Mel in Hawaii

I wasn't trying to 'prepare a return'... I was transferring responsibilities from one user in Hawaii to another in Miami. In the end I just had them use remote desktop to train the user on the orriginal machine. Now when they are ready, we can just upgrade the file and use remote desktop in reverse to support the user until they are comfortable and the orriginal user is let go. As far as multi-year compatibility with other programs, take Excel for example. You can still save your files as Excel 4.0 compatible and share them across versions. It doesn't make sense with tax programs, but I wouldn't think accounting changes that much each year to require new formats all the time. Must be just a mechanism to get you to upgrade all the time.

I figured as much, but never having done it, I wanted to ask.

We have an old version of Quickbooks (2001) that we have been using to generate monthly invoices on. As we are shutting down and transferring responsibilities, the person responsible for this will be changing and the new user will need to be trained. Anyone have any issues I should be looking out for with users using two different versions of the program trying to access the data? I know the 2001 version didn't like opening the file off the network (amongst other problems like the installation program not liking installing on XP or Vista, yet once installed it works) but eventually I got it to work. So, obviously I don't use Quickbooks, so I am asking you what kind of problems I should be looking out for? My biggest concern is if the new version opens the old file and makes changes, will the old version be able to open it again?

I have been thinking about WHY you want to remove the programs from the computer? Are you planning on donating the computer to a school? I hope not as the data will be recoverable. If you are just using it for your own kids, there is still a privacy concern, but it's in the family so not as worrisom.

Open up Windows Explorer (hold down Windows Key(little flag) and press E). Expand My Computer. Expand C: Drive. Expand Program Files. Expand ATX 2001 (or ATX 2002, etc) folder. Double Click on Uninstall.exe (you may have extensions hidden, where it would just say Uninstall instead). Realize that I haven't worked for ATX in about 9 years, so I am not sure if the default locations changed or what. Someone else can help locate the directories that actually have the programs still installed if I am mistaken.

Why bother appologising to the guys? We have the same problem in reverse. But being tech support and feeling for your troubles, I would suggest instead of adding new applications, run Divorce subroutine. That will wipe out Husband 1.0 and replace it with Alimony 1.0 which is supperior to Husband 1.0 as it has the benefits without any of the system requirements. That will leave Husband 1.0 free to run in Thailand or Philippines, but hard to find when Alimony 1.0 breaks down.

Go into the Programs menu and you will find an uninstall selection next to the programs shortcut (not on the desktop). Also in the ATX directory for each year you will find an EXE file that is named similarly to uninstall.exe

Wierd that you and MAS are both reporting problems with saving information. I wonder if it's related.

If you want really GOOD strawberries, try the ones that are grown on the Big Island of Hawaii. They were on sale about a year ago the same price as the ones that came in from California and I decided to try both. Now I gladly pay the extra buck to get them as they are usually a bit more expensive than the California grown ones. Maybe it's because they are fresher or something (with no 5 day ride across the ocean), but they have SO much more flavor. I grew up in Maine and spent many weekends picking strawberries over near the border with Canada but don't remembre tasting any as good as the ones from Hawaii and I was picking them fresh right out of the field.

Does this warrant a feature in the program that warns you for returns that haven't been efiled or marked filed? Or would that just be annoying like Vista's continual confirmaiton prompts? Would it also be nice to be able to set this to only pop up after say April 10th or something like that?

I was just wondering if you all are taking into account the effect that the Stimulus payment will have on people's withholding for next year? Are you just ignoring it, or have you actually discussed it's effects with your clients? Take the example of the taxpayer who had one time transactions in 2007 that put their income over the limit to get a stimulus check, yet will otherwise qualify next year. Are you going to suggest temporarily reducing their withholding assuming no more 'one time' transactions or are you more afraid that they would 'forget' to correct their withholding at the end of the year? I know most of you champion having your withholding work out as close to the tax liability as possible as they have the use of their money now, but in this case is the benefit of getting that money now worth the risk that they will forget to correct it again at the end of the year? Why am I asking? I was checking out the various withholding calculators that I have found online, and not one of them seem to even mention the stimulus payments effects.

