Open the Export menu above the report. Its second section reads For [choose tax software…]; pick your tax software there and DepreciationPro adds items for that vendor's files under it.
Where this is in the app
Dashboard → open the return → Report tab → Export → For [tax software]
Pick your software
The tax-software picker is always in the Export menu. It starts on choose tax software…, which shows no vendor items. Your firm's default comes from Settings → Firm; changing it here applies to this report.
The list is seeded from the preferred tax software set for your firm in Settings. Changing it here changes what you see on this report now. It does not update the firm setting, so it will be back on the firm's choice the next time the tab loads. To change it for good, change it in Firm Settings.
What each target produces
DepreciationPro builds two different kinds of file. A detail export carries one row per asset. A 4562 recap carries the Form 4562 and Section 179 line totals with a per-recovery-class breakdown, and no per-asset rows.
Tax software | Detail export | 4562 recap |
Drake | CSV | — |
CCH ProSystem fx | CSV | CSV |
Lacerte/ProSeries | CSV | — |
UltraTax CS | CSV | — |
CCH Axcess Tax | XLSX, plus a Gains & Losses XLSX when the return has disposals | CSV |
GoSystem Tax RS | — | CSV |
ONESOURCE | — | CSV |
Items appear under the vendor's name, one per file: Asset detail (CSV) or Asset detail (XLSX), Gains & Losses grid (XLSX) on CCH Axcess Tax, and 4562 totals recap.
CCH Axcess Tax gets a matched pair of workbooks
The CCH Axcess Tax export is built for the worksheet grid import inside CCH Axcess Tax, and it works differently from the other vendors' files:
The Asset detail (XLSX) matches CCH's own grid column-for-column — the same 49 columns, in the same order, with headers on row 6 and data starting on row 7. In CCH's import wizard, keep the Default mapping template and Start at row: 7; no column mapping is needed. The wizard accepts .xls and .xlsx files only, which is why there is no CSV item for this target.
Disposals go in a second file. CCH records a sale in two places: the asset's row on the depreciation grid, and a matching row on the Sch D / 4797 / 4684 - Gains and Losses grid. The Gains & Losses grid (XLSX) item produces that second file, linked to the first by sale number. Import it into the Gains and Losses grid the same way. The item appears only when the return has disposed assets.
Each workbook carries an Import Notes sheet. It lists, per asset, anything the grid cannot carry: disposals to enter by hand in CCH, assets that need CCH's Listed Property section, and what to check after the import. Read it before importing.
Your figures ride along for a tie-out. Each asset's DepreciationPro depreciation goes into CCH's Current Depreciation column. After you import and calculate, CCH prints its Federal Depreciation Variance Report at the front of the accountant's copy, comparing your figure to CCH's per asset. An empty report means the two systems agree. The return always uses CCH's computed number.
Filtering exports a matching file. With an activity filter on the Depreciation Schedule, the export carries only that activity's assets and the activity's name goes into the filename. CCH's wizard imports into whichever grid you have open, one activity per run, so export one file per activity.
If something in the return cannot be written safely — an asset the export cannot express in CCH's codes — the export stops and lists the specific assets above the report controls instead of producing a file. CCH's wizard silently drops rows it rejects, so DepreciationPro refuses to hand it a file that would lose data. This is the CCH Axcess Tax export. The other vendors handle an asset they cannot carry differently: they name it in a note and still produce the file. Amortizing intangibles in a vendor file, below, says which does what.
If CCH's wizard reports "Validation (Failure; Invalid file format)", check Excel before the file. CCH's import wizard opens the workbook through Excel on your machine, and it reports an Excel start-up failure with that same message. Open the workbook once in Excel, close it, and run the import again with the same file.
Amortizing intangibles in a vendor file
An asset whose Property Type is Intangible / Capitalized Cost amortizes rather than depreciates, and each vendor wants that written its own way. Four of the detail exports carry it:
Tax software | What the file carries |
Drake | Method |
Lacerte/ProSeries | The amortization method and life, plus an |
UltraTax CS | The amortization method and life, plus an |
CCH Axcess Tax | The amortization method in the Method column, the period in months in Life / Rate, and the code section in IRC Section |
CCH ProSystem fx | Nothing. The asset is left out of the file — see below |
The code section is carried, never invented. Whatever you recorded in Code section on the asset goes into the vendor's own code-section field exactly as you entered it. Record nothing and the field is blank. DepreciationPro does not work a code section out from the asset's life or method, so a blank field means the asset does not carry one, not that it was dropped.
ProSystem fx leaves intangibles out, and says so. The amortization code ProSystem fx reads has not been confirmed, and writing a guess would file a position you never took. The file is still produced, with a note naming each asset: "omitted — CCH ProSystem fx's amortization import code is unverified; enter this asset in ProSystem fx by hand". Enter those assets in ProSystem fx yourself.
Drake names the assets too, in a note that does not stop the file: "sent as method AMT, life … (years), with no Form 4562 line. … Confirm the asset lands in Form 4562 Part VI after import."
CCH Axcess Tax is the one that refuses. An intangible with no recovery period recorded stops that export before a file is written, and names the asset: "no amortization period recorded. CCH reads Life / Rate as months for amortization methods, so this row would reach Axcess with no life to amortize over. Enter the recovery period in months on the asset before exporting." Fill the period in on the asset and export again.
The 4562 recap is a keying aid, not an import file
The product states this in the About the 4562 recap note in the guidance line under the report controls, and it is worth reading before you download one. The recap is a human-readable summary of the return's computed 4562 and Section 179 totals, laid out to be typed into a vendor's override organizers. It is not a file the vendor's software reads.
Two more things the note says:
It is depreciation only. The recap carries no disposal gains or losses and no recapture figures.
On a return with disposed assets it will tell you so, and point you at the per-asset detail export or the Dispositions worksheet for those figures.
For GoSystem Tax RS and ONESOURCE the recap is the only vendor file DepreciationPro produces, so the note is more prominent there.
The guidance notes under the report controls
Depending on the target you pick, up to three click-to-open notes sit as one line under the report controls:
Before you export the 4562 recap — on the two CCH targets, comparing the recap against the per-asset detail export.
About the 4562 recap — on any target with a recap.
How to import into <vendor> — on Drake, CCH ProSystem fx, Lacerte/ProSeries, UltraTax CS and CCH Axcess Tax. It carries the numbered steps for that vendor, and for CCH Axcess a pair of reference links.
The recap-only targets get no import-steps note, since there is nothing to import.