Tax Software - Happy or not?

[peggysioux]

Tax Software

I just made the switch from TRX Pro to Drake. There is no way TRX is going to have all the bugs out of their software by tomorrow. I, unfortunately, purchased the software in May and am hoping they will refund my money. The catch is TRX states their software is up and running and as long as "up and running" they are not required to refund our money. What they "state" and what is actual is a big difference. What a nightmare - tax season upon us and having to learn a new tax program. Oh well, wishing everyone a good tax season!!

[Ross]

TaxAct

I started using TaxAct back in 1994 when they were called Parson's Personal Tax Edge. In 97 & 98 I had to use Pro Series. Parson's was no longer available. Then in 1999 the makers of Parson's came out w/ TaxAct. I was sure glad to see it again....it was a few hundred dollars less than Pro Series and more user friendly. TaxAct does everything I need it to do. I prepare 130-140 returns out of my home as a side job. I work full time as a controller for a small oil company. I have been using TaxAct's business returns to prepare three 1065s and one 1120s for my day job since 2007. They work just like the 1040 program and are priced right. For a small 1040 practice, you can't beat TaxAct. A week or so ago they had a 1040 special; $479 for all states and unlimited e-filing. I had pre-paid $559. I called them and they refunded $80 to my credit card .

[JohnH]

I used Ultra Tax for several years, also having come over from Microvision, and I agree UT was a fantastic program. I changed to ATX when my UT price jumped to about $6K, but it happened that I was simplifying at that time. If I were still working at the volume and complexity of returns I was then, I would probably have stayed with UT.

Right now I'm bailing out of ATX and switching to Drake.

[Matt Sova]

Ut

I could not agree with you more Uncle Sam. The integration with all the other CS programs makes the cost of UT go down with the efficiencies you get from the integration. If you are charging what you are worth then top of the line software is the only way to go.

[Uncle Sam]

How about Ultra Tax?

Except for 2 posts on this thread - I haven't heard discussion on Ultra Tax.
It's just been a comparison of Drake, ATX, TRX, Proseries, TaxWorks, TaxSlayer, that seem to have
dominated the discussion.

Yes - it's probably more expensive than the others. But in order to obtain a quality product you need
to pay for the features it provides. I've been with Ultra Tax since they bought out Microvision and have
been extremely satisfied. Their tech support is excellent and whoever you talk to will walk you through
the problem for as long as it takes - that's primarily why I stay with UT -and you're not talking to tech
support in a foreign country - it's right here in Dexter, Michigan.
The ease of going in and out of screens, converting from input screens to forms screens, its automatic
recalculation of input adjustments, etc.
The proforma program was sent out just prior to Thanksgiving. The program is up and running, even though
you can't e-file yet.

So if you want only to save dollars - go ahead and jump to the cheaper priced programs.
As I always believed - the smaller cheaper priced companies are eventually going to get bought out by the
big giants - so the savings isn't for long.

[John of PA]

A few thoughts from some of the above posts. Drake's bank products range from RAL's, to a web portal where the client can pay the balance due in a more user friendly manner and your fee come right out of the payment, also a web based credit card system, no monthly fees, no equipment, but a higher % fee, around 3%. I do not use the bank products becasue of all the paperwork envolved, but when I was at the Warren Drake seminar (Phil's brother) (better know as the Warren Drake show) in Ohio in Dec., there were many high volumne inner city tax service that used and liked the bank products. Also the comment about the SETS tabs, I don't use them, I totally work with the "all forms" tab and ignore the other tabs (STATE SET, CLIENT SET, GOVT SET) and I find that simplier. Many Happy Returns.

[taxxcpa]

Drake -- ended up going buying them. A bit more than ATX, but in the same ballpark. Not really forms-based entry (they have a mode that claims to be forms-based, but when you've been used to ATX's and TaxAct's, it really doesn't compare), but I have been figuring it out and am OK with it. Speed-wise, hands-down MUCH better than ATX. The print screen -- I can see a form and mark whether or not I want it to print -- I haven't had a chance to figure out their "Sets" yet or to see if they could default the print selection to those forms that need to be printed, but I'm generating returns, and that's what really matters.

