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Found 'em I had told the payroll program to put the files in a folder on one partition -- and it created that folder. Then it went and created another, identically-named folder on _different_ partition, and put the wage files there!! I have NO idea when, how, or why it created this other folder and decided to use it. It is not the place on my computer I want those files. However, now that I know where they are, I was able to get them submitted. Thanks to all for the help. The ways of computers are strange and mysterious, and not for mortal man to understand.

New to the community as a member but not new to viewing it or to Atx. User since 1997. In the old days we could delete a form and reload it but not now. It's all or nothing. This problem bothered me for 5 days and couldn't get through to tech support, only to customer support which is worthless. I saw Sch C and EIC in my forms list but when I would try to add them it said there were not installed. 5 days waiting for over an hour each day but this morning after an hour and a half wait along came Charlie at tech support. In 10 minutes time with him I had a solution. The solution was in changing an item in the program files. I'd be carefull doing this, but this is what I was instructed to do: Go to C:program dataCCHSmall Firm Services Atx2012Assets. You will see a file called 2012. I had to change the name to 2012.old. This keeps the file available in case of emergency. What this did was remove every form installed and require the software to reinstall every form. 150mb and 1060 forms later I had a software program that resembled what I ordered when I signed up for another year. It actually worked! Started running slow at first but I figured none of the forms had ever been opened before. Runs pretty good now. Updating or re-installing the program did not solve the problem. Good luck.

Sometimes clients don't understand that their problems, becomes our problems and they need to fixed inorder to prepare acurate returns and there is a cost to that too Everyone here has probably had a client say, I bougth quickbooks, set it up myself and did my own accounting, it was pretty easy, well entering most of the revenue and expense to uncategorized is not accounting. I have learned my lesson from past experience and now I tell them it's going to take a approx. # hours to clean up the file and my fee is going to be between this and that, do you want for me to proceed. Now there is no confusion when I give them a bill for cleaning the file and for preparing the returns. MAS

In the Options-preferences-Client Communication settings, towards the bottom there is a way of moving the phrases up or down in the body of the letter. Your defaults must have changed. Highlight the phrase and the grayed up & down arrows should become black and then you can move the offending phrase to where you want it. Must remember to watch training CD! I found this by accident.

I'm not going to say anything to defend the printing manager, I have several gripes with it. But I will suggest one steo that I have used for years to make it work better. Yeah, takes a little more time, which is irritating, but still..... I always set my Fineprint PDF printer as my default. printer. That way, I can look it over, delete any form that shows up that I did not mean to include, then I can save it, add anything I want to add, then print the pdf to my laser printer when I want to. I've found the extra pages I don't accidentally print is worth the time this step costs me.

I can't figure out the letter thing for the life of me, and I don't really appreciate that I have to.

No. Definitely male!

Computers must be female!!

I'm pretty peeved that I can't even customize the stupid letter. All I want to do is add a short sentence telling folks to call me if they get any letter, and not respond themselves. That's taking no-customizing too far.

Apparently, I work too cheap!!

I think some of the discussion needs to be qualified. Where I work and play, doing quarterly payroll reports mean a 941, state w/h report, local w/h report, unemployment report and 940 calculation. We do the Eftps and state withholding filings mostly in house because I don't trust my clients to do them right and I have learned it is cheaper to do it ourselves than fix their mistakes. The local return requires a complete listing of every employee complete with address, gross pay and withholding and should the employee move during the quarter, that requires a double entry and an allocation. Oh yeah, and then there is the Local Services Tax (different from the local withholding). I know some of you have more complex filings, but not many. But just for W-2s and 1099's as an add on to our monthly write up clients? $10 each. The rest are by the hour.

You got that right. The State withholding, etc prints out nicely on your reports. It's not that big of a deal to do the state reports by hand or with the ATX program. For my money, Quickbooks is and always has been "overkill". In my case, WI now pretty much demands that all state filing is done online with their clever little setup called "My Tax Account". I don't know exactly how many businesses I have set up under my account, but it covers everything from state withholding to sales tax; as well as license fees. Really pretty nifty once you get used to using it.

I have one of those, but since I don't (won't) use Quickbooks and he is a Dentist and not too savvy with the bookkeeping; I tell him to print me out a cash flow report and a balance sheet and we take it from there. This is not his dental practice, but a Partnership he has on the side with two brothers. Since I work for him part-time in Reception, I declined to do his personal return. Somehow over the course of a few years we have gotten it pretty nicely ironed out. He already anticipates what I am going to ask for and has it at hand. He has his categories pretty well figured out, but I charge them accordingly. All they have to do in the end is take their K-1s to their personal accountants. It can work and I'll bet that Rita just got herself a new long term client. You can't miss something that you never had so they are already finding out how it is to have things done the right way.

Update everything. Close program. Reboot computer.

As I said - enough is enough! I have nothing else to say.

Does anyone remember when ATX and Norton didn't play together at all? I had to disable Norton everytime I sent an efile or downloaded updates. And then had the fun of scrubbing Norton off my system to put on a compatable antivirus. Ugh. Norton doesn't let go of a computer easily!

The IRS ordered all the software providers to remove the ability to customize forms this year. It's a shame, but we can't blame the software companies, they have to comply with whatever rules the IRS sets for forms.