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I had to add this joke An old lady came into her doctor's office and confessed . . . . . .to an embarrassing problem: "I fart all the time, Doctor Johnson, but they're soundless, and they have no odor. In fact, since I've been here, I've farted no less than twenty times. What can I do?" "Here's a prescription, Mrs. Barker. Take these pills three times a day for seven days and come back and see me in a week." The next week, an upset Mrs. Barker marched into Dr. Johnson's office: "Doc, I don't know what was in those pills, but the problem is worse! I'm farting just as much, and they're still soundless, but now they smell terrible! What do you have to say for yourself?" "Calm down, Mrs. Barker," said the doctor soothingly. "Now that we've fixed your sinuses, we'll work on your hearing!"

My fear is not that I will file the wrong return - it is that I will miss filing a return that I should file!

My clients never say anything about the smell in my office. Should I be concerned?

I have an irrational fear that I will never finish on time; that we will not have a program to work with next year, and/or that I might do bodily harm to one of my clients before the season is over. Well, probably not bodily harm, but I came mighty close today to losing my temper and telling a client who called me and said "You have to fix it!" to telling her to fix it herself. It wasn't even an tax issue; it was a cosmotology license renewal that she has been bugging me about all week. For crying out loud, what is wrong with these people? I need, and intend to have, a good cry. Today is my oldest son's birthday and fortunately we all consider the number 13 to be very lucky.

When I opened the frig. this morning I see my wife made egg salad sandwich for my lunch today...Yummy! Late night work just steals my time with her.. What a Sweetie....

I beat my last wireless keyboard to death. My oldest son looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Mom, I don't think that will help." Luckily he had pity on me and bought me a new one for Christmas.

If there's an amount of money that makes this client worthwhile for you, then 2. If it's final that you don't want him, then instead of 1. call him to tell him that you have a full schedule of clients and no longer have time to take him on as a client, something like that. Be firm. Don't argue. Thank him for his business over the years and wish him well with his new preparer and hang up!

I hate it when my equipment conspires against me. Didn't I pay for its loyalty?

Client: OMG, it smells like heaven in here. Me: Must be my apple cinnamon plug in. Client: No, you cooked bacon. OMG. Mmmm.

...when tax preparers do not include the depreciation report in the client's copy. Now you are sitting there with a new client, looking at their last year's tax return, have a nice depreciation number, and no idea what the details are behind it. I think it is professional courtesy to include the depreciation report in the client copy. We always do.

I had my assistant key her first return today, besides her own. I'm going to find a few more easy ones she can start on while I have appointments tomorrow. And she brought me a rocking new client that I met with today. I am feeling better about things today for some reason! And it got up to 80 degrees too.

He used to be 13; close enough!

An old man walks into the barbershop for shave and a haircut, but he tells the barber he can't get all his whiskers off because his cheeks are wrinkled from age. The barber gets a little wooden ball from a cup on the shelf and tells him to put it inside his cheek to spread out the skin. When he's finished, the old man tells the barber that was the cleanest shave he's had in years. But he wanted to know what would have happened if he had swallowed that little ball. The barber replied, "Just bring it back in a couple of days like everyone else does."

Ah, if the house was bought jointly, you have to do two. One for each spouse at $250 each. That's so if they divorce, the payback can be traced to each SSN.

I got you all beat. Last month, I had two raccoons fighting (or something, I don't let my mind go there) under my building and they dislodged a sewer pipe. That was a bad day. Only in Tennessee, right?

I'm glad that I don't have many people coming today. My husband is fixing corned beef and cabbage. I don't have enough air fresheners to kill that smell.

The IRS tool for checking this is for each spouse. I noticed the software printed 2 5405s. One joint with the $500, and then one for the spouse, but just a blank form. Is IRS adding another 250 for a spouse to the 500 on the joint 5405?

Good luck Eli, I had the same problem last year with a client, it's an IRS mistake and they want for you to write a letter explaining it's the IRS mistake etc...... PM if you wish I have a sample letter already. Marco

unfortuneatly the other board is the only way to get tech support this year.

I had a guy last week tell me that I was cooking saurkraut and actually I had Turkey in the crock pot. Client: Don't You like Saurkraut? Me: Yes,but that is not what I am cooking. Client: Sure smells like it.

