Topic

13-Feb-2019 11:43am

We have been using CSA trial balance software for probably 20 years and it has been a good program. We don't do audits, don't need workpapers, don't do writeup on it, but it does have a good financial statement design module that takes an investment of time to set up. We have a few of those that go like clockwork. Works well for grouping a large chart of accounts too.

Just got a letter that TR is stopping support in a about a year or so. We actually lease the software, didnt' buy it (bad move). Not sure what will happen.

As most know TR wants CSA users to migrate to their new product accounting CS or workpapers CS or whatever it is called. I have reviewed it twice and hate it. I just won't use it. Plus, for our firm and the number of users it is more than 7 grand plus 2 grand a year for support and updates. We pay about a grand for CSA annually.

Looking for similar products to replace it but really have not found anything close. I would appreciate any suggestions.

13-Feb-2019 1:57pm

Look for an old topic. CSA was on its way out 10 years ago and every year after that they have said it is almost gone. They announced a few years ago they no longer supported it and I was one of the last ones to move to CS. BIG mistake - I am sure it could be good if you needed a massive system to support your clients, but it was a slow slow learner process for us and more so for Thompson. Way to expensive and I continue to pay a yearly support fee because it would be way to expensive for any other alternative. I remember the one person on the old forum who liked the CS a lot was a person who said first she had to admit she previously was a programmer.

I thought I would be out this business by this time. By the way I still use CSA for tax returns and have already done that this year. They said the platform it was built on would not be supported by Micro Soft 7 years ago and they were not going to try to adjust it themselves. I have lost contact with a lot of CSA users who left. a bunch kept Ultra Tax.

13-Feb-2019 4:02pm

I was contacted by my salesperson and now they are now pushing AdvanceFlow as the replacement. It is strictly cloud based and a mere $70 per user per month. We would have 7 users = almost 6 grand a year! We don't do audits.

13-Feb-2019 6:37pm

We bought the Advance Flow kool aid and are not happy with it. It crashes a lot.

15-Feb-2019 10:01pm

For a minute I thought I stepped into a 3-year old thread.

That being said it’s all relevant. Two years after letting CSA die we are still struggling to find trial balance software and payroll software.

We tried Accounting CS concurrently as we were exiting CSA and decided it would cost us too much time and many lost clients.

We’ve resorted to QB for payroll. It works, but time is up 30% compared to CSA.

I have a cloud version of a TB product, can’t recall the exact name. It’s okay. Easy to accidentally hit back and lose a lot of entries. The export and import into UT works well, but is tedious. looked it up: tenkeyatb

Support is good for it.

21-Feb-2019 9:07am

When I joined my firm we used CSA for most of our financials. Great program, but definitely needed updating even back in 2011.

After trying a few programs and even helping in alpha development for QuickBooks Statement Writer I came up short on a replacement.

We now use Excel for our financial statements. It's a simple solution and it works just fine.

I hope that helps.

21-Feb-2019 6:24pm

It is sad to see that there is a void for this kind of product for small firms.

1-Nov-2019 10:47am

Did you end up going with AdvanceFlow? If so, how do you like it?

1-Nov-2019 12:43pm

I have a handful of small clients that I still use CSA for and it works fine with an easy bridge to Ultratax

21-Nov-2019 1:37pm

Hello Taxprotalk, thinking about moving to advance flow for my practice. Doing some compilations and reviews and trying to add audits. Can I get any recent feedback about this product? Thank you in advance!

21-Nov-2019 3:59pm

Our audit department hates it.

23-Nov-2019 7:37pm

Texas Al wrote:I was contacted by my salesperson and now they are now pushing AdvanceFlow as the replacement. It is strictly cloud based and a mere $70 per user per month. We would have 7 users = almost 6 grand a year! We don't do audits.

More recent contact with our rep as to the "actual" cost it is the above PLUS additional charges to integrate our Checkpoint research services to Advance Flow, and this is not an optional charger. However rep would not give me a number. Looks like this is out.

Watched the demo and while the trial balance screen looks more like CSA, it is still blown up with crap we don't need as we don't do audits.