Catherine

I'm just west of Boston. The snow started at noon on Friday, let up briefly on Saturday, and started again Sunday at dawn. By the time all was said and done, we have about 15" of snow (light topped by heavy topped by light). Winds howled at over 50mph last night but today are only supposed to be about 20 mph with gusts over 40mph. I'm about to go out with shovel and snowblower again. You have my sympathies, as it's significantly colder up where you are than it is here. But right now I would be very happy to be living in a place where _I_ don't have to see this myself! Yesterday was the first official day of winter and I'm already tired of cold and wind and snow for this year. Sigh. Catherine

Ever wonder how the angel got on the top of the Christmas tree? From what I heard, it all began ages ago.... It was NOT a good season at the North Pole. Parts had been delayed. Production was behind schedule. The elves were threatening to strike for more jingle bells on their hats. Somehow they made it to Christmas Eve, with Santa managing to keep hold of his temper. The sleigh was being loaded despite the bags not cooperating, the reindeer were fussing about the harnesses -- and there's a knock on the door. Santa flings the door open, "WHAT is it this time?!?!" he snaps at the angel outside. "I've got your Christmas tree, Santa. Where do you want me to put it?"

By the way, Eric -- your swirly graphic eye is amazing.

Without asking for any details, I'll just send my sympathies and my hopes that things work out better going forward. Catherine

Because of KC's warning, I checked and did have the offending .NET thing. So I printed out the KB document to have at the ready, installed ATX, and ended up having no problems. Second time today that "sympathetic magic" worked. But I did have to install ATX twice, because I forgot to do "custom install" and the first time it loaded onto my C drive, when all my tax programs are on my F drive partition. So I needed to move it. Catherine

An infinite number of mathematicians walk into a bar. The first one orders a beer. The second orders half a beer. The third, a quarter of a beer. The bartender says "You're all idiots", and pours two beers.

I have a PayPal button on my web site for a year, and I have had exactly one person use it. At that rate of use, it sure wouldn't be worth it to me to pay $12/month plus all the other fees. The PayPal feature lets me take the (very) occasional credit card payment without spending more in yearly mandatory fees than I'd get in the entire year from users. I recommend it in similar circumstances. I have heard of instances of folks having real trouble trying to get resolution of problems through PayPal. So if you anticipate a lot of usage, it might not be worth the risk. Catherine

You don't need the program installed to learn from the webinar; it's all shown on-screen through ATX. I need to install mine, too, though. Catherine

I will reiterate the advice to make sure you're set up to be compatible. Also, try to log in early that day. I did check my compatibility, but I STILL had problems logging in to my webinar. And you don't get the phone code (to be entered after you dial in) until you're connected online. They were not very good at letting people know: this update webinar is THREE hours long. I was not the only one surprised by this, and in fact several folks had to sign off early because they had other commitments. Lucky me, I just had to put off a whole pile of stuff I'd wanted to get done. However, there was some good information in the webinar. Catherine

How about a special line item-- Fee: Fie Fo Fum, $15 ;)

ATX has the "Fee Collect" which is now available without signing up to do RAL's. There's a $15 per-return fee, and I think it's only available on refund returns. I have a PayPall button on my web site, that people can use _without_ a PayPal account to pay me by credit card with only the PayPal fee (about 3%). All these fees are charged to me. Better to pay the fee than get stiffed -- but most of my late-payers owe (surprise!). My engagement letter says "Due on receipt" but of course people say "I forgot the checkbook". I've been lucky in that the tax folks who do that have always paid reasonably promptly (some of my accounting clients are a different story and I have other ways to deal with them). But if someone is too late, I will email them with a warning that in future no money = come back to pick up another time; I'm not releasing my work without payment. Easier said than done, I know. Catherine

If this is an issue that's really important to your practice, Drake lets the administrator set permission levels for all users. Just FYI; not trying to "shill" for Drake. Catherine

I have set up customized reports to give me journal entries and saved those; it is a failing of QB that you don't get those automatically. I really like the no-change COA and the Deposit screen ideas; those would eliminate a number of nasty mess-ups I've seen in plenty of QB files over the years. Rather than an "Accountant Review", I make that account "Ask Catherine" (I think Intuit now has a default "Ask My Accountant"). That's the first account I check every time. Whatever it is -- you aren't sure, put it there, I will fix it. Catherine

Why, Booger, I previously had no idea that you love me! I am flattered. I think. Should my husband be jealous? Happy Thanksgiving to you and to all! Catherine

