TRX Will Not Be Offering TaxWorks Red Gear Software for 2012

[Mike D]

I spoke with TRX today and they informed me that they have discontinued their relationship with Red Gear Tax Works and therefore will no longer be offering their software.

They will however be offering their homegrown software which upon my review was not stellar!

The good news is that over the past few months, I have been in touch with Red Gear Tax Works directly and have suggested to them that they seriously consider retaining many of TRX members by making their own offering to all of us. In all fairness they have been quite busy with a new version of the software that appears to be even better that it was. Now that they are aware of the plight of many of their users, they might just wish to make us an offering?

I personally am willing to wait for their decision before I opt for any other product at this time. As a group we have quite a lot of clout when negotiating with any software vendors! Let’s try to delay any decisions until more information becomes available

For those small practitioners as myself, who are not aware, Intuit is offering a pay per return online solution that they taut as Lacerte which appears to be quite reasonable. For example should this option become available in the near future for many of us, I am certain that they will listen to us very carefully and make us an offer that we can't refuse? Please visit intuitaccountants.com/ito for more information.

Thanks for your understanding and patience.

I will keep all of you posted as news comes available.

Mike Dubin CPA

[Kea]

Thanks for sharing this info. For the size of my practice, I'm really not interested in paying a higher cost than I am through TRX. I guess I'll have to see how their homegrown product is this year. I wasn't impressed, either when I tried it before. I may have to just wait and see.

[Don in Upstate NY]

Is the product that they are offering a self-contained program that I can run on a laptop (at my client's home) without an internet connection, or does it require internet for data entry and calculation?

[ed_accountant]

Very dissappointed to hear this! I am pissed. I renewed early and I was promised that taxworks would there the upcoming tax season. I repeatedly asked their salespeople on more than one occasions as they called me to renew early about taxworks contract and was assured is was in place for this upcoming tax season.

I will not try their inferior beta tax program. I will not risk my business on unproven software.

I called TRX this morning and their salespeople are saying they are in negotiation with Redgear and nothing will be settled until November. I am going to call back to talk to their sales manager, Karen Bills.

[GeneInAlabama]

I had no intention of using TaxWorks anyway. The more I use it, the less I like it. If the new program doesn't work out, I'll have to try something else. ATX spoiled me. It is the only other program I have ever used (used it since 1993), but I can no longer afford the price and I can't go back to pencil and paper.

[artp]

I think we might be premature with this statement. TRX has in the past (and apparantly again this year) not completed their contract with Red Gear until Nov per my discussion with Manager Cristina Alvarez today. I am disappointed that they can't get this done earlier. It leaves their customers in limbo far too long. I certainly do not want to consider making a switch to new software at that late date if they can not make a deal with Red Gear. In the meantime, as a fall back measure I wll take a look a their own tax offering.

[txyank]

I renewed early based on false info.If taxworks is not available,I would like a refund. I will wait until i hear something definitive .I will return to Atx this year.

[Mike D]

I may have spoke too soon. I took the libety to write to Doug Hughes President of TRX for the facts. He responded with the following email.

Michael,

The status is still the same. RedGear (TaxWorks, 1040Works, H&R Block) always play mind games with us until the last minute as they did last year trying to get us to pay more for their software than I am willing to pay. With RedGear being owned by H&R Block they have the better than all attitude, so they try as they may to sell TaxWorks but they can't sell as much as TRX does so in November they come back to the table because they need our sales to reach the goals put on them by the stock holders of H&R Block.

I also know they are trying to completely redo their software to prepare it to start using it in the Block Offices so no matter what is the outcome the look and feel of TaxWorks is going to be different this year. Being quit honest our in house product is going to be 100 times better than TaxWorks this year. We are working with several of the ATX people to give them what they are looking for this year. We have added numerous worksheets, simple entry depreciation worksheets, and so many more things that were lacking in any previous software we have sold. Keep in mind no matter how much smoke RedGear blows up our dress they are totally limited to developing what the Guys at Block in Kansas City tell them to develop, however our in house product we can make the changes our customers want. If we can get most everyone over to our in house software no one will ever have to change again and I will not feel extorted by outside software companies trying to make me raise prices on you guys. Remember ATX was developed by if you need a form we will get it to you in 48 hours, so we are trying to something similar and our customers service is one of the best in the industry.

You may also let everyone know if they purchased our $399.99 or higher product we are now offering FREE CPE credits up to 15 hours. We offer credits for Tax Preparers, EA, California Tax Preparers, Insurance Agents, Funeral Directors, Mortgage Brokers at a much reduced cost than anyone else in the market. example 15 hours CE credits for tax preparers $44.95.

I hope this makes sense and you can explain it in a better fashion than the way I just did. Please let me know what you think and how I can get my message across to all the ATX community people.

Doug Hughes

I think we should all give him the benefit of the doubt and wait and see what prevails!

Mike Dubin CPA

[TaxOR]

Thanks for all the info, Mike.

