Software Values

[Snaggletooth]

Time for our annual discussion about Software and Values. I suppose we'll have responses such as "I use AAA" followed by "I use BBB" etc. etc.

Most of us are aware of the big software companies, and the little fish are getting swallowed by the big fish. Invariably the big fish will issue a statement that they are very fond of many of the features of the little fish, and announce a merger. The following year, software from the little fish won't be offered anymore, and it becomes obvious that the statement was a decoy for antitrust purposes; the REAL reason was to eliminate competition.

I'm hoping to get responses from those of you who are considering making a change. For the last few years I have had TaxSlayer. NATP rates their customer service the best in the business, and trust me, it is well-deserved. However, I am considering a change because TS is forcing all-electronic business conditions at every level. They are charging extra for customers who insist on an invoice and paying by check. You cannot find a remittance address on their website.

Many of you may applaud this, and respond that the TS direction is the "wave of the future." Black Bart and I will be left in the dirt with the other old fossils. I don't pay anything by home computer or conduct business that way. There are definite advantages in the wings, but I am also not susceptible to identity theft. When the credit cards, banks, E-bay, PayPal, and the other electronic geniuses figure out how to stop identity theft, then I will climb on their bandwagon.

TaxSlayer is a good, low-cost option for those who don't need robust software. And their support is #1 - there is no doubt about it. They are not likely to be bought out because they have their roots in Augusta. They started with a couple dozen local preparation offices and developed their own software so they wouldn't have to buy expensive software from other companies. But I do have a problem when they arbitrarily take customer options away without a good purpose.

I also looked back to discover I filed state returns in 13 different states for individuals and 14 different states for corporations. Part of this is geography as TN has eight contiguous states, all of whom require an income tax. However, unless it is for Georgia or South Carolina, some of the necessities involved are not supported by TaxSlayer.

I want to ask about Drake, and how effectively their software prepares state and entity returns. I don't think they will be bought out either. I remember driving by their first office in Franklin NC, after moving out of their Dads house. This grew to three offices off the square, then to an entire side of the public square. Finally, they have a brand new office on a mountain overlooking the town. None of this means their software is any good, but they've been at it since the earliest tax software was developed.

[erchess]

Drake

When I started in the business or rather when I hung out my own shingle I was with first one reseller of Intellitax and then with that same reseller and a PPR of Ultratax. Then I went with another reseller of Intellitax because my reseller didn't make NC individual or entity software available until the morning of 3/15. TRX told me they had had those much earlier so I switched resellers of Intellitax and continued to use Ultratax. Now Intellitax was about to be bought out, but we didn't know that. I decided to stop trying to use two software packages. I didn't like Ultratax because to me it was clunky to get around in. I had to call customer service just about every time I had to do something in that software I had not done before. Their customer service gets in my opinion a B. I never spent more than ten min on hold. They were there a lot of hours. The folks were polite and had adequate knowledge of their program but they did not offer advice on the theory of taxation or other accounting issues. The other factor was that they were so very expensive whether you bought everything up front or paid per return. Their PPR was do able for me financially especially as the backup to a cheap program that did handle most of my returns but like I say by the time I knew Intellitax was going away I had already decided on Drake. Drake has all I am ever likely to need. I really considered going with UT on PPR despite the hideous cost but I sat down and looked at what they can do that Drake can't. There were three or four but the two I remember were a Consolidated Return for a Controlled Group of Corporations and Form 1120-Pol which is filed by Political Parties and Politicians and of course PACs and Candidate's Committees. The point is that all the things UT will do that Drake won't are things I don't know how to do and can't imagine being offered the chance to do even if my firm gets big enough to have employees or co owners who are CPAs or Tax Attorneys. So I really think that Drake is all anyone who does general public tax and accounting will ever need. I can't specifically speak to how it handles situations other than whole year NC resident and work and whole year SC resident and work but I do know that all of the states and the majority of local governments that have income tax are included. I would say that if you do local returns and they are in your present software, ask if they are in Drake and don't change to Drake if they're not.

The one thing I will say is that this year I had both the full version of Drake including Client Write Up AND Quickbooks Premeir Accountant. I am not going to have both next year. Drake has what they call pay per return for about the cost of the QB off their normal full price. With the so called pay per return as I understand it there is no charge to print a return but there is a modest charge to electronically file them. I didn't really use Client Write Up this year but I have the impression that it feeds into Drake Tax more easily than QB but takes in from my clients' QB Versions less easily than QB. On the other hand I have only two clients with any version of QB.

