This on-line training course offers an easy way to prepare staff and volunteers to be Quality Reviewers at your tax site.  This page provides information about the training, how you can integrate it into your training and site management practices, and how you can customize it to meet your individual site needs.

Using the Training

The on-line Quality Reviewer training is intended to prepare certified volunteers and staff to act as Quality Reviewers at free tax preparation sites.  In particular, it is intended for sites using TaxWise® software.  It is not a substitute for tax law and TaxWise® training; it is a supplemental training on the Quality Review piece.

What might a site Quality Review process look like?

Research suggests that implementing a Quality Review process may be the single most effective step sites can take to ensure the accuracy of the returns they complete.   After the return has been completed by a certified volunteer, a Quality Reviewer looks over every aspect of the return, looking for typos, omissions and mistakes.  The Quality Review uses three key tools: the return viewed on the computer screen; the source documents brought by the filer; and the filer him or herself.  The training is designed to simulate this tax site environment.

Who should do the Quality Review?

Ideally, sites should identify their most experienced staff and volunteers to do the quality reviews.  Best practice suggests that the most successful reviewers have four key qualities: strong tax law knowledge; familiarity with TaxWise® software; good interpersonal skills; and attention to detail.  Please note that the training itself requires a certain level of computer know-how and comfort with on-line training.  This is not for everyone.

How many Quality Reviewers are needed?

Experience suggests that you need one quality reviewer for roughly every 5 tax preparers at a site, but more may be needed if reviewers are slower or if reviewers have other responsibilities as well.  Each site will need to decide what staffing arrangement makes most sense for its individual situation.  Site managers are often the default Quality Reviewers, but both tasks may suffer if their attention is divided. 

Where staffing does not allow for a dedicated Quality Reviewer, volunteers could review each other’s returns, or preparers might even do a self-review.  It is not clear whether these reviews are as effective as those done by dedicated reviewers.  In general, it is better to have fewer Quality Reviewers logging more hours each: the more experience reviewers get, the faster and more accurate they will become.

How do I send people to take the training?

You can simply refer staff and volunteers to this website, where they can log onto the training.  When they do, they will be asked to create a personal password that they can use to return to the training whenever they want.

How much time will the review add to the return process?

How long a review takes depends on the complexity of the tax return and the speed of the Quality Reviewer.  An experienced Quality Reviewer might take 10 minutes or less to review a typical VITA return.  However, newly trained reviewers may take much longer.  There are several steps you can take to minimize the strain on your tax site.  First, you can increase the number of Quality Reviewers, to lessen the extent to which it backs up the process.  You can also set up the Quality Reviewer at his or her own work station, using either networked computers or backing up returns to a disc.  That way, tax preparation volunteers can immediately begin a new return while Quality Reviewers are doing their job (in this case, the reviewer would also be responsible for printing the return and getting signatures).

How does the testing and certification work?

The training takes trainees through a variety of practice scenarios, in which they are asked to identify mistakes made on tax returns, using the three tools: the TaxWise® screens, source documents and the tax filer.  Trainees can practice as much as they want and try as many returns as they want.  There is also a running clock, so trainees can monitor how quickly they complete the sample reviews.  When they feel ready, trainees move on to the test.  There are three returns available as tests, and trainees can choose to take one, two or all three.  Top pass, they need to find all the mistakes on each return; in addition, the clock will track how long it takes them to do so. 

Once they complete a test, trainees will be able to print out a Certification Report that will say which test they took, whether or not they passed the test and how long it took them to complete the test.  Trainees will be responsible for printing out their Certification Report and submitting it to the site manager or program director.  They will also be able to print out a more detailed report from the main training page, listing all test attempts, results and times.

How can I customize the training for my individual site needs?

You can customize the training by determining both who takes the training and what criteria are most important to you in a Quality Reviewer.  Trainees will be responsible for providing you with a copy of their Certification Report.  As noted above, you can accept the single-test Certification Report, or you can ask trainees to provide the more detailed report, listing all test attempts, which they can print from the main training page.  Based on your site needs, you can establish standards for Quality Reviewers.  For example, you may want trainees to complete all three tests, or you may require only one.  Some sites may want Quality Reviewers who can complete the review in no more than 15 minutes, while for others, time is not an issue.  Or you may simply want to choose those with the best results among all who take the training.