JohnH

Isn't this a novel idea? When faced with a 2% decrease in revenue and a populace about to revolt, they sudenly discover that it's possible to make selective adjustments. Wonder where they got that idea? Could it be that they noticed that every taxpayer who earns wages figured out how to cope with exactly the same reduction in income (2%) back in January? Somehow we figured out we didn't need to stop making the house payment or park the car in the driveway. We PRIORITIZED.

It looks as though Proseries has a big following. Lots of good comments about it here and on other forums. I'm planning to check it out as my backup to Drake. (always need to keep the powder dry)

Regarding Excel (and hopefully not to take this too far off topic), let me suggest signing up for an Excel course at a local community college or training center. For about $150 and a couple of hours' time, you will more than get your money's worth in increased productivity. I've walked away from every course with something practical I could put into use almost immediately. It is important to find a course which enables each student to work at their own workstation simultaneously while the instructor controls the presentation. That way you can see on the main screen what you're supposed to see on your screen. If not, you usually learn two or three extra things while getting in sync with the presenter. Anyone who works with numbers should have some Excel proficiency. First of all, it frees you from the constraints of standardized software when you need control and flexibility. Secondly, it gives you valuable insights into how all software manipulates data, so you have a better intuitive understanding of how financial software does it's magic. It helps you to achieve some degree of software transparency that can apply across the board. As for number of returns and best practices, I'd say any office that prepares more than 200 returns is just begging for trouble by depending upon a single vendor. High volume practices scream for having at least two ACTIVE programs, and I believe this year has proven that hands-down. I'm not talking here about having a second vendor on standby - I'm talking about having the second vendor being in use on a stand-alone machine at the very least. It isn't very hard to gear up this way, the relative cost is minimal, and any claims to the contrary are simply excuses.

Refusing to learn something new doesn't render it ineffective. Macros allow you to customize & automate repetitive tasks which may be unique to your practice or to your way of doing things. They add to the functionality of the program. There are many Drake users who never use them - it's a take-it-or-leave-it option. But most Drake users who are willing to take the time to learn seem to quickly jump on the bandwagon once they discover what macros can do. I found them to be simple to write and highly functional, but that's because I already knew the capability of macros from using them in Excel and Access. I began using macros the first week I began using Drake and they are one of the many features that locked me into the program. Like many other Drake features, they help speed up the preparation of returns. And since we are selling our expertise measured in time, speed equals money.

I'm devastated. I didn't know it was impossible to achieve Grand Poo-Bah. So my useless posts have all been in vain? That means I have maybe 6 or 7 posts that achieved any purpose whatsoever.

Well, we could probably squeeze at least one more useless post out of this conversation to add a couple more posts to our tally. What do you think about that?

Yeah. The best way to get to Supreme Master or Grand Poo Bah is to post something agreeing with a previous post without adding any useful information.

But it does absolutely nothing to prevent Platinum plans (paid for with our tax dollars) for the politicians who are writing the legislation - for our own good, of course.

It seems to me that the wisest course would be to evaluate other software during the off-season by preparing some extension returns or even re-doing some typical returns from the regular season with several alternative vendors' products. Then after selecting the backup vendor, I'd tell them they're going to be my alternate IF they will let me use their conversion program during the off-season. With conversion complete, the decision to choose whether to use ATX or the alternate as my primary could then wait until the last minute. But even if I decided to stay with ATX as my primary (I won't, but I know some of you will) I'd still buy the backup program on a pay-per-return basis. Running some of my low-to-moderate complexity returns on a stand-alone computer would keep me (or someone in my office) proficient on the backup program. And the higher the number of returns my office prepared, the more obsessive I'd be about this entire process.

After this year's experiences and stories, anyone who doesn't have a secondary vendor lined up and ready to go on day 1 of the next tax season has no one to blame but themselves. This applies to those who had problems and to those who didn't. No excuses and no sympathy in 2014, regardless of how it shapes up.

I'm not sure that will ever be a function that accountants or tax preparers will perform profitably. I think an entire separate specialty may spring up which focuses in applying for the subsidy. It would be more insurance-oriented than tax-oriented, but would combine those specialties with and in-depth understanding of how government programs work. The closest parallel would be attorneys who specialize in pursuing Social Security Disability claims. There are already companies which perform similar services in a different context - I suspect that they are gearing up to add this service.

