How to Use assureNotice: A Complete Guide to Income Tax Notices, Responses, Deadlines and Case Tracking

Fetch available notices and replies for several clients, keep existing case notes, and let your team review deadlines and pending work in one shared browser workspace.

A notice assignment rarely ends with downloading a PDF. The team needs to identify the proceeding, read every communication, locate earlier replies, understand what remains unanswered, assign the next action and preserve the evidence of submission. When several clients and assessment years are involved, those tasks can become scattered across portal screens, folders, email messages and personal reminders.

assureNotice, part of the assureOffice ecosystem at assureoffice.in, brings the supported e-Proceedings records and the firm's management notes into one workspace. Instead of repeatedly typing available notice references, downloading the same documents and rebuilding the case history, the team can fetch supported portal records, review the result and complete the management information that needs professional input. Each proceeding connects its communications, available response history, downloaded documents, responsible person, next action and point-wise compliance review.

This guide follows the available workflow from the first client selection to ongoing monitoring and backup. The portal-fetch scope is e-Proceedings → For your Action, across the assessment years available in that view. Keep that scope in mind when deciding whether an assignment or communication should be expected in the tracker.

1. How assureNotice reduces repetitive case-tracking work

The practical advantage of assureNotice is a reusable case record. Once the correct clients and portal credentials are available, the team can work through a batch and then concentrate on the matters requiring attention.

• Fetch several clients together: choose a client selection, start one batch and follow individual results. The supported batch accepts up to 100 clients.
• Bring available information into the tracker: fetched records can supply proceeding identities, assessment years, communication references, available dates, response history and selected documents.
• Keep work already recorded: later fetches merge portal information while retaining the firm's saved owner, next action and internal notes.
• Find the next task quickly: search by client or proceeding and use Response pending, Overdue responses or To review / in progress filters.
• Keep documents with the case: open available notices, attachments and acknowledgements from their communication context. Connected private Google Drive storage supports document access for the authorised team.
• Review the practice in Excel: Export Tracker provides a management workbook with case summaries, document records, compliance points and timelines.
• Continue through the shared firm workspace: authorised users can reopen saved case information from another supported browser and device when the hosted application and internet connection are available.

The working rhythm is fetch → review → assign the next action → record progress → refresh the portal evidence when needed. The benefit is less copying and repeated searching; the substantive tax response remains the professional's work.

2. What the sources fill and what your team completes

This is prefill of the available case record, not automatic preparation of a reply. The team supplies its understanding of the issues, point-wise compliance assessment and proposed next action. Earlier-AY proceedings can remain part of the history; they are not copied into a new AY as if they were new notices.

3. Understand the four levels of a notice assignment

The first level is the client, identified by PAN. One client can have several proceedings and several assessment years.

The second level is the proceeding. A proceeding may contain several notices, letters or orders. A notice reference should therefore be reviewed within its proceeding and assessment year, rather than treated as an isolated task.

The third level is the communication and response history. Each communication may have a due date, one or more response records, attachments and an acknowledgement. A response seeking time and a substantive submission can have different practical meanings.

The fourth level is your firm's management record: who owns the work, what the current position is, which information remains pending, what needs to happen next and which evidence supports completion.

assureNotice keeps the portal information and management record separate. Fetching again can update the portal record while preserving internal notes and management details. This separation helps the team retain its working understanding of a case as new communications arrive.

4. Prepare the client and access before fetching

Start from All Clients in the Practice Suite. Search for the correct client and confirm its PAN and name before opening the notice workspace.

If a client does not yet exist, use the common New Client or Import Centre workflow. Manual creation allows the relevant client type, name, assessment year, PAN and other master details to be entered. The common client screen may permit an initial draft without PAN, but notice fetching and connector-archive import need the correct PAN.

Complete these practical checks:

• The selected PAN belongs to the assessee whose portal records you intend to fetch.
• The client is available under the correct firm account.
• The user has access to that client.
• The client's Income Tax Portal credentials have been saved through the supported portal-import workflow.
• The portal browser service is available in the deployed app.
• Any existing case notes and documents have been preserved before a restore or deletion operation.

A sub-user's client access comes from the firm's access settings. If a client is missing from their list, the firm admin should check the assignment. Adding a person's name as the responsible person on a proceeding does not itself grant that person access to the client.

5. Set up cloud access and let the team continue saved work

On the hosted assureOffice workspace, team members can sign in through a browser from the office, home or a client location and work on the firm's shared saved client records. Each person uses their own registered email. This makes a handover easier: the next person opens the saved case, documents and next-action record instead of asking for a fresh copy of a personal tracker.

