BrentCPA

It's fixed now. No mention of what happened or anything else - just took down the note and hid under their desks hoping some clients did not notice. Their customer service continues to astonish.

And now, as if on queue, the ATX boards on their support site went down. They posted a hasty message: Issue Opening and Starting Returns Some customers are experiencing issues opening and starting returns in ATX and in Payroll Compliance Reporting. We are actively investigating the cause of this and will advise you when we have identified the issue.

Here's a new twist on an old game . . . was working on returns an hour ago with no issue. Come back after lunch and I get the message "Please perform a forms update and try again" . . . so i tried. No new forms, no new update. Just to be safe I rebooted the entire computer. Same issue. It appears from the ATX monitored boards that this is happening to everyone. I am so tired of having to give my clients excuses instead of completed tax returns . . . I am 100% certain I am shopping for new software this fall.

I actually got acks back from two of the returns I transmitted today (odd considering I transmitted 23) that now say "transmitted to agency" so at least the Russians (if that who is at the wheel) are playing along. I suspect we are all about to get 2 free years of an identity theft subscription . . .

I am not aware of an way to export the return data to an excel sheet or anything, unfortunately, but what you might be able to do is customize the columns in the return manager and add the "business" column. Then just check the "individual" returns box and you can sort that new column by the "business" net income. I am not sure if this will also include pass through income, though, but it's worth a try unless someone else has a better idea.

I was just able to transmit another return a few moments ago - but several hours later none of the stuff I transmitted this morning (23 returns for those following along at home) have been acknowledged as having left the EFC so even though the connectivity issue is temporarily abated again right now, the portal to the IRS does not appear to be open.

Are you asking the forum members for help in accomplishing this task or did you just want us to know?

I think there was a small window about two hours ago that appears to have been closed. I was able to receive acks and transmit 23 returns while the window was open but I have not been able to connect since. I now fear that I sent those 23 returns to Russia but if POTUS trusts them they cannot be bad people right?

I believe they do yes, because you can search your e-files by social using the tool on their site. Even if the entire e-file is not stored there, the main things hackers would be interested are accessible without much digging; socials and bank info. As forthcoming as WK has NOT been during all this, I am guessing it will be weeks or more before they admit that any information we gave them was compromised. That being said, I have trouble believing hackers would go to all this trouble just to extract a ransom . . . the information they could pull off that platform (socials and bank accounts) is MUCH more valuable on the black market than a ransom would be (and from what I read most companies don't pay it anyway).

Well, I got 23 of them transmitted but, alas, when I check for acks now I am back to the "unknown error" that I have been seeing since Monday morning.

As of right now I am able to e-file again. I cannot tell you for sure that my info is not being sent straight to Russia but at least SOMEONE is taking my e-files now.

Not to bump an old thread, but after WK decided security was only important on our end I think I am ready to move on. Does Drake do 1099s at all?

I guess it depends on what you mean - cloud based services are presumably functional again but e-filing is still inoperative. Here is a link to a more active thread:

Presumably they opened up CCH Axcess for folks late yesterday (although some reports suggest it was then shut down again). I am mainly concerned about the 990 deadline next Wednesday and this monster backlog of e-file ready returns I am sitting on . . . as most of you know, the IRS requires us to transmit returns within three days of receiving the signed 8879 so I am officially out of compliance today. To be frank, I will be surprised if they open e-filing up again before next Monday but I think if they do NOT have the EFC open by Wednesday 5/15 (and we all have to paper file extensions) they will lose so many customers that they would have been better off paying the ransom. I for one was on the bubble about renewing after my software was incorrectly calculating Montana tax for most of March - after this I will likely be moving on. Eventually, if you strip all the resources from a division, this kind of thing happens and although this season was rough for all tax preparation software providers I have not heard of anyone who had it worse than us ATX users.

I do kind of appreciate the irony that they make us change our password with THEM every few months and it cannot be one that you have used in the last 10 times. Overkill? I always thought so. Apparently those same protocols were not quite as rigorous internally. I like the quote one user posted on the Krebson page: “We take security seriously” actually means “We didn’t take security seriously enough.”