How to Edit Data in TurboTax

TurboTax is primarily an interview-driven tax-preparation program that asks a series of questions, then enters resulting figures into your tax-form screens. It also relies on data that you import or transcribe directly from other sources, such as accounting programs, financial institutions, previous-year tax returns and documents like W-2s and 1099s. It is wise to exercise care with any direct editing of data from these sources.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• TurboTax tax-preparation software

Edit TurboTax Data Based on Interview or Worksheet Entry

1. Check your return for errors as you go and look for mistakes as you prepare your return. Look over each form you will be filing and select "Error Alerts" from the "View" pull-down menu at the top of the TurboTax screen.

2. Identify incorrect data that requires editing and use TurboTax's on-screen backtracking feature to locate the original source of the data in information you imported, entered manually or provided as an answer in the TurboTax interview process.

3. Make corrections to any incorrect or incomplete answers you provided during the interview process.

4. Find an error that resulted from an incorrect manual entry on a form or worksheet and backtrack to that document to edit the data at the point at which you initially entered it.

Edit TurboTax Data Based on Imported Files

5. Identify any source error that results from incorrect data that you imported into your TurboTax data file.

6. Select "Remove Imported Data" from the TurboTax File pull-down menu, and follow prompts to highlight and remove the specific data that must be corrected.

7. Open the financial or accounting program that was the source of the incorrect data, and make changes there to correct your financial information.

8. Save your corrected data in the financial or accounting program and close it.

9. Return to TurboTax and re-import the corrected data from your financial or accounting program.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the "Save" option after any edit to ensure that TurboTax recalculates your entire return. This takes just a few seconds and allows you to view your changes in every form connected to the data you changed.
• Although it is relatively easy to edit data on any screen in TurboTax, you should be careful about making changes or overriding figures that TurboTax calculates. Take a few extra steps and return to the source of the incorrect data. Correcting an error at its source can save time and limit confusion later.