If you are using Enterprise online (the "cloud" option), issues regarding missing information, missing returns, or error messages starting with "Unable to save..." may be caused by the mishandling of checked-out returns. It is possible that your returns may still be recovered. Please note that the following procedure is not guaranteed to restore all information.

If information in your return is missing, or if you are receiving a message starting with "Unable to save..." when saving a return:

1. From within your TaxAct Professional Edition program, on the Client Manager screen, click on the return you are having trouble with to highlight it.
2. Make sure that you are on the same computer that the return was first checked out on by scrolling to the right to the file status. The File Status column will say Checked out by: [Preparer Name] (if the file status column says available, then it has not been check out).
3. Scroll all the way right to the Filename column of the Client Manager, take note of the numerical Client ID, labeled "Online Storage - Client ID [number]."
4. Open a File Explorer window (Windows log key + E) and navigate to "C:\TaxAct\TaxAct [year] Preparer's Edition\Client Data."
5. Locate the checked out file with the Client ID number from step 4. The checked out file will contain the same name.
6. Right-click the file and click Rename. Use the primary taxpayer name in the filename to identify the file. Remove the ID number. Use something like: "John Doe [year] Individual tax return" or "John Doe's [year] 1040." Do not change or delete the file extension (e.g., .taX, where "X" is the last digit of the year).
7. Return to the TaxAct program, click File in the upper menu bar, click Add Client Return, click the Circle next to Open Existing 20XX Client, click Ok, click the newly named return file, then click Open.
8. Click File in the upper menu bar, then click Save Client Return. This will create a new return in Client Manager with a new Client ID.

If your return is missing from the Client Manager screen:

1. Click File in the upper menu bar, hover your mouse over Restore Backup, then click Client Return(s).
2. Click the Circle next to Online or Local, depending on where your backups are.  Click the Checkbox next to the return and click OK.
3. Proceed from step 1 in the previous instruction set.

To avoid this situation in the future, only check in returns by right-clicking the return in the Client Manager and clicking Check In Return. If the return is checked out by another user on another computer, it must be checked in on that computer. Be absolutely certain you are checking in the returns on the same computer that was used to check out the returns.

Please be aware that the Checkout Manager will only clear a checkout status; it will not check a return back in by transferring the information in your offline file to the "cloud." If any information was entered while the return was checked out, and the return checkout status is cleared with the Checkout Manager rather than checking the return in, the information entered while the return was checked out will not be transferred, and the first instruction set above must be followed to recover the data.

Only use the Checkout Manager to clear the checkout status of a return if you no longer have access to the computer that was used to originally check out the return.