The main account admin sets up the team as follows:

1. Open User Settings from the top navigation. On a narrow screen, open the navigation menu first.
2. Check the organization name in Account details, using Save details for any change.
3. Under Manage sub-users, enter the team members' email addresses, one per line or separated by commas. They can be added before they register. One submission uses the same access settings for all entered emails.
4. Choose All clients or Selected clients. For selected access, tick the intended clients by name/PAN.
5. Set Create Client and Delete Client. Create is on and Delete is off by default. Normal reading, editing, importing, uploading, downloading and backup work is included for accessible clients.
6. Click Save sub-user access and check the resulting Awaiting registration, Pending acceptance or Active status.
7. Ask each member to register or log in using that exact email, open User Settings, find Work as sub-user of [firm] and select Accept & work as sub-user. They review the confirmation before accepting.
8. The member returns to All Clients, opens an assigned client and enters assureNotice. The admin can later use Edit access, Remove access or Activity Log from the team-management area.

Acceptance binds the member's working email account to the firm's account; independent work needs a separate registration. Only the main admin manages sub-users. The normal setup is admin and sub-user, with client access and create/delete choices.

For a practical handover, the preparer saves Manage proceeding, and the colleague reopens or refreshes the case before reviewing it. Adding a responsible person's name to the case is useful for allocation, but that entry does not grant app access. Team access must be set up separately as above.

To continue from another suitable device, save the current changes, sign in to the same hosted workspace and open the same client/proceeding. Use a desktop or laptop for wide tracking tables and detailed Excel review. Browser access depends on internet and service availability; a phone may be useful for a quick check without being equally convenient for every detailed task. Private Drive documents also require the relevant Google-account access.

Coordinate edits so that one person finishes and saves a case update before another edits the same working. Shared saved records do not imply simultaneous live co-editing. Use Log Out when finishing on a shared device.

6. Open assureNotice and understand the main screen

Open assureNotice from the client's available app actions. The client-specific entry opens the tracker with that PAN selected. The tracker also supports an overall view of the clients available to the signed-in account.

The top actions are:

• All Clients: return to the common client list.
• Google Drive: open the notice-document storage settings.
• Refresh: reload saved tracker information and fetch progress.

The working controls include Client, Search proceedings, Show, Fetch Notices & Responses, Import Connector Archive and Export Tracker.

The table shows client/PAN, proceeding/AY, latest department notice, latest assessee reply, current position, next due/action, owner/work status and files. Use Open on the relevant proceeding to review its management details and timeline.

Refresh reloads the app's saved records. To obtain new information from the Income Tax Portal, use Fetch Notices & Responses. This distinction is useful when a portal reply has been filed since the last successful fetch.

7. Select a client and use the search correctly

In Client, type the client's name or PAN and select the matching suggestion. You can also enter the complete PAN. Clear the field when you want to return to the overall available-client view.

Use Search proceedings to find a section, assessment year, communication reference or description. The search also considers the client identity and saved owner information.

The Show selector offers:

• All proceedings.
• Response pending.
• Overdue responses.
• Response not checked.
• To review / in progress.

Proceedings are grouped by assessment year, with the later years first. If a year has not been established from the portal record, the app can show an unspecified-year group. Review the original proceeding rather than assigning a guessed assessment year.

The summary counters describe the client/search selection before the Show status filter is applied. As a result, the counters can include more proceedings than the filtered table currently displays.

8. Save Income Tax Portal credentials in the proper place

The notice-fetch dialog uses saved Income Tax Portal credentials. It does not provide a separate password-entry box for each fetch.

Open Import Centre → Import from Income Tax Portal, select the correct client and use the supported credential-saving controls there. Return to assureNotice after the login details are available for that PAN.

For a batch, check the credentials for every selected client. A missing saved password can prevent the batch from starting. Start with a smaller verified selection if you are setting up several clients for the first time.

OTP-protected accounts may require manual portal access. If the fetch reports an OTP or verification requirement, complete the required verification through the portal and follow the indicated retry or archive-import route. A saved password alone does not establish that every login challenge has been completed.

The fetch also depends on the portal browser component being ready in the deployment. If the app reports that the browser is unavailable, the app administrator needs to resolve that deployment issue before repeated fetch attempts will help.

9. Fetch notices and responses for one or several clients

Click Fetch Notices & Responses. In the dialog:

1. Search for the clients by name or PAN.
2. Select the intended clients.
3. Use Select all visible clients only after checking the search result.
4. Review the document-download options.
5. Click Start Fetch.
6. Follow the client-level results in Fetch progress.

