Drake Software

[Jiggers]

Anyone experiencing problems with Drake?

[Unregistered]

Drake followup

Have used Drake for 2 years. prior to Drake Exactax for 12 years. The transition & learning curve takes quite abit of time. Their "front line" is good, no toll free support #. Seems they post updates every 1-2 days ?????? not sure the programers did their "followup de-bugging".

[taxmandan]

Drake

Anyone experiencing problems with Drake?

Nothing unusual, a few normal early season glitches that are quickly fixed. Anything specific you're dealing with?

[Dale Vaughn]

Drake Software

We've used Drake for 8 or 9 years,and most likely will continue to do so. We do like the program, although it frustrates us unduly at times. It's a little buggier than usual this year, but not a lot. New York forms were delayed this year, for the first time I can remember. Some are still not available. That's out of character for Drake.

The interface is much more pleasant this year, but while setting up the new interface, they seem to have broken things that weren't broken before. With their new document management program, client database program, and tax planner program (none of which we use, so I can't comment on them), they appear to have spread themselves too thin, and at the expense of the actual tax calculations. It may all be nice once they get it all working.

As an example, the initial release touted the new "autofill feature" for banking names for interest and dividend screens, and the fact that it was an "editable database". I sent an e-mail inquiring as to how to edit it. The return e-mail told me that the client write up program had an autofill feature. Nice, but not remotely what I asked. Not even the right program. The follow up e-mail was unanswered. Called support. At first, we reveived the same answer. After the reading the support person the pertinent part of the letter, they said that they'd get back to us that day. They didn't. Second day, new person. They said that this must be a new feature (really?) and they'd have to talk to a supervisor. The supervisor said that the editable part never made it to the program, but they would forward the suggestion for possible implementation next year. Wonderful, I'm glad I thought of it. Summary: as it has the past two or three years, support grows more useless. Mind you, it's the cheerfullest, politest, support there is, but usually useless. Several years ago, support was universally exceptional.

I would be remiss to leave out my continuing complaint that I make every year. The supporting schedules and the result letters are the most amateurish and unattractive of any tax program I've used or tried. And the standard response is always that "it works for e-filing". So do other tax programs, and their scheudles/letters are light years ahead of Drake's.

[Brian EA]

Drake software

Its not too bad. Could be a lot better.There are a few glitches. e.g mileage info cannot be transferred to Sch E. You have to manually input this info. It can be done with sch C.On the summary sheet you cannot reduce the billing to one line however on the billing sheet you can. Summary means to summarize but you cannot do it. I tried to sell an IRA but am unable to do it. HSBC bank said the form is in the software .I cannot find it yet.
Sec 179 cannot be transferre to 2106 or sch A . here again you have to manually enter it.
I think this is one of the worst year for Drake.
Last year was great

Hopefully they will improve before the season ends

[unregistered]

drake

This is the first year I have used it and am extremely frustrated with the program. It is hard to know what is a glitch and what is a real program problem and what exactly the user is suppose to do.
My first frustration was the efile status page. After I transmitted and received the acknowledgement of acceptance for Fed and IL, the status page said ***Problem***IL not eligible for Efiling.
I spent the better part of 1 hour trying to figure out where everything went and why I had that message. Low and behold, when I called customer support, I was told that all was okay, that was just the message it gives when it is all finished. Needless to say, I was angry and sent a scathing email to the feedback people, I received no reply, but I have noticed the EFile status page no longer says that.
I could rant for awhile, but I have already done that on the forum board at Drake. I have to say the users of Drake are some of the nicest people and much more knowledgeable than support. Since joining the forum, my stress level has greatly decreased and I will continue to use Drake this year. Next year is kind of iffy.
Noel (just not logged in at the moment)

[Jiggers]

Drake Software Problems

1. I back up returns to a disk. Trying to restore them is a problem as you have to know the day that you backed them up. Support has no solution. Totally useless the way it is now.
2. Prior year Section 179 not carried forward to Depreciation Proforma and in some cases prior year depreciation not carried forward to Depreciation Proforma. Support has no solution.
3. Prior year tax that is carried forward to the Proforma is incorrect. Support has no solution.
4. Next year's Depreciation has incorrect vehicle depreciation. Support has no solultion.
5. This year, when an asset is sold, it is moved to the bottom of the depreciation schedule. No problem with that. However, when you have several, it overlaps onto this year's depreciation. So far support has no solution.

I REALLY BELIEVE THAT NO ONE AT DRAKE RUNS ANY SAMPLE TAX RETURNS BEFORE THE START OF THE SEASON. IF THEY DID, YOU WOULD FIND THESE MISTAKES AND WE WOULDN'T BE GETTING DAILY UPDATES.

[JohnSpadaEA]

Drake

We have been using Drake for five years. The thinking in the office is that Drake isn't great but what would you switch to? We have tested some of the other programs in the price range and they had much less to offer as far automation is concerned when we run tests of 1040's coupled with MA and RI returns.

[Matt Sova]

Get what you pay for

That is why I use UltraTax, more expensive, but it make me much, much more efficient. Especially integrating with the other products from CSI.

Matt

[Acownt4it]

Matt

You are correct with the thought of you get what you pay for. I made the switch to Drake based on comments I have read in various forums. What they all failed to mention was the first year learning curve.
A red flag should have went up for me when I was at a training session in December and the instructor started by telling everyone it was no longer is DOS type screens, it was now Windows based.
Should have known. A lesson learned. I went to another seminar for Creative Solutions last year. I didn't think I could afford it, now I think I may have to budget for a fully integrated system.
Happy Taxes All.

[BOB W]

Creative Solutions...

This is my third year with them and haven't had a glitch with CS. All flows well and only had to focus on getting the return info in and out of the office. I completed 125 returns so far with no problems. What a pleasure..................

All programs have a learning curve, that is why you need to purchase next year's program in the late summer or early fall. Then re-enter some of your most complicated returns until you get it right. Play, play, and play with it until you are very comfortable with it.

[BOB W]

I'm always.............

...... fustrated when I hear tax preparers talking about the cost of tax software. When you compare our industry against other types of businesses our annual startup cost are minimal. Yes, I agree that some of you are only doing 100 returns or less and the cost per return can be a high percentage but that is what "pay per return" is all about.

Some of those bells and whistles that you are paying for with the higher prices programs can give you a competive advantage if used.

I typically schedule a half hour for most any return that I do and charge $150 - $200 per return and seldom spend more time than that to do the interview, print, E-file and mail the completed return to my client. I do have some hour appointments and do spend additional time after the interview is over, but they are $400- $800 returns.

Productivity brings the cost of my tax programs down per return, so the last thing I look at is the cost of the tax software.

[Acownt4it]

$$'s

were not the only reason I switched programs. I had a horrible year with the customer service department from the old software company. I can tolerate alot, but paying a high price (which I did without hesitation) with no support was the final straw.

[BOB W]

Support

CS's Ultra Tax support has been great. The most I've had to wait was 5 minutes and always got the correct answer.

[Acownt4it]

I will

definitely keep that in mind.