JJStephens

Great info but just one minor correction: actually, neither Worthington nor Columbus school districts have a school district income tax

This will be my final post on this section of this forum. Like all of you, I hoped for a workable product. Again, like all of you, I reluctantly came to the conclusion that the TRX product was not ready for prime time. I began requesting a refund last June. I was continually stonewalled. I finally gave up. Last month Doug did give me permission to give the software to a friend who was going to try to prepare a few returns. My buddy has concluded he can't use it either. I'm out of the money that I paid under what cannot be understood as anything other than false pretenses. I fear none of us will ever see a refund--unless it is forced by a legal action. Alas, I have neither the time nor the resources to pursue that option (I suspect that is what Doug, et al, is counting on). I just feel so badly for all who, in good faith, tried to do the right thing, only to be treated so poorly. In any event, best wishes for the tax season.

Here's my two cents worth. As I mentioned in another post on this forum, I went back to ATX last summer. Prior to switching to TRX three years ago I had used ATX for about 15 years with (mostly) good results (actually, I had ATX my first year with TRX, which was the only reason I switched in the first place). Back in June I got a call from ATX asking if I'd come back. I told the rep who called that I simply could not afford the price they were charging. She offered me a deal: I get ATX for three years for $795/year (plus S&H). I don't know if they still have that option but it might be worth asking. It was more than my now-cancelled TRX membership but at least Inow have familiar, working software, reasonable communications with them and much better tech support. Frankly, ATX's responsiveness is much better than it was before--I've been pleasantly surprised by how much they have done to keep me in the loop and provide newbie training (which I've taken in spite of my prior use of the product--I found it to be very helpful).

Nine days later I have still heard nothing from them. I've concluded that Doug's tactic is to simply stonewall untl the (likely former) client gives up. They have apparently written me off as a lost cause and therefore see no reason to communicate with me or even consider a refund. I'm going to give the software to a CPA friend who has decided just in the last day or two that he's going to do a handful of returns this year. What do you suppose the chances are that TRX will contest me giving him the software? It would be a huge mistake on their part--they've lost me but there is a chance they might be able to cajole my buddy into stickinig with them after tax season.

Doug--I chose this forum because it seems to get a response from you more quickly than when I contact your office. Further, I suggested you contact me outside this forum to further discuss it. You did not do so, choosing to respond here instead. I chose this forum yesterday because I have not been able to get a response from your office directly. Karen B told me about a month ago that she would take my request to you and that you would be in touch soon. I have not heard anything from her or from you. That is the second time that has happened. This method, on the other hand, seems to have worked rather well. You're right, I have not done much contract negotiating, though I fail to see the relevance of that (other than, perhaps, to disparage me). Frankly, it is a non sequitur. Even if it were relevant, that does not prevent me knowing the difference between right and wrong and between good business practice and bad. The only reason I went to the TRX web site a couple days ago was to see if you had my address listed correctly. I did that because FedEx notified me they had a package from TRX that was delivered to the address I moved from in September. I had previously notified you of my new address. The address in my online profile was correct but the phone was not. I changed the phone number. My reason for checking was that I did want to have the software in hand to be able to return to you in the event you decide to do the right thing and give me a refund. Doug, I am not mad at you or TRX and I do not wish you or them ill. I simply made a decision that your product was not working for me and asked for a refund. I did that all the way back in June, long before TRX had done anything other than to draft my bank account. Your office responded only by saying, "we refund only to new clients within the first 30 days. We do not refund renewals. Period." Given your recent history (over the past couple years) I don't think that is an appropriate response. I came on board three years ago thinking it was a cost effective way to continue using the ATX product I had used for approx 15 years. The first year was great. The second year I got a different product (without even a note to say ATX was no longer available--I heard about the switch on this forum). I had a lot of trouble with the Red Gear product the first year I used it and much, much more trouble last year. I renewed last March/April only very reluctantly. I had heard that Red Gear was retooling their software and you told me that yours was in rapid development. You even asked me if I would assist with one aspect of it (for the clergy market niche I primarily serve). Even though I was not planning to use the software I agreed to do that in an effort to help you out. I never heard from anyone in your organization until months later when someone emailed to say they were handling that part of the development and wanted to know what particular feature I wanted to request they include. Over the past year I looked (several times) at your in-house product demo. It simply does not work in the environment I work in. Before last tax season you advertised it as ready to go. I saw either earlier in this thread or perhaps in another on this site that you're now calling last year's version a beta. A couple months ago (after talking with you) I decided that in the interest of fairness I would try it again. I tried entering the data from my own return using the latest demo. It could not handle even the most basic things. I was distressed. It only intensified my decision to move on. Doug, I commend you and your team for its effort to develop a cost effective product. I wish you well in that. I truly hope it works and you and many others become fabulously wealthy from it! My issue is that I signed up for something that is not being delivered. I'm not in a position of being able to wait for it to mature. I caught a ton of flack from my clients last year over the problems I had. I cannot afford a repeat of that. As I stated previously, I already bit the bullet and paid the extra bucks to get a tried and true product. Please, Doug, what I (and apparently quite a few others) am asking is only fair.