The current batch accepts between 1 and 100 clients. It uses a queued process, so starting a batch does not mean every selected client has already been checked.

The download options are Notice PDFs, Response attachments and Response acknowledgements. They are selected by default. You can change them according to the purpose of the fetch.

Response metadata is checked independently of these download checkboxes. Leaving a document checkbox unticked controls that file download; it should not be interpreted as a decision that no response exists.

For a first full review, downloading the available notices, attachments and acknowledgements gives the reviewer a more complete working file. A later fetch can reuse documents that have already been saved and remain available.

10. Understand the portal coverage and assessment-year scope

The supported reader opens the portal's Pending Actions → e-Proceedings → For your Action view. It reads the available proceeding and communication pages and follows their pagination.

The notice workflow is not limited to the assessment year currently open in the ITR or Tax Audit workspace. It checks the available proceedings across AYs in the supported portal view, then shows the assessment year with each proceeding.

This does not establish that every possible Income Tax Portal service, demand, appeal, information request or communication outside that view is covered. Review the relevant portal service separately when the assignment falls outside the stated scope.

An empty table is also different from a successful check establishing that no proceedings are present. Read the client's fetch status. A navigation failure, an OTP request or an incomplete page load should remain a follow-up item.

11. Read fetch progress before drawing conclusions

The fetch area shows the latest job and the results for its selected clients. Older jobs can be expanded under Previous fetches.

Typical states include Queued, Running, Completed, Attention required, Failed, Stopped and Interrupted. Read the message beneath the affected client, rather than relying only on the overall batch label.

Attention required may arise after useful information has already been saved. For example, the app may have read a proceeding but failed to download one attachment, verify a response screen or finish saving files to Drive.

The working sequence is:

1. Identify the affected client.
2. Read its message.
3. Open the saved proceeding and inspect the available information.
4. Identify the missing response check or document.
5. Resolve the reported cause and retry the relevant client.

A fetch marked Completed is a result for that fetch operation. It does not mark the client's tax proceeding legally closed or every query substantively answered.

12. Stop, retry and recover an interrupted fetch

Use Stop against an active fetch when necessary. The stop request allows the current portal step to finish or stop safely; saved communications remain available.

The account admin or the user who started the fetch can stop it, subject to the app's access checks. A second notice fetch cannot start for the same account while one is still active.

If the server restarts, a previous unfinished job can appear as Interrupted. Reload the tracker, inspect the saved records and start a fresh fetch for the affected clients.

Repeated fetching is designed to merge communication and response records. An incomplete later response check should not erase previously verified response history. The latest check can still be shown as incomplete, which is useful because an older successful response check does not prove that the portal has not changed since then.

The merge also preserves saved management details. There is no need to recreate owner, next-action and internal-note information merely because you fetched the portal again.

13. Import an existing connector archive

An existing compatible connector archive provides another input route. Select the correct client first, then click Import Connector Archive.

The accepted inputs are:

• The client's eproceedings.json file.
• A one-client ZIP containing that JSON and the associated downloaded documents.

Choose the file and click Import. The PAN inside the archive must match the selected client.

Keep the archive's document folders intact. Matching requires the communication and folder context, so collecting unrelated PDFs with the same filenames into a new flat ZIP is not a reliable substitute for the original archive.

The input file limit is 100 MB. The ZIP must contain one eproceedings.json for one client. An ordinary ITR JSON, a complete Practice Suite backup ZIP or a folder of standalone notice PDFs belongs to a different workflow.

JSON alone imports the records; it does not contain the missing PDF or attachment bytes. Documents can remain marked as not downloaded until the compatible archive includes them or a subsequent fetch obtains them.

14. Review the proceeding before updating management details

Click Open for the relevant row. Confirm the proceeding name, assessment year, client and PAN at the top of the dialog.

Read the portal status and any flags. Then review:

• The latest department communication.
• The latest substantive response shown in the summary.
• Earlier communications and replies in the timeline.
• Response checks that have not completed.
• Missing or pending document downloads.
• Original, revised and internally recorded next dates.

Several notices may be part of the same proceeding. A newer response to one notice should not make the reviewer overlook an earlier unanswered point or a different communication deadline.

Use the documents and timeline to establish the case position before writing a short management summary. A good summary tells the next team member what has happened and what they need to do next.

15. Keep portal status, work status and compliance status distinct

assureNotice displays several kinds of status because they answer different questions.

Portal status records what was obtained from the proceeding or response information. A response may carry a Full or Partial filing label.

