Ok, Lets hear it. DO YOU MISS ATX?

[the boss]

Please share your thoughts on this topic. I for one was skeptical regarding my purchase of this year's version of TRX software, but as of today I am happy to say that NO, I don't miss ATX at all.

[GeorgeM]

Please share your thoughts on this topic. I for one was skeptical regarding my purchase of this year's version of TRX software, but as of today I am happy to say that NO, I don't miss ATX at all.

I left ATX 6 years ago, do only 90 to 95 returns of which 8 are freebies, and don't miss ATX one bit.

First it was because of the price, I went with TRX TaxWise and was reasonably happy with the program. The program ran faster than ATX and the printing was 80 percent faster. The only problem with TaxWise is they don't seem to care for the users. They don't make useful changes to the program to help the user.

This year with TRX PRO I really like the program, it has features like multiple states being completed and the credit being issued to the home state with ease. The printing I found very easy and very fast. There were minimal errors in the conversion process. The e-filing of returns is super, and the e-file manager is excellent. Learning the entry of information was quite simple after 2 or 3 returns. The capeability of having different folders for the clients makes it easier to find out which ones are not yet completed and the field where you can enter the status of the return is great.

All in all I will never return to ATX, this is a far superior program.

[Kea]

I getting used to TaxWorks also. Still bumble around a little on inputs of lesser used features. So far the only thing I would have to say that I still prefer in ATX over TaxWorks is that I like the input to look like the tax form. And you can't see its calculated fields until you go into peek or review. I prefer a few features in TaxWorks - especially entering zip codes and the auto fill of the city / state. I also like the double entry of most important amounts. That minimizes typos.

I only do about 100 returns per year, so my biggest issue is cost. I like having all the business returns & states included in the lower price. (OK that's only because I bought early enough to get their special.) I do very few states & only did my first 1065 this year. Not enough to justify a huge extra cost.

At this point I plan on staying with TRX. But I would have said the same about ATX a few years ago until they basically chased me off with bad attitudes towards their customers & higher prices.

[Julie]

I'm with you, Kea. I'd been with ATX from the beginning, when I started my own business almost eleven years ago. I have about 100 clients, and one or two non-1040 returns a year.

ATX effectively chased me off, too. If ATX had continued as it did under the Willett (I hope I spelled that right) brothers, most likely I would have stayed with them.

This is my second season with TRX, and it seems to be much better in some ways than last year. The depreciation screen is certainly much better. The zip code auto-fill is nice. It still bugs me that the efile forms must be signed before they can be printed, but that's a minor quirk. The more serious concern to me is that there are a few things I very rarely do, (meaning I have not memorized the form number) and I think it will be harder to locate those than it was with ATX.. I don't care for the separate input and review, but I'm getting used to it, and it does work.

I don't find it especially fast, though. Printing is fairly quick, but review is slowwww.

All in all, I do miss ATX, but for now I think I'm staying with TRX.

[Randall]

Interesting comments. I'm still with ATX. Probably will stay but who knows down the line. I think CCH has improved a lot from the initial buyout. I only heard of TRX last year. It seemed they were simply selling ATX and Taxwise under their own name. Now it sounds like they have their own program. Is that correct? How many years have they had their own program? From the comments, it sounds like they are still in the improving stage. ATX has improved every year. I wasn't really affected by the buyout since I didn't have to have much contact with support. Lucky I guess. What's the price of TRX for new people, not returning discounts, etc. All in all, I will stay with ATX, but if something major happens, I will look around. I have had Taxwise and Drake at the top of my list to check out if ever I want to switch. But if I hear more good comments about TRX, I will add them to my list in the event I do want to switch. Also, is TRX a small independently owned company like ATX used to be? No doubt, the owners will want to cash out when they've built up their client base to be attractive enough to one of the big boys.

[Don in Upstate NY]

There are some things that TRX does that I have never seen in a program before. [Well at least not since the days of DOS Pencil Pushers.] Like the ability to actually examine the e-file that is sent to the IRS. No more doubt about which forms, which fields, which notes, etc. are transmitted.

