Drake

How to Import Tallyfor Data into Drake

Tallyfor leverages Drake’s existing import functionalities to make it easy to get most of your data into Drake. Every field that Drake allows to import on their Trial Balance report Tallyfor can import. There are important exceptions to note below.

We estimate that for a typical tax client, about 90% of manual data entry is solved by Tallyfor. Do everything in Tallyfor as you normally would.

When you are ready to import into Drake, go to the Tallyfor Menu ”Export for Drake Tax” and Download the excel file. Save this file to a convenient location on your computer.

Please watch the video to see how to import into Drake.


Other Deductions has a limited number of lines. If your import is bringing in Other deductions, please check how many lines you have. You can use Tallyfor groups to reduce the number of lines imported into Drake.

How to Import Schedule C into Drake


Here is how to get the Drake file from Tallyfor.

From the Drake main screen, go to: Tools/File Maintenance/Import Data. 

Confirm the client and click Finish.

That's it, the data should be in your Schedule C. 

Important notes: 

  1. Drake can only import into one Schedule C.
  2. Line 27a Other expense: Drake only allows one line to be imported into this field. Tallyfor therefore produces a single summed total for import. 
  3. If you re-import data onto existing Schedule C data, the import will only replace the data of fields of which there is data. Data in fields that are not specifically overwritten will still be on the form. Please check after each import that the results are as you expect.

Drake FAQs and Troubleshooting

Drake Import Exceptions

Drake does not allow import of the following lines:

Depreciation, line 14

Depreciation from form 4562

M-1 Adjustments

Schedule L: Other Current Assets, Other Investments, Other Assets, Other Current Liabilities, Other Liabilities, Adjustments to Equity

The best practice is to map the lines to "DO NOT MAP" and manually update Drake after importing from Tallyfor. 


Schedule K line16d, - Distributions: Drake allows only import of a single line. The date is also not imported. In Tallyfor, the Tax code is listed as "Distributions-cash"

Drake File Does Not Import. Import Terminated!

If you attempt to import an incorrect form type into Drake, you will see the following error (or similar).

Please make sure you have matched the correct return type.

This happens because Drake allows a client to have two different types of returns. For example, if a client's  return is a 1065 and then changes to an 1120S, you would likely encounter this error. 

In this case, you will have to hand enter the data from the Tallyfor report into Drake. 

We are looking into resolving this. 

Invalid spreadsheet loaded. Check to ensure the spreadsheet is correct for this return. Import Terminated!


What Happens If Tallyfor Data is Re-Imported into Drake?

Can you make changes in Drake and Import Again? Will the changes overwrite in Tallyfor?

If you import Tallyfor data into Drake a second time or any subsequent times, any existing data will be overwritten by the data of the new import.

However, Tallyfor will not overwrite data for which a previously imported tax line was completely removed (all accounts marked as "Do Not Map" in Tallyfor). In this case, Tallyfor will NOT overwrite any previously imported data. Tallyfor treats these cases as having NO data to overwrite, thereby leaving the previously entered data intact.

If you intend to remove the numerical figure of a whole tax line, please manually delete the amount from Drake.

For "attached statements", Tallyfor does update the WHOLE statement. In this case, if an account was removed from the statement, it will be removed upon subsequent import

Exception: 1120S Taxes and License.

For Example, The Other deductions statement does overwrite all data.

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