michaelmars Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 How can you say that at this point. You can't check calculations, you can't check tech support responsiveness to errors nor can you check customer service at all. Even if your test work perfectly, would you still use atx if you had to hold 4-5 hours for first tier support? There is more to testing the software than just installing and printing. With all the posts here re: disappearing assets etc, is there a way to test this yet or do you have to wait for the 2013 forms? That could be a real deal breaker for many. I would hope 4562 and k-1 integration would be a priority for atx to get out to the beta testers. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcb39 Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 You had to be there to know what was involved and how the tests were carried out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 How can you say that at this point. You can't check calculations, you can't check tech support responsiveness to errors nor can you check customer service at all. Even if your test work perfectly, would you still use atx if you had to hold 4-5 hours for first tier support? There is more to testing the software than just installing and printing. With all the posts here re: disappearing assets etc, is there a way to test this yet or do you have to wait for the 2013 forms? That could be a real deal breaker for many. I would hope 4562 and k-1 integration would be a priority for atx to get out to the beta testers. That's about where I am, michaelmars. Everything I tested worked. Some was more cumbersome than it needed to be, and I wonder why they spent time and money in the effort of making fancier bells and whistles while there were so many systemic problems last year. What we were given to test did NOT address many of the areas where we all had SO many problems last year. Nor do we even have an indication that we can get through to tech support by phone, without going through customer no-service first (like last year) -- and that's before we even peek at the wait time issue. I will stick with Drake for 2013 taxes. I really prefer ATX -- but I can't trust them this year, and as a one-person shop with NO room in my practice for another software disaster like last year, I just don't see that I can afford the risk. Perhaps if I had seasonal help I could rely upon to take up some of the accounting slack and client interface work -- but my seasonal help is document handling only (scanning paperwork as it comes in and printing/collating/stapling finished returns). Another year like this past one is NOT worth enduring. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imjulier Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Just as an fyi....recall that I had posted about a new windows 8 computer a while back and asked for guidance on getting data transferred over from old computer. Well, I have everything up and running and last years product works great on my new computer. Single user though, I don't have a need for more. Outrageous amounts of RAM must be helpful. I intend to renew based on how last years product works on my new computer. Julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshtax Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Did anyone try inputting data into a K1 or schedule E rental property? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
norcalea Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Thank you Catherine for posting your opinion. It really hit home with me as well. I also feel I can't trust ATX for this coming season and with the increase of my client base another software disaster would probably finish me off. I am not a Drake person so I will write my check to Proseries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcb39 Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Did anyone try inputting data into a K1 or schedule E rental property?Yes and Yes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshtax Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Yes and Yes And it worked? I was noticing a 3-4 second delay between fields. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack from Ohio Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Thank you everyone for reading my posts on this matter. SARCASM!! With everyone ignoring all my posts and the work that the beta testers are doing and saying, I wonder why I bother even sharing. Help me understand why I should continue my efforts with testing and sharing with this board?? For all those that choose not to be completely informed, do your thing!!! This reinforces my thoughts about the real reasons for all the complaints about the program. There is much more going on than all but 3 of the members of this board know. These three were at the Customer Advisory Board meeting in late September. If you choose to ignore my information, why should I even offer it. Feeling really unappreciated right now.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lee B Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Jack, I really appreciate all the extra time and effort that you have put into beta testing and hope that you continue to keep us up to date. Thanks, Lee Barckert 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshtax Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Thank you everyone for reading my posts on this matter. SARCASM!! With everyone ignoring all my posts and the work that the beta testers are doing and saying, I wonder why I bother even sharing. Help me understand why I should continue my efforts with testing and sharing with this board?? For all those that choose not to be completely informed, do your thing!!! This reinforces my thoughts about the real reasons for all the complaints about the program. There is much more going on than all but 3 of the members of this board know. These three were at the Customer Advisory Board meeting in late September. If you choose to ignore my information, why should I even offer it. Feeling really unappreciated right now.... Why wasn't I a CAB when I am the one that first told ATX back in January 2013 of their issues with the 2012 software. I reached out to Raven Database company and personally determined the software would not work in an embedded database environment, also determined the 2012 software was not designed for a domain environment, and many other issues. I had a team of developers come to my office as well as the so called President Jason Marx. What exactly are you referring to as being ignored? