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Help requested - considering switching from Drake to ATX


BenyaBenya

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Hi all, great community you have here. I came across the forum while researching tax software (renewal time).

I've used Drake for the past couple of years. I generally find it okay, but I'm wondering if making the move to ATX makes sense for me. I'm drawn to ATX partially because I had many years using Prosystem and grew to appreciate many of the bells and whistles, especially after switching to Drake. I'm a solo shop. I'm at around 55 tax returns. 90% are 1065s and the rest are 1120-S, 1040 and 990.

Here are some of the issues I have with Drake. 

  • Prosystem was much more robust in excel import/export functionality. This saved a lot of time/effort importing massive amounts of data (partner info and fixed assets for me)
  • Prosystem could print off K-1 package PDFs for each of the partners and even add password protection to each file. I have to manually print to PDF and add the partner's name to the filename. This is tedious for some of my returns that have 100+ partners.
  • Drake cannot calculate depreciation correctly for short-year returns. Weird that they can't get this right.
  • If you have multiple activities of the same type (e.g. multiple rental properties), you cannot specially allocate to partners per activity (I.e. 50/50 split for property A, but 75/25 for property B.)
  • Some small stuff that I don't think I would ever see in Prosystem would get overlooked in Drake. For example, when entertainment expense was no longer deductible, Drake would still add 50% Meals and Entertainment to the statement page instead of stating just 50% Meals
  • Can't e-file superseded returns.

Would ATX be more efficient in any of these areas? Or would I just be trading in some limitations for other limitations? The price differences aren't significant for me. The support for Drake was good, but I rarely used it.

Many on this forum seem to have switched from ATX to Drake, so I'd appreciate any insight from those who've used both.

Edited by BenyaBenya
wurdz
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I haven't used ATX in years, and I only demo'd Drake; I use ProSystem fx. I took several CCH webinars within the last year on various tax topics that were illustrated in TaxWise Online. I was impressed with the amount of functions TaxWise has, close to ProSystem. Demo ATX, but demo TaxWise also.

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I have been using Taxwise Desktop since 1994. It is great for 1040 and easy entity returns but I am looking to purchase ATX for my complicated entity returns. I will keep Taxwise Desktop for the bulk of my 1040 returns as it is great for speed and is forms based with real time calculations. I don't understand why Drake still makes you calculate the return as a separate process like it is the 1980's.  Taxwise Online has only been 1040 but maybe they are starting to provide support for entities? If so 2022 would be the first year. 

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5 minutes ago, Max W said:

You can get a free demo and try running a few returns on it.  That will probably tell you if it is what you need.

I'm hoping they still offer this. The website suggests that only a 'live demo' is available now. Salesperson is checking for me.

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9 minutes ago, cbslee said:

Current Drake user, long time ATX user.

Based on what you're looking for, you should be looking at Lacerte, Pro System or Ultra Tax, not ATX,  Drake or Tax Wise.

Good insight. I might indeed expand my search a little.

I'm getting a quote on Ultratax. I think it's going to be very competitive for a 3-year term, but retail for what I need is pretty pricy. The rep said I should hope that my fees will grow by then.. ha. I assumed ProSystem would be pretty expensive, but I might as well get a quote there too. 

I wanted to ask the CCH rep what a solo shop gains loses by using ATX over ProSystem since ProSystem is a known quantity for me, but I knew that would get me nowhere. 

I'll have to look into Lacerte. From what I've seen, they have a 200 plan that would be pretty fitting. If anyone can chime in on that cost, that would be helpful. I've just been wary of (more) Intuit products, but they're tough to avoid in our world.

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If you like ProSystem fx, contact your sales rep. Put him/her to work getting you the best deal for the practice you have. Show him your UltraTax quote, and ask him to beat it. I have a combination of unlimited and pay-per-return to keep my price down.

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9 hours ago, Lion EA said:

If you like ProSystem fx, contact your sales rep. Put him/her to work getting you the best deal for the practice you have. Show him your UltraTax quote, and ask him to beat it. I have a combination of unlimited and pay-per-return to keep my price down.

That's a great idea. That's exactly how they structured the Ultratax package to get it competitive. Unlimited 1065 and PPR for everything else. 

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