2020 tax software survey

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#1
cl2018  
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#2
ATSMAN  
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Year after year the opinions are about the same. Drake for sole operators and small shops and TR products for larger CPA shops.
 

#3
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How could anything change? The software companies are all stagnant with their products other than updating them for current regs. When was the last time any of them were actually refreshed to have a more user friendly interface? They all look like software from the 90s, because they pretty well are, at least from a UI perspective!
 

#4
CathysTaxes  
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Agreed. I haven't seen Tax Wise in awhile. Last time, it looked like 1980s
Cathy
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#5
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Is that such a bad thing? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
 

#6
jon  
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I am TR, but I think Lacert and others match or are better in processing returns, maybe other items are better with Ultra.
 

#7
ATSMAN  
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SumwunLost wrote:Is that such a bad thing? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.


If you may recall 2012 Tax software revamp for ATX and Taxworks was a complete disaster. As a matter of fact Taxworks never recovered! Yours truly was a victim of that fiasco!
 

#8
CathysTaxes  
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ATSMAN wrote:
SumwunLost wrote:Is that such a bad thing? If it ain't broke, don't fix it.


If you may recall 2012 Tax software revamp for ATX and Taxworks was a complete disaster. As a matter of fact Taxworks never recovered! Yours truly was a victim of that fiasco!

I liked Taxworks. I think it got bought out then disappeared.
Cathy
CathysTaxes
 

#9
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ATSMAN, I recall the anguished discussions on TA about that. At the time, I was at a firm that used ProSystemFx and mightily relieved to be so. My last employer used ATX and he stayed with them. I think he got too deeply into tax season to switch. Better the devil you know and all that.

Having used ATX and Drake recently, I am not sure why anyone would use ATX over Drake. They are at broadly similar price points and seem, to me at least, to appeal to the same sort of client base. I am not aware that ATX has any decent quality integrations with other software from the same stable. I am sure if there had been, my former employer would have found them and done that. He limited the amount of information I saw when he decided to switch to UltraTax last year.

Based on the "would you recommend...?" scores in the Overall Ratings table, it seems to me that CCH has a problem if someone comes along with a product that offers as many forms as they do.
 

#10
ATSMAN  
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Having used ATX and Drake recently, I am not sure why anyone would use ATX over Drake. They are at broadly similar price points and seem, to me at least, to appeal to the same sort of client base.


You are correct. The difference is the data entry method. Drake is designed with data entry screens that basically follow the 1040 form. ATX is data entry directly on the form. Some folks like direct data entry on the form. Drake does have a forms based data entry module but it is not as robust as other software that are primarily forms based entry.

After you get over the learning curve, the calculation module of Drake is superfast, you get the calculated return practically at the blink of an eye 8-)
 

#11
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CornerstoneCPA wrote:How could anything change? The software companies are all stagnant with their products other than updating them for current regs. When was the last time any of them were actually refreshed to have a more user friendly interface? They all look like software from the 90s, because they pretty well are, at least from a UI perspective!


I think the move toward cloud computing will change this as many companies are using it as an opportunity to completely redo the underlying computing engines of their software. Thomson Reuters in their slow migration toward Onvio are not just taking the old suite software and putting that online; they seem to be rebuilding it from scratch. For better and for worse. I haven't seen their tax product, which they're pushing out very slowly, but I assume that they're keeping with the concept as well on that change.

ATSMAN wrote:Year after year the opinions are about the same. Drake for sole operators and small shops and TR products for larger CPA shops.


Funny enough, I worked for a 10-person shop that used Drake, and on my own I use UltraTax.

The larger firms tend to actually use CCH, whether it be Prosystems or Axcess. I think KPMG is the only one of the big 4 that uses TR's Gosystems. From what I've read, UltraTax has a limit of around 20-30 preparers because of how resource intensive the software can be as it's recalculating the tax return as new data is entered, which makes it effectively unusable for large firms.
 

#12
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The larger firms tend to actually use CCH, whether it be Prosystems or Axcess. I think KPMG is the only one of the big 4 that uses TR's Gosystems. From what I've read, UltraTax has a limit of around 20-30 preparers because of how resource intensive the software can be as it's recalculating the tax return as new data is entered, which makes it effectively unusable for large firms.


The back end difference of UT is a very real dynamic in contrast to Pfx. I use Pfx where I'm at now and used UT at my prior firm. UT is FAR more intuitive and the data sharing between returns (K-1s, addresses, etc.) is nearly unmatched. I could do a 3 owner s-corp and their 3 1040s in about 3 hrs. In Pfx, that is at LEAST 4 and more likely 6.

Inertia is a powerful force. The likelihood of a large number of bigger firms actually evaluating another software platform on its merits is incredibly unlikely.
~Captcook
 

#13
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For sure, inertia is powerful, especially because changing tax software is incredibly difficult. When I moved my clients from Drake to UT after my first year in business it was a huge undertaking and I didn't even have that many clients back then; I can only imagine the horror of moving the clients of a major firm.

It's also kind of a circular feedback loop with the big firms -- because pretty much every other major firm is using CCH, if they poach an employee from a competitor they already know the software. And because most potential new clients are from firms which use the same software, it's an easier onboarding process than if they use a different software solution, and there should be fewer errors.
 


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