I did it

[JJStephens]

After dilly-dallying for about 10 years, I made the jump to Drake yesterday.

I had been with ATX and its predecessor for about 20 years. I was mostly happy with ATX except for the switch to big impersonal CCH, the forum fiasco back in '08 and the '12 snafu (which didn't impact me as badly as some others). However, I noticed the last couple years that it was taking about 50% longer to prep a return than it did five years ago. Between coding bloat and making the input process more complicated ATX had just gotten too slow. Absorbing a 50% hit on prep time was just too much.

I've been playing around with a Drake demo for a week or so and went to a demo seminar on Monday (about the 4th one I've been to--I'm just about on a first name basis with Warren Drake!). The speed together with Drake's business philosophy is what pushed me over the top. The fact that it's $300 cheaper (and only one price hike in 20 years) didn't hurt!

So when I do I get the secret Drakey (or is Drakonian?) password?

[jklcpa]

Are you talking about the one that you use in the software itself that changes you over from the trial version to the fully functional one?  If so, that happens once the accounting dept links up your ERO with the software and switches you over to that version. At that point, then you'll go into the software and change your password to whatever you want. 

Be aware that any time you change that password in the software, you'll need to update it in each year's software and in each year's CWU so that Drake's server recognizes that you are the real person trying to use their server.  You'll also use that updated password if you use the EF online database, and if you allow your browser to remember it, you'll have to change it there also any time you update it to a new password.

[jklcpa]

There's a separate log in name and password for the forum. I'm not sure how quickly that becomes available but I don't remember any significant delay.

[grmy2h]

I believe it was an hour or less for the forum password, once I requested it.

[Catherine]

Welcome to the club, JJ!  There are a few quirks but they are minor and the program is WELL worth the time it takes to learn those quirks.  And support is SO helpful any time you need them.  Except Sundays, of course.  Considering that I am still awaiting the return call from tech support from ATX from February 2013 (promised within 48 hours), I can give Drake Sundays off.  

[Mike D]

I have used Drake for the past 2 years and agree with the consensus that there are some learning curves as is with any new software and the tech support is excellent.

FYI you can email tech support on Sundays and probably wait about 10 minutes for a response!

Love Drake

Mike Dubin CPA

[JJStephens]

Like I said earlier, I've been really close several times before. In fact, back in about '07/'08 I was ready to jump pending one thing. I needed Form 1023 for all the tax exempt entities I work with. I talked with Warren Drake about it and to my shock and amazement, ten minutes later Phil Drake (prez of the company) called me! He said they'd work on it. I just spoke with Warren about it last week. He told they decided to not add that form because it has no computations--it's just a fill in the blank 28 page form. No matter--I now have several other sources for fillable copies of the form.

As for the secret password I inquired about, I wasn't very clear. I didn't mean the log on password. I meant the super-secret password or handshake or whatever it is that gets me in all the secret meetings of Drakeys.

[Catherine]

I didn't know we had one!

[GeneInAlabama]

Neither did I.  What am I missing out on?

 

 

[grmy2h]

hmmm... that's a new one on me too...

[JJStephens]

You mean there's not some secret fraternity that I'm joining? I was hoping to at least get a decoder ring.

[taxxcpa]

Drake has a members only message board visible only after you are approved for membership.  You must have posted  500 messages (or be granted a waiver) and be invited.

It appears if you are a member when you access the message board.  Maybe this is what you meant by the "secret handshake".

[JJStephens]

Thanks for the tip.

But to be perfectly honest, I was just trying to be funny. As is so often the case with my jokes, it didn't work. I guess I'll have to keep my day job and cancel my audition for America's Funniest Accounting Wonk competition.

[jklcpa]

I renewed today and it feels good to know that I'm in good hands with Drake!

