the email templates panel: Click your profile icon, go to Apps & integrations, then Email templates.

2. Create the received confirmation: Click Add new template and name it "Organizer received." Add an AI block and prompt it to write a warm confirmation thanking the client by name, confirming the tax year received, and letting them know their preparer will follow up if anything's missing. Use @full_legal_name, @tax_year, and @email_address to personalize it.

3. Create the admin notification: Add a second template named "New organizer submitted." Prompt it to summarize the client's name, tax year, and filing status for the assigned preparer, flagging any missing W-2, 1099, or prior year uploads.

4. Create the missing documents email: Add a third template named "Missing documents." Prompt it to let the client know their organizer is on hold and ask them to log back in and upload what's outstanding.

5. Create the filed confirmation: Add a fourth template named "Organizer filed." Prompt it to confirm the client's return for that tax year has been filed and thank them for their patience.

6. Wire up the triggers: Back in Advanced logic, add an On submit rule with a Send email action for the received confirmation (to the client's email field) and the admin notification (to the assigned preparer). Add two On update rules with Send email actions: one that fires when Status is changed to "Missing documents," and one that fires when Status is changed to "Filed."

Every organizer should generate a clean, one-page summary your preparer can reference without opening the full submission.

1. Open the PDF templates panel: Click your profile icon, go to Apps & integrations, then PDF templates.

2. Create the template: Click Add new template and name it "Tax organizer summary." Add an AI block and paste a prompt describing the sections you want: filing information, dependents, income, deductions, documents, and a client certification line, each pulling from the matching field ID and each section skipped entirely when its governing Yes/No answer is empty or "No."

3. Save the template.

4. Connect it to your workflow: In Advanced logic, add a Generate PDF action to your On submit rule so the summary is created the moment a client submits, then attach it to the admin notification email so your preparer gets both at once.

Turn the project into a portal so clients can log in, check their status, and pick up where they left off next season, while your team works from a Kanban board instead of a shared inbox.

1. Activate the portal: Open your project, click the gear icon in the top right, then click Activate client portal.

2. Set up the user directory: Click Manage users, then Setup wizard. Create a new user directory so returning clients are recognized by email each season.

3. Turn on Memory Form: In your organizer form's field settings, enable Memory Form so fields tied to the user directory, like name, date of birth, and mailing address, auto-fill for returning clients.

4. Restrict clients to their own records: Switch to edit mode on your "My organizers" table, click Options, scroll to Manage access, and turn on Allow users to view only their data.

5. Restrict preparers to their assigned records: Repeat the same steps on the "My assigned organizers" view, this time toggling the assignee-based access restriction instead of the profile-based one.

6. Build the admin Kanban board: Add a Kanban data block to your admin group, connect it to the organizer form, and group it by Status so your team can drag organizers between stages.

Note: Publishing a client-facing portal? You can set a custom domain on the Business plan or with the Brand removal add-on, so clients never see a formaloo.com URL.

A digital tax organizer that replaces the static PDF you used to email out every January. Clients fill in their income, deductions, and dependents once, get automatic status updates, and see last year's answers pre-filled the next time they log in. Your team works from a Kanban board instead of a shared inbox, and every submission arrives with a ready-made PDF summary attached.

Don't build this from scratch — we've already put it together for you.

Digital tax document organizer — [pending publish] — A ready-made version of this exact workflow: the five-section organizer form, logic, email templates, PDF summary, and portal.