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Forgot to mention that the prior accountants for the partnership never recorded their changes in the client's data file, so their books are incomplete. Let's hope they don't get audited for any of those years. I always record the changes in the client's books and give them a pdf of the GL along with the tax return. I think it's my job to make sure the client's books are complete and accurate.

The question of ATX vs Drake would be best answered by downloading 2015 version for both and seeing which one suits your work style best, which one would take you less time to do a tax return. ATX has PaperlessPlus FC software, but, as you learned, these FC softwares often store pdfs in a manner that requires you to have their software to access. For that reason, and because I'm cheap, we have always just manually created folders for clients tax returns, records and other documents. We are almost entirely paperless now and we can easily access the pdfs without the need for any software, probably faster too.

Been meaning to share this for awhile. I downloaded AutoHotkey and with a lot of help from the internet, was able to create a useful (to me anyway) set of scripts (attached). The auto-execution section is just something I was told is good form. I have no idea what it does. The volume controls section turns your Scroll Lock and Pause keys into volume up and volume down. Ctrl+Print Screen = mute. (I can never remember that one!) CapsLock delay prevents accidentally pressing CapsLock. You have to press CapsLock twice in less than half a second to toggle it on or off. The CapsLock Smart Shift is the main reason I downloaded AutoHotkey. iT pREVENTS tYPING lIKE tHIS. I work in all caps in ATX and when I need to write an email (or post here) I want to work in mixed case. If CapsLock is on and you press Shift and any letter key, it turns CapsLock off and types the capital letter you wanted. I know my script is inelegant, brute force programming, but it works, and that's all that matters to me. The last section is all my keystroke saving scripts. I chose the equal sign (=) as my trigger key. So if I type irs= I get Internal Revenue Service. no= November, sa= Saturday, ssn= Social Security number, etc. Anything I type frequently goes here. You can add whatever you need here. My favorite one that we use the heck out of in ATX on form 8949, is V= (It's capital V because I work in Caps in ATX). It types VARIOUS in the purchase date column and 123115 in the sold date column and moves me to the next column. It works anywhere you encounter those two columns. I say 'column' because I work in the Detail screen only. IMPORTANT: Put a shortcut to the AutoHotkey program in your Startup folder so it will start with windows. ("C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup"). I keep a shortcut to the Startup folder on my desktop for programs that don't have that option. Then save the file below to My Documents (not in any subfolder). Happy scripting! And don't say I never gave you anything! AutoHotkey.ahk

I used to think the IRS came down too hard on us. At some seminars IRS liaisons treat us like partners, but others act like we're lazy idiots. (And then there was Karen Hawkins, who thought we were all criminals.) Gee, most of the tax pros I know spend inordinate amounts of time trying to determine correct basis, whether a household member really qualifies as a dependent, whether a client truly qualifies for a credit or a penalty abatement. Yet if you read the tax fraud blotters and the criminal proceedings published by Accounting Today every week, you wouldn't believe what goes on in the world of paid tax prep. These sources provide endless lists of preparers accused/convicted/imprisoned/enjoined for all sorts of crimes against clients and the US gov't. Paid preparers convicted of identity theft, of borrowing dependents from one client to put on another's return, making up income and expenses and donations and other deductions, filing returns for unwitting Puerto Rico residents who have SS#s but don't have to file in the US, giving clients a copy of their return and then changing and submitting it (with the extra refund going into the preparer's account), having all the client's refund going into their own account, it goes on and on. Unlike the errors Abby shared, and the many we see in our practices every day, these acts are not due to ignorance or sloppiness but to an intent to commit fraud and steal from individual taxpayers and/or all US taxpayers. Regulation could help curb the errors made out of incompetence because tax pros will have to know more to be allowed to prepare returns. (We will all still make mistakes--it's unavoidable given the complexity of the tax code and how very much there is to know--but stuff like ignoring depreciation and letting noncustodial parents claim dependents "because they pay child support" won't happen as much.) Those who intentionally break the law, however, aren't going to be held back by a few silly regs they won't care about. Catherine is right that the IRS wants us to do their audit work. Maybe it's also up to us to report fraud when we see it. Not ignorance, but intentional cheating.

