HV Ken

Wondering if anyone has offered Audit Shield and if they have any experience with it ?

I was looking at that SendOutCards place online -- but wouldn't that come under the Section 7216 disclosure rules if you use it for existing clients?

Permission is obtained (or opted out) by including appropriate 7216 language in the engagement letter.

With that said - I am curious, what tax information is being disclosed? Name and address can be found on whitepages.com for example.

Curious to hear other opinions on this. People love receiving personalized greeting cards! And I certainly want to be within compliance guidelines.

Just passing this announcement along. I have already been subscribed to e-mail alerts and find them to be helpful. I will pass on the text messages.

CCH SFS: Get e-mail and text message alerts from support site

1/14/2011

Get e-mail and text message alerts from support site

You can now receive instant notification via e-mail or text message to your cell phone when the Support Center is updated with new information.

Simply click the Subscribe link in the header on the home page. This will take you to the Subscription Settings page where you can select the alerts you want to receive. This feature is available to all user-types – Administrators, Managers and Users.

You can choose to receive notifications when updates are posted to the main page of the support site or to Customer Service E-mails.

Once you are on the Subscription Settings page, do the following:

1. Select e-mail and/or text message alerts.

2. If you selected e-mail, enter your e-mail address. This does not have to be the same e-mail address that we have on file.

3. If you selected text messages, enter your mobile phone number and select your carrier. If your carrier charges your account for text messages, those charges will apply to messages you receive from CCH Small Firm Services.

4. Select the items for which you want to receive alerts.

5. Click Add/Update Subscriptions.

Take a moment now to subscribe to these alerts. We look forward to keeping you informed throughout the year, and especially during the busy tax season.

IRS and state efiles are sent separately this year; all states are efiled in the "state-only" format, meaning they are created and sent separately from the federal efile.

I must have missed this memo that federal/state piggyback e-filing is no more. This creates an added step now in e-file processing, resulting in less effeciency. As Winnie the Pooh would say "Oh bother!" (at least that's who I think always said that).

I plan on attending one of the remaining webinars this week. My main concern about the prepaid mastercard are

1. Since the card is sent to the taxpayer, I am worried about dealing with claims for lost/stolen cards and fraud. if the card was sent to me, and I handed it directly to the client, it would be more attractive.

2. Although RACs have high fees, what are the options for people who want to access all the cash at once? ATMs limit transactions to $500 per day right? What is the ATM fee the client must pay per transaction?

One benefit I believe I read is that these prepaid cards may be offered even if the preparer is using bank products. Is this accurate?

I would agree the best place for these answers is to attend one of the webinars. They are the experts! :)

So, if I take the chance and offer Fee Collect, which I love because it's cheap, I take the risk of losing a lot of these unbanked customers.

This is precisely what the new Western Union MoneyWise Prepaid MasterCard is for. This and fee collect, no need for "bank products" for unbanked customers.

I wanted to get an idea what others are doing new this tax year? For example, giving discounts, increasing fees, accepting credits, refund on a credit card, paperless filing, working less/more etc.... As for me, I will be doing a lot of reading to prepare for the EA exam, going paperless for my files only, and doing online back ups of my all files.

* I am going to give the client copy on CD this year rather than paper.

* Purchased large 23" monitor (on Black Friday) to display stuff side by side (didn't have the desk real estate for dual monitors).

* Purchase high-speed scanner and document manager to capture and store client files.

* Request client emails and anniversary dates and use SendOutCards to increase retention and referrals.

* We purchased some new furniture for the office to upgrade the professional appearance.

* Add new services for small businesses, such as professional bookkeeping, merchant services (via CCH relationship with iTransact), set up HRA accounts for our clients, etc.

Looking forward to big things in 2011!

Where did you get the info from, customer service or the ATC Support Web Site? So this means that, right out the gate, any client looking for an Electronic Refund Transfer or Check will be paying:

$32 account setup fee (sbbtg)

+$21 bank technology fee (sbbtg)

+$21 transmitter fee (atx)

=$74 total fees, BEFORE any preparer fees!? This is getting absolutely ridiculous.