First step with a new QB client is _always_ to fix the munged-up COA. Unless they had a pro set it up correctly going in (very rare; in ten years I think I've seen it twice). And even then, folks will do things like add in new credit cards as "bank accounts", and worse, later on. Second step with QB: NEVER upgrade when the new version is available. ALWAYS wait until at least one major revision package is available and checked out. The community links are good for keeping on top of this. With the Accountant's Edition, you can pretty much read anybody's file of the same year's version or earlier. You can export back to the same version only. The Accountant's Copy feature sounds better than it is; most of my clients can't even _make_ the copy without me there, let alone re-merge the two files. And if I'm there anyway.... One really nice thing about QB is that you can _fix_ just about any mess the client makes without too much difficulty -- AND set up future transactions to post correctly (instead of the same old mistakes time and again). And the reporting is getting better with each new version; very configurable and you can memorize those reports for re-use while they are on-screen and you see exactly what you've got. I always hated the "Crystal Reports" that comes with Peachtree and most of the MAS-series. I can never get them the way I want them. QB also lets you export just about any report to an Excel format. It's an annoying program -- until you learn to think of it as "job security". Catherine

I use Target Insurance Services; they have an "American Tax Preparers Insurance Program". 888-888-1613, www.target-capital.com. My renewal is $229.00 for $10K per claim, $20K aggregate, with a bookkeeping/accounting service extra fee. That must be riskier for them. Catherine

I got 19 correct. But I think I would have done better had I been asked _how_ to spell word thus-and-such, rather than have to parse tiny differences and pick one. I started second-guessing myself and (as is usual) that caused me to pick incorrectly. There was one word that I used to get wrong all the time that I got correct, though, so that at least is good. Catherine

They're so CUTE when they're that little!! ;-)

I have found all too often that I find or remember the answer about three minutes after I send in the post. It's almost like I _need_ to post before my brain lets the answer out of hiding!

I missed two so I must be old as well (just hit 50 a couple weeks ago). But I still feel like I'm 17 inside. Catherine

Thank you, Bonnie. I will check these. Catherine

I also don't know what I would do without this group and the couple others I follow. I'm a sole practitioner without the "watercooler" help myself. For updates I get the IRS email newsletter, the EA newsletter, and a couple others as well. Then there's always my online tax research. But there are plenty of times when those resources are ambiguous, vague, or just plain contradictory. And so I turn to my dear colleagues from the newsgroups -- some of whose politics I agree with completely, and some of whose politics I deplore -- for help. But even the folks whose politics I deplore can back their opinions with something other than "'cuz that's the way it is!". I may disagree -- I may even not respect the particular opinion -- but I fully respect everyone's _right_ to _hold_ that opinion, and express it. And having to think through why I disagree with something (even if I just read but never post back) helps me clarify my own stands, and the reasons for them. And so they still do me a service. ("The unexamined opinion is not worth holding", to mis-quote someone.) But I truly appreciate the tax help I get here -- especially help with states that I rarely work with. It's not like I can call the guy down the street and expect him to be able to help me with an Iowa issue, after all. He probably sees those returns as rarely as I do! And speaking of Iowa -- any clues (pub number, something like that) where I can get clarification on an Iowa capital gains exclusion issue? I have a client who is a ~4% owner in and Iowa farm S-corp; they're selling this month. She got a letter indicating there might be a capital gains exclusion and I want to check into this. Nothing in the letter telling where in the state reg's to go digging. And Eric will be seeing another donation from me as well. Catherine

My husband has concluded after years of collating information, that if he carefully researches a product and then buys the best one on the market -- it will be the last one the company sells. They put his purchase through, and immediately thereafter go out of business. We have tried this with Microsoft products.... except that NONE of them are the best ones on the market, so this phenomenon doesn't help. So we settle for him buying multiples of whatever carefully researched product he is purchasing, and hoping that is enough to last us. Catherine

Sent to me by a cousin... Normally I avoid discussing any advice regarding buying or selling of stocks, but I felt this is important enough to share and warn you since this explosive situation might prove to be yet another ENRON. Please review any holdings you might have in the following stocks: American Can Interstate Water National Gas Company Northern Tissue Company Due to uncertain market conditions, I advise you to sit tight on your American Can, hold your Water, and let go of your Gas. You may be interested to know that Northern Tissue touched a new bottom today, and millions were wiped clean. It's a tough market out there. Be careful!

May the powers have mercy on us all... ;)