CWU I believe will do payroll and I am sure QB will but the one client who needed payroll I did with Zillion Forms, which I highly liked but may not get again because I used it really only twice in the two years I have had it and I did have other software that would have done both of those jobs.

[taxmandan]

I've used Drake for 9 years now and am satisfied with their support and software. The weak point continues to be some of the state modules, and the peripheral stuff like the client letters and database management. It gets better each year, and Drake isn't likely to sell out to a bigger company, plus, they don't compete with me in the free-file consortium which I really appreciate.

Daniel

[Nashville]

Free TaxSlayer

Another reason to leave TaxSlayer. Of course, many of us continue to use tax software owned by Intuit, and their software is very competitive. Additionally, we all know that we are not going to stop the software geared to the DIY crowd. But we don't have to support them.

Not only small practitioners such as myself, but also HRB, JH, and the other storefront chains are feeling the competition from DIY software. The competition has its economic effect on us, and whether we like it or not that's understandable. But what bothers me the most is the selling job that the public can do just as good or better with software than going to a tax pro. Unless the taxpayer has just W-2s and withholding, this is simply untrue.

Have any of you used CrossLink??

[dkss]

I use CrossLink

I have used Crosslink to prepare returns for 2 seasons. Before that, I used a very small DOS based program to prepare returns and imported any efile returns into Crosslink for bank products and electronic transmission. Prior years the tech support has been great, but this year I did not need much help so can't comment on support.

I find the software easy to use and the speed in which I can get a simple return completed is lightning fast.

What more do you want to know?

[BHoffman]

Drake

http://www.drakesoftware.com/

Hi Nash -

You can get a free working copy of Drake and try it out. Been using it for 5 years now and like it. If you buy before May 31st, it costs $995. That includes all returns, all states, unlimited efiling. I've been very satisfied with their customer service. Not a big learning curve.

[Nashville]

States and Entities

What more do you want to know?

How does it handle all states and entities?

[erchess]

Crosslink

Crosslink was one of the packages I demoed before settling on Drake. I went with Drake because it was cheaper and because they don't compete with their users. Crosslink sells a product to the DIY crowd and offers for a princely sum a program the buyer can put on his own server and advertise to the DIY crowd. Drake in case you didn't know it offers you your own website you can advertise to the DIY crowd. You set the fee within limits and the user has normal Drake Software and Tech Support from any internet enabled computer. If they get tired of doing their own they can click to send you what they have and you will be able to finish their return for your normal per form charges. Drake does all this including taking payment and keeps only 20% of what the client pays. Anyway back to Crosslink.

I liked their forms based data entry and ease of use and was a bit concerned about how I would adapt to the spreadsheet based entry of Drake. I was also impressed by the professionalism of the Crosslink Sales Team. They knew their product backwards and forwards and did not employ pressure tactics

I actually have not found Data Entry to be a problem with Drake. One feature Drake has that I think is new this year is that if you know what form an entry is going to appear on you can call up Forms Based Entry and then the form and click on the form to go to the relevant entry screen. Another thing you can do from any of the screens with lists of entry screens is enter in a blank the name of the screen or form you are trying to find and you will go there. Let's just say that I didn't do any of their online tutorials but only once did I need to call tech support to ask where to find something. In fact I only needed tech support for anything three times and two of those were when returns had been rejected and I couldn't figure out why.

I do have a few minor complaints about Drake. One is that for any given return you can only have two screens open at a time. One is a data entry screen and the other is the listing of data entry screens that includes it. Also if you minimize a data entry screen it goes not to the taskbar but to the bottom left of your work area. The red x is clearly visible but clicking it does not make the screen go away. You must bring up the screen again in other words to close it and you must close it before you can open another data entry screen or even change from one list of data entry screens to another. The really humorous thing about this is that if I want to have two or more different returns open at a time I can and the number is limited only by the resources of the particular computer in use.

[dkss]

crosslink

How does it handle all states and entities?

I cannot give any info on entities as I only do individual 1040 returns and I only purchase my state - any other state is done by hand or from the respective states website. It handles the Indiana return okay.

