Canopy Roadmap Webinar Q&A

We were thrilled to see your excitement and participation. Despite several people responding to your questions in real-time, so many still came in. Thank you for your curiosity and requests. Our shared roadmap is incomplete but focused on our most prominent features that have been fully committed to and prioritized.

At Canopy, we strive to introduce new functionality at a steady pace, adapting to your evolving needs. In addition to the features we've discussed, we also release smaller updates as our teams have the capacity. We follow seasonal release windows to manage priorities but continue delivering built items. We understand the importance of your uninterrupted product usage, especially during your busiest times, and we accommodate this with our gray out and black out times.

Our approach is to work swiftly and iteratively, driven by your needs and feedback. This is why many of you may have noticed a feature and wondered if more is on the way. We believe in building MVPs (minimal viable product) to get your hands on it and provide us with valuable feedback. This way, we can tailor the product to your exact needs, rather than simply replicating what's already in the market.

In this blogpost, we will share answers sent during the webinar and also answer questions that we, unfortunately, weren't able to answer live.

Client/Contact Structure (CRM) & Group Billing 

Will you link clients on client profile so it carries over to billing?

Yes. We will distinguish these as contacts on client profiles. We are also adding Client Groups that will allow for users to group client profiles together. These efforts are a part of our CRM update. Group Billing requires this data structure and will release around the same time as these updates to net new Canopy customers. Current customers will be able to join a closed BETA during the summer.

Will the CRM set up be at the client level? To map clients for billing and engagements?

The answer above hopefully answers this question as well. Something else we’d like to call out is that most information will live at the client level– documents, client portals, tasks, time, engagements, etc. Contacts will only contain the specific information needed to contact a certain person. A client can have as many contacts on the profile as needed.

How will this impact your pricing structure?

We will price based on clients– i.e. the profile on which users can add multiple contacts. Currently, clients in Canopy are used synonymously with contacts. To help avoid this and to better organize and relate client data, users will have separate lists for contacts, clients, and client groups, with pricing being based on clients.

Will the new CRM structure allow a login to go to both personal and business?

In the new structure, you will invite a contact to the client portal. The same contact can also be added to a different portal and still be able to access both as they can right now. Just as is the case currently, you will still create individual clients or business clients.

Are there plans to be able to send automated client requests to a specific individual, such as an office manager, instead of everyone with access to a client portal?

As a part of our CRM update, client requests will get some updates, most of which will happen at the client level, i.e. for manual actions. Automations and bulk actions related to client requests will still send to everyone for now.

Any plans to organize notes?

We have heard a lot of feedback on notes and would like to research this more in-depth. There are no plans for when this will happen right now.

Will or is there a way to see in the client contact on top and all their entities below? Or similar?

We will have three separate lists– contact list, client list, and client group list. You will be able to see just those levels of data on their corresponding list. Within the client profile, you will be able to see the contacts and expand the menu to see all contact information (or contract it back again to save space) and you will also see all associated client groups (these are most synonymous with entities).

Will both contacts be able to upload documents?

Client portal invites will be sent to contacts and they will be able to login to the portal and upload documents (as is the case today). Clients will be able to have as many contacts as you want and it will only count as one client. This means that any use of inactive clients today can then be converted into contacts once migrated over to the new structure in the fall.

What if I have married clients that file separately?

We would suggest that you have two separate client records so that you can store documents, keep track of tasks, and bill accordingly. You can have both contacts on both client records for easy access to information.

Document Automation

When you do document automation, can you pull from linked cards?

Yes! This is a big part of our plans.

ESign Templates

Does the eSignature template only work when the document is a separate file? 8879 alone versus with the 1040?

Currently, you can only use on document per eSign request, but you can combine multiple documents into one combined file.

Is there work being done for Canopy to scan tax return PDFs for signature pages? The need to print a separate PDF in order to use the templates negates the time savings of using the templates.

This is something we are considering building out, but we don’t have a timeline for at the moment.

Is there a plan to add text input on documents if we wanted a client to type their name or any other data?

Currently, our eSign and fillable PDF functionalities are separate. We know this is unideal and have heard a lot of feedback. However, nothing is on the roadmap as of right now to fix this.

Engagements

Do we have the ability to add multiple service items with the option for the client to select which service item they want to engage in?

Currently, no. We know this ability is a highly loved feature of engagement point solutions. Adding the ability to build packages or give the client the ability to interact with service items in a way that they can add things to a metaphorical cart is something that we’re considering, but is not currently on the roadmap.

Is there a way to preview the engagement before it is sent to the client?

There is not a way to preview at the moment. That’s something we’ve been considering adding, but we don’t have a timeline for it just yet. Thank you for the feedback!