Just in case anyone here uses XDrive as an off-site storage, I wanted to bring to your attention that it is going to be shutting down. AOL to shut down Xdrive and other services

Weren't they already talking about trying to do a stimulus for businesses, not individuals this time?

I am NOT going to be releasing a program this year. I just can't make it as if I was going to, I would need to be doing extensive testing right now to save my time at the end of the year for form development. My goal has shifted to the next year, so I am spending more time on what I am doing rather than rushing. Financially it would have been nice for me to have the company startup this year, but reality is that while I made great gains in the beginning, as the program grows it actually makes it harder to make leaps and bounds, now just steps and inches... I guess if I had more help, I could have made it, but I was reluctant in the beginning and I think that was a mistake. Another 'management blunder' if you will.

If you are thinking that you are going to lose a customer, is 10% really that much to 'gain him back'? My read on this is that they know that a lot of people are upset over the whole Tech support snaffu, they know WHO haven't renewed, why not offer these people a special incentive to come back. I wouldn't consider 10% running scared. 50% or 60% would be scared...

I don't know... Reminds me of going to Walmart... Every time you are at the terminal, it asks you something like "Was the store clean today?" "Did the cashier greet you today?" "Was the cashier courtious today?" Really, what good is that survey? If the person is having a bad day, I can see them answering no, but if you are staring someone in the face are you really going to answer no to the courteous part, especially when you are usually answering it before they have had a chance to NOT be courteous? Just once I would like it to ask me "Are you having a pleasant day?" and if you answer no, have it say something cheerful and uplifting.

If the companies won't upgrade willingly, FORCE them to upgrade. The EU should use this as more evidence against them and keep fining them.

Have you been absent for a long time? Eric changed the graphics to be less bandwidth intensive, which was also the time it went 'black', but that was quite a long time ago.

In todays world, everyone is scrambling for more security. Don't let that guy get on the plane. Sorry, you can't stay logged on to the website longer than 15 minutes. Etc. Well, I think we are going a bit too far. Today I get a special promotion emailed to me from a company I deal with on a regular basis. They want it to look good evidently, so they send it in PDF format. It's a good deal, something I would take advantage of, but you have to print the coupon and bring it in to a local branch to get the deal (otherwise I might have thought it was a phishing scam). Unfortunately they set the security on the PDF document so you can't do anything but open the document. No printing/copying/etc. All you can do is open and read it. Even trying to do a screen capture gives me nothing but a blank page. I wonder how their promotion will go? Do you think that they will get many sales from people more computer savy than me that can actually find a way around Acrobat's security? No Ipod Nano for me.

Good one Elrod... The only thing I have to say is just think back to when going from a 5 1/4 floppy to a 3 1/2 floppy was considered an 'upgrade'.

Jack, to be fair, renewal deadlines ALWAYS get extended a bit. Usually it's a rush on the phones that cause it, so to be fair for the people who might get a busy signal we would give a couple more days if people would ask. 'Officially extended' might be a big much, but there was always a bit of give there.

I just hate the automated recorded message calls personally.

Hmm... you posted while I was composing my post.

Rick, I think you need to read what you wrote... "I'll keep this as civil as I can" Doesn't seem so, as soon as you were finished with that you launched right into an attack. I do believe she was quoting someone else with her post, which is what the quotes were about. There are a LOT of people who believed what Bush was pushing, some still do. Not everything was a lie, but a lot was stretched and even his staffers agree with that. I feel that even Bush doesn't know all that was stretched before he heard it and stretched it some more. But that doesn't mean that KC is a bad moderator. KC has her views, just like everyone else in this world. She does a good job moderating this board and seems to be very fair. I disagree with KC's oppinion on this matter as best I understand it from her posts, but I don't think she is wrong. Everyone has their oppinion based on the facts as they see them. There is no right or wrong, just various shades of grey and we do our best to classify that shade to the best of our abilities. So, let's not turn this into personal attacks, state our oppinions and as the old saying goes 'agree to disagree'.

See, you learn something new every day. I always keep my root folder clean, so never noticed the elimination of this limit.