Work status is the firm's internal choice: To review, In progress or Completed.

Point-wise compliance status records whether each department query is Pending, Partly submitted, Submitted or Accepted by department.

Closure information records a closure date and supporting order or reference. The portal can also report a closed proceeding.

Changing Work status to Completed does not submit a reply, change the portal's status or prove that the department accepted the response. Similarly, a Full reply label does not remove the need to compare the submission with the actual questions asked.

Use each field for its specific purpose. This gives the partner a useful overview without making the overview stand in for the supporting evidence.

16. Record responsibility, current position and the next action

In the Management section, enter:

• Responsible person: the team member handling the case.
• Work status: the internal stage.
• Current position: a concise statement of what has happened.
• Next action: the next specific task.
• Next due date: the date the team should monitor.
• AO / TPO / department: the relevant authority details.

For example, a useful current position could be: “Books reconciliation submitted; supporting invoices for two items awaited from client.” A useful next action could be: “Collect the two invoices and prepare the supplementary submission for partner review.”

The responsible-person field is a management entry. It does not automatically send an email, create a calendar invitation or change the person's account permissions.

Click Save Management Details when the information is ready. The current form uses an explicit save action; closing the dialog is not a substitute for saving it.

17. Track original deadlines, revised dates and adjournments

The management form has separate fields for Original due date, Revised due date, Adjournment requested / reference and Adjournment granted / reference.

Record the dates from the relevant notice or order and identify the supporting reference. Use an unambiguous supported format such as YYYY-MM-DD for manually entered dates.

The summary prioritises the manually entered Next due date, then the revised date, then the available pending-notice dates. Review that priority when a case has several communications: an outdated manual next date can remain more prominent than a newly fetched notice date.

If several pending notices have different dates, the app can display a warning to check each communication. Keep the detailed dates in the timeline and make the next action clear.

Entering a revised date does not itself record that an adjournment was granted. The app flags a revised date without a recorded grant reference. An adjournment request should be tracked as a request until the supporting outcome is known.

The overdue indicator depends on the recorded date and the case's current information. Always verify the actual deadline and its scope from the source communication.

18. Build point-wise compliance from the department's questions

Open the Point-wise compliance section and click Add query point.

For each query, record:

1. Asked / source: what the department requested, with the notice reference and page.
2. Submitted: what has already been provided.
3. Still pending: the remaining information or explanation.
4. Status / evidence: the stage and relevant submission or department evidence.

Use a separate row for a separately reviewable point. If a notice asks for a sales reconciliation, supporting invoices and an explanation of a bank credit, those may need different evidence and different next actions.

Select Pending, Partly submitted, Submitted or Accepted by department. The app requires evidence when a point is marked Accepted by department.

Use Remove for an incorrectly added query row, then save the management details. Review before removing a substantive item that the team still needs to monitor.

The supported form allows up to 300 query points per proceeding. More importantly, keep each row understandable: include the source and evidence instead of writing only “Done”.

19. Distinguish a request for time from a substantive reply

The timeline separates responses identified as adjournment or extension requests from substantive replies. The latest-reply summary therefore aims to show the latest substantive submission rather than merely the most recent request for more time.

This distinction helps a manager avoid assuming that the underlying queries have been answered because a response entry exists on the portal.

Review the source response and attachments yourself. The classification uses the available response information and remarks; a brief or unusual description may need interpretation by the person handling the case.

After reviewing, update Current position, Next action and the query-point rows. If an extension request is pending, say so explicitly and retain the original notice date until the confirmed position has been established.

20. Use the timeline as the case history

The Case timeline combines the saved portal communications and replies with management events. It displays the event date, type, reference, relevant section or response type, details, available due date, source and documents.

Portal entries may include the department communication, response remarks, filing details, response attachments and acknowledgements. Where communication text was read from the portal, Read department communication expands it.

Review the sequence, especially when several replies relate to one notice. A response's date, type, filed-by information and attachments provide different pieces of evidence.

The timeline is also useful during handover. A new team member can understand what was received, what was filed and what the firm recorded without relying only on the latest summary sentence.

Use the original PDF or portal record when the displayed text appears incomplete or a fact is important to the submission.

21. Add management events and hearing outcomes

Open Add timeline event within the proceeding. Enter Event date, Event type, Notice/order reference, optional Due date and Event details, then click Save timeline event.

The available types are:

• Department notice.
• Assessee reply.
• Adjournment requested.
• Adjournment granted.
• Hearing.
• Order.
• Closure.
• Management note.

Order, Closure and Adjournment granted events require a supporting reference. Record the actual outcome of a hearing; a date passing does not establish that attendance or a hearing occurred.

