[lenraphael]

the only tax software which doesn't give you a way to view the prior year line item input while preparing current year?

Even worse, it doesn't provide two year comparison reports of line items for each rental, farm, or Sched C.

Not for individ or businesses.

Doesn't even Drake do that?

[ManVsTax]

Drake does not. Prosystems/Axcess does.

I can't stand Gosystems.

[ManVsTax]

Drake provides a holistic 3 year comparison for returns.

[makbo]

Drake provides a holistic 3 year comparison for returns.

Is that a line by line detail comparison including Schedules C/E, or just a tax history of the summary Form 1040 numbers?

[ManVsTax]

As far as income goes it's pretty much line by line (dividends and interest are combined but rentals/royalties are separated from pships/S Corps/trusts). It does combine lines for deductions for AGI and from AGI.

[ManVsTax]

Re-reading your comment makbo, it's the latter.

There is no line-by-line comparison of Schedules C and E year-over-year.

[Tenletters]

Maybe there is a button to push. In Drake it is either F11 or F12 (I forget which) to see last year's numbers on the data entry screen.

[lenraphael]

Tenletters, ProFx reports show line by line items of income and income for each Sched C and E rental and F. Profx also displays prior year numbers on input screen next to current year fields.

Ultratax produces the same reports as ProFx, but you have to press a key as you describe for Drake.

For Go Systems to see or compare prior year numbers you either have to open your copy of current year tax organizer, you pdf of prior year printed return, or open up the prior year GST client on another screen. One of GST's strengths is that you can open up several crlients in any year or the same client same year in different windows of IE. Other preparers can work in the same return at same time as you.

[makbo]

Ultratax produces the same reports as ProFx, but you have to press a key as you describe for Drake.

One of GST's strengths is that you can open up several clients in any year or the same client same year in different windows of IE. Other preparers can work in the same return at same time as you.

Re: UltraTax. I only run it on one of my two monitors, but if so inclined, I believe you can display UltraTax prior year and current year side by side on multiple monitors (or maybe even on the same wide monitor). What I find much more useful is actually being able to paste the prior year number if I choose, on a field by field basis. This only requires clickable diagnostics to implement, not multiple monitors.

Re: opening same client simultaneously by multiple users. How are update conflicts resolved? (User A saves an update while User B is working on an update but hasn't saved yet). This usually requires some sophisticated database locking, either at the individual field level, or the whole return. I don't see this as a lot of value for a tax prep shop, but you seem to find it so. Does it solve a major problem? I'm sure it must introduce some problems from time to time.

[lenraphael]

That multi user collaboration on the same return is unique for 1040 programs. TR's OneSource probably has that too. Don't know if TR's Onvio will.

Would have been very useful before both my long time employees quit for medical reasons. There were some bigger returns where a bunch of k1's come in at least minute. Would think (havent tried) two people could be inputting different k1's at same time.

I think the locking is LIFO: last person to change a field gets their changes retained.

Tax prep utopia would be UltraTax's ease of use plus ProFx efficiency combined with Go System Tax near 0 system hassle and many fewer secret codes than ProFx requires. GST calc/print speed almost as fast as Profx, much much faster than UT. But GST is oddly slow at creating efiles combined to UT or ProFx.