The Questionnaires tab
The Questionnaires tab in the case workspace consolidates structured intake into four questionnaires, organized by where they land in the onboarding call sequence. Each card shows a status — Complete, In progress, or Not started — derived from the same stage-gate engine that governs strategy and report generation, so a green card means the downstream work it feeds can actually run.
The four questionnaires
- Initial Intake (Call 1) — why they called, the notices received, the problem sketch, prior representation, decision authority, and commercial fit. Required before Discovery authorization.
- Statement of Current Circumstance (Call 1) — what is driving the case, constraints, urgency, and a short narrative of the client’s situation. The narrative is the only required piece and is a hard gate for the Strategy Report.
- Statement of Future Objectives (Call 1 or 2) — what a good outcome looks like: affordability, closure, compliance help, or a life event like a home sale. Also narrative-required for strategy.
- Financial 433-A intake (Call 1 or 2) — income, monthly expenses, and assets. This establishes net disposable income (NDI), the ability-to-pay number that drives program viability.
What each questionnaire feeds
Nothing in the hub is busywork — each answer set has named consumers. The Initial Intake feeds the qualification outcome, Discovery authorization, and commercial-close framing. The circumstance and objectives statements feed strategy sequencing and tone, the Discovery and Strategy PDFs, and the case copilot. The 433 intake feeds NDI, program viability (CNC, installment agreement, OIC), and the Strategy Report. When something downstream is blocked, the workspace deep-links you to the exact questionnaire that fixes it.
Guided Call Mode
For operators on the phone, Guided Call Mode overlays a thirteen-step call script onto the questionnaire cards — reason for call, trigger event, urgency, filing compliance, prior representation, circumstance, objectives, financials, readiness, and the Discovery scope conversation. Each step shows the talk track to read, which card the answers live in, and whether the step touches a hard gate. It introduces no new fields; it is the same intake, ordered the way a first call naturally flows.
Discovery authorization: the commercial wall
Between consultation and transcript work sits one deliberate hard gate: Discovery authorization. The client authorizes the paid Discovery phase — scope and fee — before any transcript analysis begins. This is the product motion that turns diagnosis from a sales expense into billed advisory work, and the gate engine enforces it: the qualification record and commercial fit must exist before the case advances.
How answers are treated: the authority tiers
RESO keeps evidence honest by tier. Questionnaire answers are client story and household economics — not IRS ledger truth:
- Client story (intake narratives, urgency, recall) shapes tone and sequencing but never overrides transcript facts. If a client says they filed or paid, reports default to verify-against-transcript language.
- The 433 financial intake is the correct source for ability-to-pay economics — and the wrong source for balances, levies, or lien status, which come from transcripts.
- Transcript-parsed facts (Tier IRS) ground every balance, enforcement signal, and CSED input in the deliverables.
Completeness vs. sufficiency
Beyond complete/incomplete, each questionnaire shows advisory sufficiency hints: a 12-character narrative may clear the hard floor but produces a thin write-up, so the hub nudges for detail — an urgency deadline when a notice is time-sensitive, a hardship start date for the 433 narrative, more than one sentence where it matters. Hints never block; they exist so an operator doesn’t pass a hollow section and get a weak deliverable.
Clients can fill some of this themselves
The 433 intake sections can be completed by the client through the client portal — consultation plus sections A through H, including entity & filing (A), business expenses (D), and assets (F). The 433 form family can also be sent as fillable forms through FORMS by RESO. Client-entered financials are staged for staff review before they update the case; client data never overwrites the financial profile silently. Staff can assign a specific section via a portal form assignment so it appears in the client’s What we need from you queue.