Save other management-form changes before relying on a separate timeline-event save. After adding an event, close the dialog, click Refresh and reopen the case to see the updated timeline.

This control adds an event to an existing proceeding. It is not a general new-proceeding creation form or a reply-submission button. The current event form records the details and reference; it does not provide a general attachment-upload field.

22. Open notices, attachments and acknowledgements

Use View / Download beside an available document. Check that the file belongs to the intended client, proceeding, communication and response before using it in the working papers.

The app can show unavailable-document messages separately from a communication record. A notice may have been read successfully while its PDF was not downloaded. Similarly, a response can have metadata even when one attachment is missing.

Review each missing-file message and retry fetching where appropriate. Document downloads have a 40 MB per-document limit. A portal login page, empty response or invalid PDF is not treated as the requested document.

If Google Drive is connected and the file has been saved there, View / Download opens the private Drive file. If a document is waiting to be saved to Drive, the firm admin can retry the pending storage operation.

The workbook's document count and a visible response record should not replace opening important notices, submissions and acknowledgements during review.

23. Use Read text to examine readable PDFs

Available documents have a Read text action. It shows extracted source text by page where readable PDF text was captured.

Use it to find a query, reference or date and to help prepare the point-wise compliance entries. Verify the passage against the PDF before relying on its wording or context.

Scanned or encrypted PDFs may not have readable text. The extraction is also bounded, so it should not be treated as a guarantee that every page of a long document has been represented. Open the source PDF when the text is missing or incomplete.

Read text is document-text extraction. It does not automatically write a tax response or decide the answer to a department query. The reviewer still prepares the submission, checks the supporting facts and approves the final wording through the firm's established process.

24. Connect Google Drive for private document storage

The firm admin can open User Settings → Google Drive, or use the Google Drive action in assureNotice.

If the application's Google connection has been configured, click Connect Google Drive, select the intended Google account and complete the consent flow. The page then shows the connected account and storage status.

The app organises new notice PDFs, response attachments and acknowledgements by firm, app, client, assessment year, proceeding and notice. This helps preserve context when a reviewer opens the documents outside the tracker.

App access and Drive access are separate. A sub-user who can open the proceeding still needs the appropriate Google-account access to open its private Drive documents. The firm admin manages the connection and grants access to the required folders.

If the settings page says that the Google connection is still being set up, the app administrator must complete that configuration first. A normal user's repeated Connect attempts cannot replace missing deployment configuration.

25. Resolve pending Drive saves and retain document access

The Drive settings page provides Retry saving pending documents. Use it when the portal records have been saved but document transfer to Drive did not complete.

Check the connection status, available Drive storage and folder permissions. If reconnection is required, use Reconnect Google Drive with the appropriate account.

When saved documents already belong to a connected Google account, the app asks for that account to be reconnected rather than silently switching the existing document collection to another account.

The storage workflow checks that uploaded files were saved successfully before releasing the local document copy. After a completed move, access to the original binary may depend on Drive. Maintain that access as part of the client's document-retention process.

Broad public or domain sharing can prevent a file from being accepted or opened through this private-storage workflow. Ask the firm admin to correct the folder or file access if the app reports that condition.

26. Record consultants, fees, approval and related proceedings

The management form includes Consultant, Fee agreed, Billing status and Approval status. Use these to record the operational position of the assignment alongside the case details.

For example, the firm can record that a specialist's review is awaited, that a fee has been agreed, or that the final submission is awaiting partner approval. Keep the wording specific enough for another team member to act on it.

These are management fields. Updating Billing status does not generate an invoice or record a payment, and entering Approval status does not create an automated approval request.

The Related AO / TPO proceeding selector links another proceeding for the same client. Use it where that relationship helps the reviewer navigate the case history. Each proceeding retains its own notices, deadlines and management details.

Add broader context in Management remarks and working notes in Internal notes, then use Save Management Details.

27. Record closure with supporting evidence

Before treating a proceeding as closed, review the latest portal information and the relevant order or department communication.

Enter Closure date and Closure order / evidence when recording a management closure. The form requires supporting closure evidence if a closure date is entered.

You can also add a Closure event to the timeline with its reference and details. Keep the evidence and management fields consistent so the summary and history explain the same position.

The app also recognises a portal-reported Closed status when summarising the case. That summary suppresses the pending-case due indicator; it should be reviewed against the source when deciding the next professional action.

Setting Work status to Completed alone does not create closure evidence. If further work becomes necessary, update the management fields and work status to reflect the current facts. There is no separate portal-reopening command in this workflow.

