ATX Conversion Software to TRX 2009

[Mike D]

For all whose former ATX users who have decided to move to TRX, (Redgear),I Was advised by TRX last week that the 2009 conversion software from ATX to TRX should be abailable this Friday October 22.

I have been patiently waiting and will let you know if and when I receive it and how successful it was.

Mike Dubin CPA

[Kea]

Thanks. I hadn't even started thinking about the conversions yet. I still need to practice and get used to the new software. That's high on my to-do list for the next month or 2. Do you know if they are still offering their webinar training? I haven't logged on to that site in a while.

Thanks

[Mike D]

They are showing webinars on their web site from Oct 20 through Nov 20 daily @ 10 AM & 2 PM.

I sat in on the webinar and found it to be quite redundant and parochial, but that's me.

Best of luck

Mike Dubin CPA

[Kea]

I've never taken a webinar class, but thought it might fill in some gaps. I plan to practice on my own first & then decide if I need it. I'm glad to know I have a month to decide.

Thanks for the info.

[Mike D]

The ATX 2009 conversion software is available on TRX software as a download as of yesterday. I had some initial problems trying to get it to work and spoke to Jeff who said it was the file structure on Windows 7 and proceeded to fix in 5 minutes.

I converted all of my clients and looked at one very complex return which I had to tweak a bit to get correct. Took about 1 hour.

So far so good.

I will keep you all posted on my progress.

Mike Dubin CPA

[Mike D]

I am somewhat disappointed with the conversion software from TRX. I downloaded about one month ago and converted all of my 1040 clients; business conversions are not available as yet. The initial results were less than nirvana.

The good news is that simple returns converted 100%, while others were rife with the following issues.

Multiple states appeared as only one state

Schedule D did not convert on all returns

Form 6251 appeared on some but not others.

Depreciation and NOL needed to be adjusted on all returns.

Many other less significant issues.

I spoke with Jeff from TRX who was involved with this software and advised him of my dissatisfaction with the conversion software, he looked into it and the result was that he was to have the developer contact me directly. As I previously stated, that was one month ago and I have heard from anyone as yet.

The good news is that my entire practice is about 50 returns with about one third business. If necessary I can reenter all of them and still be ready for 2010.

The bad news is that many of you are preparing quite a bit more returns than me and this can be a real problem for you.

I have converted previously from Tax Relief 1040 to ATX and had only minor issues with depreciation. This is what I was expecting from TRX but to date it hasn't materialized.

I would like to hear from others who have used this conversion software and see if the results are consistent with my outcomes.

Remember we are all in this together and as a united bloc we should have some clout!

I will keep you all posted and look forward to hearing from you about your outcomes.

Thanks

Mike Dubin CPA

[GeorgeM]

I am somewhat disappointed with the conversion software from TRX. I downloaded about one month ago and converted all of my 1040 clients; business conversions are not available as yet. The initial results were less than nirvana.

The good news is that simple returns converted 100%, while others were rife with the following issues.

Multiple states appeared as only one state

Schedule D did not convert on all returns

Form 6251 appeared on some but not others.

Depreciation and NOL needed to be adjusted on all returns.

Many other less significant issues.

I spoke with Jeff from TRX who was involved with this software and advised him of my dissatisfaction with the conversion software, he looked into it and the result was that he was to have the developer contact me directly. As I previously stated, that was one month ago and I have heard from anyone as yet.

The good news is that my entire practice is about 50 returns with about one third business. If necessary I can reenter all of them and still be ready for 2010.

The bad news is that many of you are preparing quite a bit more returns than me and this can be a real problem for you.

I have converted previously from Tax Relief 1040 to ATX and had only minor issues with depreciation. This is what I was expecting from TRX but to date it hasn't materialized.

I would like to hear from others who have used this conversion software and see if the results are consistent with my outcomes.

Remember we are all in this together and as a united bloc we should have some clout!

I will keep you all posted and look forward to hearing from you about your outcomes.

Thanks

Mike Dubin CPA

Mike I have not converted yet but mine will be from TaxWise, regarding the multiple states, no conversion I have ever see will convert more than one state.

I did convert the 2008 from taxwise to see what will happen and all my depreciation was correct.

[Kea]

I have not yet converted my files. But in past years I've found the depreciation hardly ever converts correctly (ATX to Intellitax, Intellitax to TaxWise or TaxWise to ATX). But I usually did not have many other issues until last year when I converted from TaxWise to ATX. It had problems with almost everything except the W-2s. It didn't even do the EIC. I basically re-entered every file (and in the process found a few errors - mostly minor). It surprised me that that was the most useless conversion since it was between two programs from the same company (CCH). I only have a little over 100 files, so my conversion shouldn't be too bad. But I won't wait until January like I did last year.