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yardley CPA Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Jack...for those of us who are not testing the product, it's important for us to know your views. We are relying on what you and the rest of those testing have to offer. Please continue to provide your feedback. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcb39 Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 I'm not the best one to ask, because I never had any of those issues in 2012. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tax Prep by Deb Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Jack, Even though we may not express ourselves, there are many (like myself) that are listening to you and your recommendations, we are just less vocal. I too, had a relatively problem free year (I had minor irks and quirks, but nothing I could not work around). I have reviewed Drake and probably would go there if I didn't believe that ATX will get it right this year, but I do believe many of the bugs are being worked out and plan to stick it out for another year, much because of the positive feed back from you. So please do not stop! Deb! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshtax Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Jack...for those of us who are not testing the product, it's important for us to know your views. We are relying on what you and the rest of those testing have to offer. Please continue to provide your feedback. I still see issues in 13 that were there in 12. I told the rep I could care less about the "3" assignments as those are childs play and can be worked around by using word. I mean come on who honestly cares if you can put a company logo on a letter or you need to show 50 returns only on a screen at one time. I told them if their customers care about this then they need to take up a different profession. My main concerns in 2012 were the slowness of the software opening return, moving from field to field inside a return, and integrity of the data none of these 3 areas were addressed in the preview release from what I could tell. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jklcpa Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Thank you everyone for reading my posts on this matter. SARCASM!! With everyone ignoring all my posts and the work that the beta testers are doing and saying, I wonder why I bother even sharing. Help me understand why I should continue my efforts with testing and sharing with this board?? For all those that choose not to be completely informed, do your thing!!! This reinforces my thoughts about the real reasons for all the complaints about the program. There is much more going on than all but 3 of the members of this board know. These three were at the Customer Advisory Board meeting in late September. If you choose to ignore my information, why should I even offer it. Feeling really unappreciated right now.... Jack, because people aren't responding doesn't mean that you are being ignored or that your work, and that of the other beta testers, is being disregarded or isn't appreciated. This is a slow time on the forum with many members absent during the summer and fall, but even with those limited members that are here regularly, this thread has been viewed over 1300 times already. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshtax Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Jack, Even though we may not express ourselves, there are many (like myself) that are listening to you and your recommendations, we are just less vocal. I too, had a relatively problem free year (I had minor irks and quirks, but nothing I could work around). I have reviewed Drake and probably would go there if I didn't believe that ATX will get it right this year, but I do believe many of the bugs are being worked out and plan to stick it out for another year, much because of the positive feed back from you. So please do not stop! Deb! Did you do any multi state returns or returns with multiple rental schedules or k1's? I have numerous returns like this and moving from field to field in a k1 input or rental schedule could take 4-6 seconds between fields. Also prior to removing the computers from a domain setting(ATX did not test this) it would sit on the date for over a minute prior to moving to the category field. These are the issues I personally had that deal with performance. All the cosmetic stuff like editing letters and adding a multi color screen to the print manager are not on the radar of importance. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jshtax Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Did you do any multi state returns or returns with multiple rental schedules or k1's? I have numerous returns like this and moving from field to field in a k1 input or rental schedule could take 4-6 seconds between fields. Also prior to removing the computers from a domain setting(ATX did not test this) it would sit on the date for over a minute prior to moving to the category field. These are the issues I personally had that deal with performance. All the cosmetic stuff like editing letters and adding a multi color screen to the print manager are not on the radar of importance. Also being able to open more than 1 return still crashes the system due to low resources. