Help center
Short answers on using Sidesheet, from signing in to exporting financials.
26 articles
Getting started
- How Sidesheet works
Add a company's tax return PDFs to a project and get multi-year financials, checked and ready to export.
- Create your account and firm
Create your account with email, Google or a Microsoft work account, confirm the emailed code, agree to the Terms and name your firm.
- Set up your authenticator
Scan the code with an authenticator app, then add a backup so a lost phone can't lock you out.
- Create a project and add returns
Make one project per company and drop in up to 10 return PDFs, each a card identified by form and year as it uploads.
- Extract the returns
Extract reads each return and builds the financials in a few minutes, and you can leave the page while it works.
- Review a return
Work through the warnings banner in the review window, then choose Mark as reviewed.
- Check the financials
Preview the workbook exactly as it exports, then correct a misread value or accept a check as printed from its return.
- Export to Excel
Download the financials as an Excel workbook once every return is ready, with seven tabs and a file named after the company and years.
Account and sign-in
- Ways to sign in
Sign in with an email and password, Google or a Microsoft work account, link or unlink them, and why you're asked to sign in again.
- Reset your password
Use Forgot your password and the emailed code to set a new password, and what the reset changes.
- If you lose your authenticator
Use your backup authenticator, ask another admin to reset it, or contact us if you're the only admin.
Your firm and team
- Invite people to your firm
Invite a colleague by email; they join by signing in with that address within 7 days, and you can revoke an invitation any time before.
- Admins and members
What an admin can do in Sidesheet that a member can't, side by side.
- Change a role, remove someone or reset their authenticator
Change a person's role, reset their authenticator or remove them from your firm, which deletes their account.
- Require or allow skipping the authenticator
Choose whether everyone in your firm signs in with an authenticator app, and why we recommend requiring it.
- The client-consent notice
What each person confirms once about their clients' consent before uploading returns, and where to find the Terms and consent templates.
- Leave your firm or delete your account
Leaving your firm deletes your account: what goes with you and what stays with the firm.
Returns and projects
- Returns we read
Federal Forms 1120, 1120-S and 1065 for tax year 2015 on, as PDFs; no state returns or 1040s.
- When a file can't be used
What the red message on a file's card means, when to choose Try again, and how to get a better file.
- Warnings when you add returns
The project's warnings banner for a different company, the same year twice and a missing year, how to settle each, and why none stops you extracting.
- Remove a return
Remove a return with its card's menu, what each removal costs, and how it affects your firm's return count.
Review and financials
- What a warning means
A check that doesn't tie, a value no check confirms or a note about the file, and why No warnings isn't a guarantee.
- Reconciled, Unreconciled and Not verifiable
What each check result means, and what to do when a check doesn't tie or can't run.
- How the financials are built
How each statement is built from the return: M-1 as differences, no plugs, and a statement that doesn't tie uses its line.
Billing and usage
- Your firm's beta
What your firm gets during the private beta, where to find when it ends, and that you won't be charged.
- How returns are counted
A return counts when its extraction finishes, comes back if extraction fails, and stays counted when removed; here's what happens when your firm runs out.