Taxdome

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#1
Posts:
260
Joined:
20-Sep-2020 2:59pm
Location:
US
Hey guys,

I know a few of y’all used taxdome this year and wanted to see how everyone was liking it.

I use lacerte for taxes and the lacerte DMS with a file sharing program my IT company has. We’ve had a lot of problems with DMS crashing or it just not saving it to the DMS so I am looking for alternatives, as well as an upgrade on the practice management side. Our current tracking of returns is on paper lists, which I could obviously make better by using excel, but I think something like taxdome would be a step better than that.

Thanks I’m advance for your insight
 

#2
Posts:
2887
Joined:
21-May-2018 7:50am
Location:
Northern MI and Coastal SC
I haven't used Lacerte DMS. I know it was not reliable printing directly to SmartVault, so I have adopted a process of printing the PDF files I need from Lacerte and then I uploaded to SmartVault. Now, I do the same process but they're uploaded to TaxDome.

Yes, TaxDome can save you A LOT of time in tracking status of tax returns. Since this is still my first year of using TD, I have been maintaining my old Excel tracking sheet as well, but I will ditch it next year when I revamp some of my processes within TD now that I have better identified how it works, my needs, etc.
 

#3
Posts:
1174
Joined:
21-Apr-2014 7:09pm
Location:
NC
CornerstoneCPA wrote:I haven't used Lacerte DMS. I know it was not reliable printing directly to SmartVault, so I have adopted a process of printing the PDF files I need from Lacerte and then I uploaded to SmartVault. Now, I do the same process but they're uploaded to TaxDome.

Yes, TaxDome can save you A LOT of time in tracking status of tax returns. Since this is still my first year of using TD, I have been maintaining my old Excel tracking sheet as well, but I will ditch it next year when I revamp some of my processes within TD now that I have better identified how it works, my needs, etc.


So I sold my financial planning business to a big firm and in the deal have an agreement to continue doing the tax work for the 100 clients or so. I walked away from all clients with no assets under management. That said... I see things like Tax Dome and would absolutely embrace it if I were growing a practice. Right now I have only about 2-3 years left, 100 clients, so I am just waiting it out. BUT, the technology available now is simply incredible.
 

#4
Posts:
2887
Joined:
21-May-2018 7:50am
Location:
Northern MI and Coastal SC
southparkcpa wrote: BUT, the technology available now is simply incredible.


Very accurate statement, yet I am still stunned at how few CPA firms are embracing it--including firms owned by younger CPAs! I talk with a lot of them and they're still using technology that was already outdated a decade ago. They're shocked to find out what I generate in revenue for such a small firm and it is very much so attributable to leveraging technology to utilize my skillset for clients' benefit.
 

#5
BFStax  
Posts:
496
Joined:
21-Apr-2014 4:01pm
Location:
CT
Cornerstone, how have you liked TaxDome for payroll? I have over 30 payroll clients with varying schedules (weekly, semi-monthly, even weird ones like first business day of the month) and I'm looking for a software that can handle this type of recurring task. I just finished viewing a webinar and looking through their tutorials and the best I can see for recurring tasks/jobs is only set to weekly, monthly, yearly. That does not seem like it would work for payroll. Additionally, what about sales tax processing that happens quarterly?

**EDIT - their roadmap has a completed item where "Firms will be able to schedule jobs with any periodicity: every two months, every second Monday, etc." I will have to use the trial version because all their videos are out of date apparently. And their demo wasn't even live, just a recording. But sounds like some of my wants are either added or in development to be added.

Another concern I have is the Pipeline. During tax season I can have 50-75 open returns and it seems the TD Pipeline would just be cluttered and discombobulated. There is a pipeline for 1040, for 1120, 1065, etc.. Then I have to click into each one to see what returns are due and what stage they are at. I work on a FIFO basis and I'm concerned things would get lost.

**EDIT - I just saw in their roadmap that they are working on a calendar view: "Team members will be able to see task and job due dates in a single calendar view and prioritize their work accordingly." This sounds very promising.

Overall I like the functionality and look and it would allow me to ditch SmartVault saving more money due to annual fee and KBA fees while providing a more seamless experience. But the workflow feature is the most important part for me.

Has TaxDome solved any of these types of issues for you?
 

#6
Posts:
2887
Joined:
21-May-2018 7:50am
Location:
Northern MI and Coastal SC
TaxDome as evolved A LOT since I bought into it a year ago (though I did not implement it until around December). The added functionality they are implementing will solve all of these issues as long as pipelines are set up correctly.

As to payroll and sales tax, I file sales tax for one client at this time and do not bother with a pipeline. I have a pipeline set up for payroll but I never use it because I force all clients to be on semimonthly if it is Firm-prepared payroll.

I am definitely looking forward to the new calendar view to see what is in the pipeline based on due date. One thing they recently added, quite silently in fact, is when you click on a client and then workflows, you can see what pipelines they have jobs created in and the status within the pipelines.

TaxDome has saved me THOUSANDS of dollars through improved efficiency and definitely allowed me to therefore earn more money. It has some weaknesses I wish they would emphasize (such as a true integration with accounting software), but regardless, it has been a great platform.
 

#7
Derby  
Posts:
104
Joined:
10-Oct-2017 7:52am
Location:
Flint, MI
Just started with TaxDome.

Overall it's a huge improvement to the 4+ systems we were using (Clickup workflow, Drake portals, 17hats CRM/billing, Aweber bulk emails, spreadsheet to track everything again)

My big gripe so far is the invoicing.

There's no quote or draft invoice feature. You can "automate" invoicing in the workflow, but it has to be from a template. The price is set as part of the template. If you want a different price, you have to manually create the invoice, or manually edit the automated invoice.

If you want to create the invoice but just want it paid in the future, that doesn't work. For some inexplicable reason, the due date must be on or before the date you create the invoice!

To fix this, TaxDome needs a quote/advanced pricing feature. Where you can create the draft invoice as part of the job when you set it up, preferably in client-accessible quote form, and then trigger the invoice creation upon client approval of the quote or upon hitting a certain step in the workflow.
 

#8
Posts:
2887
Joined:
21-May-2018 7:50am
Location:
Northern MI and Coastal SC
I absolutely hate their invoicing and payment functionality so I do not use it. I use QBO for invoicing and Bill & Pay for A/R management/electronic payments.
 

#9
smtcpa  
Posts:
515
Joined:
28-Jul-2014 5:16am
Location:
Richmond, VA
We do the same.

CornerstoneCPA wrote:I absolutely hate their invoicing and payment functionality so I do not use it. I use QBO for invoicing and Bill & Pay for A/R management/electronic payments.
 


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