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Scenario Analysis

The Scenario Analysis tool allows users to review multiple scenarios for a client, be it for the same year or over multiple years.

Within Scenario Analysis, edit any income, deduction or credit item, as well as the tax year and filing status/family details. To expand on any section, click the green plus/minus icon at the right-hand side of each section.

Note: A scenario representing an uploaded tax return is read-only and not editable.

Creating Scenarios

After uploading a return, generate a read-only scenario of the return in one of two ways:

1.   Navigate to Returns on the Household page and click Generate Scenario. Once generated, the text will change to Scenario Analysis. Click the link to open the scenario for the return. Once generated, access Scenario Analyses from the left-hand navigation menu to view a list of all scenarios created.

scenario1
2.   Navigate to Scenario Analysis from the client's Household page and click Create Analysis. Give this group of scenarios a title, then load the tax return by clicking +Add a Scenario > Load Tax Return (Read Only) > select the tax return. 

scenario2
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To create a new scenario, follow the same process and click the blue + Add a Scenario button.

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  • Copy from a Scenario - Copy from any scenario actively on the screen. This is the most popular choice, and the best choice when creating a baseline scenario or if the client's most recent return is close to what will be true for the year being planned for.

  • Load Tax Return - Bring in previous years' uploaded returns into this Scenario Analysis screen. Scenarios derived directly from the return cannot be edited, but they can be copied to a new scenario, reducing manual entry time! 

  • Create Blank Scenario - This creates a completely empty scenario, allowing for total creation of a scenario from the ground up. More information on Standalone Scenarios can be found in our Knowledge Base article.


Best Practices

As a best practice when getting started, we recommend keeping the scenario representing the uploaded return, which is not editable, in the Scenario 1 column. Copy Scenario 1 (the tax return) by selecting Copy from a Scenario. This will create an identical scenario to the tax return in the Scenario 2 column, but this one will be editable. 

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Once copied, to distinguish between scenarios, change the Scenario Name ("2025 Return (copy)" in the above snapshot) to something more descriptive. Edit the title simply by clicking on the text and typing.

For example, to show the impact of a planning strategy for a given year, first create a baseline and name the scenario accordingly (e.g., “2026 Baseline”). Once the year and name have been updated to the Baseline, a copy of this scenario can be made, titled with the planning opportunity (2026 Roth Conversion), to see the difference between making no changes and completing a Roth conversion.

Be sure to change the year for any newly created scenario:

When copying a scenario that was created using the tax return, every element of that return will be generated in the new scenario, including the year of the return. Be sure to change this to show the results of a different tax year.

Another best practice is to review and clear overrides, as indicated by the red exclamation point at the top of the scenario. Additional instructions on overrides can be found here: How to Clear Overrides and Age Mismatch Warnings in Scenario Analysis.