renewal for 2014

[Lynn EA USTCP in Louisiana]

The processing fee is not new.

[Bob Hoffman]

Renewed with Drake again

Like you, I renewed with Drake. Easiest season I have had since I used to use TAASC.

We don't care.

[NECPA in NEBRASKA]

I went to a Drake seminar this month. There are some very good points and it looks like a great program, but there was another preparer attending that was there to talk to them because of the issues that she is having with Nebraska and Iowa returns. These just began when she switched from Lacerte. She has contacted their tech support several times and they have not been able to help her. I know that they offer a lot with the program, but I do like the CCH research that is included in my Total Tax Office and I already have a website. I used a menu based program before ATX and I really prefer the form entry. In the sample return that was prepared on powerpoint I did see that Drake allowed the presenter to create an e-file without checking for the federal refund or prior payment.on the Iowa return. When I prepare one with ATX, I can't really miss it, because I'm looking at the form.

They really did have some nice shortcuts, but you can't teach an old dog new tricks and I'm very comfortable with ATX. I had a good year, except for the one day that I was down for a few hours and had to call for a different tech. I hope that they get the server error fixed, because that was my biggest headache this year.

[Christian]

I have been with ATX before there was an ATX since about 1990. I am going to check out OLTPRO just to see what they have. I had planned to renew but looking at an alternative can't hurt. I downloaded the 2013 program from the ATX website. Even though this is an option they still hit you with the delivery fee for a cd.

[michaelmars]

I would suggest you do what I did with 2012. As soon as it came out and people were posting problems I demo's drake and proseries. since it was December and I had the time, I did a few returns on each. by Feb I knew I wasn't going to go with atx and since I already liked pro better than drake and since I already did my fee discussions and locked in my discounts, all it took was a phone call and 15 minutes later I was up and running. I already had my letters set the way I liked them and my letterhead installed, etc. I sent them atx files to convert which did take longer than they said but I could understand that being Feb they were swamped. my conversions all went well except for having to reselect asset types on all fixed assets.

[TaxCPANY]

I went to Pro Series for 2013, after a decade with ATX. Not only were all fixed-asset types mangled in conversion from ATX but virtually all 2012 amounts were overrides that required re-input in order to restore functionality and cross-referencing. Took two people three weeks to get true rollovers into 2013! Just as bad, Pro Series offers fewer forms and, worse, many fewer state efiles. Navigation is a real pain; forms riddled with worksheets, and un-highlighted position tabs.

Michaelmars must have enjoyed a hotline to tech help, courtesy his five-year investment? Each of my calls to tech support loses two minutes to recordings you can't pre-select past. Only now, post-Tax Season, am I reaching a person within five minutes -- not 10+. Honestly, I had to budget half an hour for each tech call, had to make at least one such per week -- and I used to do IT for a firm's tax department.

If I could trust CCH to not repeat 2012, I'd be back yesterday. I'll shop pricing and features the rest of this month, at least.

[churchcpa]

 

I went to Pro Series for 2013, after a decade with ATX.  Not only were all fixed-asset types mangled in conversion from ATX but virtually all 2012 amounts were overrides that required re-input in order to restore functionality and cross-referencing.  Took two people three weeks to get true rollovers into 2013!  Just as bad, Pro Series offers fewer forms and, worse, many fewer state efiles.  Navigation is a real pain; forms riddled with worksheets, and un-highlighted position tabs.

 

Michaelmars must have enjoyed a hotline to tech help, courtesy his five-year investment?  Each of my calls to tech support loses two minutes to recordings you can't pre-select past.  Only now, post-Tax Season, am I reaching a person within five minutes -- not 10+.  Honestly, I had to budget half an hour for each tech call, had to make at least one such per week -- and I used to do IT for a firm's tax department.

 

If I could trust CCH to not repeat 2012, I'd be back yesterday.  I'll shop pricing and features the rest of this month, at least.

 

 

I echo TaxCPANY.  I went Proseries for 2013 tax year, after 10+ years on ATX.  There were a few bells and whistles I liked.  But just like with Sage 50 and QuickBooks, there's things you're going to love about one program over the other and things you're going to hate. 

 

I must give ATX kudos.  I do non-profit returns.  I did 990 extensions on 5/15 successfully in ProSeries.  I was so busy and waited till 6pm on 8/15 to start e-filing my 2nd extensions for 990 returns only to find ProSeries doesn't do 2nd extensions.  I was in big trouble and ATX bailed me out.  I had ATX 2013 installed (unlicensed demo) and was able to roll over 2012 data and create my 2nd extensions.  The e-filings went through and got approved quickly.  Needless to say I slept peacefully that night.  Now, I'm trying to do state returns from non-profits in ProSeries  only to find there are no state returns at all.  ProSeries sent me some CD with forms - I guess a bunch of PDF fill-in forms.   ATX had a boat load of tax forms built in and with linking capability.  Not so with ProSeries.  So yes, I'm now using my ATX 2013 demo to create my state forms.

 

I'm seriously considering switching back to ATX.  It's just I operate on a cloud server with connections through RDP.  ATX says that's not an ideally secure environment.

 

Still, I miss ATX.