THE S-CORP ENGINE

A return you can explain.

Bring the source material. Review the facts. Make the tax decisions. PrepReturns connects the work to the return—from conventional Form 1120-S preparation through a finished professional package.

Alpha 14 — human testing and broader operating-business coverage

PrepReturns Forms Mode displaying an actual synthetic Form 1120-S and the saved return package navigator. — The actual S-Corp workspace. Official IRS forms sit beside the preparation, explanations and workpapers. Synthetic example; review copy, not for filing.Synthetic example · Click to inspect

01 / START WITH THE EVIDENCE

Start where the return starts.

Prior-year returns. Financial statements. Payroll support. Asset schedules. Shareholder history.

These are preparation inputs, not just documents sitting beside a separate data-entry process. Supported source formats produce proposed facts with a connection back to their evidence.

The preparer verifies what the source says, reviews its classification and supplies the judgment a document cannot make.

Follow the preparation path

Source review showing extracted financial-statement rows, source locations and preparer review controls. — Review the source reading before it becomes established preparation information. Synthetic Alder example.Synthetic example · Click to inspect

02 / VERIFY THE FACTS

If the document already told us, why type it again?

Extracted and carried-forward facts are proposals. Accept a supported reading, correct a parser error, exclude a duplicate, or establish additional information in the proper workpaper. The source stays original.

A source correction and a tax adjustment do different jobs. One repairs what the software read; the other records the professional treatment of the underlying transaction. Keeping that distinction visible makes the return easier to explain later.

Explore evidence and provenance

Source correction dialog offering a choice of imported information to repair while retaining the original financial statement. — A correction belongs to the review history. It does not rewrite the original document. Synthetic example.Synthetic example · Click to inspect

03 / MAKE THE TAX DECISIONS

Ask for what the evidence can’t answer.

Guided Preparation focuses attention on the next useful question: a missing fact, a classification, an election, or a professional decision.

Guided Preparation organizing a synthetic S-corporation case into contextual preparation topics and next actions. — A guide through the work, with direct access to sources, books, assets, shareholders, forms and workpapers.Synthetic example · Click to inspect

One set of facts.

The guide and direct editors work with the same preparation. Switching views should not mean maintaining a second return.

Unknown stays unknown.

An unresolved opening basis or tax treatment is visible. It is not converted into a convenient zero to keep the workflow moving.

The return stays in view.

Forms, workpapers and “How calculated” explanations give the preparer a direct route from a result back into the work.

A DELIBERATE RETURN UNIVERSE

Capable.
Conventional.
Clearly bounded.

Straightforward does not mean tiny. A business can have real payroll, owners, debt, assets and tax decisions without an exotic underlying structure.

The current engine focuses on federal TY2025 cash-method S corporations in its supported profiles. Each capability has a defined boundary.

What we mean by the straightforward 90%

Entity and owners

Conventional federal S-corporation preparation with multiple individual shareholders and owner-specific reporting.

Income and deductions

Ordinary business income, deductions, book-to-tax adjustments, paid shareholder-loan interest and accountable-plan reimbursements.

Assets, vehicles and amortization

Depreciation, supported section 179 and bonus/MACRS, dispositions, listed property, and startup, organizational and intangible amortization.

Official forms and corporate reporting

Actual Form 1120-S, K-1, applicable supporting forms, book-to-tax schedules and corporate QBI information.

Review, history and output

Source review, Guided Preparation, workpapers, How calculated, optional diagnostics and saved professional return packages.

Explore all capabilities Understand the boundaries

MEET CEDARLINE · SYNTHETIC EXAMPLE

An ordinary business can have a lot going on.

Cedarline Equipment & Supply brings the broader Alpha 14 capabilities together: two shareholders, inventory, a commercial rental, brokerage sales, a company car, amortization, paid shareholder-loan interest and accountable-plan reimbursements.

Each area still needs its own facts and treatment. Inventory does not become an ordinary expense by accident. Rental income keeps its character. A payment already in the books does not get posted again.

That is the point of a richer synthetic example: test the connections, not just the isolated feature.

Historical Alpha 14 Cedarline inventory preparation showing source references, inventory-method selection and eligibility review. — Cedarline inventory review during Alpha 14 engineering work. Historical interface; synthetic example.Synthetic example · Click to inspect

How the broader engine was built

04 / REVIEW AND PRODUCE

The output is the tax return.

Actual IRS forms. Shareholder packages. Supporting statements. Professional workpapers. All connected to the saved preparation.

Rendered synthetic official Form 1120-S output with populated entity information and tax amounts. — Actual synthetic Form 1120-S output. Review-copy markings are preserved.Synthetic example · Click to inspect

A package with an internal logic.

The corporate return, shareholder deliverables and internal workpapers have distinct places in the package. Each supported shareholder receives the applicable K-1, basis information and Form 7203 output.

Forms, explanations and diagnostics refer to the same saved result. Print / Save PDF selects from that result; it does not recalculate a different return.

History remains history.

Change an input and the current package becomes stale. Update Return creates a new preparation. The earlier package remains tied to the evidence and facts that produced it.

Here, “finished return” describes preparation and output. The public project does not provide e-filing, transmission, signatures or IRS approval. The examples shown are synthetic review copies.

Read the product boundaries

The corporation reports.

Each K-1 carries the owner’s corporate allocation. Basis limits do not silently reduce what the corporation reports.

Actual synthetic Schedule K-1 showing the shareholder’s allocated S-corporation tax information. — Owner-associated Schedule K-1. Synthetic review output.Synthetic example · Click to inspect

The owner has a separate history.

Supported Form 7203 output follows stock basis, direct debt and loss limitations in the shareholder’s own package.

Actual synthetic Form 7203 showing shareholder stock and debt basis limitation information. — Form 7203 is a shareholder deliverable, with its own supported scope. Synthetic review output.Synthetic example · Click to inspect

Print and Save PDF selection dialog showing corporate, shareholder and preparer package choices. — Choose the relevant saved documents without mixing corporate output, private shareholder deliverables and internal workpapers. Synthetic example.Synthetic example · Click to inspect

Follow the work behind the return.

Successive Alphas connected source evidence, professional decisions, calculations and visible output. The hard parts are worth seeing.

Explore the development story