What appears to be a huge bug, and lack of confidence in the data I have entered.

[cactibob]

(I realize my subject might seem premature and even careless, but please read on and let me know if I am off base.)

I needed to review one 1099-R set of questions. At the 1099-R summary page, I clicked Edit for the 1099-R in question. As I moved through the pages, the data I previously entered started out being correct (as I originally entered it), however when I got to "Was This Distribution From a Qualified Plan?", I originally selected the: "From a Qualified Plan" button, however, the button: "From a Non-Qualified Plan" appeared to be the highlighted button (although it only had a light blue outline on its circumference). If it turns out that wasn't actually my choice, then it means I have to make my choice again, when I had already made the choice (in either case, not a good situaion).

I selected "From a Qualified Plan". At the next screen: "Was this withdrawal an RMD for 2017?", the radio button I had originally selected was no longer checked (it simply had a light blue highlight on its circumference) (and the other radio button I had not clicked was also not checked). I clicked the "Yes..." radio button, and then the button has both the light blue highlight on its circumference, as well as most of the circle being filled with a darker blue (indicating it was selected).

1) Does a radio button with a light blue highlight on its circumference mean that is the value that TurboTax has stored?

2) Does a button (of the type like: Back, Continue, etc.) with a light blue highlight on its circumference mean that is the value TurboTax has stored, or does it indicate the default (most common) choice, or is it immaterial?

--

The choice I originally made was not reflected in: "Was this a Qualified Disaster Distribution?".

"Is this a qualified distribution for the purchase or construction of a main home in certain disaster areas?" My original choice *was* correctly indicated (a radio button with a black dot in it's middle.)

"Any Periodic Payments?" I originally chose "Yes...", but the screen indicated "No"!!!

"Payment Start Year" My original choice was correctly indicated.

"Describe the Taxable Amount" My original choice was correctly indicated.

3) Why are my choices not clearly shown in all the screens when I edit a section and walk though the screens?

4) Why was the opposite of one of my original choices selected? (Note that I did not change anything that might have caused this.)

After going through all the screens, and then ending back at the summary page, I walked through the pages again, and the same bugs and ambiguity was replicated.

All of these issues make it impossible for me to know if the data I carefully entered was actually intact, and this is of huge concern about getting my taxes done properly; the very goal of TurboTax!

[AJ]

I am not the software designer, so you might not like my observation here. But over the years, I have simply become accustomed to the fact that if I ever need to edit a form using the "Step-by-Step" view, then I also need to be prepared to go step-by-step to read the instructions and answer the questions again.  Don't depend on the buttons being the same because they did not build it that way--some question settings go back to defaults.  I go to the "Forms" view, or I print PDFs, to look at what is really recorded on the forms.

[cactibob]

Thanks for that. I haven't checked out the Forms view or PDFs yet, but Intuit *really* needs to show one's saved choices when reviewing a section. Not doing so is akin to entering data in a series of worksheets in a spreadsheet, saving as you go, then when you go back to look at a worksheet you already entered, part of the data is as you entered, part is blanked out (ambiguous), and part is completely wrong data (but the actual data stored *is* as you originally entered it, you just can't verify it)--akin, but with the very slight offset that you can look at Forms / PDFs, but the data entry screens provide extremely valuable context and help that should work hand in hand with properly saved/displayed data.

But again, I appreciate your perspective, and now understand that, the way the software is currently written, it is unfortunately necessary to re-think all your choices (which you may have spent some serious time researching when first entering your data) if you revisit a section.