Medical expenses optimizer gets confused when you enter expenses out of order

[ProRad]

Medical expenses optimizer gets confused when you enter expenses out of order. For example, if I enter expenses for 2025 and then add several expenses for 2024, this is what the optimizer shows:

Of course, the Medical Expense Profile section does not provide an option to sort by any means, say by date.

The form also does not provide option to insert entries at the top, or anywhere for that matter. The only option is to append new entries.

Any chance that am missing a solution, other than the trivial one: delete all your entries and start again more carefully?

[TurboTaxAniqua]

Before deleting everything and starting from scratch, let's try this.

Since you are using the desktop version, you have a secret weapon: Forms Mode.

Try this:

Switch to Forms Mode (usually a button in the top menu or by hitting Ctrl+F).

Open the Medical worksheet (search "MED" in the form lookup).

You will see a grid-style layout of your entries. You can copy and paste data between the rows here much faster than retyping.

If you need to move a 2024 entry to the top, simply copy the data from the bottom row, paste it over a 2025 entry at the top, and then move the 2025 data down.

If you have dozens of small receipts, you aren't required to list every single one individually. You can group them (e.g., "Prescriptions - Jan to Dec") and enter one total line. This makes the order irrelevant and keeps the optimizer working smoothly!

Hope this helps!

[ProRad]

@TurboTaxAniqua

Thank you for the suggestion. Unfortunately, it did not work. In the Forms Method view, there is no way to "copy and paste data between the rows".  The only action that it allows me to do is a Copy a field (not the whole row), but there is not way to paste it.

Do you know that  your suggestion should work or was that just a guess?

[TurboTaxAniqua]

You're correct! That is a very fair point, and I appreciate the correction. You are absolutely right—Forms Mode in the Desktop version functions as a direct entry tax form, not a spreadsheet, so it doesn't support row-level "copy and paste" or "drag and drop" functionality.

The previous suggestion was intended to help you view all your data in one grid to make manual adjustments faster. 

To resolve the optimizer issue without a full "start-over," the most effective path forward in the desktop version is to consolidate your entries. The CRA does not actually require every single receipt to be a separate line item.

[ProRad]

Consolidation of entries has a big downside: it decreases granularity and thus defeats the purpose of the optimizer.

Am sure all the TurboTax users would appreciate it if your Software team implemented an option to shuffle the entries or (auto-)sort them by the date. That really should not be a big effort. At the least, there should be a warning to add entries in order; of course, one can always mess things up so an option to trigger reorder by date or a manual shuffle would be way better.

[TurboTaxAniqua]

We understand your point and appreciate your feedback. I will pass it along to our development team. We sincerely appreciate your input.