Doug-- I have tried working through your office, to no avail. It seems that this forum is the best way to actually get a response from you. I would have preferred the private method but that has proven fruitless. I am one of those who DO want a refund (as I have mentioned in several calls to you and to Karen). I don't recall if I was specifically told I would get the same product as last year. I do know that both you and Karen have told me that you were in negotiations with Red Gear and expected to have a contract. That dragged on for months. Then you told us that even if you got a contract with RG the product would be different as they were re-writing it. I DO NOT want to have to learn a new product. Frankly, last year was a disaster (which was only slightly better than the year before). Back in June I concluded that I cannot afford another year like last year and began requesting a cancellation/refund. I also bit the bullet and ordered my old software at a considerably higher price. On the occasions I was able to get through to someone at TRX my request was summarily denied. I appealed several times for reconsideration and was told that YOU would get back with me. Neither you nor anyone else ever did. I am NOT impressed with the way your company is run. If mine was run like that I'd be out of business. On at least two occasions I have given your personnel a change of address. Even still, the 2012 software was shipped to my old address. I went to your website a couple days ago to change the address--it had my new address listed. I finally got my software--software I DO NOT want and will not use--today. Doug--I really want to end this relationship amicably but you and your folks are not making that easy. I really want to send this software back to you and get my money back (you can keep the shipping fee if you wish). If you wish to contact me outside of this forum that's fine (you have my contact info). That failing, I will be adding my input to what is surely a growing list of complaints with the BBB, the TN attorney general and whoever else I can think of. Jerry Stephens

Like many others, I've been pretty UNhappy with TRX. In spite of having a lot of major software issues with last year's program (coupled with very weak tech support that was available only during limited hours) I did the early renewal to preserve the price. A few weeks later I got an offer from ATX to come back with a 3 year price guarantee of $795/yr. I took it and tried to cancel my TRX membership. They refused. They said that new members have a 30 day cancellation window but renewals are non-refundable. I spoke with four different people about it including Doug Hughes. He asked me to help them develop their clergy tax process in their new proprietary software (clergy taxes are my specialty) which I agreed to do pro bono but I never heard from anyone about it. I sent a second appeal about the cancellation but never heard anything from anyone. By the way, regarding their proprietary software I keep hearing from them how great it is and that it works flawlessly but when I tried to run a dummy return (mine!) it could not handle even a couple very basic W2 issues. In 30 minutes I ran into 5 different issues that prevented me from completing a correct return. I know they're still working on it but my experience with it has left me convinced it's no where close to being ready for prime time. I'm not willing to risk a reputation hard-won over 26 years on a package that is so bug-ridden.

Doug-- I appreciate your willingness to do that. However, on three occassions I've submitted suggestions but have never received a reply or even an acknowledgment. I'd be willing to continue this dialogue offline. I presume you have my contact info. Please give me a call.

Garsh, I'm befuddled. After 15 years with ATX I've learned to live with TaxWorks but I'm not that happy with it (could be just the old dog/new tricks thing). I'm dealing with a clergy return issue now that exceeded TRX's support capability (the guy I talked with told me he's not a preparer so he was completely ignorant of the issue involved). For the third time this year a support issue was elevated to a software engineer at Red Gear. The previous two times they found the problem--something in the 2010 software that was carried forward when I pro-forma'ed returns into 2011. This time the guy refused to make any changes because his instructions were to do it as written (never mind that it is contrary to IRS instructions). "And besides," he said, "there aren't very many clergy taxpayers who have this particular issue." Ninety percent of the returns I do are clergy. I'm not a happy camper. Less than an hour after I got off the phone with them I got a call from CCH. They offered me ATX-Max for $795/yr for three years. I'm just about ready to switch back (I told them I wanted to sleep on it). It'll cost me an extra $500 for the next 3 years (and who know how much more after that) but I've just about had it with TRX/Red Gear. I renewed in time to retain the $299 for life deal but I'm not real sure I want it anymore.

Well, duh! That makes sense. Can you tell I don't do too many of these? This one is so small it is not required to do Sch L or M. Thanks!

