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Possible switch to ATX. Can ATX handle the complexity?


SaraEA

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We use ATX for payroll matters and 1099 and W2 reporting.  We are looking into switching to ATX for tax this coming year. I'm a bit wary. UltraTax is a powerful program and does nearly everything I ask of it.  What doesn't ATX do well?  Our clients are fairly complex--lots of Sch Cs and entities, multiple rentals, multiple investment accounts, income from multiple states, multiple related partnerships.  I do a fair number of 1041s, often involving different states.  Can ATX handle all this?

 

 

Edited by jklcpa
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Sara:

It probably can.  I do some very complex returns. 

However, when I switched from Lacerte to ATX 13 years ago, I kept a number of the more complex returns in Lacerte for several years.  ATX has come a long way since then.

It will save you a bunch of cash as well.

Rich

 

 

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What about a hybrid transition plan? Keep Ultra-Tax on a pay pre return basis while making ATX your main program?  It might cost a little more in the transition year, but at least you don't have all your eggs in one basket.  You have Ultra Tax to fall back on if  you run into trouble on a given return, and you have protection against any sort of meltdown (software or operational).

I've always advocated multiple platforms for complex, busy offices for this very reason.  But in a transition year I'd say it's a necessity.  If I were considering ATX again (which I'm not now that I've discovered the superiority of Drake), I'd certainly want the absolute assurance I had a way out of the mess if I found it to be a mistake.  At least my practice wouldn't be in danger.

Another advantage might just be that Ultra Tax would find a way to make their pricing more acceptable to you once you tell them you're transitioning to another vendor.  

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You know, this is not a bad idea.  I've had ProSeries PPR since the 2012 blowup and have kept it for my two complex returns that more than pay for the extra expense.  I'm just a very cautious person, safety minded, and not willing to trust ATX 100% yet, there's still some problems, just ask Jack.

As a side note, I just updated to 15.9 and my computer has been acting a little wacky since then.....not enough resources, and that little blue circle spinning on and on until I restart.   I need to look away or it may hypnotize.

 

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SaraEA, ATX should be able to handle everything you listed.  Any program will have its downsides, and for ATX and for what you listed, you may have to input manually for the out-of-state credits to calculate unless you pay extra for their service to calculate the credits automatically. You've probably read about the others on this forum: that the automatic backup auto-save doesn't work; the program, its files, and its backups take up a lot of hard drive space; and the errors within the program that cause it to not start or to crash such as the inability for the program to connect to the program's internal server at times (not the internet server), and other unexpected errors that cause it to lock up and for the user to lose data.  Of course, that's only what I've gathered from others' postings on here. I left ATX with the 2012 debacle.

I agree with Abby and John. Demo the program, rework a few of your more complex returns from 2015 with it, and consider running concurrent programs.  

Edited by jklcpa
changed "automatic backup" to "AUTO-SAVE"
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ATX is not Ultra Tax.  The main reason not to switch is because of support.  I sure Ultra Tax has great support as does ProSeries.  ProSeries cost more but I break it down to cost

per return in my case 4.00 per client.  I keep that in mind.  I don't think you will be satisfied with ATX.  ATX doesn't run automatically as jklcpa says.  Proseries does and you don't pay extra for it.

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On 7/3/2016 at 2:20 PM, jklcpa said:

the automatic backup doesn't work

The automatic backup works fine. The auto-save doesn't work for some people. It works fine for me but I choose not to use it.

On 7/3/2016 at 2:20 PM, jklcpa said:

the program, its files, and its backups take up a lot of hard drive space

I think a lot of programs take up more and more hard drive space. It seems whenever larger drives become available, programmers take advantage of it.

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1 hour ago, Abby Normal said:

The automatic backup works fine. The auto-save doesn't work for some people. It works fine for me but I choose not to use it.

How then can you make the statement that it works fine?  I have documented evidence for multiple occasions when it DID NOT and DOES NOT function.  This occurs on networked computers and standalone computers.

Tech support has almost blacklisted me for calling in and complaining via e-mail so many times.

For anyone that values their input time, click on the save icon regularly.  If your time has no value, play the lottery with your input.

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10 hours ago, Jack from Ohio said:

How then can you make the statement that it works fine?  I have documented evidence for multiple occasions when it DID NOT and DOES NOT function.  This occurs on networked computers and standalone computers.

Tech support has almost blacklisted me for calling in and complaining via e-mail so many times.

For anyone that values their input time, click on the save icon regularly.  If your time has no value, play the lottery with your input.

And. If you REALLY value your time, switch to Drake.  You'll find you have much more of it available. :)

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I agree with jklcpa that Drake would is a better choice vs ATX, albeit you will never have 100% success with any software.

I switched to Drake 4 years ago from Tax Works which was a quality program, ultimately absorbed by Ultra Tax! I have also used ATX for 8 prior years before they were absorbed by Wolters Kluwer. My recollection of ATX is that it did not handle multi states well at all. I needed to go into each state and fill in all the information as well as repeat every time numbers were adjusted.

