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What about a hybrid transition plan? Keep Ultra-Tax on a pay pre return basis while making ATX your main program? It might cost a little more in the transition year, but at least you don't have all your eggs in one basket. You have Ultra Tax to fall back on if you run into trouble on a given return, and you have protection against any sort of meltdown (software or operational). I've always advocated multiple platforms for complex, busy offices for this very reason. But in a transition year I'd say it's a necessity. If I were considering ATX again (which I'm not now that I've discovered the superiority of Drake), I'd certainly want the absolute assurance I had a way out of the mess if I found it to be a mistake. At least my practice wouldn't be in danger. Another advantage might just be that Ultra Tax would find a way to make their pricing more acceptable to you once you tell them you're transitioning to another vendor.

SaraEA, ATX should be able to handle everything you listed. Any program will have its downsides, and for ATX and for what you listed, you may have to input manually for the out-of-state credits to calculate unless you pay extra for their service to calculate the credits automatically. You've probably read about the others on this forum: that the automatic backup auto-save doesn't work; the program, its files, and its backups take up a lot of hard drive space; and the errors within the program that cause it to not start or to crash such as the inability for the program to connect to the program's internal server at times (not the internet server), and other unexpected errors that cause it to lock up and for the user to lose data. Of course, that's only what I've gathered from others' postings on here. I left ATX with the 2012 debacle. I agree with Abby and John. Demo the program, rework a few of your more complex returns from 2015 with it, and consider running concurrent programs.

You know, this is not a bad idea. I've had ProSeries PPR since the 2012 blowup and have kept it for my two complex returns that more than pay for the extra expense. I'm just a very cautious person, safety minded, and not willing to trust ATX 100% yet, there's still some problems, just ask Jack. As a side note, I just updated to 15.9 and my computer has been acting a little wacky since then.....not enough resources, and that little blue circle spinning on and on until I restart. I need to look away or it may hypnotize.

Some of you may remember my posts regarding a Ponzi-Scheme, that one of my clients had gotten into that their preparer had incorrectly claimed a loss when indeed this was a casualty theft.. After some significant research and study time, I compiled the necessary paper work together. I had to amend 2012, 2013 & 2014. We did get the 2012 timely filed. 2012 resulted in a refund amount that was large enough to pay the tax due for 2013 & 2014. I gave my client a time plan to follow as to when and how to mail each amendment. They have listened completely and just called to tell me they received the 2013 refund plus interest. I am excited that all was done perfectly and the IRS has been very quick at processing the refund. In the end the client will be approximately 800.00 to the good they won't have to repay. This has restored some of my faith in the IRS.

Yes, I do remember your telling us about this. This was probably a sizeable loss where the required casualty theft loss is so much more beneficial than a limited capital loss that the other preparer erroneously used. What a good feeling when the client calls in appreciation. Nice going, and kudos for the IRS, good to know there's somebody still there. We love good news!