Trial Balance apps revisited

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#1
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I terminated my Thomson Reuters Workpapers CS subscription last month. Tired of dealing with it's quirks importing QBO and then having to export to a file before importing into Go System. Plus TR isn't putting any development effort into it.

Looks like there are some some kids on the block offering TB apps, some cloud some local apps.

Go System has a new "trial balance" function but won't do financials. Really just a gussied up bridge to get numbers into 1120's and 1065. Will do book and Fed tax entries. Strangely have to input aje's thru the chart of accounts.

Five of the TB vendors did their Google placement work. So I've sent them the following questions:

1. What’s involved in importing from QBO?
2. From QB Desktop
3. In the Trial Balance screen, can you turn off cents
4. Is there a column for tax adjustments?
5. Can I save the csv formats for exporting TB’s. eg. Go System has it’s required columns
 

#2
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What are the five you surveyed?
I inquired of Pro-Ware, which is pretty modestly priced. I can't get a call back from them.
~Captcook
 

#3
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TenkeyATB.com
CPAwriter.com
TBworkssoftware.com
Proware
info@regrouptax.com
https://www.pendock.com/trial-balance-software/
 

#4
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Thanks!
~Captcook
 

#5
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First reply: Proware
Subject: Re: Qk TB Pro pre sale questions

You can import from Quickbooks in one of two ways - either from the trial balance or from the chart of accounts. The advantage of importing the chart of accounts is that QTB can determine the account type and you won't need to assign them to your accounts. Account types identify the type of account, current assets, inventory, fixed assets, etc.

While you can't turn off cents in the trial balance, you can round to the nearest dollar in various reports and the financial statements.

There is an export option that allows you to select fields to export and you can export the trial balance to Excel format.

Let me know if you have any questions. You can download a demo from our website's download page and test it out.

Best, John
 

#6
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lenraphael wrote:I terminated my Thomson Reuters Workpapers CS subscription last month. Tired of dealing with it's quirks importing QBO and then having to export to a file before importing into Go System. Plus TR isn't putting any development effort into it.

Looks like there are some some kids on the block offering TB apps, some cloud some local apps.

Go System has a new "trial balance" function but won't do financials. Really just a gussied up bridge to get numbers into 1120's and 1065. Will do book and Fed tax entries. Strangely have to input aje's thru the chart of accounts.

Five of the TB vendors did their Google placement work. So I've sent them the following questions:

1. What’s involved in importing from QBO?
2. From QB Desktop
3. In the Trial Balance screen, can you turn off cents
4. Is there a column for tax adjustments?
5. Can I save the csv formats for exporting TB’s. eg. Go System has it’s required columns



While I can’t chime in, I am curious as to what type of work you do that you need a TB program. Since QBs dominated the market in the late 90s... I stopped using TB programs. my larger clients who use something else produce a BS and a P and L to excel and in 20 minutes I create a TB like worksheet from that.
 

#7
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Strictly tax.
The small clients are on qbo. I just use the QBO "Tax Prep" to create groupings and manually input those to tax.
The complex clients either use QBDesktop or other accounting software with long coa's. On some of the QBDesktop ones have to manually convert to cash basis or the client's inhouse people do. Others just have book to tax differences I'd like to track in a tb.

But mostly I don't want to spend any of my life grouping and reclassing stuff for tax returns.

I keep trying to get back to Creative Solutions paradise of 20 years ago when my clients used the lousy CS client software, I imported into CS Accounting, adjusted, and exported into CS Ultratax. The Intuit tax prep apps cant handle some of my tax clients.
 

#8
smtcpa  
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I also dumped TR after they discontinued CSA. I developed an excel template with lookups that categorizes the accounts into tax lines. I download a QBO TB, copy and paste and, unless they've added accounts, I am done. Manually input into UltraTax but it's quick. I also have a template that can create financials as well, but I have only one client for which I need that.
 

#9
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I literally have taken about an hour with every client and reformatted their QB's file to look more professional. I merge accounts, group accounts, in a manner that looks like a financial statement. In the Condense mode it can be input directly to a tax return in less than 20 minutes. The condense mode will have all categories necessary to do an 1120 etc.

I tell my clients that have sales less than say $2 million. If you have more than 25 expense categories you are kidding yourself. No business needs more than 25 or so P and L categories.

I NEVER try to import directly into my tax program. I found that one error can cause me 20 minutes to find. When we manually input the numbers, I view that as a second review.


Once the QB files passes the field test, the Tax Return is usually only another hour to hour and a half.
 

#10
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lenraphael wrote:I terminated my Thomson Reuters Workpapers CS subscription last month. Tired of dealing with it's quirks importing QBO and then having to export to a file before importing into Go System. Plus TR isn't putting any development effort into it.


