rchinchilla

Hi guys, I'm working on a mobile application that EROs customize and send to their taxpayers. Taxpayers fill-out all the info and it get sent back to the ERO. I need help from anyone knowing the inner workings of ATX to help fast track this process, no doubt I can do it but it will take me 3x as long. Please help! Here is a webinar we did today showing how we import into TaxWise and Drake: http://go.refundo.com/webinar-recording-connect-demo Looking forward to the comments of the ATX Community! -roger

@kcjenkins - Is the interview method on ATX similar to using TurboTax?

@David1980 great idea, build your own tax form. PM me your direct email. This is what I was talking about, let's let the creative juices flow people!

@zeke - so you are saying is that since this is "your table" trash talking is allowed. Interesting. Wisdom comes with age huh? @taxbilly - Costamar Group is name of the company.

****JOKE**** jainen lets write a tax book! Interested? We can call it "You don't know -bleep- about taxes!". Similar to the book "You don't know how to read". I ask the questions and you can make me feel like -bleep- but then proceed to answer the question. You can promote it on forums and make a million bucks. Don't take this post in the wrong way. Its intended to be a joke unless you're really interested. I know I'm dealing with a sensitive bunch here but this is a joke.

@jainen - sorry if I have offended you. The insight that I seek is the one you guys posses regarding the USE of tax software not necessarily what you guys think of the project. I never called you a trash talker or asked for the community to vote you out < if this is reference to the you and the Randy from Survivor:Gabon similarities, I truly apologize.[Randy] considers himself a ruthless bully who enjoys picking on those that were not blessed with his strength or intellect. If this is not how you see yourself, sorry. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpOmj92Th20 I appreciate the fact that about 25% of the users who have responded to the forums have had very good points. The questions have been addressed by some and some users have crucified me for asking. Once again, I apologize for responding with "defensive trivialization and blind narcissism". I will try to be more transparent in my responses.

@jainen - Lacerte and ProSeries give you the option of how you want to enter the information? I know they have worksheets but inputs directly into forms or data input like Drake. What about interview mode? I know that interview mode is liked by the novice tax preparer, not necessarily the tax professional. Thoughts about interview mode?

Thanks KC, I was looking at everything that everyone has said and I told Kyle that it must have taken hours to write and read all the responses so far. This time could have been very useful if just a few people would have responded to the questions. Even some ideas of what they which their IDEAL tax software would do. BTW - Sorry if I sounded defensive. Its been about 1 week of the same thing...boring. Would the FRIENDLY tax preparers, please stand up!

Ok got it. Worksheets are great but it's good to always be able to see the real forms without having to jump around all over the place. Does anyone like the basic input screens of Drake? What if you could have all 3 styles and choose what style you wanted to enter the information?

I think this topic has deviated from it's original track. Let me go over what this PROJECT, I repeat PROJECT is about: It's a PROJECT that intends to bring a low cost software option to the market. We are not competing for your business. This prohect is not a full fledged tax applicationand the estimator is a BASIC example of the quick calculation abilities. We are not asking your opinion on our designs or how neat or project page looks. What I asked was, Which of the forms does your practice use more often? Very simple. If you feel like trashing me please do so on a private message or via email at rogerchinchilla [at] [gmail] dot com. If you don't have nothing nice to say, don't say it, moveon to the next post, goodbye, adios! No one is obligated to respond. If you are interested in helping out then you are more than welcome. How do you help out? By answering a few questions and being positively insightful. How many of you have a similar project? I'm just a tax preparer that also loves programming!

Anybody watch Survivor:Gabon? Does jainen remind you of Randy?

Interesting Bob, interesting.

@jainen - Thank you for your concern. I see that this topic is really sparking interest in you. I actually do have first hand experience in tax preparation and we currently are operating offices in about 15 states. I also know how hard it is to switch tax software. Remember the saying "We will cross that bridge when we get there", this is our stance on some of the issues that you have mentioned. At the same time we are developing a foundation that will allow us to make modifications at the drop of a dime, or should I say, at the chime of an e-alert courtesy of the IRS. @Mel in Hawaii - Thank you for your detailed post. I will answer your questions in the order they were asked. First - PHP has proven to be the technology of choice for the web. PHP would allow for the user to create a "master" computer, also known as a server in their office. Many of the large practices use multiple computers, most of the small practices have at least 2 computers. If a server is used at these locations, the only thing that will change is that they will be preparing tax returns on their browsers. PHP is optimized for speed and when running on a LAN it's seamless. We would only be handling the transmissions and acknowledgments of said returns. I don't want to seem vague but at the same time I don't think this is a technology forum. However we are currently designing with the mentality of a virtual network who can summon resources as necessary without any user input. This means if the cluster feels that it is reaching capacity it will fire up additional servers that may or may not be sitting in the same room. Since we will be using virtual machines we will have hundreds if not thousands of computer at our disposal if needed. Once no longer needed these computers would continue to operate in their regularly assigned roles. Take a look at this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8reDlSqxuY http://citrix.com/English/ps2/products/pro...ontentID=683148 Second - A lot of projects have found dedicated QUALITY programmers and we know this project is no different. We aren't asking people to leave their jobs, wife and kids. We are asking for developers to create, modify and review code. Please do not misunderstand me. We continue to hire a team of full time developers that are working on this project day and night, I am not exaggerating. This team is currently dedicated to the core components of the software. Third - Yes I am talking about last years products. These products seem to be the best for running benchmarks and comparing results. We prefer to test our calculations against calculations that are DEFINITE. Privacy and Ownership of data - The information will be stored in the same manner your current software stores it, which is locally. Regarding exporting we have also already develop a strategy to allow ANY software developer to open the files and import them into their software. This would be through use of private/shared keys and encryption. We believe this information belongs to the tax preparer, since the information was entrusted to him/her. They should be able to import it into TurboTax if they wanted to. They should be able to import it into any software application without limitation. We are creating software without limits. Mel in Hawaii, this is Roger from New York and I hope I answered all of your questions.

GeneInAlabama - we are STARTING. Don in Upstate NY is right. We have to start somewhere. We can't have ALL FORMS with ALL STATES with ALL BANKS with ALL EVERYTHING over night. Its a work in progress and hopefully soon you guys will be able to use it in your practice. Thanks Don.

David1980 is right. We have already worked on the forms you have indicated. What were are trying to decide is which of the 20 listed above should be developed during the next round which is January-February.