Adding a new preparer to your UltraTax CS setup in the middle of tax season should not require a new laptop, a fresh local install, or a call to IT that eats half a day. For growing accounting firms, multi-user access to UltraTax CS is one of the most common bottlenecks between January and April, and it tends to show up at the worst possible time. This guide covers what multi-user access to UltraTax CS actually requires, why local desktop installs struggle to keep up with a growing team, and how cloud hosting solves the problem without the usual scramble.<\/p>\n
UltraTax CS is a Windows desktop application, which means it was designed around a single installation on a single machine, or a small office network sharing a local server. That setup works fine for a firm with three or four preparers who have worked together for years. It breaks down the moment a firm needs to add staff quickly, which is exactly what happens every January through April.<\/p>\n
A firm bringing on two seasonal preparers or a new hire mid-season typically has to buy a new workstation, install UltraTax CS locally, configure network access to shared client files, and set up VPN access if anyone needs to work remotely. Multiply that across three or four new hires during peak season, and IT setup alone can eat up days a busy firm simply does not have.<\/p>\n
“Multi-user access” sounds simple, but for UltraTax CS it involves several moving parts working together:<\/p>\n
On a local network, all four of these require separate configuration work, and network-based licensing for UltraTax CS can get finicky when multiple users are hitting the same local server at once, particularly during peak filing weeks.<\/p>\n
Most accounting firms do not grow steadily throughout the year. They grow in a spike, adding seasonal preparers, temporary reviewers, and sometimes remote contractors for twelve to sixteen weeks, then scaling back down once the deadline passes. That means the multi-user access problem is not a one-time IT project. It is something firms have to solve, and often re-solve, every single tax season.<\/p>\n
Firms that rely on local UltraTax CS installs tend to solve this the hard way: buying temporary hardware, installing software under deadline pressure, and hoping the office network holds up when everyone logs in at 7 AM in March. Firms that host UltraTax CS in the cloud solve it differently, and with far less lead time.<\/p>\n
When UltraTax CS runs on a hosted cloud desktop instead of a local machine, adding a user becomes a licensing and account change rather than a hardware purchase. With UltraTax CS cloud hosting<\/a> from Apps4Rent, each user gets their own dedicated desktop environment within the firm’s hosted setup, so multiple preparers can work in UltraTax CS at the same time without contending for the same local server or office network connection.<\/p>\n This also resolves the remote access side of the same problem. A seasonal preparer working from home needs the exact same setup as someone sitting in the office, since both are logging into the same secured cloud environment rather than relying on a local install and a VPN tunnel back to the office server.<\/p>\n On a local setup, adding a new preparer mid-tax-season usually means ordering a laptop, waiting for it to arrive, installing UltraTax CS, configuring network and VPN access, and hoping nothing breaks during the busiest weeks of the year.<\/p>\n With a hosted setup, the process is a request rather than a project. Apps4Rent adds users to an existing UltraTax CS hosting plan at $22 per user per month, with each additional user receiving 1 GB of additional RAM so performance does not suffer as the team grows. There is no separate hardware to buy and no local installation to manage. A new preparer can typically be up and running the same day the request is made, which matters when a firm is trying to onboard help two weeks before a filing deadline, not two months before one.<\/p>\n Trusted by 10,000+ Accounting & CPAs Firms<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Apps4Rent hosts UltraTax CS and the full CS Professional Suite on dedicated cloud desktops built for growing accounting firms. Add seasonal or full-time users in hours, not weeks, with no hardware to buy and no local install to manage.<\/p>\n It is worth separating two things firms often conflate. Multi-device access means one user logging into their own UltraTax CS environment from different devices, a laptop at the office and a tablet at home, for example. Multi-user access means multiple different people working in UltraTax CS, potentially at the same time, across the same firm’s client base.<\/p>\n Cloud hosting solves both, but they are not the same problem. A solo CPA mainly needs multi-device access. A growing firm bringing on staff needs multi-user access, which is the more complex of the two and the one that breaks down fastest on local infrastructure once headcount climbs past a handful of preparers.<\/p>\n Growing a team during tax season also means managing access for people who will not be with the firm in May. That makes access control just as important as access itself. A hosted UltraTax CS environment should let a firm:<\/p>\n Apps4Rent’s hosted UltraTax CS environments run in SOC 2 Type II certified data centers<\/a>, with per-user access that can be added or removed independently. That matters most in the exact weeks when firms are scaling staff up, and then back down, on a tight seasonal timeline.<\/p>\n Scaling up for tax season?<\/p>\n Add UltraTax CS users as your firm grows, and scale back down once the deadline passes. No hardware, no long-term contract, no wasted seats.<\/p>\n \n Get a Free Quote \u2192<\/a>\n <\/p>\n<\/div>\n A few signs it is time to move UltraTax CS off local machines and onto a hosted environment:<\/p>\n If two or more of these sound familiar, multi-user access is likely already costing the firm more in IT time and lost productivity than a hosted plan would cost in monthly hosting fees.<\/p>\n With Apps4Rent, each user on a hosted UltraTax CS plan gets their own dedicated desktop environment<\/a>, so there is no fixed cap on simultaneous access beyond the number of users on the plan. Firms can add users as needed, each priced at $22\/user\/month.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n New users are typically added the same day the request is made, since there is no hardware to ship or software to install locally. This is one of the biggest practical differences from adding a user to a local UltraTax CS setup.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Yes. Apps4Rent hosts UltraTax CS on a month-to-month billing model with no long-term contracts, so firms can add seasonal preparers during tax season and scale back down afterward without being locked into annual commitments.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Yes. Apps4Rent hosts UltraTax CS in SOC 2 Type II certified data centers, with each user’s session isolated from others on the same plan. Access for any individual user can be added or revoked independently, without affecting the rest of the team.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n No, provided the environment is set up correctly. Apps4Rent’s dedicated cloud desktops assign resources per user rather than pooling everyone onto a single shared machine, which is the main reason performance holds up even when a firm doubles its headcount for tax season.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n Yes. Because each user has a dedicated desktop environment rather than sharing a single local installation, preparers can work on different client returns simultaneously without waiting on file locks or network contention.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n Growing a firm during tax season should not mean choosing between hiring the help you need and losing a week to IT setup just to get them working. UltraTax CS multi-user access is one of the more solvable problems in a busy season, once the software is running on a cloud desktop instead of a local machine. For a full breakdown of plans, pricing, and add-on user costs, visit our UltraTax CS cloud hosting<\/a> page.<\/p>\nAdding Users Mid-Season: What It Looks Like in Practice<\/h2>\n
Add UltraTax CS users the same day you need them<\/h3>\n
\n <\/span>Add users at $22\/month<\/span>
\n <\/span>24\/7\/365 support<\/span>
\n <\/span>No long-term contracts<\/span>\n <\/div>\n
\n Call 1-866-716-2040<\/a>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\nMulti-User Access vs Multi-Device Access: A Common Confusion<\/h2>\n
Security Considerations When Adding Seasonal Staff<\/h2>\n
\n
Signs Your Firm Has Outgrown Local UltraTax CS Installs<\/h2>\n
\n
Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n
\n
How many users can access UltraTax CS at the same time on a hosted cloud desktop?<\/h3>\n
How quickly can a new user be added during tax season?<\/h3>\n
Can seasonal or temporary staff access UltraTax CS without a full annual contract?<\/h3>\n
Is multi-user access to UltraTax CS secure?<\/h3>\n
Does adding users slow down UltraTax CS performance for the rest of the team?<\/h3>\n
Can multiple UltraTax CS users work on different client files at the same time?<\/h3>\n