Lacerte lets you pick exactly which fields come out. Takes a minute longer than the others and gives you a better file for it.
Steps
Pick your clients
Clients tab. Highlight who you want.Press F3 for Client Group Selection if you’re picking a lot of them.
Client menu, Export, Export to File
All three, in that order.
Pick a folder
Browse to somewhere you’ll find it, or take the default:YY is the tax year — 24TAX for 2024. Name it
Or leave it as EXPORT. Lacerte won’t take / ? * : < > " | in the name.
Set the export type to Comma Delimited
That’s the setting that gives you a CSV.
Choose your fields
(+) expands a category in Available. Double-click an item, or highlight it and click (>), to move it into Display. (<) takes it back out, Up and Down reorder.Worth including: client name, entity or return type, tax year, client number, email.
OK, then Exit
You’ll find EXPORT.CSV in the folder you picked.
Don’t open it in Excel and save it again. Excel eats the leading zeros on ZIP codes and a re-saved file keeps the damage. Send Pernee the file Lacerte wrote.If you do need to look at it, format the ZIP column as Special first.
Or run a client listing report
If you’d rather work from CLIST than the export dialog: run the report, choose Print to file in the Report Display options, and pick the comma delimited option for the file type.
Lacerte offers to filter the client list before it runs, which is handy when you only want part of the book.
Then bring it in
Drop the CSV into the card in Getting started, or open Clients and choose Import clients.
Pernee reads the file, proposes a name, entity type, return form and tax year for each row, and shows you the lot on a review screen. Nothing saves to your book until you hit Import.
Keep the Lacerte client number in the export. Pernee holds onto it, so a later import updates the client you already have instead of creating a second one.
