Lacerte User - Switch to ATX?

[JMCPA]

I've been using Lacerte for about 23 years. I sold 90% of my practice a couple of years ago, but still do about 40 1040's, 15 1041's and about 15 total others (1120-s, 1120 & 1065's). The returns I still do are fairly voluminous but not super technical. Some have roughly 20 K-1's to input, and some have a lot of trading activity. I've been very happy with Lacerte, but the cost has just become too much. I plan to look at Drake too.

Are you ATX users happy with the product?

[Lion EA]

Have you priced out Lacerte as pay per return? How about ProSeries?

[JMCPA]

Have you priced out Lacerte as pay per return? How about ProSeries?

I've been using the per return option with Lacerte for several years now. For 2009, 1040 + 1 state is up to $39+tax. Business/Estate/Trust +1 state is up to $54. This is in additon to a license fee of $395. E-filing is an additional $5 per return. This does not include a fee for the network version.

The software works great and I hate to make a switch because of the learning curve. I have not looked into ProSeries yet.

[jainen]

>>the cost has just become too much<<

Lacerte is trying to bump prices as much as 25% this year, but they will back down somewhat for a long-term client if you really really scream at them, so try that first. Second thing I would recommend is grin & bear it. You aren't going to be satisfied with a switch. I use both ProSeries and Lacerte. ProSeries 1040 is very powerful with reasonable accuracy and good diagnostics, but it isn't in the same class with Lacerte. I haven't looked at ATX in years, but judging from the complaints and awkward work-arounds and outright missing features reported on this forum, I would guess it's even farther down the scale.

You don't have such a big practice anymore, so it probably doesn't support as much peer consultation and CPE as it used to. With Lacerte you know you can flawlessly handle any odd thing that comes up. (Unfortunately tech support is universally lousy throughout the industry so you need something that is extremely reliable!) Plus its data entry and processing is two or three times faster than other programs, which should be especially important on your biggies.

But hey, the demo versions are all free so spend a couple of months playing around. Those K-1's are a good test--how does each program handle some of the less common lines (if it even does at all)?

The relative cost of Lacerte is high, but the relative value is even higher. That's why it's the favorite. The extra price is covered by the ability to do an extra return or two, or to take an extra day or two time off. (Ten minutes times 70 returns is twelve hours!)

[ed_accountant]

You also might want to consider Taxworks.com. Many lacerte users that downgrade often switch to taxworks. Taxworks unlimited version for individuals and all business returns is reasonable priced. It costs a little more that ATX but in my opinion is better.

I have used Lacerte and ATX for over 10 years but in the 2009 tax season switched to Taxworks. Prior to tax season 2009, I used Lacerte to handle all business returns, multi-state and complicated individuals and used ATX to handle all my single state basic individual returns. I liked the value that ATX offered and all the extra forms with the Max programs but Lacerte is a league ahead of ATX. Taxworks worked out good for tax season 2009 but I had to work through many conversion errors of carryover amounts. I expect next year to be much easier. Overall, I am very happy with Taxworks. I still plan to purchase the ATX pay per return system next year since I still use it for Sales Tax and State Excise tax returns... I also plan to keep Lacerte on as pay per return system since a few complicated multi-state returns I did not have time to transfer over...

Good luck!