I wish. Alas, it's out of the frying pan, into the fire. After the 17th I have to gear up to move at month end. And then I have a boat load of 990s for all my non-profits due on 5/15. Hopefully I'll be able to squeeze in a day or two somewhere in there. I haven't had a vacation (more than two consecutive days off) in more than four years! I wonder if that's why I feel so tired all the time?!?!?

New client just gave me their LLC books for last year . . . in the form of a download from their bank account. Fortunately, there were only about 60 transactions. One of them has me stumped. One of the two members took $2600 both agreed would be a loan. I advised them to draw up a loan agreement and to stick to its terms; otherwise, it would have to be characterized as a draw. My question is-- does the loan need to be recorded on the 1065? If so, where?

Thanks for all the posts. To the question about an operating agreement, I don't know the answer to that question. Certainly that would settle the issue of it being required by the employer, but couldn't they also do that independently (i.e., outside the OA)?

I had this problem on about 12-15 of my returns this year. About a month ago I spent about 10 hours (2 sessions) with a Red Gear software engineer on it. They finally concluded it resulted from a problem in the 2010 program that got carried forward. They said the only thing you can do is delete the return and start from scratch. Deleting and pro-forma-ing a new return won't help as the problem is already embedded in your file from last year. I wasn't too happy with that answer, but at least I now know what to do when I open a return and see it processing continually.

I'm having a 7:30pm on April 11 brain freeze. Someone please help thaw me out! Married couple jointly own a LLC. They regularly & exclusively use approx 10% of home as office space. Am I better off doing a reimbursement arrangement for office-in-home expenses or have them deduct the expenses on their personal return? I ran into this once before but it was years ago and right now my brain synapses aren't accessing data that far back.

I ended up calling TRX on this and a couple other issues. Turns out they were having problems with their phone and itnernet connection lines.

Glad to know it wasn't just me. I have about 30 MIAs, this time last year I had about 15. Things have been running slow all year. Good thing I guess. I had some massive software issues back in mid-March (I use TRX). Took their software engineer a day and half to figure out what was wrong. I was sweating big time being down that long at that time. Turns out I'm doing okay, all things considered.

On a number of my Ohio returns both when I 'peek' (what a dumb name for that feature) and when I do a review, the data for several lines is missing. The numbers are all computed correctly but I have to actually print a copy for the missing data to appear. I had the same problem on a number of returns last year. Anyone else experience this? I'm hold for tech support (been holding for about 10 minutes--the guy said he was going to see if anyone from tech support was still in---at 6pm (EDT) on April 9!!!!! Like many others, I'm not a happy camper about their (lack of) support this year).

I just checked acks for a couple returns I transmitted earlier. The ack page text is a pale green that fades to nothing after about 15 seconds. Anyone else having this problem?

I had a major problem a couple weeks ago that required TRX to forward my issue to a software engineer at Red Gear. (It took them a day and half to sort it out--not what I need right in the heart of tax season. Turns out the issue was actually in the 2010 program but it was carried to 2011 when I imported last year's data.). When I was talking with one of their sales folks last week about upgrading she admitted that there had been an inordinate number of problems this year and that they were working with Red Gear to iron them out. She also acknowledged that TRX's proprietary product was rushed out before it was really ready. She assured me they were pouring a lot of money and resources into making sure it was 100% ready to go for next year! I signed up for next year but if there are not major improvements it will likely be my last.

Anyone have any suggestions where to find good, affordable E&O insurance? I'm an EA with about 25 years experience. I do about 100 returns each year but hope to beef that up in the future (as I just lost my full time pastor gig last month--deep sigh).

Thanks Kea and Don. Those were the missing pieces I was looking for. As soon as I read them I remembered . . . but I was looking in the settings for a master switch to set.

I had this same problem last year. Someone helped me figure it out but that fix does't work this year. I want the preparer signature box to auto-populate with my name. How do I get the software to do that?

I tried to download the demo on the 23rd and again today (12/31). In both instances it would not install. The error log said there was a checksum error in the install file. Maybe it's nothing but that doesn't inspire a great deal of confidence in me!

Sounds like everyone is in about the same place I am. I'll probably stick with TW this year and consider TRX's new package next year (after someone else helps them work out all the bugs). I talked with a TRX tech a couple weeks ago. She told me they had made massive improvements in the new package and she really likes it (like she was going to say anything else!). Even still, I'll pass on being a guinea pig. TW isn't bad but it still seems a bit clunky and at times, downright counter-intuitive. There are a whole boatload of simple tweaks that would make it a lot more user-friendly. I've suggested some but haven't heard anything back from anyone. I'm anxious to see what it's going to look like. ATX is already out with their software--hopefully ours will be here soon.