Like Joel, I've also found the Drake transition to be fairly seamless once I got through the initial part of the learning curve (by "initial learning curve" I'm referring to a few days plus some time spent watching their excellent tutorials). I think it's mainly a matter of how adaptable one is willing to be. There are a few little things I miss from ATX, but the lightning speed and ease of use with Drake is well worth the trade-off. It also has some features and ways of manipulating data which I find far superior to ATX. Most of these features concern the process of expediting data entry, which is our greatest time killer. For example, their macros are simple to write and edit, which can save lots of time with routine entries unique to a given practice or state. I am doing some work with ATX 2011 on one screen and Drake 2012 on the other, and I've come to notice how slow even ATX 2011 was when seeing the two side-by-side in real time. As I've said before, the "Forms-Based" data entry is way overrated IMO. Granted, the change takes a little getting used to. But how hard is it to press Ctrl-V and Ctrl-E? It really is that simple to toggle back & forth between the Form to the Data Entry in Drake, and it works even faster than I can type this. Now if I found that my state wouldn't calculate correctly or if I had a particular class of return that wouldn't work, I'd certainly have a different opinion. But in looking at the Drake forums, I don't see any CA preparers complaining about these issues. (Or maybe they just don't have any customers in CA). And my only CA client's return worked perfectly, although it's a fairly straightforward return. Anyhow, I'm coming around to the idea that everyone may be looking for another vendor next year, either by choice or by default. I'd suggest giving Drake a good honest evaluation, knowing that any change is going to require giving up some things and gaining others. If ATX isn't an option, there won't be much out there in this price range which still provides the selection of forms and customer support that Drake provides. I'll also add that even though I'm now a Drake user, I'll still continue to evaluate other vendors in the off-season. I believe it is foolhardy to be locked into a single vendor with no other options. For a small practitioner like me it would be an inconvenience to be totally dependent on a single vendor, but for bigger operations it borders on business suicide. This season, ATX seems to be validating that viewpoint.

Why not just use this board and forget them?

The devil (CCH) wants to encourage fear among the ATX customers. "Stay with us," CCH warns "because its better to stay with the known than the unknown." Fear is CCH's weapon. Drake may not be your cup of tea. OK. Well, you will have plenty of time after tax season to check other services Just make sure that CCH - using fear - doesn't lure you with early renewal discounts and false promises that they can't deliver. Take your time. But don't let fear drive your decision making process. You're in control. Not CCH.

I started including them fairly early in my practice, ever since I got the client whose former preparer had died suddenly and he had a hell of a time even getting his paperwork back. I've had to recreate on depreciation schedule where the preparer refused to pony up; claimed he didn't have one. So either he made depreciation up, or was lying. And it was hell. Duplex, half first rented in '89, then the second half extensively remodeled and rented out in 2000. Other half remodeled after that. I got as many numbers from the client as I could, and winged it, disclosing in the return. Pulled as much as I could from the 4562s that I had. I don't want my clients to go through this if I get hit by a bus.

Yeah, I hate it when that's the best advice I can give. But when it's their error, there is really no other answer.

I still have the download files for 12.10 if someone wants them and cannot find them on the official site. PM me. I shelled out for Drake and have had to use it on several returns where ATX just froze; would not even let me open one return (crash), would not let me print another return (crash), would not let me.... you know the drill. Just those several returns paid for Drake (which format I really do NOT like), kept my customers happy, and me sane. Or as sane as I ever get, anyway.

Oh, I misunderstood. LOL

I think the only thing you can do is keep on trying to get to a level where someone who understands is able to help you clear this up. The first level workers basically just answer the phones and give automated responses off a computer screen. Anyone else getting these yet?

You need a hot bubble bath too.........

My baby girl turns twenty (TWENTY -- when on earth did THAT happen?!?!?!) on Sunday. She wants her birthday dinner on Friday so she has time to eat her leftovers before she goes back to school after spring break on Sunday afternoon. I ordered her cake today. And I have bronchitis and a fever and don't know if I'll even be able to go have a celebratory dinner with her. Wah. I am feeling more than a little overwhelmed and pouty right now. Whining mope over; thanks for being good sports and not heaving bricks at me through the computer!

I have a simple process to ensure this doesn't happen. I do not generate the final version for e-file until I have the signed signature pages. Then head right over to the e-file manager and transmit.

They pay me for every form/worksheet I prepare for them...........So........They get all of it in it's entirety when they pick it up.

Our developement team is working on this answer and hopes to confirm a stable number with the next update to be issued next monday, or wednesday, or saturday after the blue moon.

Can't tell if this will help but hitting F3 on a field that is red underlined or not showing data that should be there fixes it. Also if you overrode a field previously even by mistake you will have to unoverride it to get valid data to flow into it. What i try to do is track down the red exclamation next to a form because it is telling me something is missing or wrong. On accassion i have removed a linked form get out of the form and come back in and insert the same form and problem goes away. It usually happens with depreciation assets worksheet. I have to admit that the depreciation module of Taxwise is clumsy compared to the good old Taxworks!! .I miss you Taxworks :-(