Lila Godel

I am having to replace our server, which means new up to date server software. I am finding that the scheduling program that we have used for years will not work with the new 64 bit technology. Same applies to the database program that we keep all our customer history and information in.

What do you use in your office?

We have 2,900+ clients for 2010 and our current database has about 13,000+ entries in it.

Any suggestions about software would be helpful. Must be 64 bit compatible.

We use Practice Management 2011 by Office Tools Pro. They are on the web at http://www.officetoolspro.com and http://www.facebook.com/officetoolspro. The software has data entry tabs for Contacts, Notes, To-Do's, Calls, Schedule, Projects, Time, Billing and Documents. The software installation consists of installing server software on a machine that will act as the server (ours is a computer running SBS 2011 Essentials which is only available in a 64 bit versioon) and workstation software. The server software is a SQL 2005 Express installation that hosts a SQL database for your data and sample data base for getting to know the sofware/ The workstation software is a .Net client that runs on 32 or 64 Bit XP, Vista and Windows 7.

They also have utilities for syncronising data with Outlook, QuickBooks and Lacert (we only use the Outlook one) as well as an Excel importer and a special DropFolder.net portal. With the portal which we do not use as we have a portal as part of our CPA Site Solutions web site at www.godelcpa.com (we also have www.godel.com which is not hosted by CPA Site Solutions) you can store documents in Practive Management document records in the cloud for clients to access and they can send you documents which will be stored in the client folders setup with document records in Practice Management.

There are two levels of subscription for the portal a Lite level that provides only file transfers and a regular level that provides all of the features including branding on the portal web pages. Both levels are priced based on the number of gigabytes available for storage in the package you select with a per gigabyte per month fee for overages.

If you get an Office Tools Pro merchant account (we have an Intuit one) you can send invoices to the DropFolder.net portal if you don't have the lite subscription level which allows clients to pay on-line and the payments sync back to Practive Mangement.

From http://www.fairtax.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=27321.0

We are thrilled to anounce that for the first time, the

Committee on Ways and Means will hold a full hearing

on the FairTax legislation on Tuesday, July 26!

From http://www.fairtax.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=27341.0

FairTax Hearing Update

At this time we're not certain a FairTax hearing will be

held on July 26 with the debt ceiling stalemate in

Washington, DC and the August recess approaching.

However, Chairman Camp promised a hearing on HR 25

and we expect it in the near future. While we work on

scheduling it, please encourage him take action soon by

signing the request here. Thanks you!

Anyone able to get on? last few days has been:

"The web site has encountered an error. We apologize for any inconvenience. Please try again soon.

If you continue to experience problems please contact Customer Service.

Go Back and Try Again"

I got the same error message for three days in a row. When I called support they had me delete my cookies and temporary internet files which cured the problem.

There are 4 pages of discussion on this at http://community.atxinc.com/forums/1/56839/ShowThread.aspx.

Anyone else lacking acks for transmitted returns on 4/15/2010?

See http://myatx.blogspot.com for the latest news on the backlog of unposted acks.

Yep, it sounds like your guy is a little late as by his panic call, he must be a calendar year filer.

His return would not necessacarliy have been due 03/15. He could have a calendar year parternship or a multi member LLC which would file a 1065 form due 04/15 or a single member LLC which would report its income and expenses on a schedule C filed with the owner's form 1040.

Note that effective with tax year 2009 1065 forms on extension are due 9/15 (due date for 1120 and 1120S forms), not 10/15 (extension is for 5 months). This change was to prevent individual tax payers on extension from not being able to complete their taxes by 10/15 due to prepareres of 1065 returns with K-1's for them not getting them the K-1s by 10/15.

I know this topic was discussed before, but I just couldn't find it. (Maybe I'm too tired to find the right search criteria.)

I plan to e-file a 7004 but I'm getting an error message to have an EFIN with the ERO firm name (or use neither). I don't have an EFIN. Was the answer to use my SSN? Or was it to get an EFIN or paper file?

Thanks

It's almost over!?

My understanding is that you must have an EFIN to e-file anything. If you ment EIN, but accidently inserted an F that is not required.

Have efiled several returns-individual, partnership and one fiduciary. All but fiduciary went thru fine, been 5 days with fiduciary and still shows

as "Transmitted to EFC". Anyone else having this problem?

See http://community.atxinc.com/forums/thread/47984.aspx.

Atx now has a blog. You may view it via a link at the support site or directly at http://myatx.blogspot.com. A discussion has been posted on the ATX Community asking for input on what people would like to see on the blog.

What do taxpayers send in with their checks?

Thanks.

Form 8453-F. Mail it and the check to the address where you would mail it if not using form 8879-F which you can still use for e-file authorization.

See http://community.atxinc.com/forums/thread/32937.aspx for another thread regarding printing in ATX on the 64 bit version of Vista.

Since you are now using Drake, you might want to check out their board at http://www.drakesupport.com/forums/index.php. It is only available for Drake customers, but that limitation was put in place after the firm I am with switched from Drake to ATX so my login still works.

Does anybody use an Internet Fax Service? I would be interested in the site, your experience and how it works. Thanks for the help.

Mike

We switched to maxemail (www.maxemail.com) in Atlanta from having Faxes received by a PC and routed to a laser printer because at the time we switched the cost for customers with our plan billed annually was about what Bellsouth was charging us monthly for a dedicated fax line.