28. Export the management tracker

Click Export Tracker to download the Excel workbook. With a client selected, the workbook covers that client. With the client field cleared, it covers the accessible clients' saved proceedings.

The current export follows the client selection. The Search proceedings text and Show status filter do not restrict the workbook to only the visible filtered rows. Review the workbook's scope before sharing it.

The workbook contains:

• Management Summary: one row per proceeding, including client, PAN, AY, portal status, latest notice/reply, position, next action/date, owner, work status, consultant, fee, billing, approval and remarks.
• Documents: the document register, storage status and available private Drive links.
• Compliance Points: the query-wise submitted/pending position and evidence.
• A timeline sheet for each proceeding: its communications, replies, management events and file descriptions.

The summary links to the relevant timeline sheet. Worksheets include filters, frozen headings, wrapped text and a landscape print setup for practical review.

The tracker is a review and reporting output. Editing its cells does not update assureNotice, and the current tracker does not provide a round-trip import for that workbook. Make lasting changes in the case form, then export a fresh report.

29. Preserve the client backup and document references

Use the Practice Suite's complete client backup for recoverable client data. The bundle includes the notice records and their saved management information alongside the other included client modules.

The distinction between backup and report matters. Export Tracker creates a workbook for review; it is not the complete client restore file.

Where documents have been stored privately in Google Drive, a client backup can retain the Drive references instead of embedding every remote file. Restoring the records does not by itself grant access to those remote documents. Retain the relevant Drive account and folder access.

When Drive is connected, the notice workflow also maintains a client case-data backup there. Treat it as supporting case-data retention, distinct from the complete Practice Suite client backup and from the actual notice and response documents.

For a complete-client restore, use the common Import backup workflow, inspect the preview and confirm the intended client and modules. Matching client data can be replaced, and the app creates a recovery backup before the restore. Finish or stop an active notice fetch before restoring that client.

30. Understand deletion and the saved-history approach

The tracker is designed to retain saved proceeding history during subsequent fetches. A communication disappearing from a later portal view is not an instruction to erase the saved case record.

There is no ordinary Delete proceeding button in the current assureNotice case dialog. Use management position, status and closure evidence to describe the case's actual state.

Deleting a common client is a wider action: it can remove the client's associated app records, including notice data. Use the complete-client backup and the explicit deletion confirmation in that workflow. A notice fetch must be stopped or finished first.

Deleting app records does not imply that private files previously saved in Google Drive have also been deleted. Manage document retention and Drive access separately, according to the firm's requirements.

31. Follow a practical daily review routine

At the start of the working day, open assureNotice and review the available-client view. Fetch the clients that need fresh portal information, then distinguish successful checks from Attention required or unchecked responses.

Review Overdue responses, Response pending and Response not checked separately. The last category is particularly useful: a missing check can conceal an unknown position even when the pending count is small.

For each active assignment, make sure the responsible person, next action and next due date are meaningful. Open the original communication when a date, response or requirement is unclear.

As work progresses, update the submitted/pending rows and save the management details. After actual portal submission, retain the acknowledgement and fetch the new response history when available. Record hearing outcomes and orders as they occur.

Before the partner review, export the tracker for the intended client or client set. Use the summary for prioritisation and the timeline, compliance points and source documents for substantive review.

32. A worked example of one proceeding

Consider an illustrative client, Meera Components, with one proceeding containing two department communications. The first requests a reconciliation and supporting documents. The second asks for clarification on one item.

The team fetches the client's records, opens the proceeding and reviews both notices. A response entry exists, but its remarks show that it only requested additional time. The team therefore records that a substantive reply is still being prepared.

The responsible person creates query points for the reconciliation, the supporting documents and the clarification. The reconciliation is ready, two documents are still awaited, and the clarification needs partner review. Each row records its source notice and present status.

The manager enters a specific next action and a reviewed next due date. If an adjournment is granted, the reference and revised date are recorded separately. The request itself is not treated as a grant.

After the submission is made through the portal, the team fetches the response history and checks the acknowledgement and attachments. The query rows are updated to Submitted where supported. Acceptance or closure is recorded only when the corresponding evidence is available.

This example shows the purpose of assureNotice: a proceeding becomes a connected working record that explains what was asked, what was submitted and what the team must do next.