Is ATX still charging $15 for fee collect for direct deposit? Do they also charge the Transmitter fee on top of that as well.

This is why I dumped the bank products this season and opted to go with Fee Collect and the Western Union Prepaid MasterCard. I never did RALs and only had the bank products so I could collect my fees from their refund and print checks for the few clients who needed that. Now with the Western Union card, I don't need checks and Fee Collect can handle collecting my fees, all for a lower cost for my clients.

Another tax preparer friend of mine uses Drake. On the tax return itself, Drake will print "Statement #" on the appropriate tax return line

whenever there is a supporting schedule used to support the amount on that particular line. Can I do the same using ATX, and if so, how do I

get it done?

Booger

When the statement prints, it has a heading, such as: Line 21 (Sch A (1040)) - Unreimbursed Employee Expenses

Doesn't this address your question ?

So an empty Payless shoe store a block away from from the local HR Block office is now Liberty Tax. Yes, they already have found desperate people to wear costumes and stand out in the 10 degree weather. They also have a handwritten cardboard sign in the window saying 'now hiring' - very professional (not). Oh well, wonder if they'll be there after April 18th.

I am teaching their one week (20 hour) class for an owner this week. It is a decent introduction class. Certainly I would prefer to have my taxes done by someone with 20+ years experience (like me) vs. someone with 20 hours experience (like those in the class I just taught), but I am also not their target market. I am impressed with the "students" in the class, and the owner is a CPA who really cares about the business and its customers and personally examines every return. Their software is good for their target market, and I think they will do a decent job for that market. I would never run my business the way they do, but I wouldn't classify this particular office as a hack shop either.

Has anyone signed up for & used the stapleslink products offer thru Staples & ATX? The prices don't seem cheaper at all than Office Depot or Office Max.

Thanks!

Eli

I was in Stapleslink in a previous life, and I saved hundreds and hundreds of dollars. I was so sad when I lost it when that life ended. I am so grateful to have access to it again through ATX. I have already saved over $100 in just the past few weeks. It is a great benefit, and it costs us absolutely nothing to have it.

Anyone taken advantage of ATX's i-transact offer re credit card processing?

If so, details and comments would be appreciated.

Thanks, Lynn

Lynn Jacobs, EA, FNTPI, NP

Kenner, La

Hi Lynn,

I have signed up as an iTransact trusted advisor and have already signed up a client who is projected to save over 20% on their credit card processing fees! The person I am working with at iTransact (Ashleigh) has been very responsive - I think it is a great program and a no-brainer service to add, especially if your business works with small business owners like mine does.

Just listened to the webinar on this - this looks like a great addition to the product!

Anyone buying cartridges for the HP-4050? Where are you finding the best deal on these esp the high yields? Thanks

Here is an example of the CCH SFS (ATX) - Staples relationship for genuine HP toner C4127X:

staples.com: $143.99

stapleslink.com: $122.39

You save $21.60 as a result of the CCH SFS contract pricing with Staples, plus free delivery.

In a recent thread I was involved in, there was some mention from others that they might not be receiving certain promotional emails from CCH SFS (ATX). If you are not receiving these, you may want to contact CCH SFS and find out why. I find them to be very valuable.

Attached is a recent email I received announcing the ATX ability to offer clients their refund on a Western Union® MoneyWise™ Prepaid MasterCard. With this new option and fee collect, I can finally get out of the bank product business (even though I never offered RALs, I did need to print checks for some client's refunds)!

ATX Western Union.pdf

In a recent thread I was involved in, there was some mention from others that they might not be receiving certain promotional emails from CCH SFS (ATX). If you are not receiving these, you may want to contact CCH SFS and find out why. I find them to be very valuable.

Attached is a recent email I received announcing "...online webinars from the ATX Learning Team. These online webinars are specifically designed to prepare you and your staff for the many changes coming in the 2011 tax season."

ATX Webinars.pdf

In a recent thread I was involved in, there was some mention from others that they might not be receiving certain promotional emails from CCH SFS (ATX). If you are not receiving these, you may want to contact CCH SFS and find out why. I find them to be very valuable.

