Pull numbers from tax documents into the return

Hours back

2 to 4 hrs a week

Monthly cost

$14 to $200 a month

Setup

Moderate

Evidence

Vendor claim only

FitsCPA firms

Worth it if

Your preparers key a lot of source documents by hand in season.

Skip it if

Your returns are mostly carried forward with few source documents.

What gets set up

Tax software reads uploaded documents and fills in the matching fields for the preparer to check. Intuit sells scan and import for Lacerte and ProSeries per return or unlimited. Drake's SmartExtract, which Drake says uses AI, is in beta for selected Drake Tax Online customers. Every extracted number still gets reviewed.

Who’s done it

No owner has published results for this one yet. What’s out there is the vendors’ own description of what their tools do. If you’ve done it, tell me how it went.

Tools mentioned here

Listed alphabetically. Lowest plan that does this job, checked on each vendor’s own pricing page.

Tool	What it does here	Starts at	Price checked
Drake Tax	SmartExtract AI extraction in beta for Drake Tax Online	$299.99Drake Tax Online, first user, tax year 2026. SmartExtract (AI data extraction) is a beta for selected Drake Tax Online customers.	Oct 11, 2026
Intuit scan and import (Lacerte, ProSeries)	Reads W-2s, 1099s and K-1s into Lacerte or ProSeries	$14 a returnAdd-on that reads W-2s, 1099s and K-1s into the return. Unlimited is $2,365 for Lacerte, $1,578 for ProSeries.	Oct 11, 2026

You’ll need

Clean scans or PDFs from clients
A review step for every extracted number

Try it

This one needs setup: it connects to your phones, your software or your client records, so there’s no copy-and-paste version. Have this set up for you.

Run your own numbers

Use a busy-season week.

Your numbers

Use your own numbers. Nothing you type is saved or sent.

Returns a weekMinutes keying documents for eachShare extraction could do (%)What an hour of your time is worth ($)Tool cost a month ($)

Hours back

–

Worth a month

–

After the tool

–

Why it matters

Keying numbers from W-2s, 1099s and K-1s is slow and error-prone, and it's where preparer time goes in March.

How I estimated the hours

2 to 4 hrs a week: In season, 15 to 30 returns a week with 5 to 10 minutes of keying each, cut by about half. Averaged over the year it's less. Rounded down.

Sources (2)

Sources

Drake Tax pricing, https://www.drakesoftware.com/pricing/ (accessed 2026-10-11)
Intuit scan and import (Lacerte, ProSeries) pricing, https://accountants.intuit.com/tax-accounting-workflow-software/document-automation/ (accessed 2026-10-11)

Questions

Both exist. Intuit describes optical character reading that maps data to fields; Drake says SmartExtract uses AI. Either way, the preparer reviews.

Intuit's scan and import add-on is $14 a return, or unlimited at $2,365 for Lacerte and $1,578 for ProSeries. Drake hasn't listed a SmartExtract price during the beta.

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