JohnH

Also, I read that even though the e-ink display is the reason the Pebple has a longer battery life, the Bluetooth connection drains the iPhone battery in about 7 hours on average. And that's without email notifications.

. I agree.

Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. - Mark Twain, a Biography Congressman is the trivialist distinction for a full grown man. - Notebook #14, Nov. 1877 - July 1878 All Congresses and Parliaments have a kindly feeling for idiots, and a compassion for them, on account of personal experience and heredity. - Mark Twain's Autobiography; also in Mark Twain in Eruption

But there is a HUGE, demonstrable advantage my practice of turning them off. I sleep much better at night, and consequently I am much less grumpy when posting to the Politics Forum. :)

True, and probably nothing wosrse than that will ever happen. But if you ever do have a serious problem, when it's over you'll be saying "Been doing this since 1980, and UP TO NOW the worst thing I've ever seen was a DOA system when opening in the morning". I've been drivinng for over 50 years and I've never caused an accident, but I still buckle up every time behind the wheel.

If you had seen some of the electronic equipment malfunctions I've seen over the last 40 years, you would have a different viewpoint. I don't trust anything with a moving part (fan) or anything with a heating element (printer or copier) that is left to shut itself off or go to sleep under any circumstances. If I knew a device could wake up on its own overnight in an unattended building to do an update or a backup, I'd probably not sleep well. I deny power to them before leaving the premises.. I know it's a belt & suspenders approach, but we all have our obsessions. Mine is based upon personal experience.

It's occasionally a problem for me when I'm shutting down for the day. I have a main power switch for each set of computers that I switch to ''off" before leaving, so when an unexpected update starts, I have to wait it out.

Good advice KC. That part of the post was not a joke. I was actually planning to buy one the next day. Went to Best Buy, talked with them, began to have some doubts, and then decided to read some more before parting with the $. The Pebble is very limited for the iPhone. I still intend to buy one, but I'm waiting for more apps and better features.

I'm not opposed to converting back. It all depends on how the software works and what the relative prices are. One never knows what can happen in business, and I still maintain you have to keep your powder dry. Besides, if the new ATX is the whiz bang program some are claiming, and if they can solve their dreadful slowness problem (BIG IF HERE), it might become something I'm interested in for other reasons. With my small number of clients, I didn't find it very difficult to simply enter everything by hand - didn't even bother to run a conversion program. Plus, the majority of my work was done on extension and that will be even more true in the next couple of years. I'm scaling back, so I expect to have even less clients by the 2014 filing season. This upcoming year is my big push to get at least 20% of them off my client list while increasing fees on the ones who are left. By the end of next year I'll see how that all shakes out.

Thanks Jack. I won't be using ATX for 2013 return, but I'm sticking around to see how things go for those of you who elect to continue with them. Looks like 2014 is going to be the shakedown cruise for the new and improved ATX. I'm tentatively keeping ATX on my short list of backup programs. One never knows - if I'm still in this business after next year, I might decide to give ATX another try in 2015.

Thank you, Taxed. That addressed my situation 100%.

Thanks. All those suggestions make sense. I do have essentially the same software on all 3 (except for my tax prep software beig on only one of them). But there are some hardware differences, And I agree with Jack - I've been beating the dead horse for a while. I expect it's going to start stinking up the corral by next Feb or Apr, so I'll have to call the dead horse guys to haul it away. (Assuming, of course, that Drake tells me I need to take that action)

I have a question about updates to Win XP that puzzles me. I have three computers at my work space. I switch each of them off at the end of the day and restart them the next morning. Each is a stand-alone with no networking of any sort, but all 3 use the same hard-wired internet connection (just in case that should matter). All three are running windows XP and I use each of the three in a similar manner each day for the tasks it is running. At mid-week, when I shut them down, two of the computers usually begin to install updates to XP, generally 4 to 6 updates. Then the next evening, the third computer will install updates. Sometimes it is the same number of updates and other times it is a different number of updates. But the third one almost never runs updates on the same day as the other two. Can someone explain to me what may be going on here? Since all three use XP and all three run the same duty cycle, why would one consistently get its updates later than the other two?

Did IRS commit a Circular 230 violation?

Drake probably pulled their conversion without comment because they are going to be honest with you while resisting the urge to cast aspersions on their competition. In my opinion, that's the honorable way to run a business.

One never knows when tax preparers may be called upon to help send men into space or process data for the NSA. Need to be prepared for any contingency. Tax preparation isn't just about basic math, looking things up in tables, and filling in forms, you know.

This makes me doubly glad I refuse to prepare EIC returns.

Ah yes, - road shows. Lots of interesting experiences with road shows. Reminds me of the time I was standing booth duty with a line of electronics equipment for the medical industry and the president of the company was preparing to demonstrate it to a prospect. As he switched it on, he said "The first thing you notice is the sound of the cooling fan." After a couple of seconds of deafening silence, the customer observed that the power light was on but the fan wasn't running. The president never blinked, he replied "Solid state fan...;" and kept right on with his presentation.

