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I have one last June fiscal year corp on extension that I need to file a 2011 return for. This was never an issue in past years. Why would our 2011 program be affected now?

Rich, thanks for telling me that. At least now I know that this one issue wasn't caused by today's update.

Joan, I wondered about that poster with only 512 ram also. John, thank you for sharing your thoughts about Drake and your experience using it so far. My workflow is a lot like yours with having some easy ones coming in this week and next that would allow me to become comfortable with the program before tackling more complex returns.

My program is closing properly now and I don't know why or what changed. My latest problem is that my alternate pdf printer is not showing in the printer list for the filing copies but is included in the list of printers for all the other copies. Weird.

I like PrimoPdf better than the built in printer. After the 12.6 update today, the Primo printer is no longer in my list of printers available for the filing copy of the return. It is showing up in all the other copies drop-down boxes. I tried changing the printer to Primo using the "change printer" function in the return manager menu. When I went to the client communications to view the print packet defaults, it is showing ATX pdf as the printer for the filing copy. The program does not want me to use Primo. I changed it back to my laser printer. I am sure the Primo pdf printer was in the filing copy list of printers before I installed today's update. Does anyone have a suggestion of how to get that back?

I found your posts and thought the one with all of the "truths" listed was great. Posts by some others over there are much worse. Hard to believe you'd be banned and not those others. I posted one today about the total lack of response from the techs today. Did you see the one about them all being put in a "cone of silence"? Another later one was an invitation to the programmers, techs, pres of CCH to watch the program work in the real world. Why haven't those posters been banned. Maybe that's just a matter of time with me included. It looks like several of the threads about refunds and class action lawsuits have been removed now. Sorry, I did take your post above the wrong way. All better now. I'm still having issues including a new one after running today's update. I'm still on the fence about switching to Drake. I could make it work, and I don't think the extra time it might take being extra careful with input in an unfamiliar program would be any more than some ATX users are facing with the slowness of rollover, file access and printing. I'm more worried about how long it would take to get my money back from CCH at this point.

Danny, I was the OP in the thread entitled "Memory usage after 12.6 update". I wouldn't exactly call it a scathing post. I posted it because lots of people over on the official site are talking about the program being really slow and some of them only have 1 or 2 GB of RAM. The only part of this that should be offensive to CCH is the last sentence about being a beta tester for this year's program. I too was a long time poster on the official site, but I never went back there after the board was abruptly shut down in April 2007, so it looks like I'm new with only 100 or so postings. Here is the post you say is so offensive: About my computer - 1 yr old, Win 7 64-bit, i7 processor at 3.4 Ghz, 12GB ram. ATX installed as standalone. After installing update 12.6, I opened ATX and it seems to be operating normally. I opened one of my test returns, a fairly basic one with 1 w-2, 1 entry on sch b, sch c with one line for sales, and a couple of expenses entered, related SE. Form 4562 is present with 2 assets entered. This could be a return that lots of us see in our practice, but this test return has minimal entries. A look at the task manager shows CPA usage ~ 14% and my physical memory started in the mid 20% range and continued to tick upward like a clock ticking seconds off. It leveled off around 53% after the return sat idle. A look at the processes showed ATX using 411,000K of memory. Now with internet running only on this page while I type, physical memory is at 66%, ATX process is 352,000K memory. No wonder some of you with lower RAM and processor speeds are having lots of problems. I simply cannot imagine what this program will take to run with some of the larger and more complex returns open on it. Of course, none of those are in for me to check. I could keep playing with some dummy returns, but what a waste of time, still beta testing this program for them. Danny, if I may ask, what was your user name on the official board?

After updating I opened one test return. With the program open and that one fairly simple return with minimum entries, my memory usage started in the mid 20s % wise and gradually ticked up to about 66%. I closed the test return, checked acks only to test a function (wasn't expecting any). Tried to close the program with the red "X" in the upper right corner and it won't close now. Title bar remains and the rest of the screen is black. I had the task manager running on top and had to use it to shut down the application. Physical memory used barely decreased even though the program is no longer running. What, am I supposed to reboot after looking at one return now?

I clicked on the suggestion box but that is only to send a message through to ATX. Are you referring to the official forum's subforum entitled "Enhancements" where posters can give a post a number of stars from 1 to 5, or is there some other place that you are referring to for rating suggestions submitted?

The ATX form availability list shows the planner is scheduled for release on 2/8, hopefully.

Is your EFIN on file with CCH SFS? That might be the problem. You can not transmit efiles through the software until the EFIN is on file with CCH. http://cchsfs-atx.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13729/kw/efin

Yes, CCH SFS must have your EFIN on file before you can efile any returns through the software. I'm not sure if this is causing the code 77. http://cchsfs-atx.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/13729/kw/efin

I won't write these letters. The lender can request the returns from the IRS if they want to see the actual Sch C and SE included with the returns. My state's division of revenue has an easy search function for businesses licensed in the state showing when the initial license was issued, type of license, and the date the current license expires. For a small fee, much more information is available through the Sec of State for those businesses required to file there as well.

I sign in and check the "remember me" box. I never log out and only ever need to sign back in after I delete my cookies and temp files. This forum keeps me logged in even if I exit out of the internet and come back on later. Do you have antivirus or cleaning software that is deleting cookies and temp files automatically or an internet setting that deletes them when you exit or after so many days?

One of the techs on the official board said that this would be fixed in the update following the update that is to be released next week. No time frame for release 12.7 was given.

The program's "Support" menu has Quick Tutor videos that cover many of the functions.

Rita, have you tried going into Preferences, then Print, click View/Edit Print Packets? Within each packet you can mark three ways (default, always or never).

