I have always been impressed with the information in the old quickfinder books. The information was practical and very useful in practice. I wonder what tax software the authors have in their practice and the reason they decided on a specific software.
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I use Lacerte. To be honest, I didn't compare or evaluate programs. I use Lacerte because the office where I work uses Lacerte. Some smart folks did compare, and that's what they chose.
I like the program, especially the diagnostics. E-file goes great, and they seem to be good with updates, etc. Sometimes state information isn't great, but I'd bet that has a lot to do with our state not getting information out there very quickly.
It did take some getting used to the input sheet format. I'm one of the dinosaurs that used to do taxes with a pencil (an old-fashioned writing implement). I navigate a tax return mentally by forms, and there is a learning curve when you have to start navigating by an input sheet. It's much like learning another language.
One problem I had early on with Lacerte was trying to put in too much information. The program is good at taking the minimum information necessary and shooting it off to wherever it needs to go.
Overall I'm impressed. -
I will give two blugs. I use ProSeries by Intuit, simply because I am too lazy and don’t have time to learn a new program. It was originally called Mac-In-Tax back in the 1980s. Then Turbo Tax bought them. Then Intuit bought Turbo Tax. Then Intuit stopped producing the Mac version in about ’95 or so, so I had to switch to the PC version. Somewhere along the line they also stopped allowing professionals to use the personal version, so I had to switch to ProSeries.
I’ve only had one problem with it years ago when the program calculated a Client’s AMT wrong. The following year I noticed the program was fixed.
The other software I highly recommend is Kleinrock’s Tax Expert CD. People think I am a genius when I come up with Code and Reg citations so quickly. I’m not very smart. I just type in key words into the search engine in Kleinrock’s and I get almost instant citations to relevant information. I have used their CD research products I think for about 10 years now.Comment
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UltraTax - Creative Solutions
I have used UltraTax by Creative Solutions since they acquired SCS Compute's Tax Machine in 1995. They do an excellent job on multi-state tax returns. As with any software, the more features that are offered, the higher the learning curve.Comment
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Old names in the business
I use Lacerte also and love it. It's nice to hear some of the old names in the business. Mac-in-Tax and SCS Compute. I used to use SCS Compute's outside service bureau (before we had PC's); it was a disaster. (CCH Computax was better). Remember what Turbo Tax was before it was Turbo Tax? (Chipsoft). My very first use of tax software was before PC's . It was the Warren Gorman Lamont Tax Calculator. You bought the program chip and inserted it into a HP handheld Scientific Calculator, which could plug into a small printer. Given it was back when we did 1040's manually; it was wonderful. It did the AMT and the old Sch G income averaging. Back then, of course, we did 1040's manually, in pencil, then copied it on a copy machine; mailing the copy to IRS. Thats was considered wonderful, as before copy machines, 1040's were done manually with carbon paper; if you made a mistake, you had to re-do the page. Computers resulted in more paper, not less as we were promised; but thats about to change with electronic document management, which I'am in no hurry to start using.Comment
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