Discussion:Tax software for new and small practice
From TaxAlmanac
Discussion Forum Index --> Business Growth Community --> Tax software for new and small practice
| 23 August 2008 | |
| I plan to start my own practice gradually at home . In the beginning, first tax season, maybe I get only few clients. The most difficult issue is tax software. I am working in public accounting firms with few hundred clients, there is no problem for the partners to get software licenses, however, to me, I do not know how / what/ where to begin with. What software I should use, and how I can get them ? I have to buy them or I can lease and pay by the number of tax returns done.
Please give me some advice. Thanks a lot. | |
| 23 August 2008 | |
| Dear John, what software is your current employer using? What have you had experience with? If it's Lacerte, I know you can use it with a per-return fee. It's a good way to control your costs while minimizing the learning curve you will have if you start using a new program. -- Larry Hess, CPA | Albuquerque, NM | |
| 24 August 2008 | |
| Thanks so much for your response, Larry. If Lacerte requires minimum numbers of returns for consideration of contract and I could not guarantee this, could I use Turbo tax instead? I only used Turbo tax for my 1040, but did not have chance to try Turbo tax for business entity or other forms. | |
Taxcurmudgeon (talk|edits) said: | 24 August 2008 |
| Lacerte has both a pay-per-return plan and a unlimited license fee. "... could I use Turbo tax ...?" You have my permission. It's consumer product, though. Are you a consumer tax preparer? | |
| 24 August 2008 | |
| Thanks for your hint and advice. I am a CPA, and I certainly want the best software for tax preparation. However, I worry that I could not afford pro-software when my practice is very limit, just begins and has no client yet. | |
Lmcdon9822 (talk|edits) said: | 25 August 2008 |
| If you want the best, then you will pay for the best whether you are starting out or a seasoned veteran. If you are just starting out and want to limit your costs, try TaxAct (www.taxact.com). I am using the 1040 professional version along with the All States Professional version for now. Unlimited returns and pay-per-efile options. Its great so far. Once my business starts to grow, I may move on to another software package. | |
| 25 August 2008 | |
| I agree with Lmcdon. Tax Act is not a bad package at all for the price under many circumstances. You have to watch out when taxpayers have NOL's, are subject to AMT, etc. I use Lacerte's pay-per-return package for anything that Tax Act can't handle. | |
| 25 August 2008 | |
| I also agree Lmcdon and Tptking. Tax Act is a very affordable tax software. It doesn't have all of the bells and whistles of some of the higher priced software, but it does the job. The biggest complaint I have is that there aren't modules for every state's corporation returns (not an issue for you if you are only doing individual tax returns). Other than that, the rest of my complaints are minor (not a lot of space to type on Sch D, not a lot of lines for Sch C other expenses, etc). I have used Tax Act for 5 years, and will be moving on to ProSeries for 2008 returns, mainly because my client base has grown large enough to justify the cost. | |
| 26 August 2008 | |
| Tax Act is fine if you don't plan on e-filing. When I got into tax prep I signed up for Tax Act and one of my first clients came to me wanting me to prepare the returns for the previous 4 seasons. Tax Act was a great way to build that tech library and the client FAR more than paid for the software which I used many times.
I tried Proseries Basic for a year. Their price kept going up and what they offered in the package was never enough. Several things annoyed me about the product. I used ATX for two years. Customer Service is absolutely horrible. Solid product though. I found TRX Alliance. They resell Intellitax (TRX-Pro - $299) for a VERY reasonable price and it includes e-files. Give them a look and it might be more of your liking. CPA Technology Advisor does a review of Intellitax and if you download a demo of each program you'll see they are the same. http://www.cpatechnologyadvisor.com/web/online/Review/Orrtax-Software---IntelliTax-/31$1951 Tax Act is fine but if you plan on handling e-files you'll outgrow their cost appeal very quickly. $300 is more than Tax Act but it isn't going to break your bank and you don't have to worry about e-file fees. Plus with TRX Pro you get software for 1120's and 1065's plus all the states. It is easy to out save Tax Act with that stuff included. I have a few 1065's I file and it's a big saver. | |
| 26 August 2008 | |
| Thanks so much for all great advice and suggestions. I learned a lot with this thread. Before, I've never heard about some tax software programs such as Tax Act, but now I know them. Your advice are really helpful. I'll explore all options you've said.