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcb39 Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Thank you everyone for reading my posts on this matter. SARCASM!! With everyone ignoring all my posts and the work that the beta testers are doing and saying, I wonder why I bother even sharing. Help me understand why I should continue my efforts with testing and sharing with this board?? For all those that choose not to be completely informed, do your thing!!! This reinforces my thoughts about the real reasons for all the complaints about the program. There is much more going on than all but 3 of the members of this board know. These three were at the Customer Advisory Board meeting in late September. If you choose to ignore my information, why should I even offer it. Feeling really unappreciated right now.... Jack, I am hanging on your every word and watching for you to provide more insight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catherine Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 I really respect Jack's expertise in this area. My comments were specific to ME and to my practice. I did not see anything on the preview that specifically addressed areas where I had substantive issues last year (annoying ones, yes - substantive, no). CCH also dropped the ball a couple of different ways just getting me set up to beta-test -- and it took following Jack's specific advice to fix the final glitch. For me, for my practice, I simply cannot afford another season like last year. It was too hard on me, my family, my clients, and the rest of my life. To face that again or quit the tax field entirely -- I'd quit, and never look back. So for the 2013 tax year I will use Drake and hope that I hear nothing but rave reviews of how wonderful ATX 2013 is, so that I can come back for 2014. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Taxed Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 >>> So for the 2013 tax year I will use Drake and hope that I hear nothing but rave reviews of how wonderful ATX 2013 is, so that I can come back for 2014. I am sure there are many more users of ATX with similar sentiments. If CCH wants to take my free marketing advice, gives these users who left them a decent discount to come back for ATX 2013 or ATX 2014. I am sure if there is "rave reviews" of ATX 2013 quite a few users may come back to their old love! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NECPA in NEBRASKA Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Jack, I am reading all of the posts and am definitely interested in your findings. I am not in a network environment, but I still had some of the other issues. My program still crashes for no reason. I would really like to stay with ATX for 2013 is at all possible. I have way too many things going on to try to switch to Drake unless there is not chance that ATX will work for me for 2013 tax returns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack from Ohio Posted October 2, 2013 Report Share Posted October 2, 2013 Catherine, I am not sure how many clients you have, or how complex the returns are. I am on this quest to prevent converting 3,000 returns from ATX to another software. The conversion is never complete and sometimes there are conversion glitches. To convert for 2013, then convert back for 2014 is far more headache than I want to consider. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack from Ohio Posted October 3, 2013 Report Share Posted October 3, 2013 If anyone is interested in my recommendations AFTER I finish the next phase of my testing, please send me a message and I will gladly share with you. There will be a few members here I will not respond to. I will not be posting them publicly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tax Prep by Deb Posted October 3, 2013 Report Share Posted October 3, 2013 Did you do any multi state returns or returns with multiple rental schedules or k1's? I have numerous returns like this and moving from field to field in a k1 input or rental schedule could take 4-6 seconds between fields. Also prior to removing the computers from a domain setting(ATX did not test this) it would sit on the date for over a minute prior to moving to the category field. These are the issues I personally had that deal with performance. All the cosmetic stuff like editing letters and adding a multi color screen to the print manager are not on the radar of importance. Yes I did. Maybe not to the degree that you did, but I did do a return with over 12 rentals and I really didn't see any lag. Early on I did but after one of the releases it took care of my problem so by the time I did that return I had not problem. Keep in mind I only have around 250 clients, most of which are very simple and only a few with multiple states and only a handful with k1's. I also am not set up on a network which really seems to be where a lot of the problems stemmed from. But honestly, ATX was not the only software with problems this year, it's just that it may have been the works and more vocalized. ATX has always been a great product, but unfortunately even in the past has had bad years. And no I don't work form them and I'm not a beta tester, just a user for around 15 years. Unless something between now and December happens I plan on staying with them. If your not happy or don't think you will be happy, now is the time to consider your other options. Deb! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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