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Fwiw, ATX is still showing a NJ1040-V with the "not approved for paper filing" watermark. Not e-filing, but paper filing, so sometimes it is the program and not some law or rule change that's holding up finishing returns.. I find that ridiculous. Drake says the return is ready to go. I had 2 returns held up because of this.

I had a whole new set of problems after 12.7 and had crashing when opening one return in particular. Running the program as administrator allowed me to open it.

You are correct about ProSysFx. I used it a long time ago, way before desktop pcs, when it was called Computax and we had to fill out input sheets and send to the company for processing. Anyone remember that? Then they wrote for inhouse data entry & upload for processing by them, and it still handled everything flawlessly. Then using it totally inhouse was a dream! I loaded ATX 12.7 and am having crashes again too. I just purchased the Drake as PPR to get going and will wait for the refund from CCH. The Drake rep said they've had a large influx of ATX customers again last night and today, so they knew some more bad things must have happened with the program today.

In Preferences, click the 6th item down, "Open Return". Check the box to turn on the autosave feature. The most frequent autosave setting is for every 5 minutes for an open return. Click Apply to save any changes you've made to preference settings. You can click the on the Save function any time you want in addition to the autosave feature.

Numbers, why the need for 2 EFINs?

I made the suggestion about after tax season only because Jack thinks it's too late to handle conversions at his firm with some software vendors doing conversions out of house. I'm switching to Drake in the next day or so because I only have a few returns in so far, so converting at this point in my season won't be an issue. I already have their 2011 full functioning software that I've recreated my own personal and corporate return with, and I did that with watching only a couple of their training videos that were 8-10 minutes each. Once I do the conversion, I'll be watching more of those and looking at the manual more closely. Honestly, doing those 2 returns hardly took any more time than ATX would, and that was using a program totally unfamiliar to me. I've played with it some more and found features that ATX doesn't offer that will help me, like the multi-case planner as just one example. I'll see if Drake's depreciation is enough for me to use in the accounting side of my practice. Until ATX started calculating future year reports, I've always kept using Tompson Reuters Fixed Asset II, but if Drake will give needed reports, then that might save me some more money but I'm not counting on that. In fairness to Drake, I made several observations when I first tried it that weren't totally accurate. I've since found that using the ESC key backs out of the return view screen (or other screens too) an allows the user to go back to input after viewing the return without exiting out of the file. I was doing it wrong and had to reopen the file each time. Opening return files is fast with almost no delay. Several other features that I like are that with printing a pdf using Drake's pdf printer, the program automatically creates the appropriate file and saves it in their document manager program with just that one click. Drake also will create random PINs on the signature forms, has a daily scheduler with ability to use for a firm with multiple preparers, and a simple loan amortization schedule generator. I'm sure I'll discover much more when I really get into it.

I'd like that too.

Jack in Ohio, I like JohnH's suggestion about having 2 programs. If you or the other partners aren't keen on doing this at the firm this year, you could purchase the second software on a pay-per-return basis with minimal cash outlay for those returns that you prepare outside the firm to test it out yourself and also to become familiar with it. You could also limp through this season with ATX and test out new programs in the summer when the workload is somewhat less. Some vendors will give the prior year program as a free trial. You could take a few of the most basic returns you do and recreate them on the new software. You'd have the original return to compare results, look of the product, and the time to prepare them in each program. Any software you try will be a learning experience, but remember that we are going through that each year with ATX too. Yes, most of the program is similar in appearance to prior years, but each year there have been changes that we have to learn along with the workarounds that are necessary or the shortcuts that make us faster. I think you will find that after preparing just a few returns with new software that you will be more comfortable with it. You might even find some features that are helpful to you that ATX doesn't provide.

Well that is about like my setup, and I don't customize anything in the program. About the only thing I changed in last year was from "we" to "I" in the letter. I was fine until 1/28 when the 12.5 update cause the program to continually shut down with that popup box. I was lucky enough to have been logged on and watching the official forum and got the temporary patch to fix the problem. If I hadn't been on that forum at that exact time and reading the appropriate threat, I would have had a totally nonfunctioning program for 9 days because getting through to tech support was impossible. They had a recorded message that played and hung up on callers. I was still having problems after the 12.6 install that magically disappeared, but I don't know why. The program seems to have a mind of its own. Today's crash for me was only on a test return after the 4562 was updated. There just seem to be too many things causing crashes or errors that need workarounds for my comfort level. I'm also concerned about the amount of resources this program needs to run. It seems to be ok for me right now on a basic w-2 return with one state. Later on I'll have large multi-state returns of greater complexity, and it is not uncommon for me to have many of the following programs open at the same time: ATX, Excel, Word, Quickbooks, Tompson Reuter's Fixed Assets II, and the internet. How well will ATX be performing for me then?

I rolled one return over to test this, a partnership with over 100 assets. Error checking the return caused mine to crash also.

The couple of returns I have in so far error checked fine. I believe it is the depreciation causing the crash and that's why I picked that particular return to test this.

Just to see this myself, I rolled over one of my partnership returns. It has about 140 assets entered. Rollover took less than a minute, opening the file took between 1-2 minutes because one city form is not yet available and the program had to calc the depreciation. I put one entry in gross receipts and proceeded to error check the return. Program stopped working and I got the message box "windows is searching for a solution." Closing that shut it all down. More arrrrrrrgh!

I know the IRS said that stockpiling efile returns was OK this year due to the one week delay of them opening for efile, but I think you are still supposed to file current returns within 3 days of the client signing the efile authorization form. I believe someone commented on the official forum that if the sig date entered in the system is more than 3 days old the program is creating an error message. Also and much more of a longshot is that under your scenario, you enter a date into the system that does not match the date on the 8879 to get around this problem and then the IRS shows up to check your files. That's pretty unlikely, but you would be violating the rules. I'm not even working on returns that have depreciation yet because of all the problems ATX is having with errors in the calculations and program crashs of returns that have the 4562 included in them.

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