Again, my sincere appreciation to all of you. | |
Lmcdon9822 (talk|edits) said: | 28 August 2008 |
| E-filing with TaxAct is not a problem. What you need to do is pass the cost of e-filing to the client. Give the client the choice to e-file or not. If you tell them the difference between e-filing and mailing in their return, they will choose e-filing. I tell the client if they want to mail in their return, the SHOULD use return reciept which forces them to use first class mail. They don't want their return lost in the mail and all their information, SS#, etc will be lost. With identity theft on the rise, its worth the extra money. Now having to mail both federal and state, that will cost them at least $10-15. With e-file, the cost will be $12 over a secure network. IRS will send a response within 24 hours and will let you know if the return is accepted or rejected. A rejected return that is sent via the post office will take 1 week to get there, 2 weeks to process, 1 week to get back to you. 1 month vs. 24hrs. Tell the client that and the WILL choose e-file. 98% of my clients e-file. | |
| 28 August 2008 | |
| 40 clients x $12 is $480. Add $100 for federal and one state and your TaxAct bill is $580. Doesn't matter if you pass it along to clients because you could do that with any software. $580 is darn close to the ATX 1040 program at $635. You could use unlimited e-file from TaxAct but that's still $600ish. Why not upgrade at that point?
Whatever you do - avoid Tax Exact. They have a pro version and I bought it as a whim to use their 1065 for a client and as a 1040 backup. The 1040 package NEVER worked properly. K-1 forms were not able to be added to individual returns and the state software was never finished. Avoid them. | |
| 29 August 2008 | |
| You can get an unlimited number of returns (with efile) through Tax Act for $500. I have no complaints about efiling with Tax Act at all.
I used ATX several years ago and although the price is nice (or at least it used to be very reasonable), I felt like I had to baby sit the software. Weird things would happen that would cause numbers to change on the return (which didn't result from user error!). Although I review everything very closely, ATX required a little more attention than I had time to give. Again, that was several years ago and I'm sure they have fixed that problem since then. | |
Lewisaccounting (talk|edits) said: | 31 August 2008 |
| I used proseries for the past three years and i took a look at tax act. I just want to get some thoughts on making a change. I did 60 1040s and 20 1120s for 2007.I just want to know what some users of tax act and proseries think | |
| 31 August 2008 | |
| There's some good info on that above, but also see the current ATX discussion over in the Tax Forum, in particular Abelletete's post (not happy about a ProSeries to ATX switch - may also apply for your switch?). And, try the yellow search box to the left of the screen. Here's the search results (searching TaxAct ProSeries) showing 25 discussions that might provide additional insight. (Plus it looks like there may be a couple of others, if you search for "Tax Act" rather than TaxAct - give it a shot). | |
Lewisaccounting (talk|edits) said: | 31 August 2008 |
| trillum i want to know about tax act not atx software | |
| 31 August 2008 | |
| I recognize that. My point was, Abelletete had some issues with the ProSeries to ATX conversion program not bringing over all of the data, so in case you were focusing mainly on comparing the capabilities/usability of the two programs, while assuming that the conversion to TaxAct would be no big deal, that comment might add something else to your list of issues to be researched. Beyond that, as with many discussions here, there's info in that discussion that goes beyond the main topic (e.g., leaving ProSeries only to come back again eventually...). Did you find anything useful in the 25 or so discussions that included both ProSeries and TaxAct? | |
Lewisaccounting (talk|edits) said: | 31 August 2008 |
| The search did help I agree with what you said leaving ProSeries only to come back is what I have been reading in other post. Thanks for your help . I am just going to stay with ProSeries and continue to try and grow my practice | |
| 9 September 2008 | |
| Hello all,
I have a really, really small practice and my goal is to have a small practice that I can handle from my home office but make a nice profit :-). I have been using ProSeries Basic and it doesn't handles NOLs and other stuff, so this coming tax season I am upgrading to the Professional version. I used to pay less than $600 with e-file (pay per return) and taxes. Now I am going to pay $1400. I want to offer the best service to my clients so they keep on coming and referring their friends, so I decided to upgrade. Then I received a postcard from ATX and got nervous because they offer a good package for a lot less, but after reading some posts here about the software I think that I am sticking to ProSeries. Good luck! | |
| 9 September 2008 | |
| ATX isn't bad. I wouldn't be scared of them personally. When someone says "I didn't do anything and the numbers changed" I would seriously question the idea of that. I never had that happen and I've never heard of a program changing numbers without cause - have you?
I used them for several years and found the software itself to be fine but the customer service to be horrible (they were purchased). But then again I found Proseries to be lacking also. $1,400 seem like a pretty steep yearly tech bill if you are truly focusing on staying small. JMHO. | |