I would go a step further and suggest that if TRX doesn't end up offering the RedGear software this year, and if the TRX in-house product seems insufficient, we can probably get several of us together as a bargaining unit in terms of getting a purchase deal/discount from TaxWorks directly. (I've been sufficiently satisfied with RedGear for the past couple of years at the TRX price, but if I have to pay full price, I'll almost certainly switch to ProSeries.)

In any case, I think we can rest easy that TRX will refund our renewal fee if they don't offer the RedGear product this year. (And if they don't, I believe that most credit card companies will allow disputes to be filed for non-received items within 60 days of the promised date of delivery, which in this case would be December 2012. I'm not sure on that, but... good to have it as a possible backup plan!)

[Mike D]

In my original message I did mention,

"good news is that over the past few months, I have been in touch with Red Gear Tax Works directly and have suggested to them that they seriously consider retaining many of TRX members by making their own offering to all of us. In all fairness they have been quite busy with a new version of the software that appears to be even better that it was. Now that they are aware of the plight of many of their users, they might just wish to make us an offering?"

I too am very happy with TaxWorks and would like to continue the relationship.

For all of you out there that agree please let us know your thoughts and if you choose not to post you can send me an email @ [email protected].

The more members that we garner, the better out position to negotiate!

Thanks

Mike Dubin CPA

[Terry D EA]

I don't mean to rain on the parade here. But, after all of the negative comments about TRX as well as all of the conflicting stories, how can you trust them. I too renewed early with the same false promises of Tax Works being available. I have also tried the in house product and have concerns about it as well. I would also like to know the outcome of all of the folks who did not get the service bureau fees from TRX as promised. You can google those articles and they are interesting to say the least and will leave you to wonder if you will actually get a refund. If I end up staying with TRX this year, it will definitely be my last. How can Doug Hughes say they have outstanding customer support when the reduced their support office hours to normal business hours during peak season? I am curently previewing other software and I agree as a unit together we should have some clout.

[JJStephens]

Like many others, I've been pretty UNhappy with TRX. In spite of having a lot of major software issues with last year's program (coupled with very weak tech support that was available only during limited hours) I did the early renewal to preserve the price. A few weeks later I got an offer from ATX to come back with a 3 year price guarantee of $795/yr. I took it and tried to cancel my TRX membership. They refused. They said that new members have a 30 day cancellation window but renewals are non-refundable. I spoke with four different people about it including Doug Hughes. He asked me to help them develop their clergy tax process in their new proprietary software (clergy taxes are my specialty) which I agreed to do pro bono but I never heard from anyone about it. I sent a second appeal about the cancellation but never heard anything from anyone.

By the way, regarding their proprietary software I keep hearing from them how great it is and that it works flawlessly but when I tried to run a dummy return (mine!) it could not handle even a couple very basic W2 issues. In 30 minutes I ran into 5 different issues that prevented me from completing a correct return. I know they're still working on it but my experience with it has left me convinced it's no where close to being ready for prime time. I'm not willing to risk a reputation hard-won over 26 years on a package that is so bug-ridden.

[Sure-Fire Taxes]

TRX Community,

I just want to confirm that at the Chicago Trade Show RedGear had publicly said they were not planning on renewing the contract with TRX. If you plan on attending the New York Trade show, you can ask a RedGear representative to have this confirmed for yourself in person. I've also been told by a few of our new customers coming from TRX they even called RedGear directly and they had told them the same thing.

Hope this helps!

Matthew Grudewicz

Sure-Fire Taxes

surefiretaxes.com

Authorized Taxwise Service Bureau

50 or more bank products get software for free!

[Doug TRX Alliance]

To Sure-Fire Taxes are you not the same person as Fail safe taxes that almost went to jail last year for texting illegally? It looks like you changed both your company name and your personal name, if I am not mistaken your legal name is Mathew Hamm.

ALso this is the ATX community board and most of the people here use ATX which is owned by CCH which owns TaxWise so if anyone here wanted TaxWise they could buy it directly and not go through a middle man.

TRX has always and will always take the high road and not bash our competitors because it simply makes the companies that bash others look really weak themselves, kind of like dirty politics or dirty campaigns that some politicians stoop to. TRX has not become the largest Service Bureau in the country and maintained that status for years by bashing others we have earned by the best pricing model in the industry, great service and listening to our members.

Doug Hughes

TRX Pro America's Largest Service Bureau

TRX Software Development, Inc. 26 years in business

IRS Authorized Software Developer & Transmitter

Complete Software packages without gimmicks.

[GeneInAlabama]

I tried the new in house product and like it a LOT better than Tax Works. The worksheet type program gave me fits. I guess I am too old to learn all the hidden places where entries are to be made and the blocks to be checked on the worksheets to get the desired effects. I had used ATX since about 1992 or 1993 and for many years before that I used pencil and paper. I just couldn't seem to adapt to the worksheets. The new program resembles ATX and entries on the forms can be overridden if need be. Many times I would know what the final result should be but just could not find the right place to make an entry that would give me that result.