[lenboush]

Crosslink was one of the packages I demoed before settling on Drake. I went with Drake because it was cheaper and because they don't compete with their users. Crosslink sells a product to the DIY crowd and offers for a princely sum a program the buyer can put on his own server and advertise to the DIY crowd. Drake in case you didn't know it offers you your own website you can advertise to the DIY crowd. You set the fee within limits and the user has normal Drake Software and Tech Support from any internet enabled computer. If they get tired of doing their own they can click to send you what they have and you will be able to finish their return for your normal per form charges. Drake does all this including taking payment and keeps only 20% of what the client pays. Anyway back to Crosslink.

I liked their forms based data entry and ease of use and was a bit concerned about how I would adapt to the spreadsheet based entry of Drake. I was also impressed by the professionalism of the Crosslink Sales Team. They knew their product backwards and forwards and did not employ pressure tactics

I actually have not found Data Entry to be a problem with Drake. One feature Drake has that I think is new this year is that if you know what form an entry is going to appear on you can call up Forms Based Entry and then the form and click on the form to go to the relevant entry screen. Another thing you can do from any of the screens with lists of entry screens is enter in a blank the name of the screen or form you are trying to find and you will go there. Let's just say that I didn't do any of their online tutorials but only once did I need to call tech support to ask where to find something. In fact I only needed tech support for anything three times and two of those were when returns had been rejected and I couldn't figure out why.

I do have a few minor complaints about Drake. One is that for any given return you can only have two screens open at a time. One is a data entry screen and the other is the listing of data entry screens that includes it. Also if you minimize a data entry screen it goes not to the taskbar but to the bottom left of your work area. The red x is clearly visible but clicking it does not make the screen go away. You must bring up the screen again in other words to close it and you must close it before you can open another data entry screen or even change from one list of data entry screens to another. The really humorous thing about this is that if I want to have two or more different returns open at a time I can and the number is limited only by the resources of the particular computer in use.

We keep multiple copies of Drake open at all times. This eliminates the problem of only being able to one thing at a time. Of course, the fact that we use dual screens is helpful, but you can do the same thing with single screens.

[David1980]

How does it handle all states and entities?

I used CrossLink this year, as someone else said you can preparer a return in it lightning fast. Good key shortcuts and the program runs fast, low on the resource requirements. I especially liked the electronic signature pad feature.

As for states and entities, the individual returns had all states. No state K-1 input screens so if you had difference between fed & state you had to determine where it goes on the state return and input it manually. I wasn't a fan of how amended state forms worked. The federal you just add the 1040-X and make then make the changes. The state requires you to enter the original column manually. So I would end up adding the state form, and then typing the "corrected" column numbers in the original column before making the changes. But for the most part the states were just fine.

As for entities, CrossLink doesn't actually do them. Rather, it rebrands TaxWorks for the business returns. It worked for my limited number of business returns.

[erchess]

Drake Multiple Copies

Can you simultaneously open multiple copies of the same return? I would think that might create problems when you perhaps did something on one copy of the return then unwittingly undid it or did something incompatible on the other copy.

[Uncle]

Kinda sortof

Can you simultaneously open multiple copies of the same return? I would think that might create problems when you perhaps did something on one copy of the return then unwittingly undid it or did something incompatible on the other copy.

Sometimes I have a preparer need assistance from a remote office or a different state. I open the same return in Drake and we can both (sort of) work on the same return together (while conferring on the phone). It does work but you have to be very careful to check that the entries are correct. If both preparers enter different numbers in the same spot, Drake saves the last entry. But on the whole, it does work.

[oceanlovin'ea]

Biggest complaint

My biggest complaint is that the software companies don't give us much time before renewing for next year at their "special" price. With TaxslayerPro we have to renew by the end of April.

When the 15th is over, I have quarterly bookkeeping to do and quarterly payroll reports to get filed.

I have been satisfied with TaxslayerPro and I have used it since 2002. The cost for renewal is $795. It includes 1040, all states, business returns, and free efiling. Support is great.

So I don't know what is out there that would be cheaper and still be as good. What is the price of Drake?

Linda

[BHoffman]

Drake is $995 if you renew before May 31st. Includes all forms (business, 1040, 990, 1041), all states, and unlimited efiling. They include Checkpoint and a write up program. And great customer support. And a partridge in a pear tree