I agree that email is much beter than texting because it is more thorough, easier to archive and refer back to, and so on. I prefer email over texting myself for most (but no all) client communications. But with respect to the long-term outlook for this business, it doesn't matter what I think or what ayone else in this thread thinks about texting. For anyone interested in growing thier business, ignoring this trend will have negative consequences. Only a few years ago we were having discussions on this and other forums about email communication with clients, and we were hearing many similar objections at that time. Most of the objections revolved around the problem that email was draastically different than telephone conversations or that reliable method of document transfer - the fax machine. For those who are scaling back, near retirement, or fortunate enough to have plenty of business to choose from, this isn't so much of an issue. But for anyone needing to grow their business, this is something to be aware of. Your competitors certainly are. Now, even though I'm among those in the "scaling back" mode with my business, nevertheless I'm headed to Best By to pick up my Pebble watch. :)

Ms TK: I understand. Just keep in mind that "old fashioned" and "out of touch" isn' about years - it's a state of mind. I know 30-year-olds who fit that description. But even the term "old" is relative - after all, you're younger than I am.. And your last sentence is the heart of the matter - if it works for you and you're satisfied with where your business is, then none of this other technology stuff really matters.

If you ask your IT clients which they prefer, you might be surprised. Some will say "email", but others will quickly tell you they prefer texting. If they're really honest with you, the ones who prefer texting may also tell you they still email when they must, but they think of people who don't text as being a bit old fashioned & out of touch. I'm not defending that point of view; I am telling you I know for certain that it's out there . And if you ask anyone under age 22, you may just get a blank stare because they won't understand the question. Think about the implications for your business 3-5 years from now. I like email too, and for many of the reasons you mentioned, but I NEVER use auto-responders. I do that for reasons of security and also to keep the communication process seamless between my clients and me. They don't need to know when I'm away. But there again, it's a matter of personal preference. Your commitment to response time is absolutely correct. It is a real relationship buider.

Catherine: FYI, there are several ways to print a text. The simplest is to "copy" it and then "paste" it into an email to yourself, then print the email. On most smart phones (iPhone & Android in particular), you can also save a screen shot to your photos and then print the photo. or email the photo to yourself and then print it. There are other ways, involving using the "edit" feature, but they're a little more complex and generally don"t preserve date info. here' a video: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DZI92vh3EvA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DDZI92vh3EvA

I'm absolutely convinced of how texting/email resonates with the younger clients. So anyone seriously committed to growing their practice had better master it or accept the fact that they will lose valuable business. In my experience, the majority of the young clients who don't email & text are the lower-income, lower profit clients. With older clients it's a mixed bag. Several comments in this conversation already show me that there's a lack of understanding of how to manage it, especially when it comes to texting. Rather than impinge upon your free time, it is actually liberating. In my case for example, it enables me to be out of the office a total of 8-10 weeks out of the year and not be faced with a desk full of snakes & alligators when I return. And, as Jack has pointed out, the phone has an off button. In my case, my mute button is my off button - that's all I need to keep me fully informed and in control of my time.

So the main problem never was the phone calls in and of themselves. The real problem was you needed to get rid of the client and haven't bitten that bullet. You said you have a land line and you want all calls on that. No problem there, if that's how you want to operate your business. You just need to be aware that this policy is limiting your potential client base to some degree or another, and that lost base will include some high-income, high-fee clients. As long as you are aware of that limitation and are OK with it, then it's an informed business decision. (Looks like you just said the same thing in the reply you posted while I was typing this one. Absolutely nothing wrong with limiting your potential client base if that's your choice. I'm doing the same thing, except in reverse. I'm moving in the direction of easing out the non-technology savy clients)

That may work for you now, but I believe you will both lose clients in the future (or fail to gain some potential new clients), based on your philosophy regarding texting. This will be confined mostly to the younger potential clients. It may not matter to you, depending upon the maturity of your practice and how earnestly you desire new clients. But it is a reality, especially for anyone seeking to grow their practice. If I were trying to expand my practice, one of several criteria for anyone I hired would be their willingness & ability to use a company-provided phone to respond to emails and texts. Not necessarily 24/7, but definitely more than 9-5. A "no" answer to that question would be an automatic rejection, regardless of their qualifications in other areas. I'd also build into their compensation package some sort of metric to evaluate that aspect of their work. Incidentally, that client who repeatedly called you on your cell phone should never have been allowed to bother you ms Tabby Kats. Any decent cell phone these days has the ability to add a name to the incoming phone number. If you see a name you don't want to answer, or if you see a number that isn;t familiar, a click of a button diverts them to your phone voice mail. Technology is great, if you use it to your advantage.