I have a small but somewhat complex practice encompassing multi state partnerships. Drake handles all of this quite well. Their support is overwhelming and the price is quite good for the value.

Best of luck

Mike Dubin CPA

 

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Thank you all for the wonderful idea of keeping UltraTax on a pay-per-return basis when we switch to ATX (or now some are making Drake sound even better).  We will have to pay for a federal UT license and, believe it or not, a license to access the per-return pay code. (That just means you can't print anything until you've paid for using the software for that return.)  It looks like it will be about $3k for keeping access to UT, but who knows what the nickel-and dime fees will add to it.  Still, it is a good security blanket.  If we actually use UT for any clients, we can add the per-return cost to their fee.

Another question, well two questions:  Does ATX have an electronic file cabinet?  With UT, we can send the completed return to File Cabinet.  Then we scan the client's tax docs and send them to FC, along with any notes, projections, emails, whatever we want to keep in that client's file.  I know ATX will convert our UT tax files to ATX, but can it convert our file cabinet?  I ask because we dropped Creative Solutions Accounting (another UT program) and discovered we could no longer use it even for prior years that we had already paid for.  We maintain almost no paper files anymore and absolutely cannot lose our electronic files.

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The question of ATX vs Drake would be best answered by downloading 2015 version for both and seeing which one suits your work style best, which one would take you less time to do a tax return.

ATX has PaperlessPlus FC software, but, as you learned, these FC softwares often store pdfs in a manner that requires you to have their software to access. For that reason, and because I'm cheap, we have always just manually created folders for clients tax returns, records and other documents. We are almost entirely paperless now and we can easily access the pdfs without the need for any software, probably faster too.

 

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Good suggestion. I predict that anyone who actually does a valid side-by-side comparison will conclude that Drake wins hands-down, simply on the basis of speed at all levels of operation (preparation, production, organization, backup, and updating).  Since time is money, saving time means greater productivity and more money on the bottom line.  But the problem is that a true comparison requires abandoning the notion that direct forms entry is all that important, and many people just can't break that dependency. Additionally, Drake's customer service and overall business practices leave everybody else in this price range in the dust.

I readily admit that I'm a biased Drake user, but I will add that my bias is a result of  long-time experience with both ATX and Drake (as well as with Ultra Tax prior to switching over several years ago).

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I agree with Abby and John that you should download and test the products.

Since it was brought up about document management being a concern, and for what it's worth, Drake's document manager has a folder on the C drive that can be accessed directly for file management, and if I left Drake, I would still have access to all of those files. It can be launched from within the tax program, from a return, or entirely on its own. The tax software's print function integrates with the doc manager for saving anything the tax software will print. From within it, it allows scanning, naming, and storing of documents, and it also allows any other document to be stored there such as files from Word, Excel, from email attachments, or from documents scanned with the scanner software outside of the document manager functions. 

Best of all, Drake's document manager is included in the price of the software, there aren't any gimmicks with any of Drake's pricing during the early renewal or otherwise, and the customer does not need a dedicated sales rep. ANY of Drake's reps can and will help that customer!  Everyone knows what is included and everyone knows what the price will be, not all the BS some on here have complained about with CCHSFS's marketing and pricing.

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1 minute ago, jklcpa said:

Drake's document manager has a folder on the C drive

Actually, you can choose ANY drive to install/save to.  Tech support will walk you through it beautifully if you have any trepidation.  I installed the document manager file location to our networked data drive, and both my assistant and I have access to all files at all times, and can save any file at any time to the same place.

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8 minutes ago, Catherine said:

Actually, you can choose ANY drive to install/save to.  Tech support will walk you through it beautifully if you have any trepidation.  I installed the document manager file location to our networked data drive, and both my assistant and I have access to all files at all times, and can save any file at any time to the same place.

 

^ Yes, exactly. Catherine is correct. I just let mine install to its default on my C drive.

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20 minutes ago, Jack from Ohio said:

I did actual side by side comparison of Drake and ATX in 2013.

It was a no-brainer to stay with ATX.  Input speed is NOT the only thing to consider when choosing software.

 

This is why anyone thinking of changing vendors should get trial versions and prepare some returns with each one. No program is one-size-fits-all. 

 

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1 hour ago, Jack from Ohio said:

I did actual side by side comparison of Drake and ATX in 2013.

It was a no-brainer to stay with ATX.  Input speed is NOT the only thing to consider when choosing software.

I came to the exact opposite conclusion with respect to the no-brainer side of the equation.  Especially since input speed is only a part of the efficiency equation.  Incredibly fast speed of backups, speed of updates, rapid startup - all run circles around ATX or any competition in this price range.  The ability to write macros in Drake is an incredible time saver, but a novice Drake evaluator wouldn't even know what I'm talking about.  Nothing touches Drake in all these areas. 

But, as Judy pointed out, to each his own.  That's why each company is still in business. And anyone contemplating a change would do themselves a disservice not to do a through evaluation of each software package as well as the company backing it up.

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