ATX Max and Drake

[Naveen Mohan from New York]

I have used ATX Max for the last 20 years but for the upcoming tax season, I plan to buy both ATX Max and Drake. I know I ca ask ATX related questions in this group. I am wondering if Drake has a similar group where I can ask Drake related questions or the questions that pertain to both ATX and Drake.

Thanks

Naveen Mohan

   

[jklcpa]

Drake does have a forum with some very helpful members and also has great tech support.  If you want to ask questions that pertain to both, there are former users of ATX on that site that may be able to help, but you may be better off posting those questions here in our own Drake subforum on this site. There are a few members here that should be able to help.  Go out to the main page of this site and scroll down toward the bottom to find the Drake and other vendors' subforums other than ATX. 

[JohnH]

Do you have the link to the Drake Forum?  If not, here it is:  https://forums.drakesoftware.com/forums/

Be sure to post your ATX-to-Drake questions on the sub forum here. Several of us switched over in the past few years and can probably be of help.  I predict that you won't have any questions after the first season, provide you actually spend the time to learn Drake. You'll probably decide to switch to Drake completely and not look back, if your experience is like mine.  

[Mike D]

Unfortunately you must purchase Drake software in order to use their forum! I converted to Drake from ATX 4 years ago and haven't looked back.

As with all software nothing fits 100%. Some workarounds, learning curves,  idiosyncrasies, etc. 

The best support of all.

Good luck

[Lion EA]

There's a Drake forum here, too!  See what Judy said above.

[samingeorgia]

Back in 2011, I entered into an office sharing arrangement with a practitioner. I was a long-time ATX user; he was using the other product from CCH (TaxWise, maybe?). We tried both and neither of us liked the other's software, so we compromised and got Drake.

I tend to be blessed with "The Luck of the Irish", so I missed the great ATX debacle of the following year.

Our office still uses Drake and I think it's great. The first year, I must have called their support twenty times, but after I finally got the hang of it calls to support are a very rare thing. I've learned over the years that you have to adapt to the software; it won't work the other way around. All software has its quirks.

Just so you'll know what an old-timer I am, I miss good old batch entry (!). Before I chose ATX I used TAASC and really liked it. However, the Big Brains in computer world said that everything had to be on Windows, and TAASC could never make the shift from the good old days to the fancy bloatware from Microsoft. They sold out to Intuit and TAASC disappeared. Of course, Intuit didn't want the product, just the customer base for their never-ending sales operations.

Drake is a small, family-run outfit and from what I understand, the big boys have, over the years, been sniffing around and showing off their big checkbooks. So far, Drake has resisted the temptation, but who knows what the future holds? I hope that by the time we are all pushed to "The Cloud" that I'm sitting on a cloud, strumming a harp....

[Roberts]

JMO but Drake has freakishly excellent customer service. They are very quick at having an actual person talk to you and answer your questions even during the busy periods.

OLTPRO is the same way - never had a problem getting a question answered very quickly. They are very quick to suggest logging in remotely to look at any problem you are experiencing.