This was my second season with ProSystem fx. And, I'm a loyal participant in this ATX community!
I was looking for software, had even reserved ProSeries; but nothing in that price range did the more complex returns as well as I wished. In fact the ProSeries salesman said he'd give me Lacerte free to just pay per return for my more complex returns. Didn't make sense to learn two new software packages my first year out on my own. If I was going to end up moving my data up to Lacerte, figured I'd better revisit the high end packages. Took a second look at Lacerte, CS Ultra Tax, and ProSystem fx. Loved them all. All about the same prices.
Well, called tech support for help loading the ProSystem fx demo (had Flash, which it turned out my computer lacked) on my very old computer; the techie said he tested the software when he's not taking calls and would walk me through it as well as load it. He spend three (3) hours on the phone with me walking me through all the menus of an S-corp. to show off the software. By the time the salesman called, I was ready to buy. The salesman worked out a half-price deal for me for three years. Although, by the second year with my actual needs known, I was able to get it even less expensively as pay per return.
You can use worksheet view, which I am preferring now, or interview view, which I used mostly last year, and use the actual government forms, also. Tech support and tax support is fast and knowledgeable and worth every penny. I once had both tax and tech support on the phone with me at the same time. I bought very close to the beginning of 2008, so had little time to practice before tax season and relied heavily on support who were gracious and saved my butt more than once. They track my calls, so when I want to know that thing they mentioned to me when we discussed IRAs, they can say well it was this or that, which would you like to hear about?
Doing a partnership or anything with a K-1 and then the personal return is a breeze. I imported an Excel spreadsheet from a broker with 140 double-sided pages right into Schedule D; doesn't have to match since you tell it where to put each column. Kiddie tax is simply point and click. I used all three of those techniques on my last seven very complex and document intense returns during the last two (just 2) days of tax season when I was quite sleep-deprived. I never could've finished seven complex returns with K-1s from partnerships and trust funds and stock trades and kiddie tax for a family of five and...in only two days at Block, but ProSystem fx is such a time-saver that it's worth any price.
Definitely give the demo a work out on your extensions and/or some of your typical returns and some of your more challenging returns. A number of free demo/classes are available in Help within the software and on-line. I like the diagnostics, which was high on my list as a sole proprietor, as well as tech support. You can pop back and forth among all the data entry styles by just clicking on View on the Menu bar. That was handy this year as I was changing from Interview to Worksheet. I have a very part-time assistant, and I can have her use the forms that look like what she has in her hands, W-2 or 1099 or whatever, even though I choose to enter directly into Schedule B, let's say, right on a very Excel looking matrix. I can sort most any column, handy for proofing.
Feel free to contact me.
