Lee B

According a recent post in the ATXblog by Kimmie, they have identified what is making the program crash when trying to open a return since the 12.8 update. They have developed and tested the fix and it is now in Quality Control for stability testing and packaging. See the thread titled "Same Problem Again", find Kimmie's post and follow the link. It was unclear to me whether this fix was intended for network installs only or both standalone & network installs ??? KImmie has now posted that the update, scheduled for 5:00PM EST is for both standalone & networked installs. There is a scary last line. "Tech support will not be able to assist with the opening of any returns that have crashed since the 12.8 update" !

This is the 4th or 5th post I have read about the poor programming decisions that ATX made with respect to reprogamming this software. All of these posts taken together seem to hang together and make sense. The conclusions I have drawn from reading these posts are (1) ATX will gradually get the bugs fixed and the program will become useable, (2) ATX will gradually reduce the peformance problems, but slowness in opening and loading will remain to be a serious issue, (3) ATX will really struggle trying to get the program to work properly on Networks and more than likely will never get it to work satisfactorily. The big question is, Does ATX try to keeping fixing a flawed program design or do they make some major changes so that the program performs the way we as practitioners need it to perform? Film at 11 or in our case next year!

Back when the early discount date for ATX was July 31st (pre CCH), I paid early. Ever since CCH took over and moved the discount earlier for several years in a row, I stopped taking the discount. and paid in December. This year I waited until January, made a down payment so I could download the Payroll Compliance Program and agreed to pay the remaining balance next Tueday assuming today's update fixes enough problems. It's unlikely that I will ever pay early again for a discount.

If you go to the regular ATX site, log in, go to ATX Communites, go to Software & Hardware, you will a find a very useful thread titled "Workarounds & Solutions" that has over 80 posts from various users of how to address different software problems that we have all encountered with ATX. There are some posts that address your specific problem. Good Luck

Normally, when you try to add a form etc that isn't resident on your hard drive, the software prompts you to download the form over the internet?

I thnk Julie has it right. I would do it that way.

On the other board there were serveral posts about using a free third party uninstall software that does a more complete job than what you just did. However you need to use it to do the uninstall, not try to use it afterwards. The name is Revo Uninstaller. If you do a search for "uninstaller" on the ATX board, you will find the thread. There are also some posts about the files that need to be deleted to get a clean uninstall.

Review the different suggestions under "Problems in Printing" in ATX General Chat

I started getting ATX efile error check messages related to this several years ago. Since I have never had the IRS or my state utilize this authorization, I just started checking the no box. Problem solved.

I have had similar situations in the past 2 or 3 years. However, I do quite a bit of writeup work. First, I gave them a high estimate to do the writeup work. Second, I listed all of their tax return categories and told them to make a folder for each category, sort all of the paid bills into the various folders, then run a calculator tape on the contents of each folder. Of course you would also have get copies of their bank statements to review for reasonableness. If they also have payroll, then you need copies of all of their quarterly and annual payroll reports. Obviously, it can get more complicated, but this is a good start.

First, since the election requires their signature, a little detective work is in order. If they didn't sign an election, then they are not a valid S corporation, which would require amending last years return. If inquiry shows that last years return was valid, review those those actions that automatically invalidate an S election and choose the easiest one to execute.

Before you buy any CCH product, you need to read the August 8th issue of The Progressive Accountant about the issues the overall CCH organization has been having for the last 3 years.

Another poster suggested renaming your printer to something generic like "H P LASERJET" This will sometimes work.

There was a post on the ATX board last night by LITaxAdmin that if you were using a PCL6 driver for your printer, download a PCL5e driver and your print speed will improve by about 50 %. Worth a try.

cnccpas, I've used ATX for 14 or 15 years. I' still curious. Are you hanging in there with ATX because you think that ATX will get the major problems fixed in the next two weeks or are you hangin in there with ATX because all you other options are worse?

cnccpas, After reading your posts and some other tech knowledgeable posts about ATX and their new platform etc., it sounds like there no way for ATX to turn this program into reasonably useable tax software or are you overstating your case out of frustration??? Also, I'm really curious why you're trying ride out this tax season, if you truly believe it's a lost cause ??? Since my practice is is writeup, payroll & business tax returns, I am holding off making any decisions absolutely as long as possible, another 10 to 14 days. I've done a lot of demos, over the last two months and haven't found another program that I really like. If I have to, I'll probably switch to Pro Series reluctantly.

I watched the program and he looked like it was the very last thing he wanted to do.

I downloaded the demo for OLT PRO several weeks ago. It may be OK it you're mostly doing simple returns. No supporting worksheets for property taxes or mortgage interest on Schedule A, so you would have add things together on your calculator then enter the total. Then there were several more complex issues that the program didn't handle correctly. I sent an email to the sales rep with my questions. She said she would get back to me and never did.

I still have two 2100s, built like a tank, a little slow, I will keep running them until they die!

I've looked at Tax Act from time to time over the years. Be sure that you check and make sure that they do and efile your state, especially for business returns. The holdup for me has always been that they don't any business returns for my state.

There is an article in the August 8th issue of The Progressive Accountant about the problems that the overall CCH organization has been having for the last three years. Slowing revenue growth and a loss of market share to Creative Solutions & Ultra Tax. Product rollout problems, a lot of turnover in top managment positions, lack of leadership etc.

I believe it means that the contents of your efile has either been corrupted or does meet meet the specifications to be accepted. Some posters on the other board have been receiving state efile rejections for the same reason.

In the August 8th issue of The Progressive Accountant, there is an article about the struggles that CCH has been going thru for the last three years. Declining sales growth, losing market share to Creative Solutions & Ultra Tax etc. Lots of turnover at the top management level. Product consolidation etc. ATX is not the only problem they have.

Other that checking the box, there are no additional requirements unless the employees are withholding contributions from their pay then you would have box 12 entries.

It's also being resold by Utimate Tax Solutions ( www.etaxplace.com ) . I talked to a sales rep who said they have reselling Taxwise for 7 years now. They are selling an unlimited efile 1040 package for $599. You can add the business entity package for an extra $200.