Thanks for the heads up!

[artp]

Mike,

I am also disappointed with the converstion.

Here is what I have found so far:

1. Almost all returns have an erroneous entry in the foreign address input field.

2. All MFJ returns have box checked for spouse claimed on another return.

3. None of the e-file input forms are correctly populated

4. Direct deposit information is not carried over.

5. All dates for signatures and letters default to current computer date.-no override available.

6. All W-2 input fields for SSN are blank even though the correct entry for T or S has come over.

7. All 1099 forms have missing or incorrect address fields.

8. Virtually none of the depreciation schedules are converting properly.

I am forwarding this to TRX, but I based on my previous discussions with their tech support, I am doubtful that much can (or will) be done.

Art

I am somewhat disappointed with the conversion software from TRX. I downloaded about one month ago and converted all of my 1040 clients; business conversions are not available as yet. The initial results were less than nirvana.

The good news is that simple returns converted 100%, while others were rife with the following issues.

Multiple states appeared as only one state

Schedule D did not convert on all returns

Form 6251 appeared on some but not others.

Depreciation and NOL needed to be adjusted on all returns.

Many other less significant issues.

I spoke with Jeff from TRX who was involved with this software and advised him of my dissatisfaction with the conversion software, he looked into it and the result was that he was to have the developer contact me directly. As I previously stated, that was one month ago and I have heard from anyone as yet.

The good news is that my entire practice is about 50 returns with about one third business. If necessary I can reenter all of them and still be ready for 2010.

The bad news is that many of you are preparing quite a bit more returns than me and this can be a real problem for you.

I have converted previously from Tax Relief 1040 to ATX and had only minor issues with depreciation. This is what I was expecting from TRX but to date it hasn't materialized.

I would like to hear from others who have used this conversion software and see if the results are consistent with my outcomes.

Remember we are all in this together and as a united bloc we should have some clout!

I will keep you all posted and look forward to hearing from you about your outcomes.

Thanks

Mike Dubin CPA

[Mike D]

As I have previously stated, I am patiently waiting for the developer of this conversion software to contact me. Once I hear from her I will share all of our mutual issues and dissatisfaction with our experiences.

Last I checked with TRX they stated that I should be hearing from somebody by today 11/23/10. In the event that I don't hear from them, I will contact them after the holiday to follow up and of course keep all of you posted.

Happy holidays

Mike Dubin CPA

[beckster2010]

Thanks Mike for keeping us up to date with your findings. I'm with Art regarding the issues that are consistently showing up with the files I have been converting. I also have run into a few situations with Home Office information not rolling over into Sch 2106 (for employee). I cannot figure out the correct bells and whistles for it to roll over. I have sent a few emails within the last 2 weeks with no response.

I'm concerned with the lack of troubleshooting response. We will see what happens. Yes, I'm worried, I have a small client base of 100 and since I'm a perfectionist I would hate for my decision to switch software companies to come back and bite me.

Hopefully this community can grow and we can help each other out.

Beckster

[RGFan]

Good evening everyone,

I am really glad to have come across this, as I am in a position to help. I am not sure what happened or where the communication broke down on our end, but as a team we are now looking into the issues that Mike and others have brought forward on this post.

Stay tuned for our findings and necessary resolution to the issues, and thanks again for raising them, as I am quite sure this can be a fine way to help others in the same situation.

We are very happy to see you using the RedGear software this year.

Ryan

[RGFan]

Good evening.

I want to try and take what the team has come up with and summarize it for everyone to take a look at. Please let me know if you have any questions with regard to this response:

First, here are the corrections that have been made to our program, as a result of researching pieces of your feedback:

1. Almost all returns have an erroneous entry in the foreign address input field –

our mappings have been updated to remove random entry.

2. All MFJ returns have box checked for spouse claimed on another return –

With further review of this mapping the dump is the same regardless if the spouse box is checked or not. It is more likely a spouse would not be claimed on another person’s return. We do not want that box checking incorrectly anytime a client has a MFJ return. Due to ATX dumping with no differences to map correctly, this field has been removed. This will no longer be an issue to clients with the disclaimer that you will need to check by hand if spouse claimed on another return.

6. All W-2 input fields for SSN are blank even though the correct entry for T or S has come over –

This was happening if allowing ATX to auto populate would not convert the TP & SP SSN. This has been resolved by our team and it will now convert both as a direct input on the W-2 or as an auto populated field.