For the new engagements, will it be possible to attach a “cover letter” to the engagement proposal (ex. Word document featuring custom info for the client)?

Currently, we have the ability to add a welcome message or description to the beginning of an engagement on our roadmap for this year. This was not discussed on the webinar mainly due to time constraints. But please watch your monthly customer newsletter for an announcement of this addition.

Will recurring tasks that contain the tax year increase the tax year once it is complete and creates a new task?

Yes. The tax year is designed to increase when the task recurs. 

Is payment taken before signature, after signature or firm preference?

If using an engagement, the firm has the option to take payment details or a deposit at the same time a signature is collected. You can also collect payment after the signature and still disclose the billing details. If taking a payment before signature (i.e. weeks or months), then the firm would likely be doing ad-hoc work and using invoices instead of using an engagement.

Can engagements be used if we do not have Time & Billing?

Yes! Engagements works without the Time & Billing license. You can still disclose some billing amounts and frequencies, but you will not be able to utilize service items or collect payments.

I’m not seeing Engagements in my product. What do I need to do?

Current customers: Engagements is part of our new base license, Client Engagement. If you’re on any of our legacy products like Client Management, you will need to upgrade in order to utilize this functionality.

Free trial users: This has not been added to free trials, but we are working to remedy this.

Is there a way to send engagements in bulk?

Not currently. This is something we are researching but don’t have a timeline for.

When will we be able to have a template for an engagement that pulls in set items at once so we don’t have to individually add each item every time?

Templates are something we’re researching, but we don’t have a timeline for them yet.

Can a PDF of the engagement be automatically saved to the client files section?

Yes, this happens currently. Once an engagement is fully signed, a PDF will show up in the client’s file folder. The client will also be presented with the opportunity to download the engagement as a proposal (i.e. PDF) once they’ve completed it.

Regarding on time billing frequencies, where can you find how much we need bill? If the invoice is not going to be generated automatically when the task associated is completed.

You’re correct, we don’t automate the “on completion” engagement items and associated payment. The best way to take care of this is to create a net new invoice for the client once the work is done.

How do you accommodate for one time billing options within Engagements?

You have two options. You can designate payment due on acceptance or on completion.

What happens if the engagement has more than 1 service with yearly frequency with different dates for billing or invoice to be issued?

Each engagement can only have dates for each kind of billing frequency (weekly, monthly, yearly) at the moment.

Expense Management

Is there a way to clear the expense without putting it on an invoice (even if it is not being billed)?If I want the expense include in Canopy for a profitability report, but I am not billing the client for the expense, would archiving allowing me to see it in the report without having to include it on an invoice?

We allow for you to archive an expense (and delete after archiving).

You could archive the expense, but another option is to link the expense to an invoice. The expense won’t show up in the invoice, but will be linked for reporting purposes.

How do expenses push to QBO if we are using the QBO integration?

It will be pushed over via the invoice as a service item.

Can the employee enter an expense for the firm to reimburse them for? Not related to a client?

Right now it’s built for client specific expenses. But we’d love to research this more.

How can we keep track of vendors and card details?

We added the note section for this type of information, but we know there are some things we need to add. This is our first iteration of expenses and plan to research more and continue to build out more functionality.

Files Interface Redesign

In the new file management system, I don’t see a way to “notify” the client when files are made visible.

Thank you for sharing the feedback! That modal was removed as part of the redesign, but after hearing from customers like yourself, we are currently working on adding that back in. That functionality will return before the files redesign becomes a permanent change on July 1st. 

General & UI

Is there a way to have a secure link for feature portal users?

All of our secure link technology is focused on single actions (requesting a document, sharing a document, eSignatures, payments). This helps maintain security by not giving full access to the portal.

When will there be enhancements to the organizers so that they can be customized?

Spring 2025.

Is there a general link to the client portal that we can add to our website for clients to access when they need to reset their passwords?

Yes. This can be found in settings under Custom Branding. The first field is the domain of your client portal website. Grab that URL and add it to your website however and wherever you’d like.

With AI being in Canopy, does that mean it would have access to my clients’ sensitive information? Will it ever leave my database?

We strip out all personal identifying information when interfacing with any AI, and house it all within our  instance of AWS so that it’s not leaving the database. There is no breach of your security or confidentiality at all. We went through an extensive security audit when vetting the use of AI, and after doing so feel very confident with the security in place. 

Does the IRS allow eSignatures on a 2848?

Yes, they do.

Will you be adding any tax program integrations?

We work hard to create great partnerships in the industry. Unfortunately, these things take time.

Quick Pay

Does the client need to have access to their client portal in order to use QuickPay?

They need to have been invited and accepted that invitation in order to receive a QuickPay link, though QuickPay does bypass the client portal login and leads straight to the payment request and only that information.