TRX Update Process

[Don in Upstate NY]

I should preface this by noting that I was an engineer in a previous life, so I notice things about the workings of a program that are interesting to me, but may not really matter to a full time tax preparer as long as everything work!

TRX (OrrTax/Intellitax) is a database program, and uses the Microsoft SQL Server as its engine. It appears that all the computational rules (W2 box 1 flows to 1040 line 7) are contained as records in the database, as are all the error messages, diagnostics, etc. Updating is generally simply adding or changing records in the database.

There have been 15 updates to the Federal 1040 program during the past season. This counts the first 'update', which is really the initial version of the 1040. Each update is about 5.5 Mbytes in size, and each update is comprehensive (i.e. if you were at Rev 7 you need only load Rev 15 to be up to date.)

You must have Administrator privileges to update the program.

The update process is a separate program which can be fully automatic (download and update when needed), semi-automatic (download and tell me when an update is ready), or manual (I'll check myself). The main program displays a splash screen the first time you use it after an update with a link to the detailed release notes for that update.

State programs are loaded using the update process. The automatic process just updates the states that you have installed.

I only had one problem this season with updates. In late January I had entered a return on my laptop that had educational credits. The Form 8863 accepted the data and calculated the credits, but of course could not be e-filed before the IRS date in February. The day that the IRS opened e-filing on the 8863 I was out of state, and attempted to update my laptop using the WiFi at the local library. I downloaded the update and attempted to install, but things went awry. (IIRC I was not in the Administrator mode.) The program would not run, giving a fatal error message that had no meaning to me. I called TRX support, got a prompt answer, and talked to a technical support person (as opposed to a tax support person.) After several unsuccessful attempts to work around the problem, I got the bad news - I would have to uninstall TRX and start from scratch.

The uninstall/reinstall process went smoothly, except for the fact that I didn't have the original disk with me and had to download the original image from the web. Downloading a 230 MByte file on a WiFi shared with dozens of teen-agers doing their homework (or playing games) is a s-l-o-w process.

TRX stores the program and the client and configuration data in separate directory structures, so uninstalling/reinstalling the programs leaves all your data intact. This time the update worked, and I was ready to e-file. (I couldn't, but that's another story.)

[Julie]

Thanks for the detailed info, Don.

Really, it seems like a database is the obvious structure for a tax program, although I've certainly been spoiled by the ATX spreadsheet base (meaning I can read the Excel code when I need to understand what they did.)

Seems odd to need administrator privileges to update the program, since all tax programs require regular updating (and that is one thing I don't mind, unlike some others here).

I doubt I would ever try to do what you did, but it's good to know what happens when the limits get tested.

I should preface this by noting that I was an engineer in a previous life, so I notice things about the workings of a program that are interesting to me, but may not really matter to a full time tax preparer as long as everything work!

TRX (OrrTax/Intellitax) is a database program, and uses the Microsoft SQL Server as its engine. It appears that all the computational rules (W2 box 1 flows to 1040 line 7) are contained as records in the database, as are all the error messages, diagnostics, etc. Updating is generally simply adding or changing records in the database.

There have been 15 updates to the Federal 1040 program during the past season. This counts the first 'update', which is really the initial version of the 1040. Each update is about 5.5 Mbytes in size, and each update is comprehensive (i.e. if you were at Rev 7 you need only load Rev 15 to be up to date.)

You must have Administrator privileges to update the program.

The update process is a separate program which can be fully automatic (download and update when needed), semi-automatic (download and tell me when an update is ready), or manual (I'll check myself). The main program displays a splash screen the first time you use it after an update with a link to the detailed release notes for that update.

State programs are loaded using the update process. The automatic process just updates the states that you have installed.

I only had one problem this season with updates. In late January I had entered a return on my laptop that had educational credits. The Form 8863 accepted the data and calculated the credits, but of course could not be e-filed before the IRS date in February. The day that the IRS opened e-filing on the 8863 I was out of state, and attempted to update my laptop using the WiFi at the local library. I downloaded the update and attempted to install, but things went awry. (IIRC I was not in the Administrator mode.) The program would not run, giving a fatal error message that had no meaning to me. I called TRX support, got a prompt answer, and talked to a technical support person (as opposed to a tax support person.) After several unsuccessful attempts to work around the problem, I got the bad news - I would have to uninstall TRX and start from scratch.

The uninstall/reinstall process went smoothly, except for the fact that I didn't have the original disk with me and had to download the original image from the web. Downloading a 230 MByte file on a WiFi shared with dozens of teen-agers doing their homework (or playing games) is a s-l-o-w process.

TRX stores the program and the client and configuration data in separate directory structures, so uninstalling/reinstalling the programs leaves all your data intact. This time the update worked, and I was ready to e-file. (I couldn't, but that's another story.)