7. All 1099 forms have missing or incorrect address fields –

This was occurring if the address was foreign and auto populating. For all 1099 forms this has been resolved, and will now convert for direct input changes and auto populate for both domestic and foreign addresses.

As a sidenote, the direct feedback from this forum has been helpful for us to see real examples from the field and we have made some of these changes to be more universal, so there will be improvements to all of our conversion programs.

Second, there are a number of other legitimate issues that were raised, and we have tried to summarize our thoughts on those as well:

3. None of the e-file input forms are correctly populated –

We have never considered this for mapping, mostly because our competitors do not, and it is difficult in a number of ways.

4. Direct deposit information is not carried over. –

We have begun mapping these fields from some of the competitors, but when we work to get the best coverage for a system, while releasing it timely for our customers, we typically lower this info in terms of priority. I have made a note of it, and we will see what we can do next year to improve that coverage

5. All dates for signatures and letters default to current computer date.-no override available. –

This is not a conversion issue; the letter date can be overriden on the LTR screen “Letter date if different” and an invoice date can be overridden. This is on the INV screen “Date to print on invoice” It looks like both of these dates can be defaulted to a specific date that will show up all returns if that is what the user wants. We are not sure if there is a default for a signature date but we do not think so. We will try and follow up with the programmers of this particular code.

8. Virtually none of the depreciation schedules are converting properly. –

We agree that our assets conversion is fairly limited in this system. Due to restriction of time we were not able to get as much coverage, but we will look to make some adjustments on this for year in order to see some improvements.

Some other miscellaneous thoughts that may be helpful:

Our current conversion program does not include anything for state returns and that could be part of what you experience with some returns. That is in line with our competitors, for the most part, so at the current time it is not included.

For the Sch D, we would need to see the actual return with the Sch D that does convert and one that does not. In researching ATX again, it appears as there are multiple locations for entry so we need to look at each one in play. The situation is similar for the 6251 - as we haven't done much with the mappings on this form, but potentially could if we looked at a couple of returns you have mentioned.

NOL’s will generally need to be adjusted because we cannot do a mirror image return. We would need to see what NOL’s you are referring to in order to be of better assistance now and in the future for other customers.

Thanks,

Ryan

[Mike D]

I am somewhat disappointed with this late communication regarding the issues that I raised some time ago. That being said I look forward to putting this behind us and moving forward.

Are these adjustments that you have already corrected now available through the upgrade from the internet function?

I will be happy to provide you with the returns in question. Please let me know ASAP how to get them to you?

Will you also be correcting the business return conversion programs as well before they become available?

I would like to go through the conversion process once as there will be many unresolved issues that need to be corrected manually for example, depreciation, multiple states, NOL, e file data, etc.

One thing that all tax preparers share in common is that we don't need any additional unnecessary work, especially with software issues, as the tax season approaches, we will have more than enough to deal with.

Thanks

Mike Dublin CPA

[RGFan]

Thanks, Mike. I understand the dissapointment, and don't have a satisfying answer that will help at this point. We were not informed of the issues, and just happened across this community post from a co-worker.

To answer your questions, yes, the fixes are available now, and they will be applicable to the business returns once that system is released this month as well.

I will email you directly with how to get us those returns, and we will take a look accordingly.

We will do our best as a development team to help you as you get closer to the season, and we understand the need to eliminate or avoid any unnecessary work.

Thank you,

Ryan

[Kea]

I just downloaded the update file a few days ago. I did not run it yet because I wanted to see if Mike D's concerns would be resolved. (And because I'm good at procrastinating.) When was the new conversion posted to the TRX website?

I did notice that there was only one conversion posted. Fortunately, I'm converting from ATX. Will there be other conversion for people converting from other programs? Just curious.

Thanks to Mike D. for informing them of the issues.

Thanks to the tech teams that were able to make the corrections that they could.

[artp]

Can you please clarify. Are the corrections available now ? Is there an update that we need to run? If so, please explain. I have already run the conversion program and made many manual corrections for about 60 clients. Do I need to delete the conversions I have already processed, but not corrected ? I would appreciate a quick reply on this so I know how to proceed.

thanks,

Art

Thanks, Mike. I understand the dissapointment, and don't have a satisfying answer that will help at this point. We were not informed of the issues, and just happened across this community post from a co-worker.

To answer your questions, yes, the fixes are available now, and they will be applicable to the business returns once that system is released this month as well.

I will email you directly with how to get us those returns, and we will take a look accordingly.

We will do our best as a development team to help you as you get closer to the season, and we understand the need to eliminate or avoid any unnecessary work.

Thank you,

Ryan

[RGFan]

Hi Art,

I would not reprocess the 60 you have done, since you have already made manual corrections to those. You can, however, take 1 or 2 of them and run them again to see the differences that I have noted.

