Not sure whether you're using a desktop or online version, but either way you can enter anything at any time, save, and then come back to complete the return. Using the online version you can select My Account, and then tools, and then topic search or topic list to get to the particular items you wish to work on.

For donations you can use Its Deductible a free online app you can use all year and it will import into Turbo Tax Deluxe or higher.

For its Deductible see
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1900960-what-is-itsdeductible">https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1...>

Depends on what you actually mean.

1)  IF you re talking about things like 2016 Medical expenses, and estimated tax payments for 2016,then you cannot put them into any tax forms until the actual software is released....which is around now, or soon for a 2016 tax return.  So early in 2016, you would have to keep a spreadsheet, and a folder to keep those records in.

2)  For charity Donations, you could use "ItsDeductible" online throughout the year. because they had the 2016 donations tab always available fairly soon after  2016 started (though the new version of ItsDeductible stinks until they fix it)

Right. TT 2016 Online isn't actually available until early December, and the various Medical expenses categories are just for your own use.