Bill

The client set has all of the forms the client needs to see. The Federal set has the forms you would need to mail if you were paper-filing it. The preparer set has a few extras.

I send the client the forms he needs and include the "compare" form so he can compare the current year to prior years--which might alert him that something is missing.

[joanmcq]

I just efiled my first return with ATX. So we'll see how it goes. Aside from inadvertently locking myself out of the program last night, things haven't been too bad. It did take a while to figure out the 'print packets' feature, but once I did, it's an improvement over previous year's constant unchecking of boxes. I will need some kind of work around if they don't fix the mailing slips, but I won't have any returns that can't be efiled for another few weeks.

[JohnH]

I like your thought process. I'm planning to switch from ATX to Drake this week as well. I realize it's bit risky and will cause me to spend more time comparing year-to-year results. But right now the choice seems to be between doing that versus monitoring ATX for glitches. At least the former task is building on the future with a known product offering solid customer support.

ATX just isn't delivering, and after seeing all the complaining on the forums, I've lost confidence in their ability to deliver a viable product. Maybe they will magically solve all their remaining major problems with the next update, but I doubt it. There are just too many "work-arounds" being proudly discussed among the ATX cheerleaders right now. We don't need "work-arounds" - we need a stable product which does the job we were promised it would do.

[Bill Tubbs]

Jumped ship last week, after 7 years with ATX

Had to... in my mind, no choice. I had clients coming Friday (ended up with a few cancellations due to weather, but still got 5 done), and it was taking 4 minutes to open a return in ATX [there were only 2 returns in ATX] and no idea when/if the speed would be fixed. Opening the same, basic return in ATX2011 took 17 seconds. I had been toying with the idea of migrating to another software because of the sluggishness of ATX (opening a return as well as pulling up the print screen), but they had been promising speed improvements. Had those speed improvements happened, I would have been very happy to stay with ATX.

As far as where I went to... the other CCH product (ProSeries?) was twice as expensive, and I could not download the current-year software (they HAVE to ship it from California -- to the midwest meant either waiting a week (and paying something for freight) or paying $100 to get it shipped overnight -- and having looked into them Wednesday evening meant there was no way to get it installed and figured out by Fri 8:30am). They did have a web version of their program, but I much prefer installing locally.

TaxAct -- I had been a customer prior to ATX. I think I switched from them because of pricing... my customer base was increasing and the e-filing fees with TaxAct were going to be more than ATX's unlimited (plus I had picked up a few business returns too). The deal-breaker there was not being able to convert any ATX returns into TaxAct. Last year I did over 300 returns, including some with a looooong asset list (Form 4562). I would have like the forms-based entry thought....

Drake -- ended up going buying them. A bit more than ATX, but in the same ballpark. Not really forms-based entry (they have a mode that claims to be forms-based, but when you've been used to ATX's and TaxAct's, it really doesn't compare), but I have been figuring it out and am OK with it. Speed-wise, hands-down MUCH better than ATX. The print screen -- I can see a form and mark whether or not I want it to print -- I haven't had a chance to figure out their "Sets" yet or to see if they could default the print selection to those forms that need to be printed, but I'm generating returns, and that's what really matters.

Bill

[Peachie]

It's getting better.

I have TRX Pro. It is in very bad shape and almost not usable. I have been using TRX for about three years and it has worked well for me.

I am going to try to use it since I have already paid for it. They have been doing updates every few days. Maybe in a few weeks it will be in reasonable shape.

You and I are using the same program Jim. I realized last week that we've been given an entirely different program than the one we purchased previously by Red Gear. Seems to me like bait and switch tactics, but I renewed early and choose not to start all over, though somehow, that's exactly what we are doing. Once the updates are installed, it gets better.