A minor feature - the taxability worksheet for state tax refunds - is amazing. It truly handles the case where the return was subject to AMT the prior year, but not enough to make the refund totally non-taxable. It also calculates what the 1099-G should have looked like. This is a biggie for New York because NYS no longer mails out 1099-Gs, and the amount on the 1099-G is not the refund, but an adjusted amount to account for sales tax impact, refundable credits, etc. TRX handles this correctly.

The client letter is vastly superior to ATX, but that is simply because ATX is using a spreadsheet program as a word processor.

Overall the learning curve is somewhat steep, and I certainly miss the ability to work directly on the forms, but TRX is definitely a winner for my money.

[Crank]

I have used ATX since before the buy out. I think 1997 was the first year I used it, when it was called Saber and gave all forms, individual and business for $299. Over the years it just got too expensive since I only do about 100 returns.

Overall, I am very satisfied and impressed with TRX (TaxWorks)and plan on renewing for 2011. There are some things I like and some I dont but overall it was worth the switch. If nothing else it showed me that changing programs isn't as much of a shake-up as I anticipated.

[Mike D]

I left ATX after 6 years for TRX in 2009 due to their unilaterally removing features without notification, and subsequently when discovered had a solution that cost you more money, and the price.

This is the first year that I am using TaxWorks and find it to be much richer in content then ATX. Many features are different and some I am certain have not been utilized as I am still in a learning mode.

The cons are the tech support that simply takes over your computer and appears to have little or no knowledge about the issues. I must add that at least they respond to my calls in a reasonable time period, not like ATX that never responded.

The good news there is that Tax Works has been superlative in offering solutions both on this board and communicating directly.

In addition I am not enamored with the letters, too confusing, and I certainly agree with the forms input being superior.

In summary I paid $299 for a package that probably would have cost me about $2,000 had I stayed with ATX.

I think that says it all!

Mike Dubin CPA

[Kea]

Randall --

I've heard that TRX is working on their own program, but I don't remember the details. At this point they are selling someone else's program. They are getting a discounted price because they are buying so many at one time. They can then pass those savings to us. That gives us sole proprietors some of the advantages that the big tax prep firms have in buying power.

This is my 4th year with them. I've used IntelliTax, TaxWise, ATX & now TaxWorks. The 1st change was not their fault as the program was bought out by TaxWise. Last year they offered ATX and so I was glad to go back to the program I had used for years without having to deal with CCH. I believe TaxWorks was also an option last year. TRX is no longer able to sell ATX as discussed extensively on this board last year.

The conversion between programs has generally gone OK with the primary exception being depreciation. However, last year I did have to basically redo every tax return because the conversion left out so much. That was the conversion from TaxWise to ATX & they are both owned by CCH. You would think that would be the smoothest conversion.

As for unemployment, I had my first one for this year yesterday. The client had the amount but no 1099G. The Texas Workforce Commission recording said that the form was not required for filing taxes. One could be mailed if requested. I looked up the EIN from last year & input that. (And all the info populated automatically!)

[GeneInAlabama]

I had used ATX since 1993 when it worked piggyback off Excell and you had to have templates to print the return. I switched to TRX this year and it has been hard for this old dog to learn new tricks. I have learned enough that I am now on the fence as to which I prefer and I imagine that after I have mastered this program, I will stay with it. I got the guaranteed price of $299.00 for life for the TRX Premium by buying early. This seemed like a deal too good to be true, but I stepped out on faith on it. I hope they don't follow the example of CCH and start eliminating some of the features and then start charging extra for those features. I did buy the TRX program last year, but gave up on learning it and bought the ATX program at full price.

[beckster]

It still bugs me that the efile forms must be signed before they can be printed, but that's a minor quirk.

I've been inputting a signature date to allow the program to print them out. Then after I've received signatures, I go back in and re-input to the correct signature date before sending on to the efile center. It is a little quirky, isn't it?