Attached is a recent email I received announcing the ATX relationship with Staples which allows you to receive special corporate pricing whether in the store or shopping online. I have used this and have saved a lot of money on things like paper, toner, office supplies, etc. There is no greater feeling than being told your total is $xxx, then you swipe your credit card tied to this program, and the savings are automatically applied and the new total is often significantly lower. If you shop at Staples and are an ATX user, you should be taking advantage of this.

ATX Staples.pdf

In a recent thread I was involved in, there was some mention from others that they might not be receiving certain promotional emails from CCH SFS (ATX). If you are not receiving these, you may want to contact CCH SFS and find out why. I find them to be very valuable.

Attached is a recent email I received announcing the ATX relationship with iTransact which allows you to offer merchant services to your clients.

ATX iTransact.pdf

I've never mentioned it because I've never heard of it.

I received an e-mail from ATX announcing the iTransact program. Are you on the ATX email list? They have also announced an awesome contract pricing relationship with Staples (huge savings on the office supplies you order every day), the ability to offer clients their refund on a Western Union Debit Card (this is finally moving me out of the bank product arena as I no longer need to have the ability to print checks for a couple of clients - I never did RALs - and can offer the lower cost fee collect system to collect my fees out of client's refunds), etc. All of these I have received email announcements for.

I've never mentioned it because I've never heard of it. In your copious free time (hah - hah) tell us about it (or where we can find more info ourselves). Thanks!

Sure thing - look here: iTransact Trusted Advisor Program

Also, while looking for that page, I also came across online Merchant Account Services.

I am only familiar with the iTransact Trusted Advisor Program (the first link). This program gives clients access to (lower fee) national billing rates vs. (higher fee) small business rates. If you are not interested in becoming a Trusted Advisor and offering credit card processing to your clients, and are only interested in offering credit card processing for your services to your clients (did you follow that?), let me know and I will be glad to connect you with someone who can give you information so you can make an informed decision before just picking paypal and possibly paying higher rates.

If you already offer credit card processing, I can get you a "Sure Save Analysis" which will compare the fees you are paying to the fees you could get through iTransact. This analysis will either produce a savings (averaging around 20%) or confirm that you already have a good rate. How can you go wrong with information like this? All that is needed is two months of merchant services statements.

Let me know if I can be of value to you!

For me, the benefit is to be able to use the ATX functionality to move (bunny hop) around the return vs. the static nature of the PDF file in the document manager.

Why open 2 years of the ATX program? I use my pdf files for the previous year. I have prior year returns, worksheets, client docs available in pdf and can reference the info while working in the current ATX program.

winsplit looks great. THANKS!!!

The software I listed above allows to have many windows open at the same time allowing to see different programs at once. See the link for a demo

http://www.winsplit-revolution.com/screenshots/videos-demos

I am limited by available desktop real estate..., so that's why two monitors is not an optimal solution for me.

It's clear you want to use a single monitor, but here's a thought. You can do a second monitor without lots of fancy 3rd party software. It's the easiest and least-risky route since XP is already set up to handle multiple monitors. If displaying the prior year's return is your main interest, then the second monitor is primarily for reference anyhow, so it doesn't have to be as fancy as your main monitor. Any cheap monitor will do just fine for the second one.

I still find myself failing to start my search for answers to questions like this at google.... The answer is actually quite simple!

Open the two windows, right click on a blank spot in the Taskbar and choose Tile Vertically. I set my preference within ATX to Med-Large (120%) and voila! Perhaps not the most elegant solution, but it accomplishes the task, and at the right price.

To undo: right click again and Undo Tile.

Thanks for your reply, Terry. This is for two monitors, or one monitor virtually acting as two monitors? I am looking for a solution that takes advantage of one monitor.

I have and still do this. I purchased a Radon dual monitor video card that came with the video card. Once you get this up and running, you will never regret it. Check to see if your PC has dual monitor capabilities. Where your current monitor plugs in, see if there is another port for another monitor. If there is, then you won't have to purchase a vide card. If not, then you will have to purchase and install a video card.