I have not tried the new program out extensively, and do not know what the bugs are yet, but I sure do like the principle the program works on. I think I can deal with the bugs.

[GeneInAlabama]

One other point. I still like ATX a whole lot better, but I don't do enough returns to justify the high price. For the money, I feel this new program fills my needs best.

[kcjenkins]

Well, Gene, your post would make me consider and at least give a trial run to it if I were going to be in the business next year. Of course, that applies mostly to those of us old dogs who started out with paper, pen, and a 10 key, so we are likely to know what the result should be. Many of the younger ones have always relied on their software, rather than actually reading code and therefore really need good, bug-free programs. And that is not a criticism, so much as a recognition of the fact that the code has gotten so crazily complex that even we often find ourselves questioning a result, only to realize that in some of those cases that the program was correct, because we had overlooked some minor factor that affected the outcome.

[Sure-Fire Taxes]

TRX has always and will always take the high road and not bash our competitors because it simply makes the companies that bash others look really weak themselves, kind of like dirty politics or dirty campaigns that some politicians stoop to. TRX has not become the largest Service Bureau in the country and maintained that status for years by bashing others we have earned by the best pricing model in the industry, great service and listening to our members.

Doug Hughes

TRX Pro America's Largest Service Bureau

TRX Software Development, Inc. 26 years in business

IRS Authorized Software Developer & Transmitter

Complete Software packages without gimmicks.

Doug,

My intentions wasn't to try and start a knife fight with you on these forums. I'm purely stating facts. My name is Matthew Grudewicz and I'm a sales administrator for Sure-Fire Taxes my Extension is 715 if anyone would like to verify my words. In regards to TRX taking the high road to not bash your competitors, you just did this very thing in your opening statement with your reply. I personally have no in-depth information regarding Fail-Safe Taxes or specific reasons why they sold the company. The company had 4 owners and 3 of the owners were bought-out by Matt Ham. Once the company was bought-out, the new owner dissolved the company and formed Sure-Fire Taxes which has been running for the past 2 years and that's all the information I know. In regards to your claim that Fail Safe Taxes did illegal texting, the case was dropped because they had no case. You can find the dismissal of this lawsuit against the company off the Illinois State website which the lawsuit had began. You can clearly see the person who started the lawsuit dropped it without compensation. I would request that you use factual information when trying to attack another company.

The main point of this thread, and my post, was to verify and confirm your company will not be offering RedGear software anymore. Your company should be loyal to its customers and tell them everything upfront. This industry is tired of TRX collecting people's money and waiting until the last minute to tell its customers they aren't receiving the software they claimed. You upset thousands of people back around 2009 by renewing people under Taxwise software, but waited until December to notify them they were going to be receiving RedGear. As it stands in regards to what TaxWorks has told people on the phone while calling them directly and asking if TRX will be offering RedGear, it seems it may, or may not, be a repeat with the TaxExact software (www.taxexact.com). From what people have claimed at the IRS Tax Forum Trade Shows, these are some of the reasons why TRX is banned from the IRS Forum Trade Shows (including not giving your customers their profits).

In your reply you didn't even try to argue or tell anyone in this community that you will, or won't, have RedGear software this year. If you want to take the "high road" then please your customers the truth. TRX has made it tremendously harder for companies in this industry to be trusted because of their loyalty problems with their customers.

Matthew Grudewicz

Sure-Fire Taxes

surefiretaxes.com

800.516.9442 EXT 715

Authorized Taxwise Service Bureau

[Doug TRX Alliance]

Update on TaxWorks (RedGear, H&R Block)

I want to clear things up on whether TRX will have RedGear next year or not. Just as I have stated in the past we usually finish our contract with RedGear in November, however just last week RedGear sent me (TRX) the first draft of this years contract, but it will take a few weeks to get it completed just like it always does. Again I want to think you guys and girls on this community board for the feedback on our software and the ones who helped last year during tax season to add the features needed to address your needs.

Doug Hughes

[Sure-Fire Taxes]

Doug,

That's all anyone from this community was asking for was a clarification on the relationship between RedGear and TRX this year. My facts came from what was said at the Chicago trade show and people have said when talking to RedGear directly. We are all glad to hear that you will definitely have the RedGear software provided to your customers this year with no issues. As long as TRX stays on the path of honesty towards its customers in the industry, then TRX will become a stronger force in the tax software business than previous years. We all at Sure-Fire wish you the best of luck this tax season and for years to come.

Matthew Grudewicz

Sure-Fire Taxes

[MAMalody]

Give it a rest Matthew.

[Richy]

We were with TaxWorks for many years before they priced themselves out of our market about 3 years ago.

Switched to TaxSlayer, a Georgia based company. Great little program, a few little things on the business side I wished they did better but I can live with it.

Under a $1000 for unlimited 1040's and business returns and they offer bank products as well. We tried Tax Act for about a month and they just don't have the the support or the product at least a couple of years ago. They seemed to be writing the program during tax season.

Call TaxSlayer, 888-420-1040, ask for Kim, tell her Richy in Gainesville, GA sent you.