Backups are instantaneous in ATX. You must be referring to exporting, which takes awhile. My backup of ATX backups (& data) happens in the background. ATX takes 6 seconds to start, which doesn't slow me down at all. I write macros (scripts) in AutoHotkey which I use in windows and many other programs on my computer, as well as ATX. (I've been meaning to post my AutoHotkey script in case anyone is interested.) To each his or her own. I'm glad we all have the choice of several different tax programs.

As Eric said, IE 11 and Chrome both work perfectly in Win 10. Edge has some nice features with being able to set up reading panes for unruly websites and being able to "mark up" internet pages with virtual markers to underline important parts and save them. Edge has some problems with loading some extensions, however, so I do not use it yet but rather defer to IE 11. All of my programs,including ProSeries from 1998 through 2015 and ATX from 1997 through 2012 (my last year with them) all function as perfectly under Win 10 as they did under Win 7 and Win XPS. I run two high-end stand-alone computers in my business as the only employee preparing approximately 400 tax returns and handling the books, payroll filings, and financials for 35 small companies.

I came to the exact opposite conclusion with respect to the no-brainer side of the equation. Especially since input speed is only a part of the efficiency equation. Incredibly fast speed of backups, speed of updates, rapid startup - all run circles around ATX or any competition in this price range. The ability to write macros in Drake is an incredible time saver, but a novice Drake evaluator wouldn't even know what I'm talking about. Nothing touches Drake in all these areas. But, as Judy pointed out, to each his own. That's why each company is still in business. And anyone contemplating a change would do themselves a disservice not to do a through evaluation of each software package as well as the company backing it up.

This is why anyone thinking of changing vendors should get trial versions and prepare some returns with each one. No program is one-size-fits-all.

I agree with Abby and John that you should download and test the products. Since it was brought up about document management being a concern, and for what it's worth, Drake's document manager has a folder on the C drive that can be accessed directly for file management, and if I left Drake, I would still have access to all of those files. It can be launched from within the tax program, from a return, or entirely on its own. The tax software's print function integrates with the doc manager for saving anything the tax software will print. From within it, it allows scanning, naming, and storing of documents, and it also allows any other document to be stored there such as files from Word, Excel, from email attachments, or from documents scanned with the scanner software outside of the document manager functions. Best of all, Drake's document manager is included in the price of the software, there aren't any gimmicks with any of Drake's pricing during the early renewal or otherwise, and the customer does not need a dedicated sales rep. ANY of Drake's reps can and will help that customer! Everyone knows what is included and everyone knows what the price will be, not all the BS some on here have complained about with CCHSFS's marketing and pricing.

Are we gonna throw down?

Good suggestion. I predict that anyone who actually does a valid side-by-side comparison will conclude that Drake wins hands-down, simply on the basis of speed at all levels of operation (preparation, production, organization, backup, and updating). Since time is money, saving time means greater productivity and more money on the bottom line. But the problem is that a true comparison requires abandoning the notion that direct forms entry is all that important, and many people just can't break that dependency. Additionally, Drake's customer service and overall business practices leave everybody else in this price range in the dust. I readily admit that I'm a biased Drake user, but I will add that my bias is a result of long-time experience with both ATX and Drake (as well as with Ultra Tax prior to switching over several years ago).

Yesterday, I got a final short year 1065 from a respected larger local firm. First thing I noticed was no dates for the short year. They took entire year of depreciation. Today I get a 1040 faxed and the preparer proudly proclaimed on the cover sheet that they took no depreciation on the rental in 2014 because taxpayer might be selling. AND they didn't back out any amount for land. I appreciate the extra work and the chance to showcase my admittedly limited competence in tax law, but these are fairly basic issues.

Liquidating distributions that are reported on a 1099 are on a 1099-DIV, but those ARE payments (proceeds from redemption or liquidation) that are properly reported on Sch D as a capital transaction. You'll offset those payments received with your basis to arrive at your capital loss. The problem with these mutual funds that don't survive is that if the fund has some holdings that increased in value since their purchase, those will generate capital gains that the investors will still pay tax on yet not have the benefit of their increase in value other than to raise cash to buy the investors out.

