Abbicus

Abbicus

Welcome to Abbicus

Abbicus is a software-neutral Tax Preparation Execution Engine. It drives your tax software from a valid Return Summary while you, the Tax Professional, remain responsible for sign-in, MFA, review, and filing. This page walks you through testing Abbicus end-to-end before you put it to work on live client returns.

What you will need
  • This web console (you are signed in already).
  • A Windows workstation where you can install the Abbicus Desktop Agent.
  • A TaxProLink account you can sign in to manually on that workstation.

Abbicus never collects credentials, MFA codes, or session tokens, and never files a return. You sign in to TaxProLink yourself; Abbicus only verifies that a preparer session is open before it begins work.

1
Sign in to the web console

You are already here. The web console is where you pair workstations, browse the Certification Library, launch runs, and review Reconciliation Reports.

2
Install and pair the Desktop Agent

Download the Desktop Agent installer, run it on your Windows workstation, then copy the enrollment code from the web console into the Agent to pair the two.

The Agent is designed to keep running while minimized. You can switch to other applications without losing the session.

Open Workstations
3
Pick a Certification Client

The Certification & Demonstration Client Library is permanent product content — fictional clients with a complete document package, organizer, and Return Summary. Use them to exercise Abbicus before touching a real client return.

Browse the full library
4
Run the scenario

With your workstation online and a TaxProLink session open, launch the scenario from the Certification Client detail page. The Agent status moves to working and Abbicus drives TaxProLink through the certified screens for that client.

You can watch the Agent on the workstation at any time. Abbicus will refuse — rather than guess — any field or scenario outside its certified scope.

5
Review the Reconciliation Report

When the run completes, open the Reconciliation Report for that execution. The report is a professional quality-control document with three columns per field:

  • Return Summary — what was intended.
  • Submitted to Vendor — what Abbicus sent to TaxProLink.
  • Vendor Read-back — what TaxProLink stored.

Each row is labelled Match, Review, Vendor Adjusted, Not Read Back, or Skipped — Out of Scope. Compare the report against the expected outcomes on the Certification Client page; they should match.

6
Confirm refuse-rather-than-guess

Pick a Certification Client whose expected outcome includes review items (for example, a deferred edge case). Confirm Abbicus reports those items honestly rather than fabricating values. This is the behavior that makes Abbicus safe to use on live returns.

Ready for Live Clients
What it means once the certification scenarios complete cleanly.

Once you have run the Certification Clients above and the Reconciliation Reports match their expected outcomes, your workstation and your Abbicus instance are validated. You are ready to begin using Abbicus with real client work.

The division of responsibility does not change. Abbicus drives the certified screens in TaxProLink from a Return Summary you approve. You remain responsible for:

  • Signing in to TaxProLink and completing MFA.
  • Confirming the Return Summary reflects the client’s documents and intent.
  • Reviewing the Reconciliation Report and any items Abbicus flagged for review.
  • Final review, client approval, and filing the return.

Abbicus is a tool that performs the keystroke work. It does not replace preparer judgment, and it does not file.

Advanced / Developer Tools
Engineering diagnostics. Not part of the normal preparer workflow.

For developers and integration testing, Abbicus ships a built-in TaxProLink simulator and a regression harness that exercises every certified screen without a real TaxProLink login or a paired workstation.

  • Dev harness: POST /api/public/dev/run-complete-return runs the end-to-end complete_return scenario against the simulator and returns an executionId.
  • Open the resulting report at /returns/<executionId>/reconciliation.
  • Developer mode is also exposed on the home page via the Developer mode toggle, which surfaces scenario controls and a simulated preparer session.

These tools exist for certification and regression. Day-to-day preparer work should always go through a paired workstation and a real TaxProLink session.