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Dunphy to ATX to ProSeries


micpa

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I originally posted on the ATX board last year when Dunphy was bought out by Creative Solutions. I obtained at least 8 tax program demos, as switching software and conversions are something I only wanted to do once. I bought ATX Max on the earlybird offer and then found out they were bought out by CCH. ProSystemFX by CCH was one of the demos I tried and did not like, not to mention the high price. I thought ATX would be a good alternative product for CCH. When CCH announced that they had also purchased Tax Wise, I realized I could not afford the time investment in ATX only for it to become TAXATX Wise, ATX Wise, Wise ATX, or some other combination. I then decicded to use ProSeries offer to ATX users of $1,000 for the next 3 years for the 1040, 1041, 1065, 1120, 1120-S. forms package, tax research, unlimited e-filing. When I added on the Client Organizer, I'm around $1,400 total.

Yes, I know Intuit could care less about me, I know they make Turbo Tax, I know they adverstise that you can do your own taxes, I know they have some sort of free access to their software. I also needed to use software that was not going to be bought out, combined, merged, improved into something I had to relearn.

I did not use ATX long enough to form an opinion, other than working with their tech support it took a solid day to get it to run on my new laptop. I worked weeks with them to get a Dunphy conversion that was not usable and finally realized that I would just have to reenter all of my clients if I went with ATX (Name, address, social security numbers and birth dates would have been nice, ATX!) One of the main reasons I went with ATX the first time was the quality and free flow of information on their board (in essence, free support from actual users.) The bottom line is I jumped ship and went with ProSeries.

I never thought I would get up to speed with ProSeries. The entry process took at least 50% longer than Dunphy which is to be expected, as I used Dunphy from 1985 through 2005. By March 1, I was just as fast with ProSeries and was impressed with it, especially on multi-state returns and their review and final checking. If a form is missing required input, it appears in red on the side next to the Form name. I used it for a client that had the Federal, and States of MI, MS and CA and was very impressed with how it functioned. The few State returns I did with ATX were very poor, almost to the point where I had to enter all of the information, especially Michigan. Another advantage to ProSeries that I can see is it appears to have an excellent data entry format which will be helpful for me to add employees. I use it in the form entry format, which I'm used to from Dunphy. I looked at ATX's data entry format and found that to be very poor.

As for any efiling problems, I did notice on the 17th that it took around 30 seconds to transmit my returns instead of 10 seconds using my high speed connection. I know there are a lot of very helpful and good people using ATX and wish all of you the best, but I could not believe that CCH would close their board down with 2 weeks to go.

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On the flip side-I left ProSeries three years ago, agter using them for 12 years, because we opened a new office, and they wanted another $6,000-because we had a new address! (They said they couldn't trust us to not sell it to other CPAS). Their tech support was terrible, and I had had it. We do about 100 1040s, and approx 50-60 1120s, 990s etc. I will agree that ATX is not as sophisticated as the more expensive products, but it does have some nice features, and for the money it can't be beat. This past year I did not have to call tech support once! I understand the whole CCH thing, etc. but we are all kidding ourselves if we think more changes won't happen out there. So take advantage of a less expensive (and basically good program!) while you can

cpa3917

I originally posted on the ATX board last year when Dunphy was bought out by Creative Solutions. I obtained at least 8 tax program demos, as switching software and conversions are something I only wanted to do once. I bought ATX Max on the earlybird offer and then found out they were bought out by CCH. ProSystemFX by CCH was one of the demos I tried and did not like, not to mention the high price. I thought ATX would be a good alternative product for CCH. When CCH announced that they had also purchased Tax Wise, I realized I could not afford the time investment in ATX only for it to become TAXATX Wise, ATX Wise, Wise ATX, or some other combination. I then decicded to use ProSeries offer to ATX users of $1,000 for the next 3 years for the 1040, 1041, 1065, 1120, 1120-S. forms package, tax research, unlimited e-filing. When I added on the Client Organizer, I'm around $1,400 total.

Yes, I know Intuit could care less about me, I know they make Turbo Tax, I know they adverstise that you can do your own taxes, I know they have some sort of free access to their software. I also needed to use software that was not going to be bought out, combined, merged, improved into something I had to relearn.

I did not use ATX long enough to form an opinion, other than working with their tech support it took a solid day to get it to run on my new laptop. I worked weeks with them to get a Dunphy conversion that was not usable and finally realized that I would just have to reenter all of my clients if I went with ATX (Name, address, social security numbers and birth dates would have been nice, ATX!) One of the main reasons I went with ATX the first time was the quality and free flow of information on their board (in essence, free support from actual users.) The bottom line is I jumped ship and went with ProSeries.

I never thought I would get up to speed with ProSeries. The entry process took at least 50% longer than Dunphy which is to be expected, as I used Dunphy from 1985 through 2005. By March 1, I was just as fast with ProSeries and was impressed with it, especially on multi-state returns and their review and final checking. If a form is missing required input, it appears in red on the side next to the Form name. I used it for a client that had the Federal, and States of MI, MS and CA and was very impressed with how it functioned. The few State returns I did with ATX were very poor, almost to the point where I had to enter all of the information, especially Michigan. Another advantage to ProSeries that I can see is it appears to have an excellent data entry format which will be helpful for me to add employees. I use it in the form entry format, which I'm used to from Dunphy. I looked at ATX's data entry format and found that to be very poor.

As for any efiling problems, I did notice on the 17th that it took around 30 seconds to transmit my returns instead of 10 seconds using my high speed connection. I know there are a lot of very helpful and good people using ATX and wish all of you the best, but I could not believe that CCH would close their board down with 2 weeks to go.

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I was just trying to give some information on my experience. I'm sure that we will all face changes in the future regarding tax preparation software. If Dunphy had not been bought out, I would probably still be using it.

After using ProSeries for 2006, I would not go back to Dunphy if I could. I don't know about ProSeries 3 years ago, but there were significant improvements in the 2006 over the 2005 program. I'm not knocking ATX either, as I did not use it in 2006. If I look at their product in the future, I'm sure the 2008 program will be different from the 2005 version I tried.

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>>I also needed to use software that was not going to be bought out, combined, merged, improved into something I had to relearn.<<

I use ProSeries too, and I use Lacerte in my principal office. I appreciate their complete programs, with built-in help files and fantastic diagnostics.

However, I don't dream that just because Intuit is a big software company they won't spin off their tax divisions or sell the whole corporation whenever they get a suitable offer--and I know they get offers every month like any other successful operation.

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