Since all I've done is complain most of the week, I thought I'd share something positive. I got through a return, created the efile, and printed. The print packets worked well and I like that a custom packet can be printed at the same time as the others. Just for Jack in Ohio I will say that printing this year's return was much faster than in previous years. I don't know why, it could be that I have updated drivers since connecting my 9 year old printer to my system. I had this set up last year though, so that might not be it. It was a simple federal return with 2 states. The entire print job took a little over a minute to finish. Letters were standard, not customized and were a little out of order, but the rest of it was perfect. I was pleasantly surprised, almost excited to have something working. I haven't tried to efile this very simple return. I hope that goes without a hitch. I really would like this to work out that ATX will be able to fix the program. I see lots of things I like and I don't want to switch. I've been using ATX for so long it's like an old friend, but this year the friend is struggling with a personality disorder and needs lots of help. lol I've been fooling around with Drake and could make it work if I really had too. I would quickly come to hate working in it though with all the in and out of the file to calculate and be able to look at the return. Having to repeatedly reopen the file after looking at the return was really annoying and seemed a waste of time. I also saw something about it that could easily lead to mistakes. Yes, there were some things I had trouble finding at first, like how to tell the program to apply the overpayment to next year's estimates. I chalk that up to lack of familiarity. However, what I really didn't like was that the input screens had boxes for entering the number that would appear on the return, but also on the same screen were boxes with +- next to them that would add or subtract to entries derived or calculated elsewhere and those figures were not to be seen. The final number including the adjustment (or they were overrides but you can't tell which is and override and which is an adjustment field) isn't shown anywhere. You have to calc the return and view it. Then to get back to input, reopen the file. I was really unimpressed with this. Depreciation had the look of being very basic. It will let you choose any method or life no matter what year is entered. It could be simply a typo, but the program gives no warning until you calc and review all the notes. If I had to use it, the data entry mode seemed better than forms entry because even in forms entry the preparer can't see the numbers appear. It still must be calc'd, viewed, and reopened. Also be aware that forms entry mode is only available for 1040 prep, not for any of the business returns. Another minor annoyance is that it didn't like that I have 2 commas in my firm name and kept given error messages. I had to delete all of the punctuation in my name to clear these errors. Sorry for the ramblings. I hope this might help others that are looking at Drake.

Several people have posted that this happens when you still have the return open and are trying to transmit. I haven't had that, only from what I've seen others have posted on the official forum. Try closing the return and try to resend.

I downloaded the demo from Drake the other night. I'm still on the fence and am waiting to see if the next update will fix my problems, but then I wonder if I'll have the problems that many others here are having. I suppose I'm not experiencing them because I'm not using the program much yet. Drake would take some getting used to. I went through the program and actually re-prepared my own personal and corporate returns for 2011. I was able to recreate the returns exactly, but not entirely without some issues. Some things look so basic, especially in the depreciation area, lack of worksheets, that I can't believe there aren't many mistakes being made. I think ATX catches a lot of mistakes that the less knowledgeable preparers would be running into with Drake. One specific problem I had was with the limitation on HSA contributions. Husband and I each have our own separate HD medical policies, no family coverage, only for 10 months last year. He's over 55 and I am not. It looks like I entered everything properly and Drake is not calculating any limitation on the amount of contribution allowed. It is showing the full amount that would be allowed for the full 12 months. In order for the correct limitation to print on the form, I had to enter it in a box on the input. I can't believe that if there are all the questions related to this limitation and boxes to enter the # of months, that Drake's software wouldn't calc this limitation.

Julie, you can click on "new" as if opening a new return. From there you can see forms that are available to you but not yet downloaded to your system. The 8879 has been available. You might have some corrupted forms. I believe there is a separate thread here on this forum that addresses how to fix that.

I've always used that summary sheet. My clients really like it and that it has all of the refunds or balances dues all on one sheet.

Lynn & raven, I am having the same. Another user & I were a couple of the first to post this on the official board. The other user somehow got the attention of one of the techs. She posted a patch and KB that was quickly taken back down. She posted another KB that was also removed, probably being too risky. The revised execute file is what was given, had to be manually inserted into the proper directory after renaming the old file. It is only a temporary fix so that we could cancel the popup box without shutting off the program. After that, I get all kinds of popup warning boxes that are still appearing. The last I read is that they are still working on it, haven't identified all the causes, and *might* have a solution by sometime next week. Nothing is firmly promised as to when this will really be fixed. ETA: ATXMichelle posted that they are shooting for the next update to be released on Tues 2/5 that should fix the problem. This is just awful.

I installed on 12/12/12. I believe I opened a dummy return at that time, input taxpayer demographics and a Roth IRA distribution to test that calc. That calc had errors, began to doubt myself, ran same in 2011 and got correct answer. I figured a lot of the forms and calcs were prelim and didn't worry about it. Once or twice between initial install and mid Jan I opened it and manually ran an update. During that time I tested my capability to connect to the server using their test transmission. Each time I opened the program to look around I did run a manual update. I was noticing all along about the updated number of forms not matching the total and the % of update would say something like 98% or 102% complete. I didn't try to do anything toward preparing a return with it until last week. Last week I rolled over mom's return and entered 3 basic Sch B entries, I created a dummy return in 2011 and rolled it over, and I created a new dummy return in 2012, all to give the program a test drive. I never did try any printing, I was really just poking around in it and getting used to the feel and changes in preferences. Everything was working for me until Monday with the 12.5 update when it all went to hell. I'm running Win 7 Ultimate 64-bit, if that is helpful. I've heard that the people having the most problems are on Win 7, not sure if that's true or not.

Joan, yes I went back and remove the estimate letters, then removed the letters from the return. Each time I open it, they are back. Manual clearly says that it is possible to remove unwanted letters even if the default is to include them. I've tried both ways.