How to Use Ledger IQ with Drake Tax

Start with a trial balance export from whatever your client's books live in. From QuickBooks: Reports → Trial Balance, set the report period to the tax year, and export to Excel. Any general ledger package works the same way. Ledger IQ accepts Excel (.xlsx) and CSV files.

Sign in at portal.ledgeriq.ai and create a company for the client. You'll set three things:

• Return type: 1065 (partnership), 1120 (C corporation), or 1120-S (S corporation)
• Tax software: choose Drake
• Tax year

The return type and software selection load the matching tax-line mapping workbook behind the scenes, so the mapping dropdowns you see in the next step are the actual Drake lines for that form.

Drag the file into the upload area (or click to browse). Ledger IQ reads the file and shows a quick column-confirmation dialog: verify which column is the account name and which hold the amounts (debit/credit or balance). Confirm, and the trial balance appears as a grid with every account on its own row.

Click Suggest Mappings. Ledger IQ assigns each account to a Drake tax line using three layers: your firm's own history (how you mapped this account before), a rule library built by CPAs, and an AI layer for the odd ones. Suggestions appear highlighted with a review bar at the top.

Every suggestion must be accepted or dismissed by you. The export button stays disabled until the review queue is empty. Accounts the engine isn't confident about are left blank for you to map manually with the dropdown on each row.

Book your period-end adjustments right in the workspace using the pencil icon on any account row. Three entry types are supported, and the distinction matters for what reaches Drake:

Switch to the Working TB view. It's the classic tax workpaper layout: Unadjusted → Adjustments → Adjusted → Tax Line (with Tax Adjustment and Tax Balance columns appearing when the company has TJEs). The totals row proves the workpaper ties: a green check at $0.00, red if anything is out of balance.

• Click any adjustment cell to see the balance build-up: unadjusted balance → each entry line → adjusted balance.
• Click a tax line to open a mini leadsheet: every account mapped to that line and the total flowing to the return.
• The Entries view lists every journal entry as a numbered card with debit/credit totals.

When the totals row shows the green check and there are no unreviewed suggestions, the workpaper is ready to export.

Three export buttons sit above the grid. Trial Balance and Journal Entries produce Excel/PDF workpapers for your file; Drake Import generates the file Drake actually reads.

Drake works differently from other tax software: instead of a generic CSV, its Trial Balance Import reads Drake's own Excel trial balance template. Click Drake Import and Ledger IQ fills that template for you. An .xlsx downloads with your adjusted balances written onto Drake's own template lines, each amount sitting beside the "screen,line" import code that routes it into data entry:

Now pull the workbook in:

1. Open the client's return in Drake Tax, using the same form type and tax year as the Ledger IQ company. Drake shows an error if the form types don't match.
2. From data entry, go to Import → Trial Balance Import.
3. You're importing an existing trial balance, not creating a new one: click the file picker beside Import File Name and browse to the workbook you exported (your browser saves it to its default folder, usually Downloads). If you opened the file to peek at it, close Excel completely first; Drake can't read the workbook while Excel has it open.
4. Step through the wizard: the default import options are right for Ledger IQ files. Click Next, let the import run, then click Finish.
5. Recalculate the return. The amounts land on the data entry screens routed by the import codes: page 1 income and deductions, Schedule L, Schedule K, M-1 and M-2.