[Catherine]

I renewed a couple of weeks ago.  Also spent a good 45 min with tech support walking me through networking my two workstations so my assistant can do basic data entry and I can just open up the return and go on from there.  The guy was really good and really thorough; he knew his networking stuff.  It would have been a bit faster if I didn't have a partitioned drive; there were some extra steps.  Plus I was taking notes as we went.

[JJStephens]

I finally got my Drake site activation codes. I guess I'm officially a Drakey (or whatever we're called).

I'm anxious to do a handful of my remaining extensions in both ATX and Drake as a learning exercise and to gauge what kind of time saving I'm going to eventually realize. I just hope I don't run into much of the 'old dog/new tricks' syndrome. I've done taxes for 27 or 28 years, about 20 of that with ATX and its predecessor (Parsons and pencil before that). We'll see.

I guess I'm a glutton for software-switching punishment. On Jan 1 I moved all my Quickbooks clients to new cloud-based accounting and payroll softwares and last week transitioned my e-mail/scheduling away from Outlook. I hope a year from now I look back on '15 and continue to think I made good choices.

I don't know if any of you are familiar with the Myers-Brigss personality type indicator test. According to their material, my personality type is what they call the Master Mind and they say it the rarest of all their types. It nailed me. I'm always looking for a better way to build a mouse trap (hence all the software changes). That is my greatest strength--and my greatest weakness. I always have pretty good systems in place, but I can also obsess for an hour writing the perfect four sentence memo about effective time management. I wonder if there is a support group for people like me

[Catherine]

I finally got my Drake site activation codes. I guess I'm officially a Drakey (or whatever we're called).

I'm anxious to do a handful of my remaining extensions in both ATX and Drake as a learning exercise and to gauge what kind of time saving I'm going to eventually realize. I just hope I don't run into much of the 'old dog/new tricks' syndrome. I've done taxes for 27 or 28 years, about 20 of that with ATX and its predecessor (Parsons and pencil before that). We'll see.

I guess I'm a glutton for software-switching punishment. On Jan 1 I moved all my Quickbooks clients to new cloud-based accounting and payroll softwares and last week transitioned my e-mail/scheduling away from Outlook. I hope a year from now I look back on '15 and continue to think I made good choices.

I don't know if any of you are familiar with the Myers-Brigss personality type indicator test. According to their material, my personality type is what they call the Master Mind and they say it the rarest of all their types. It nailed me. I'm always looking for a better way to build a mouse trap (hence all the software changes). That is my greatest strength--and my greatest weakness. I always have pretty good systems in place, but I can also obsess for an hour writing the perfect four sentence memo about effective time management. I wonder if there is a support group for people like me

​Congratulations!  Once you are used to the program I think you'll find there is a lot of time savings.  

I don't recall if I ever took they Myers-Briggs and if I did, what it said about my personality.  However, my husband has a bad case of what he calls "Protestant Work Ethic" and I once offered to find him a 24-step program for it.  After all, 12 steps isn't nearly enough to address the issue.  Sounds like you could join him!  

[JJStephens]

I could probably use a 24 step program ... though I'd like a crack on whittling it down to 21 steps

[JJStephens]

Thot I'd followup on this from forever ago.

As I mentioned in my OP, I made the jump to Drake last May. Garsh, I wish I'd done this years ago. Sure there have been a few learning glitches but now that I have the hang of it I'm finding that my prep time is about 50-60% what it was previously with ATX. Further, the software has worked flawlessly. Both the last two years I ran into a serious bug that ATX software engineers took two days to figure out.

Get this. On Feb 27 I got an e-mail from someone at CCH offering me 2 years for the price of 1 if I'd come back to TaxWise. I've never used TaxWise! I did use ATX (and its predecessor) for more than 20 years. On Feb 27. I guess they thought I was waiting for mid-March to start preparing returns.

[grmy2h]

3 hours ago, JJStephens said:

Thot I'd followup on this from forever ago.

