Jack from Ohio

The car analogy was in reference to "...don't care what is under the hood as long as it works..."

I have not lost any clients. All have been very understanding because I am the reason they do business with me. I am changing my autosave to the lowest number available. I can import a whole lot of stock transactions and type a bunch in 5 minutes.

My LOYAL customers are my customers because of ME and MY KNOWLEDGE and SKILLS. All my customers have been very understanding because the know ME. With the IRS delaying major numbers of returns and also delaying major numbers of refunds, my proper and professional treatment of my customers over the years is paying off. No lost customers yet. Do you buy a car without asking about the engine and transmission and considering if it need work, who will fix it and how much it will cost? I doubt it.

As a user since 2002 and nearly 3,000 clients, I do not agree with not needing to change. Return opening times for us when the client list grows above about 500 for the last three years have been what everyone is experiencing now. Access 97 is 15 year old technology. Cnccpas, what other software do you use that is based on 15 year old technology? Agree that the rollout was wrong, the software is not ready and CCH management is to blame for the decisions. However, changing with our large client base and 10 preparers to have a learning curve and conversion issues prevent any consideration of changing. Why would you spend $1,000+ for software to do 100 clients? Not sure I see the math sense... We spend $1,500+ to do 3,000 clients. The extra is for unlimited licenses for the other preparers. Rant over. it is still 2013 and the management and decision makers at CCH need to be replaced. They have NO CONCEPT of customer service.

Enterprise Hard drives. SCSI is the best, but almost non-existant any more. We use 2TB, 7200rpm, 512MB cache drives. Three of them in a Raid5 configuration. The Raid5 eliminates the need for one set of backups. We make a daily backup on an external HD and take it offsite every night. Raid5 makes data redundant across three drives. If one fails, system keeps working and the data is still intact. This is for the server. Also 16GB or more of RAM.

SSD is NOT a good choice for server. Duty cycle is too short. Only for workstations.

Needmoreupdate, 2012 program is totally different than any previous ATX software. Where have you been hiding? A two year old article has nothing to do with todays 2012 program. We have 2 SSD computers and they are the shining stars in the network. 10 workstations and a server. WIN7 is second best thing. 64bit PRO only. 8GB RAM or more. Anyone trying to use anything more than 18-24 months old or with less specs than this will be fighting a losing battle. Terminal Resident Programs: Uninstall EVERYTHING that is not productivity oriented. I look at computers all the time that have "junk" running that has nothing to do with the main purpose of the computer. Toolbars, weather watching programs, software update monitoring, internet security suites etc are just a few examples. Hardware is not expensive anymore. ATX 2012 with all its glitches and flaws is current state of the art programming. If you are trying to use outdated equipment or OS, then you are fighting a losing battle. If you don't understand the technical part, put someone on staff that does, or hire a company to do it for you. Those who keep up will drive the bus, everyone else will be in the back seat.

Your professionalism and public speaking ethics are showing very clearly!!! Insincere apologies are as sickening as calling someone a vulgar name in public. Just my observation....

Find the workstation that had that return open when the program crashed. When that happens it puts a "half" lock on the return. Go to that workstation, open the return, close the return and the "half" lock will be removed. I am praying to God that the next program update fixes the program crashing problem!!!

Reading it made me smile and I did too!

I found this information. The expenses cannot be included because, in my case, the scholarships were greater than all the expenses. Qualified Education Expenses For purposes of the American opportunity credit, qualified education expenses are tuition and certain related expenses required for enrollment or attendance at an eligible educational institution. Related expenses. Student-activity fees are included in qualified education expenses only if the fees must be paid to the institution as a condition of enrollment or attendance. However, expenses for books, supplies, and equipment needed for a course of study are included in qualified education expenses whether or not the materials are purchased from the educational institution. Adjustments to Qualified Education Expenses If you pay qualified education expenses with certain tax-free funds, you cannot claim a credit for those amounts. You must reduce the qualified education expenses by the amount of any tax-free educational assistance and refund(s) you received. Tax-free educational assistance. This includes: The tax-free parts of scholarships and fellowships (see Tax-Free Scholarships and Fellowships in chapter 1, Scholarships, Fellowships, Grants, and Tuition Reductions), Pell grants (see Pell Grants and Other Title IV Need-Based Education Grants in chapter 1, Scholarships, Fellowships, Grants, and Tuition Reductions). Employer-provided educational assistance (see chapter 11, Employer-Provided Educational Assistance ), Veterans' educational assistance (see Veterans' Benefits in chapter 1, Scholarships, Fellowships, Grants, and Tuition Reductions), and Any other nontaxable (tax-free) payments (other than gifts or inheritances) received as educational assistance.

The words across the form say "Not Approved For Paper Filing." Nothing to do with e-file.

Client has 1099-T with Scholarships and Grants approx $5k greater than box 2. Client also has books and related expenses for $1,500. Can she enter the books and related expenses on Form 8863 to claim the AOC?

So much for bashing ATX for not being ready!!!

4562 is not available yet. Asset screen and 4562 are linked.

To get the benefit, you need to replace the main system drive with it. A job for a techie for certain. If you buy new, the SSDs are pricey but the speed associated with them is phenomenal. New system at the firm. Push the button, login screen in 4 seconds, desktop in total of 22 seconds.

The is exactly the machine I use! Three thumbs up. Contact me to learn how to refill toner carts for less than $12 and get 5-8000 copies.

The largest reason I will not jump ship is the conversion factor. No conversion from one tax software to the other is 100%. That means scrutinizing every part of every return (especially loss carryforwards, deprectiation etc.) to be sure all information was properly converted. Consider hundreds or thousands of clients, and you see my hesitation.

I tried it as well. Worked great. Duplicated the return so I could have one to copy and past from being side by side. Love being able to have 2-3 returns open at the same time.

Based on the facts presented, your calculation seems correct. Watch out for all the questions and documentation on 8867.

Kinda feels like emancipation, doesn't it?

I agree totally with jainen again! (looks around to see if the sky is going to fall....)

One of the reason those kind of changes are no longer possible is that too many people thought they knew what they were doing, when in reality, they did not. I understand the IRS, as part of MEF, does not allow certain kinds of data to be changed.

The new program seems to be a system resources hog. Hopefully the next updates will remedy some of that. When programs are opened and closed, or functions inside the program are opened and closed, small bits of the system resources are not available till the next reboot. I reboot at lunch, 3:00, 6:00 and 9:00 just to eliminate those things. This is a characteristic of Windows.

taxtrio has the only method I know of that will work. I used the templates extensively. When creating the "Template" returns, name the file "100Templatexxxxxxx" Next one "101Templatexxxxxxxx." They will always be at the top of the queue in return manager that way.