This is a common issue with the CS suite. They bought out the components of the suite and integrated it together, and are just letting it ride. Every ounce of development is going into the Onvio package right now, for better or worse.

southparkcpa wrote:I tell my clients that have sales less than say $2 million. If you have more than 25 expense categories you are kidding yourself. No business needs more than 25 or so P and L categories.


+1
 

#11
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Trying out TenKeyATB. it's vastly improved from what it was a couple? of years ago. The QBO import works fine.

i forgot to add a few items to my vendor checklist:
1. how/will the app handle QBO and QBDesktop "classes"? will it produce separate exports and reports by class?
2. if the account codes has digit section for departments, can the departmentalized trial balance be produced? -
3. can an export be created by department/rental activity, class?
4. do you have to switch screens to create AJE's?
5. can more than one window be open at a time?eg. one for making AJE's and one to view the resulting TB?
 

#12
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TBworkssoftware.com flunks my test for ease of importing QBO and QBDesktop

just played with a trial subscription to cloud ver
Can only import csv files and those must be parsed already into account number, description etc.
 

#13
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ProWare only has a desktop version. I require cloud.

Suspect that desktop TB apps can't suck in QBO data easily.
 

#14
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CPAWriter same klutsy import method as TBworkssoft etc. ". You export the trial balance to Excel, modify the columns and rows to the format required, then import the trial balance to the program."

RegroupTax is cloud based. Stronger than the others for strictly tax return preparation with book vs tax income and balance sheet statements for easy reconciliation.

Exports directly only to CCH tax software.

Seems to be optimized for Xero

Import is via Excel but appears to parse QB automatically, but didn't verify.

Does not seem to allow drill down from the TB.

Conclusion: if I still used Profx, i'd probably go with this.
 

#15
wel  
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Watching this. I did a test-drive of TenKeyATB a couple-3 years ago. I remember liking it, but didn't pull the trigger on it. If it's continued to improve, it may be the way to go for a small office.
 

#16
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If you use ProFx and don't need financials, then the newest kid on the TB block, regrouptax.com is worth checking out. Seems to have the best handling of QB classes.

Pricing model not clear to me but I think it's per return.

-----

Hi Len,

Thanks for your interest in our software. I’ve answered your questions below.

1. What’s involved in importing from QBO? – You can import any format of a QBO report (i.e. year-to-year comparison reports, trend P&L, etc.). Simply export the report from QBO, save on your computer, and import into regroupTAX without any manipulation (i.e. keep all headers, columns, etc.)
2. From QB Desktop – same as above.
3. In the Trial Balance screen, can you turn off cents – There is not an option to turn off cents as of now, but it is a feature we could easily add in the future.
4. Is there a column for tax adjustments? – Yes, if you view the “Unadjusted Book to Sch. L Comparison” report and the “Book to Tax Comparison” report, you’ll see a column for book adjustments and a column for tax adjustments.
5. Can I save the csv formats of exported TB’s. eg. Go System has it’s required columns – Yes, click Export Accounts (blue button above the reports) and you can save the tax TB as a csv.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Emily


Emily Dear Harper, CPA
CO-FOUNDER, regroupTAX


------------------
Hi Len,

I’ve answered your questions below.

1. How do you handle QBO and QBD “classes”? – In the case of classes, you’ll create a unique excel trial balance (.csv format) in year 1 and use that same TB moving forward. Each year, you’ll simply update the book values and add any new book accounts to the TB. To indicate the class, you would include it in the book name; i.e. “Class 1: Office Expense…Class 2: Office Expense.” Once they are mapped in year 1, the mappings will automatically carry forward in future years.
2. Do you include tax codes and subcodes for any of the major tax software? M-3 codes? – The Tax Trial Balance that is exported from our software has tax codes for CCH Axcess and CCH ProSystems. We do not include any other codes or support M-3 as of now. We are working on UltraTax and Drake currently, but haven’t rolled that out.
3. Is there a live demo or a Youtube? The case study was just two screens? – Here is our YouTube channel, where you can find several videos, including a demo.
4. Are there user defined fields for codes such as “activity” which Go System and maybe UltraTax use to denote separate rental properties or Schedule C’s. – We have tax mappings for 8825 Rental Activity and Sch. F Farming Activity. Once a book account is mapped with a specific activity, you’re prompted to name the activity (i.e. name of the rental property), at which point an 8825 report will automatically be generated. We do not support Sch. C as of now, but several of our users use the Partnership Income Statement to mimic their Schedule C’s.

Hope that helps! Feel free to sign up for a free 30-day trial if you’d like to test out a few clients.

Emily
 


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