As I mentioned in my OP, I made the jump to Drake last May. Garsh, I wish I'd done this years ago. Sure there have been a few learning glitches but now that I have the hang of it I'm finding that my prep time is about 50-60% what it was previously with ATX.

That is really great to hear. I'm so glad it's working out for you!!

[Catherine]

I am also very happy for you.  Welcome to the club!

[jklcpa]

5 hours ago, JJStephens said:

I'm finding that my prep time is about 50-60% what it was previously with ATX

 

This is true for me as well.  It took a while for me to stop wondering "is this all there is to do" when I'd finish the input so quickly and also not have to fiddle with overrides or fixing the letters of instruction.

[Ttcoons]

We switched from Ultra TAX to Drake two seasons ago.  We have been pretty happy with the software doing 1040's but are having a terrible time with Corporate returns.  Our challenge has  been with getting clients year end trial balance out of Quickbooks into Drake.  Last year we did the spreadsheet export than import into CWU.  We then had to do all the tax coding.  After last year we spent a considerable amount of labor putting together a suggested process and sent it to Drake.  They acknowledged but never responded with a solution,  This we have spent 100's of hours trying to find a way to get the year end QB numbers into Drake without losing the tax coding.  We once again developed a work around and sent a suggested process to Drake.  They rejected our plea to open the starting balances on the accounts field so we can get good starting numbers.  We are absolutely frustrated and exhausted and the Management at Drake will not even respond to us we even offered to pay for some of the programming cost.  We are a medium size firm with three offices and 10 staff members preparing returns.   We do a lot of 1065's, 1120,1120S, 1040NR's, 990 and a few 5500's .  Is there anyone out there that is using Drake and CWU for Corporate tax preparing if so how are you getting the QB's data into Drakes system?  We fear we have made a huge mistake and are now dreading a software change after the 2015 season.

Anybody who has successfully used Drake to do complex business returns out there?  We would desperately like to hear from you.

Tim

Certified Public Accountants of Florida

 

[jklcpa]

I use QB for my write up clients, and after I have completed any bookkeeping and all accounting work and I have reconciled balances in QB, then I input numbers into Drake directly.  Once I know I have a good set of books, I can have corporate or partnership input done in a very short amount of time, much less time than I'd ever spend exporting/importing or doing all of that set up.  I do turn off the auto-balance feature for the balance sheet.

A million years ago when I was young and working with a firm, we tried setting up for import from a write up program into CCH's software that was the predecessor to Prosystem Fx, and I tried again with QB and ATX. It was the biggest waste of an hour's time and I never got the numbers to flow over. I had that return done in about 15 minutes by manually inputting the data.

One other thing about Drake that I really like is the K-1 export over to the individual returns. On the personal return, the program picked up every number except for one line requiring my input on the partners' basis worksheets.

 

[Catherine]

Like Judy, once I have good numbers I put info directly into Drake by hand.  I don't trust imports and frankly have NO clients who do their own books whose QB files I trust:  I see how many items I have to fix to get decent statements that reflect accounting reality rather than the "bookkeeper's" fantasy of how things work.   When I do the books, it's all so clear and streamlined that direct input takes me very little time.  Leaving me more time to argue with balance sheet items which I always find aggravating.  

I tried once, years ago, to import one QB file into ATX, to see how it went.  Just *finding* all the errors took me about twice as much time as direct entry would have so I abandoned that idea permanently.     

I have found Drake to be very *open* to programming suggestions but not necessarily *responsive* to me directly.  I sent in a couple of suggestions last year and got nothing but the auto-response (and never even got that from CCH).  Then found some of those suggestions incorporated into this year's version.

The K-1 import in Drake, from S-corp and partnership returns, is flawless and fast.  I like that.  The trades import from Gruntworx (or any excel file, I guess) is also very good but I try to make sure I make any changes needed (T, S, J coding, adding the state, for two examples) in Excel first because I can auto-fill there but not on the 8949 entry grid.