I did actual side by side comparison of Drake and ATX in 2013. It was a no-brainer to stay with ATX. Input speed is NOT the only thing to consider when choosing software.

^ Yes, exactly. Catherine is correct. I just let mine install to its default on my C drive.

Actually, you can choose ANY drive to install/save to. Tech support will walk you through it beautifully if you have any trepidation. I installed the document manager file location to our networked data drive, and both my assistant and I have access to all files at all times, and can save any file at any time to the same place.

Hmm, I wonder if 'good' preparers somehow banded together and ranted to Congress to better fund the IRS while requiring that the service target malfeasance and cheating of those with very high incomes, offshore accounts, and other tax avoidance schemes. It seems IRS has to do increasingly more with fewer resources to bring in the revenue to run the country and works with the lowest hanging fruit (fewest resources required) to do so. I don't like the specter of more preparer penalties than anyone else but maybe see that it is the easier path for IRS. Personally, I have no idea how IRS would better target the bad preparers that we see over and over again. It seems, like the poor, they will be with us always.

The thing that frosts me is that, instead of going after the bad apples, they instead levy all sorts of extra requirements across the board. Well, that's not going to make a gnats-pee-in-hell worth of difference to a crook or "just" an incompetent -- but it does but all kinds of extra burdens on us good preparers to NO effect. Grrr.... Then we get info like this latest newsletter I just got this morning (see the lines in boldface - added by me - especially): Preparers Plan for Shrinking IRS Budgets and Growing Penalties by Eric L. Green, J.D., LL.M. Budget cuts have decimated the ability of the IRS to perform its job. From exams to collections, the IRS has insufficient resources to work cases and perform basic customer service (the last time I called the Practitioner Priority line I waited over an hour, and I called at 7 a.m.). Nevertheless, Congress expects the IRS to collect revenue. It’s no wonder that voluntary compliance is down and the tax gap has increased. It appears that the government may be seeking to increase compliance by placing new burdens on return preparers by way of increased application of preparer penalties. We have seen several recent instances where preparers, after giving accurate advice and performing proper due diligence, are assessed penalties after their client fails to heed that advice. For example, the IRS has always been concerned that S corp owners may not take reasonable salaries. Thus, most preparers who have S corp owners as clients provide a letter identifying the requirement and suggesting a proper level of salary based on historic income. However, when the client returns the following year for tax preparation, lo and behold, the income level taken was too low. First and foremost, the obligation of the preparer is to accurately report the events that already occurred. Second, the tax year is closed. Fixing the problem would require the preparer to convince the client to recognize more salary, and amend quarterly employment returns, causing the incurrence of large penalties. When confronted with this, and similar scenarios, the IRS is looking to preparers to fix the “problem.” The preparer has no power to force their client to do anything. By attempting to hold preparers responsible for the pre-existing actions of the clients, the IRS can use the specter of preparer penalties and ethical charges against professionals to cause preparers to perform basic IRS audit tasks. When confronted with preparing returns for a taxpayer who will be reporting information that may not be compliant with tax laws, it is incumbent on the preparer to understand available safe harbors and ethical responsibilities. For example, under §§ 6662(d)(2)(B) and 6694(c)(2), preparers are entitled to a safe harbor if they disclose a position taken on a tax return. Preparers should always request that their clients comply with the tax laws and explain how that can be done. Finally, if necessary, preparers should consider not working with clients who chronically fail to adhere to their advice. Having to defend against a preparer penalty assessment or Office of Professional Responsibility investigation is expensive, time consuming, gut wrenching and, simply, not worth it. The new IRS has fewer resources. Do not be surprised if it leans more heavily on return preparers to do its job. Preparer penalties constitute a powerful and coercive tool to force preparers to police their own clients. Preparers must prepare. Eric L. Green is a frequent instructor for CCH® Webinars and the creator of the CCH® IRS Representation Certificate Program.

I agree. And imagine how bad it really is. We see a very small fraction of what is happening. IRS sees it all, but they apparently don't think any prosecutor would press charges. Sorry, its seemed like I had to. Sorry.

The automatic backup works fine. The auto-save doesn't work for some people. It works fine for me but I choose not to use it. I think a lot of programs take up more and more hard drive space. It seems whenever larger drives become available, programmers take advantage of it.