It may be that many of us will come to regard tax returns with health insurance penalties with the same disdain as EITC returns - not worth the trouble given all the headaches. At least we will have that attitude until IRS makes it a circular 230 Violation to turn clients away in either of those groups. I strongly suspect that is coming at some point as the camel's head steadily moves farther into the tent.

I thought we had to be careful and cut & paste posts because of potential copyright infringements when we do that. But maybe that's just another internet rumor.

So far I haven't found a way to override anything. But most of the time that forced me to find a way to make the entry properly.

Just abandon all this "Forms-Based Input" obsession that some people cling to. Then with Drake you'll find out what real speed is all about. I discovered this as I would prepare 2012 returns in Drake while keeping the 2011 return open in ATX on the other monitor. I developed the habit of opening whatever I needed in ATX first in order to give it a chance to catch up with Drake. Well, I wouldn't say "catch up", but at least the delay was slower. Your greatest speed-enhancer in Drake is to learn efficient use of the "Selector Field" at the bottom of the screen. This field is the "Pivot Point" for virtually all your data entry in Drake. For example, "A" takes you to Schedule A, and B, C, D, E, etc take you directly to those schedules. K1S takes you to the K-1 input screen for the 1120s K1. EXT or 4868 will take you to the extension form. And so on... Learn to use the Macros for repetitive tasks. They are easy to write and test, and they greatly speed up your data entry when you need to enter the same info in different returns. For example, the name and address of various charities for the 8283. And if you want to REALLY test Drake's efficiency, switch from one client to another and back again. Then try that with ATX.

Anyone who has ever visited the beaches in South Carolina knows about the Piggly Wiggly supermarkets. So as a public service, I just want to let you know that if you're ever in the Piggly Wiggly at Hilton Head Island, SC, you can find bread (and other essentials) on Aisle 10.

I like your NT posts. I like my NT posts. And I like most other people's NT posts. If I see one I don't like, I just don't look at it anymore. It just isn't that complicated. As far as renaming the Forum is concerned, it might be worthwhile to modify the name. It is an unofficial forum for any vendor of any product. That is by far its greatest strength. It had its genesis with ATX users, yet we've always welcomed non-ATX'ers as well. Next year I think there will be MANY more of them, assuming ATX is still on the market. So maybe we should call it the Unofficial ATX (and other vendors) Forum - or someting more descriptive.

The penalty relief is only for the FTP penalty (0.5% per month) not the FTF penalty (5.0% per month). So an extension request must have been filed even if the FTP penalty relief for those particular forms applies. Otherwise the huge FTF penalty will still be assessed.

Part of the extension awareness problem is the IRS's artful way of explaining the penalties. By failing to accurately distinguish between the FTF and FTP penalty in their explanations, they confuse the taxpayer about the implications of not paying in full. I think this is because they don't mind the taxpayer extending, but they want to do everything thay can to get the taxpayer to pay in full. At the same time, they know that getting the taxpayer into the system is ultimately more important than getting the money on Apr 15. So they walk a fine line. They have crafted the instructions in such a way that they even fool many tax preparers, who really don't understand how extensions (with or without payments) work. I see evidence of this constantly on all the tax forums in which I participate.

Good perspective. Let me add my sincere blanket apologies as well.

Maybe some will return to ATX, but I doubt I will. After experiencing Drake's lighting speed this seaon, I quickly concluded that ATX is just too slow and clumsy for me.

NC has a quirky rule that allows a credit for contributions above a certain threshhold even for non-itemizers. So if they clearly are claimimng the standard deduction but gave me a contribution statement, I still enter the contributions figure just so it can flow through to the NC return if applicable. But I don't charge the non-itemizers for making that entry.

Extension - just to be safe. One never knows what can crop up, and no need for you to be on the hook if it does.

Well, it is goodbye to the tax season. But many of us will be around here throughout the year. First of all, there's the matter of extensions - sometimes the most interesting questions arise after Apr 15. Secondly, there's the ongoing technical discussion about how ATX progresses in developing the program. Thirdly, there's the interesting marketing issue of how they manage their damage control. Lastly, there may be a discussion looming about the name & direction of this forum in the future. Many of us are unlikely to be ATX users in the future, but we still appreciate the tremendous benefits of having an independent forum regardless of our choice of vendor. We should have a conversation about how best to keep it active and relevant to both ATX users and non-ATX'ers.

Sounds like he's shown a little contrition. I would appreciate his honesty - many people are too proud & stubborn to do what he did. I'd assume he came to his senses after he calmed down. It happens.