[beckster]

I've been a registered tax preparer for 15 years and have been with ATX for the majority of that time. That was the only program I used. It has been different using the TRX program, but converting my 2009 clients into the 2009 program ahead of time really helped me to learn the system. Of course regarding the silly things that come up....well this board has been very helpful and tenacious personal research has come in handy.

I only have a base of about 100 clients, so like the rest of you...ATX program was too steep for me to incorporate in my costs.

Beckster :D

[Kea]

I've been using the same procedure as Beckster for generating the 8879 signature page. It's worked so far.

[Julie]

That's what I've been doing, too. So far as I can tell, it's the only way that does work.

[cathyan]

I, too, think I'm lovin' it. I just did a two state return, and was amazed at how easy it was.

The more I use it, the easier it is. I do miss the forms input. It takes a bit longer to do the "Peek" to make sure everything is where it should be, and I liked the W-2 drop-down for employer names, but I think I'll stick with TRX as long as they offer TaxWorks.

Another thing that annoyed me was that fully a third didn't make the conversion from ATX '09 to TRX '09 so That I could update to '10. But that was better than the year with Intellitax when no conversion worked.

[Kea]

I'm going through whatever converted from ATX to TaxWorks for 2009 & making sure they are right. I make sure TaxWorks '09 is right before I update to '10. Has worked OK in most cases, so far. I have run into a few minor cases where ATX depreciation was wrong. I can't overwrite it in TRX to make it match. So when I do the 2010 I adjust the depreciation already taken. Fortunately the $ amounts have been too small to justify an amendment.

[Crank]

I must be unusual but my conversions went great, depreciation, carryforwards and all. The only problem I had was the 2-year comparison form didnt carry correctly, an easy fix. The first conversion I had about 1/3 fail but there was a thread on here about the conversion process and TaxWorks updated it a few times. So I kept doing conversions 3 or 4 times until they all worked.

Oh, and Im printing 8879s the same way. Just input the current date to print and then revise the date to the actual. Not a big hassle but it shouldnt be that difficult to print 8879s.

[Terry D EA]

This is my second year using TRX. Like many of you, I had used ATX for 12 years prior to switching. I had minimal problems last year and even less this year. I do think I made a good choice the support is much better and for the most part, TRX support is courteous and will stay with you to solve any problems. I hope the price stays the same and if so, then I will renew again for next year.

[John A]

Nope, certainly don't miss ATX. Though switching programs always takes a long time, so I may have continued with ATX if the price range had been more acceptable to me.

To be honest, I think the current year program hits a sweet spot for very small tax prep businesses, like mine. With growth, I'll certainly need something bigger and better - my personal favorite being UltraTax, which I've used for may years at another job. But at this point, it's just not an affordable option for me. I wish we could somehow know in advance whether TRX will offer the same program next year, before we have to pay our re-up fees. Only because the time involved in switching is easily worth several hundred dollars to me in price.

- John

[ed_accountant]

No, I don't miss ATX either.

[txyank]

No, I don't miss ATX either.

It is taking a long time to get comfortable with TaxWorks but the more I do,the better I like it.

Next year should be easier especially with conversion issues.

[JJStephens]

I'm tempted to just say ditto.

I've been doing taxes since '87 and started with Saber/ATX back in what I think was their second year. I do about 130-140 returns.

I had a few minor (but frustrating) conversion issues. Now that I know about them I just include them in my QA process. My biggest conversion gripes are that all taxpayers cam over as claimed on someone else's return and I could not get the 2 year comparison to work (if I want those I have to manually input the '09 data). Like a few of you, I discovered a few ATX depreciation errors following the conversion.

I guess at this point I'd have to say I'm reasonably happy. I did experience the old dog/new tricks syndrome but I'm at a point now where I'm able to do a return in about the same time.

My only ongoing gripes are that it would be nice to have yes/no check boxes (instead of having to use the slower drop downs) and the audit/review process is a bit slow/clunky. Oh, one more. I don't get why they moved the federal filing option selection routine to after the review. It would also be nice to select the print order for non-return forms & docs.

Anyway, for the major savings and the better support I'm content with my decision and will be renewing for next year.