Any new conversions you do at this point will pick up the changes we have made, so you will be good to go with those going forward.

Let me know if I can help you with additional things you may find.

Ryan

[RGFan]

I just downloaded the update file a few days ago. I did not run it yet because I wanted to see if Mike D's concerns would be resolved. (And because I'm good at procrastinating.) When was the new conversion posted to the TRX website?

I did notice that there was only one conversion posted. Fortunately, I'm converting from ATX. Will there be other conversion for people converting from other programs? Just curious.

Thanks to Mike D. for informing them of the issues.

Thanks to the tech teams that were able to make the corrections that they could.

Hi Kea,

Yes, there are many programs available for conversion, including several business systems. If you have specific questions around any of them, let me know.

Thanks a bunch.

Ryan

[Mike D]

I was contacted by Ryan from TaxWorks to forward some of the returns that I have had conversion problems with. I changed the sensitive information and sent him what I considered three of the most heinous ones. They contained a multitude of issues and inconsistencies.

He responded to me by the next day and sent me a litany of resolutions and other outstanding issues, as well as a brochure as to what to expect from this conversion process.

I have not had the time as yet to disseminate the data and therefore I reserve judgment at this time. I will however once reviewed share with all.

Mike Dubin CPA

[artp]

Ryan,

I have gone back and converted the balance of the returns that I had not previously manually corrected to see if the "fixes" you listed below are working. Here is what I have found so far.

Items 1,2,and 6 seem to be fixed for the limited testing I have done.

The 1099's still have some missing state codes. Additionally, any 9 digit zip code entry will error out on e-file audit review-dont't know if this is a program error or what. Most state code errors are for DC where the program fails to recognize the state code.

With respect to items 3 and 4 and the depreciation issue, if we take the time to make all of these manual corrections, will this information rollover correctly from your 2009 program to the 2010 program ? I hate to waste my time during tax season re-keying the same data again.

That is all I have so far. I am very interested to see what other users have to say. Please post your thoughts.

Thanks,

Art

Good evening.

I want to try and take what the team has come up with and summarize it for everyone to take a look at. Please let me know if you have any questions with regard to this response:

First, here are the corrections that have been made to our program, as a result of researching pieces of your feedback:

1. Almost all returns have an erroneous entry in the foreign address input field –

our mappings have been updated to remove random entry.

2. All MFJ returns have box checked for spouse claimed on another return –

With further review of this mapping the dump is the same regardless if the spouse box is checked or not. It is more likely a spouse would not be claimed on another person’s return. We do not want that box checking incorrectly anytime a client has a MFJ return. Due to ATX dumping with no differences to map correctly, this field has been removed. This will no longer be an issue to clients with the disclaimer that you will need to check by hand if spouse claimed on another return.

6. All W-2 input fields for SSN are blank even though the correct entry for T or S has come over –

This was happening if allowing ATX to auto populate would not convert the TP & SP SSN. This has been resolved by our team and it will now convert both as a direct input on the W-2 or as an auto populated field.

7. All 1099 forms have missing or incorrect address fields –

This was occurring if the address was foreign and auto populating. For all 1099 forms this has been resolved, and will now convert for direct input changes and auto populate for both domestic and foreign addresses.

As a sidenote, the direct feedback from this forum has been helpful for us to see real examples from the field and we have made some of these changes to be more universal, so there will be improvements to all of our conversion programs.

Second, there are a number of other legitimate issues that were raised, and we have tried to summarize our thoughts on those as well:

3. None of the e-file input forms are correctly populated –

We have never considered this for mapping, mostly because our competitors do not, and it is difficult in a number of ways.

4. Direct deposit information is not carried over. –

We have begun mapping these fields from some of the competitors, but when we work to get the best coverage for a system, while releasing it timely for our customers, we typically lower this info in terms of priority. I have made a note of it, and we will see what we can do next year to improve that coverage

5. All dates for signatures and letters default to current computer date.-no override available. –

This is not a conversion issue; the letter date can be overriden on the LTR screen “Letter date if different” and an invoice date can be overridden. This is on the INV screen “Date to print on invoice” It looks like both of these dates can be defaulted to a specific date that will show up all returns if that is what the user wants. We are not sure if there is a default for a signature date but we do not think so. We will try and follow up with the programmers of this particular code.

8. Virtually none of the depreciation schedules are converting properly. –

We agree that our assets conversion is fairly limited in this system. Due to restriction of time we were not able to get as much coverage, but we will look to make some adjustments on this for year in order to see some improvements.

