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Having been through a divorce and then a custody battle (that was really about child support; he didn't want his son!), I do not believe in divorce. I do believe in murder.

DIVORCE vs. MURDER A nice, calm and respectable lady went into the pharmacy, walked up to the pharmacist, looked straight into his eyes, and said, "I'd like to buy some cyanide." The pharmacist asked, "Why in the world do you need cyanide?" The lady replied, "I need it to poison my husband." The pharmacist's eyes got big and he explained, "Lord have mercy! I can't give you cyanide to kill your husband, that's against the law! I'll lose my license! They'll throw both of us in jail! All kinds of bad things will happen. Absolutely not! The lady reached into her purse and pulled out a picture of her husband in bed with the pharmacist's wife. The pharmacist looked at the picture and said, "You didn't tell me you had a prescription..."

Dome used to just sell paper bookkeeping systems, and several of my clients used them. Especially beauticians. I've never looked at their software tho. Still, even with errors, it's probably better than no books at all, which is probably the realistic alternative. A single individual operating his or her personal service business often does not even bother to try to keep any real organized records. How I DO NOT miss the boot box clients. I know you all know what I mean by that description.

Have you people with very different experiences with similar returns created test returns that behaved badly, exported them, and shared them with others to compare performance? It would be interesting to see how much of this is return-specific, and how much is hardware/network configuration. Eliminating variables in situations like this can really help to give you some direction. I believe that the power of the community, and free exchange of information is the best way to tackle these issues, so let me know if there is anything I might be able to do to help. (more space to upload attachments, a new forum to contain threads for comparing notes, some custom thread tagging to help organize things, etc.)

its not always our choice, K-1's don't come in till after 9/15 and then there are those doing cost segs and since this year is the year to give, we are doing more gift tax returns that ever. As of 9/15 we had about 400 individuals waiting for k-1's. the due dates need to be more staggered.

I think I'll add a line item on invoices for Explaining the Dumb Things Congress Does.

Rush fee = Normal fee X2 + $50

My line is that -- It's not logical; it's the law!

Ah, the dreaded Dome books. I hated those things, but you are right about it being better than nothing. Haven't seen one in years, but I do have three clients that still insist on using those old Safeguard One-Write sheets. Two are very well done, but one is horribly mess, AND she uses something like a Dome book for her payroll summary because her writing is too big to fit the numbers into the tiny blocks meant to for the gross and withholdings! All of the info is on there, but it is so much harder than it has to be because this person makes a mess of it. And guess what she has - a hair salon!

Is it just me, or is the Oct 15 deadline worse than April 15? We're certainly as busy now as we were in April. Yet the clients are different. Most owe money, some LOTS of money. They are at this late date still disorganized, which is likely why they couldn't meet the April deadline. I almost fell over this week when I asked a client (who delivered his stuff on Friday) for 10 missing documents or numbers and the very next day had every single one of them. At this time of year most of our clients prefer the piecemeal approach. Many of these clients have unusual tax situations that require a good deal of research, which I could have done all summer if they had only given me a clue. And then there are those who owe so much money they are getting desperate. During regular tax season we are used to some clients trying to fudge some numbers. Now the clients are downright egregious. Like the one who gave me his entire printout for his "business card," showing expenses for vacations, clothes, jewelry stores, etc. Or the one who purchased 10 times the supplies for the number of products she purportedly sold. When asked for her real income, she said she already gave it to me. Or how about the one with no employees even though her Facebook page proudly introduces the two new hires. Oh and then there's the one who I asked for child care expenses who answered that he hired live-in help. ARGHHHHH!

I follow the same procedure, but one year the wrong Smith got the return...couldn't open it....whew!!! Neither were angry and glad to see the system protected them.

wanna really laugh, come look at the return I just checked and bounced. Unbelievable the crap my staff puts out when they are so tired. in Lacerte there are preset status's to control work flow but you can add your own. I have 2 set up, one is "HUH" when they blow it and the other is "WTF" when they really blow it. And people wonder why we go through so much liquor in the office.

I also password protect/encrypt any tax file that I email a client and use Adobe Acrobat. My clients are aware of what their individual password is to open the file. I agree with Randall, I believe it does make clients feel more comfortable; however, the other reason (in addition to state regulations) I password protect the document is to provide some protection should if I send the email to an incorrect email address. I’m happy to report, that’s never happened to me…but in the event I enter the email address incorrectly, the file is somewhat safe and normally cannot be opened by just anyone who receives it.

You're quite right, and being the behavior police and treating people like they're in kindergarten is the last thing I want to deal with. But is it really so hard to just not be a dick? EDIT: Excuse the terminology, but that really is the best way I know how to put it.

Yes. Yes, it is. Oh, I love it when clients pay attention and ask me questions, but if they can't tell those are part of the form, and have been for all twelve years we've been doing this? Hey, "maximum" and "threshold" and "dollar limitation" might be clues...

Lion's list seems excellent to me, Eric. And all our moderators here try very hard not to let our personal views cause us to overuse our power. I'm sure that will continue.

ahhh we are just monkeying around with you, don't go banana's on us

I accept bribes

Well put. That might be the only rule we need. Speaking of dumb congressmen, did you hear that their approval rating has dropped to 5%? Who are these 5%? Their moms?

HEY! I RESEMBLE that remark!!

ARE YOU OLD ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND THIS ONE?