I have done my tax return and my first client is scheduled for Friday. I'll see how this works out. The States are still not available for download, so I hope all will be in place by January 30.

I am almost sure I will be choosing a new product after this year. I am evaluating TAXACT now and it seems to be one I can live with. It's a bit more expensive than TRX Pro, but my peace of mind, and that of my clientele, is more important than cost now. I don't need a high end program like DRAKE or TAXSLAYER (which I used for 10 years), so I'll not evaluate these.

Yes, we will probably suffer some this season. We have to find a way to make the program work for us though. Good luck.

Peachie

[Black Bart]

ATXer since '04. It's been clunky

For joanmcq: You mean you are not having any problems with ATX for 2012. Wow, when you look at the official ATX board EVERYONE is having problems. How did you pull this off. Are you using Windows XP, Windows 7 or Windows 8. If you've read some of the recent posts on that board, it appears that ATX has a real serious problem. I'm amazed that you had no problems.

but nothing bad so far except slow rollovers and a few crazy things like the update messages ("UPDATE SUCCESSFUL" followed by "94% of 100% loaded" and "106 of 94 forms loaded" and "94 of 106 forms processed"). Running one XP and one Win 7. But, have only done W-2 and interest income so far, so I'm crossing my fingers and whistling past the graveyard thinking about the Cs, SEs, and especially the 4562 stuff coming later.

These guys talking about Drake's "second-ring" support just kills me -- you can hang on with ATX 'til the twelfth of never. We called Wednesday about a minor (good thing) glitch and threw in the towel after half an hour (I know, I know -- you can't give up before 1 1/2 hours, but it wasn't that serious).

[Edward]

For joanmcq: You mean you are not having any problems with ATX for 2012. Wow, when you look at the official ATX board EVERYONE is having problems. How did you pull this off. Are you using Windows XP, Windows 7 or Windows 8. If you've read some of the recent posts on that board, it appears that ATX has a real serious problem. I'm amazed that you had no problems.

[manyhappyreturns]

I have TRX Pro as well, and even though I loved the TaxWorks program, it's a thing of the past. I finally jumped ship a few days ago by purchasing another software, because there was too much at risk to be waiting around for TaxExact to be functional. TRX has had several months to get this functioning and here we are well into tax season, and it's still not right. They have made vast improvements in the last few updates, so I'll give them that, but there are still major problems with it, and I couldn't afford to wait any longer. While I waited for updates from TRX, I downloaded several demos of other software, and there are good ones out there for a wide range of prices. I paid $1395 for Drake a few days ago and couldn't be happier. It was a small price to pay knowing I would lose more than that in preparer fees due to not being ready to do returns. TRX says they'll be functional by Jan 30th when the IRS starts accepting returns, but because I not only couldn't totally count on that, I also can't meet with everyone who wants to file right away all on the same day. I'm the only preparer in my office and there aren't that many hours in a day, so the plan is to have everyone's return ready to efile on Jan 30th, not prepare them all on that day. Besides that, there are some people who have already gotten their refunds from my state, and it wasn't till yesterday that TRX started having state programs at all.

[joanmcq]

Atx

I've been using ATX since 2002 and have the older software from doing unfiled returns in my earlier years. A lot of people have been reporting issues this year due to the total revamp of the program, but I haven't had any. I like the forms based entry, and the inclusion of every form known to man. The MAX package includes unlimited free efiling too. I test drove Drake, but it had a computational problem in the CA module, and it wasn't as flexible as ATX - I can add 'business' forms to an individual return, which is necessary if you are filing a CA SSMC or a 5471 for an individual. If you are doing straightforward returns, Drake isn't a bad product.

I've used Lacerte when working for another CPA, have walked people through cancellation of debt on Proseries (advice-delete worksheets and put the numbers HERE), so I am aware of limitations (and benefits) of other software and haven't found a reason to switch. The price is good too.