We were able to get Faxes as PDFs or TIFs (we chose PDFs) and voice mails as WAVs or RAs (we chose WAVs). We had Bellsouth setup busy or no answer forwarding to the maxemail number for our voice mail. For incoming faxes and voice mails you specify up to 5 delivery e-mail address. For each address you specify whether the address should get e-mails with the faxes or voicemails attached or e-mails with links to the items.

We had it setup so that my dad would get the files attached to his e-mails so he could handle the storage of the files in client files (needed to be handled by one person). I got the e-mails with just links so I could view the faxes and process them if they were for me.

When we moved to Knoxville we could not get a number in our area code so we got a toll free number. With our toll free number they charged us $0.10 / page of each fax and would have charged us $0.10 for each voice mail had we not opted for the Bellsouth voice to avoid the $0.10 / voice mail charge.

Later when I disccovered that our copy of SBS 2003 could be used to receive faxes and route them to an e-mail box we dropped Maxemail in favor of a dedicated fax line to avoid having to pay the $0.10 / page charge. At that time we were able to get a deal to have 3 phone lines (2 voice + 1 fax) for less than what were paying for 2 phone lines (2 voice and no fax).

I understand that XP Home Edition is not networkable. You need the XP Pro edition to network. I dont know about the Vista Windows but would assume you could use it.

XP Home is networkable in a peer to peer mode. Its limitation which also applies to Vista Home Basic and Vista Home Premium is that joining a domain is not psosible. To join a domain you need XP Pro, Vista Business, Vista Ultimate or Vista Enterprise.

It might be interesting if others on this board shared their thoughts as to various document management software. I have been looking for a good solution for sometime now.

Have tried ATX's, Drakes and a few others and all but the very high end ones costing thousands have left a lot to be desired.

Many of them force you into there file structure, move your files to a different place on your hard drives and some even make you convert the file into their proprietary formats. Not sure if it was Drake or ATX, but one of them required a clients social security number to setup the folder. At least in my case i do not always have this, as not all my work is tax related. So, what happens to all the other files we are trying to organize in that case?

Check out Office Tools Pro at www.officetoolspro.com. With its system you save all scans to a specialy created folder on the hard drive (C:\ Drop File on our workstations) that the software is programed to look for. When a scan is saved there or a file placed there OTP brings up a document add screen.

After you specify a contact name, year (optional), project (optional), note (optional), staff and delivery (optional) the documement is added to the document file structure defined in the company setups and becomes visible in the doucments tab when the contact is looked up. Each doucment's file name is displayed in the File Name column of the documents tab as a hyperlink that when clicked instructs Windows to open the file with the application associated with its file extension.

We use Fujitsu ScanSnap scanners. With the proper settings you load the papers in the feeder and press the scan button. After the scanning is complete you are presented with a file save as dialog box for your OTP drop folder. Then you just enter a file name, click OK and fill out the OTP document information screen.

The only caveat is that in a networked environment you must have OTP set to a drop folder path that is valid on all workstions, but set to a folder in C:\. If the path has a mapped drive letter than each time a user saves a file to the drop folder that user and all others will receive the document information screen.

What payroll reporting software are you using (or were using) when you used Drake? I need to do 941, W-2, ect. I am looking at Intellitax, but they don't do any payroll forms. ATX pricing is very high for just the payroll forms. Anyone find something they really like?

Drake has CWU (Client Write-Up) that will provide for live and after the fact payroll processing. Details are at http://www.drakesoftware.com/Products/ClientWriteUp.aspx. Its included with their tax prep software.

If memory serves me correctly from the year it debuted when our firm was still using Drake and ATX Zillion Forms (now using ATX TTO) its $400.00 per year (price not on web) if you don't have the Drake Tax Prep software.

Tax Vendors: Check this out

http://www.taxsites.com/software.html

You can click on any and find out more about the particular software.

I don't think this site as been kept up-to-date. When I clicked on the link that reads Dunphy Systems: Â Dunphy Systems, because I seemed to recall that Dunphy Systems was bought out in an earlier season I got taken to a page with the words This domain name has just been registered.

We are in the process of creating a web site for our business (home office consisting of my wife and me).

I was wondering, if you have a website, would you mind either posting the URL here or sending it to me? I'd like to see what others in the ATX community are doing.

Yes, I am aware of the CCH website service. While it looks very professional, the cost is more than I am looking to spend.

Thanks!

http://www.godel.com (our website for taxes and accounting)

http://www.hamiltonservices.net (our website for payroll processing)

Does anyone's form update report actually say anything? When I try to look at mine, there is nothing there, even after it supposedly downloaded updates. Maybe there is something in my computer blocking updates? My EIC form says that it is version 21, which was the good one last night according to the ATX website. It still wouldn't let me create an e-file. I'll keep trying.

Thanks!

Bonnie

The form update report only lists recently updated forms that have been used in returns in return manager. When you click on the form it lists the form changes and the returns in return manager that have that form. This is so that you can make sure the returns have not had any of their dollar figures altered by the form update.

You might obtain a trial of Peachtree (www.peachtree.com). It supports assemblies for inventory. Once you have an item with a type of assembly (composed of one or more items with a type of stock) setup you use a build function to increase the quantity on hand for the assembly which decreases the qauntities on hand for the items the assembly is made up of.

An unbuild function allows you to reduce the quantity on hand for the assembly and increase the quantites on hand for the items that make it up if too much is showing on hand.

The assembly item number can be used in Quotes, Sales Orders and Sales Invoices just like a regular stock item. Purchase orders and Purchase Invoices applied to Purchase Orders are used to increase the quanities on hand of the underlying stock items.