33. Final review checklist

Before relying on the tracker for a client review, confirm that:

• The client and PAN are correct.
• The proceeding and AY match the source records.
• The latest fetch status has been reviewed.
• Unchecked responses and missing documents are still visible as follow-up items.
• Important notice PDFs, replies and acknowledgements have been opened.
• A request for time has not been mistaken for a substantive reply.
• Original and revised dates have supporting references.
• Responsible person, next action and next due date are current.
• Query-wise submitted and pending items match the actual evidence.
• Accepted points have department evidence.
• Closure information is supported and consistent with the timeline.
• Drive files can be opened by the intended authorised reviewer.
• The tracker export has the intended client scope.
• Management changes have been saved and the client's backup is retained.

assureNotice at assureoffice.in can support a more organised notice practice when the team uses the source documents, the query-wise working and the management summary together.

34. Frequently asked questions

1. What does assureNotice help a CA firm do?

It brings supported Income Tax e-Proceedings, communications, response history, available documents and internal management details into a client-linked tracker. The team can record responsibility, dates, query-wise compliance and case events, then export a management workbook.

2. Where do I access assureNotice?

Open the Practice Suite through the assureOffice ecosystem at assureoffice.in and use the client's assureNotice action. The client-specific entry opens the tracker for that PAN.

3. Which portal records does the fetch cover?

The supported route reads e-Proceedings → For your Action and the available proceedings across AYs in that view. Do not treat it as a complete reader of every separate service or communication area on the Income Tax Portal.

4. Does the tracker work only for the current AY?

No. The notice fetch checks the available AYs in the supported proceeding view. Each proceeding retains its assessment-year information and the table groups the results by AY.

5. Can a draft client without PAN fetch notices?

No. Although the common client workflow can begin with a draft, notice fetching and connector-archive import require the correct valid PAN and client access.

6. How do I save the portal password?

Use Import Centre → Import from Income Tax Portal and its credential-saving workflow for the selected client. assureNotice uses those saved credentials when a fetch is started.

7. Can I fetch several clients together?

Yes. The dialog supports selecting between 1 and 100 clients, including a Select all visible clients control. Review the selected PANs and saved credentials before starting the batch.

8. Does Select all visible clients select every client in the firm?

It selects the currently visible client choices in the fetch dialog. A search may narrow those choices, and the available list also depends on the user's client access.

9. Are notice PDFs, response attachments and acknowledgements separate options?

Yes. The fetch dialog provides a checkbox for each. Response metadata is checked independently of whether those document-download boxes are selected.

10. Does Refresh check the Income Tax Portal again?

No. Refresh reloads saved tracker data and job progress. Use Fetch Notices & Responses to request a new portal check.

11. What does Attention required mean?

It means the fetch needs review, even if some records were saved successfully. Read the client message and inspect the proceeding for missing downloads, unchecked responses, portal problems or pending Drive saves.

12. Is an empty table proof that no notice exists?

No. Check the fetch result and the portal scope. An incomplete login or navigation step is different from a successfully checked empty proceeding list.

13. Can I continue working while a fetch runs?

The fetch is queued in the background and its progress is shown in the tracker. You can continue other app work, while avoiding a restore or deletion of a client whose notice fetch is active.

14. What happens if I stop a fetch?

The app requests a stop and retains saved communications. Inspect the client statuses and retry the unfinished clients when ready.

15. Will fetching again delete my notes?

Portal merges preserve the separate management information and internal notes. Incomplete later checks also retain previously saved response history while identifying that the latest check remains incomplete.

16. Can I import records without a live portal fetch?

Yes. Select the client and use Import Connector Archive with its compatible eproceedings.json or one-client ZIP. The archive PAN must match the selected client.

17. Why are documents missing after I import a JSON?

A JSON can describe communications and file references without containing the actual PDFs or attachments. Use the compatible archive with those documents, or fetch the missing files from the portal.

18. Can I upload any notice PDF through Import Connector Archive?

No. That action expects the compatible eproceedings JSON structure or its ZIP package. It is not a general standalone-PDF upload or automatic new-case creation tool.

19. Can I manually create an entirely new proceeding in this screen?

The current tracker populates proceedings through portal fetch or compatible archive import. Add timeline event records further history within an existing proceeding; it is not a separate New proceeding form.

20. Does assigning a responsible person send them a notification?

The Responsible person field records ownership for management and search. It does not itself send a notification or grant the person's account access to the client.

21. Are management edits autosaved?

Use Save Management Details explicitly. Timeline events have their own Save timeline event action, so save each part through its relevant control.

22. Does Completed work status mean the proceeding is closed?

No. Work status is the firm's internal stage. Portal status, query-wise compliance and supported closure information are separate parts of the record.

23. Does a Full response label prove all questions were answered?

No. Review the actual notice, response and evidence. The portal's Full or Partial filing label does not replace a query-by-query compliance review.

