tax software program

[Baruch B]

Dear All,

I have been a customer for Lacerte for over 20 years. Lately the service has been drastically declined and the prices have exponentially increased. Does anyone know of a comparable software that has a minimal learning curve. I am mainly interested in good service and less downtime using the software.
Baruch

[Anarchrist]

Drake is the only program that provides good service but it has a steep learning curve and in a completely lower league than Lacerte. Drake was also bought out by an equity investment firm last year so the days of good service there are numbered.

[Lion]

I liked both ProSystem fx and UltraTax better than Lacerte, and both gave me lower quotes than Lacerte. If you want to stay in that tier, do look at Axcess, also. Demo them all. Then put the sales reps to work to get you the best price.

[Rapid Robert]

"Drake is the only program that provides good service"

An extradordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence. A few anecdotes are not sufficient.

In any case, I'd rather have good software that doesn't require me to contact customer support very often. My vendor should invest in good software programmers and quality assurance testing, rather than paying someone who can answer the phone on the second ring after I can't figure out how to contort the software into a situation it wasn't designed for.

"a comparable software that has a minimal learning curve. "

To use a powerful tool well is going to require more than "minimal learning". I have used many products including Drake, I ended up using UltraTax, as do other colleagues with larger and more complicated practices than mine. It's not even that expensive on a Pay Per Return basis, although they will try to sell you add-on modules that you probably don't need.

[BOB W]

Tax return price differences is all about how much work you have to do to get to the correct results. Ultra-tax is expensive but you can get to a finished return reasonably quick.
It cost me about $30 for each return. If I call them once every three years it is alot. They do have a call back system to get support.

[lenboush]

Tax return price differences is all about how much work you have to do to get to the correct results. Ultra-tax is expensive but you can get to a finished return reasonably quick.
It cost me about $30 for each return. If I call them once every three years it is alot. They do have a call back system to get support.

I agree that Drake its not the best quality program and you do truly do have to know how to do taxes. Having said that, it has worked well for our office for over 20 years and the cost for our office is far, far below $30 per return. In fact, the cost per return is less than $2.00 per return. The software is about $1100.00 is purchased early enough. We have about 900 clients so that works out to about $1.23 per return.

We do have a few of the more complex returns but most of our clients are mid level returns. On the other hand, very few of our clients are the simple returns either.

I agree that price is not and should not be the biggest factor in a decision of which software to purchase, however, I feel that Drake works perfectly well for the vast majority of returns, even some of the more complex ones.

Another thought about Drake is that they have radically improved over the 20+ years we have used them. It's not even remotely like the software it was when we first started using it. Some people may possibly be basing their views on Drake on how it was when they had exposure to it years ago so their viewpoint may be different if they used it in more recent years.

I almost never have to call support. Most of the answers are easily and readily available in the Drake Manual, the Knowledge Base, and/or the Drake Forum. When I hear some of the questions and/or reviews on various forums, it always amazes me how few people never read or at least review the Drake manual and how many don't even realize that there is a Drake manual.

[BOB W]

[QUOTE=lenboush;n309261]

I agree that Drake its not the best quality program and you do truly do have to know how to do taxes.

I'm semi-retired and only do about 300 returns compared to what I use to do. Yes, my cost per return is high but my area allows my tax program cost to be 10% or less per return. The ease of processing each return more than pays for time saved to finish each return. A typical $275 return I can process and hand to the client their finished copy in a half-hour.

[lenboush]

[QUOTE=BOB W;n309263]

I agree that Drake its not the best quality program and you do truly do have to know how to do taxes.

I'm semi-retired and only do about 300 returns compared to what I use to do. Yes, my cost per return is high but my area allows my tax program cost to be 10% or less per return. The ease of processing each return more than pays for time saved to finish each return. A typical $275 return I can process and hand to the client their finished copy in a half-hour.

I am curious about the statement, "my area allows my tax program cost to be 10% or less per return". I've not heard of a regulation such as thus. Is this a requirement from your state? It looks like that would be very hard to regulate or prove. Just curious.

[terryats]

I believe Bob is referring to how much he can charge for a return in his area of the country.

[BOB W]

I'm sorry I didn't make it clear about why I can charge more for tax returns because of where I am located. I'm in Long Island NY with higher than usual income than most of the country. Just to say again, I don't mind paying for a high-end tax program that I can rely on to pick up other tax forms required to be filed based on various data entries made.
Also, I'm a one man show. How many employees do you have to do 900 returns as well as office size and expenses to process your returns? I have none.

[lenboush]

I'm sorry I didn't make it clear about why I can charge more for tax returns because of where I am located. I'm in Long Island NY with higher than usual income than most of the country. Just to say again, I don't mind paying for a high-end tax program that I can rely on to pick up other tax forms required to be filed based on various data entries made.
Also, I'm a one man show. How many employees do you have to do 900 returns as well as office size and expenses to process your returns? I have none.

There are three preparers, two of us full time and one part time. We also have a receptionist who also helps with scanning, copying, etc. Yes there's overhead. I fully appreciate the benefits of a one man office. I did that for a number of years.

[BOB W]

I like the benefit of multiple preparers in one office, to get other opinions. But that is why I use "The Tax Book", it's like having multiple tax specialist in all areas of tax law at my fingertips. Great talking with you.

[Lion]

My virtual water cooler!