Some other miscellaneous thoughts that may be helpful:

Our current conversion program does not include anything for state returns and that could be part of what you experience with some returns. That is in line with our competitors, for the most part, so at the current time it is not included.

For the Sch D, we would need to see the actual return with the Sch D that does convert and one that does not. In researching ATX again, it appears as there are multiple locations for entry so we need to look at each one in play. The situation is similar for the 6251 - as we haven't done much with the mappings on this form, but potentially could if we looked at a couple of returns you have mentioned.

NOL’s will generally need to be adjusted because we cannot do a mirror image return. We would need to see what NOL’s you are referring to in order to be of better assistance now and in the future for other customers.

Thanks,

Ryan

[beckster2010]

Attention: One thing I forgot to mention in my last post was that for some reason my clients whose birthdates are in October, November, December and January have a tendency to change in the conversion. Please double check the birthdates, because you know that can cause some serious problems down the road, i.e. EIC, retirement, Child Tax Credit..etc.

Thanks.

Beckster

[RGFan]

Beckster,

I will have the team double check the birthday's as indicated above.

Also (FOR ALL), please note the additional changes/fields we have added over the past few days. My team is working very hard on other systems but based on your feedback, I have had them get some additional things done on ATX and wanted to point them out to you:

8283 grid – all fields added.

6251 – checkbox will allow the TW 6251 form to populate calculations. For this one to work, you will just need to uncheck and recheck the Preparer’s copy checkbox on the top of 6251 prior to converting, then the form will create with a checkbox in TW to print form and show the form with calculations.

2210 – the two amounts on the top of the form will convert if it’s a direct input or if those fields are auto populated from calculations from another location. Either way they are entered, they will now convert over.

4952 – has a few fields added. They are mapped to only fields that are direct inputs, not amounts that show as calculated from other forms.

Also, one of the issues raised in the forum was with assets prior depreciation. It dumps from ATX differently depending on the return so our team has added another mapping so that it will be covered both ways depending on how it dumps. We tested the changes with the customer’s live returns and they now work.

I know for some of you, this info and respective changes come too late, but we are appreciative of your feedback and use of returns, etc. As stated before, you have the option of going with what you already converted, or doing them again with the latest changes we have implemented. For those that have not converted, you will certainly benefit from the issues raised by counterparts on this forum, and as I mentioned, we appreciate that from our standpoint.

Please let me know if I can answer additional questions, etc.

Ryan

[artp]

Ryan,

I am still waiting for a response to my question I posted earlier"

With respect to items 3 and 4 and the depreciation issue, if we take the time to make all of these manual corrections, will this information rollover correctly from your 2009 program to the 2010 program ? I hate to waste my time during tax season re-keying the same data again.

I would appreciate a direct response ASAP.

Thanks,

Art

Beckster,

I will have the team double check the birthday's as indicated above.

Also (FOR ALL), please note the additional changes/fields we have added over the past few days. My team is working very hard on other systems but based on your feedback, I have had them get some additional things done on ATX and wanted to point them out to you:

8283 grid – all fields added.

6251 – checkbox will allow the TW 6251 form to populate calculations. For this one to work, you will just need to uncheck and recheck the Preparer’s copy checkbox on the top of 6251 prior to converting, then the form will create with a checkbox in TW to print form and show the form with calculations.

2210 – the two amounts on the top of the form will convert if it’s a direct input or if those fields are auto populated from calculations from another location. Either way they are entered, they will now convert over.

4952 – has a few fields added. They are mapped to only fields that are direct inputs, not amounts that show as calculated from other forms.

Also, one of the issues raised in the forum was with assets prior depreciation. It dumps from ATX differently depending on the return so our team has added another mapping so that it will be covered both ways depending on how it dumps. We tested the changes with the customer’s live returns and they now work.

I know for some of you, this info and respective changes come too late, but we are appreciative of your feedback and use of returns, etc. As stated before, you have the option of going with what you already converted, or doing them again with the latest changes we have implemented. For those that have not converted, you will certainly benefit from the issues raised by counterparts on this forum, and as I mentioned, we appreciate that from our standpoint.

Please let me know if I can answer additional questions, etc.

Ryan

[RGFan]

Art,

I apologize for missing that.

From our testing we don't see any issues with it working correctly. Because conversions can have so many variables by system, it is always good to run a couple of returns, and check them before doing too many, but we don't see any issues with the data coming into 2010 correctly, etc.

Please let me know if you run into anything at all that you think we can look at specifically. Mike provided me with a couple of returns and it was very helpful to see specifics, and we are willing to do the same for you once you run a few.

Thanks,

Ryan