24. How should an adjournment request be recorded?

Record the request and its reference separately from any grant. Preserve the original date, record a revised date when supported and update the next action to reflect the actual position.

25. Which date drives the next-due summary?

The summary prioritises the saved Next due date, then the revised date, then available pending-notice dates. Review the manual date whenever a new communication or extension changes the case position.

26. What if different notices have different response dates?

Review each communication and its source date. The app can flag multiple deadlines, but a single summary date cannot describe every action required within a proceeding.

27. How do I track partly answered questions?

Use Point-wise compliance. Enter what was asked, its notice/page reference, what has been submitted, what remains pending and the supporting evidence, then choose the appropriate status and save.

28. Can I mark a query Accepted by department without evidence?

The form requires evidence for that status. Enter the relevant department reference rather than treating your own submission as proof of acceptance.

29. Does Add timeline event upload supporting documents?

The current event form records date, type, reference, due date and details. It does not provide a general file-attachment field. Available portal/archive documents remain accessible through their respective records.

30. How do I see a newly saved timeline event?

Save the event, close the proceeding, click Refresh and reopen it. Save other management edits before refreshing so the intended changes are retained.

31. What does Read text do?

It displays page-wise text extracted from readable PDFs. Scanned, encrypted or long documents may need direct PDF review; the text view should be checked against the source.

32. Does assureNotice automatically generate or submit an AI reply?

This workflow does not provide an AI reply-generation or portal-submission action. It organises the source records and compliance working; the professional prepares, reviews and submits the response through the applicable process.

33. Why can I open the proceeding but not its Drive file?

App access and Google Drive access are separate. Sign in with an authorised Google account and ask the firm admin to check access to the appropriate private folders.

34. What should I do when a file says Saving to Drive pending?

Ask the firm admin to review the Google Drive connection and use Retry saving pending documents. Check any reported account, storage or permission problem before repeating the operation.

35. Can I switch the connected Google account after saving documents?

Existing saved documents belong to the connected account. The app can require reconnection to that same account to preserve access; changing the sign-in should not be treated as a document migration.

36. Does Export Tracker include only the rows visible after a search?

The export follows the selected client, or all accessible clients when none is selected. The search text and Show filter do not limit the workbook to just the currently visible table rows.

37. Can I edit the tracker workbook and import it back?

The current workbook is a reporting output. Make case changes in assureNotice and export a fresh workbook; there is no tracker-workbook round-trip import in this workflow.

38. Is Export Tracker enough for a complete restore?

No. Use the complete Practice Suite client backup for recoverable client records. Retain Drive document access separately where the backup carries remote references.

39. Can I record consultant fees and link an AO/TPO proceeding?

Yes. The management form includes consultant, fee, billing and approval fields, plus a selector for a related proceeding of the same client. These entries support management; they do not automatically issue invoices or merge the proceedings.

40. What should I check before closing a case?

Review the latest source information, all query points, submission evidence, remaining dates and the closure order/reference. Save consistent management details and timeline information, then retain the case documents and client backup.

41. Which parts of notice tracking are filled from portal data?

The supported fetch can populate available proceeding identities, assessment years, communication details, response history, dates and selected documents. The team reviews the result and adds responsibility, internal notes, query-wise compliance and the next action. Source availability determines coverage.

42. Do I have to recreate the case history every year?

Saved proceedings retain their own AY and history. Later fetches merge available information and preserve management notes. A previous-year case can remain open for follow-up without being recreated as a new current-year notice.

43. How do I let a staff member work on selected clients?

The main admin opens User Settings → Manage sub-users, adds the member's exact email, selects the clients and saves access. The member logs in or registers with that email and accepts Work as sub-user of the firm in User Settings. Case-owner text alone does not grant access.

44. Can I continue work from home or another device?

Yes, when the hosted workspace and internet are available. Save your changes, sign in to the same workspace from a suitable browser and open the same case. Desktop or laptop screens are more practical for wide tables and Excel review. Google Drive documents require their own appropriate account access.

45. Can the admin review team activity?

The main admin can open Activity Log from Manage sub-users to review recorded actions, including the user, available client/AY context, details and time. It should not be treated as a complete field-by-field history of every possible screen change.

46. What is the quickest practical routine for a team with several clients?

Check saved credentials, select the relevant clients and start a batch fetch. Review individual results, then use pending/overdue filters to find the next work. Save the owner, action and compliance updates in each case, and export the tracker for a management review. After submissions, fetch the available response evidence and update the working accordingly.