rfassett

I have not noticed - thanks for the heads up. I have not updated to the 12.15 - but only because I have not even opened the program since it was released. I think the last time I opened the program was about the 20th of April. I have been extremely busy getting quarterly payroll reports done and catching up client financial statements for the year.

You are going find a few non-carers whatever your issue and where ever you are - that is life! But I do not think you will find "many" on this board that are not sympathetic - at least for the first 90 days of the complaints. And just to sure, "losers" is your word, not mine. I never said nor implied you or any of the other noise makers are "losers". If you are like most of us on here, you are self employed, attempting to make a go it - and in my book. that is the exact opposite of "loser". And I accept your comment of "personally......thank God". I am a firm believer in God and do thank Him from everything from the air that I breath to the water that I drink and to every single thing He does in this world for me and anyone else. To be sure FTM, I have even prayed to Him to walk with you and help you in your life with whatever your needs - ATX or any other. No one that I have seen or read have accused you or any other of being lazy, idiotic, or losers. With the exception of a very, very few, most of the comments that I read on this board are comments to help - and hardly ever in the negative. We all have friends here willing and able to help eash other. Yes, you were hurt financially and I was hurt physically (which we do not need to go into here) by this past tax season - and you can not single out one entity or one company or one thing that caused it. It was a myriad of problems. I have never wanted to work more than 85 or 90 hours per week. In fact, my practice grew to the point that demanded that i work 105 hours per week for 13 weeks during tax season. I did that for three seasons in a row before I fired all of my D and below clients and told C and above, if they wanted to stick around they would have to pay the piper more. Enough stayed that allowed me to work 85 to 90 hours per week. UNTIL this year! I did not think it was phyically possible to work 112 hours per week for 13 weeks. But with about a week of only 60 hours in late February as the exception, that is what i had to do this year. Not because of increased business. But, just to be able to get through IRS, ATX and hardware issues and keep my clients happy. So I do understand your plight. I am not sure I made any less money during this tax season, but I certainly got paid less per hour.

Not sure I agree. If ATX, and I understand that the IF is a big word in your mind relative to ATX, has as many users as professed, it is an extreme minimum of users that have been making all of the noise. Even if you have 3,000 users making all of the noise, that is still a small portion of the users. Granted, it may be valid noise, but I do not think it affected that big of the user base as negatively as some of the noise makers are trying to make it seem. You say that only the noise makers know the truth. I disagree. The picture is somewhat bigger than this and the other board try to make it seem. We, the users of this board, are a very, very small part of the ATX user base - and alot of us did not even feel the negative affects as nearly as seriously as you feel. Perspective is all I am talking about and you and some of the other noise makers seem to have distorted perspectives. Not saying that you shouldn't, just saying that is how I see it. There is a bigger picture that you can not see because of the aggitation you feel.

I like international travel. We will just have to go over there and knock some heads. So many companies (ATX and owners included) are losing sight of the very thing that makes a company survive - the sale. Without the sale, everything else the company does is meaningless - EVERYTHING. So if the bozos over sea don't get that, it would be our job to convince them. My point in all of this - this is not a markeing manager (director) nightmare. It may just be the ultimate challenge.

Well let's brain storm together JohnH. You are a marketing mastermind and I am a marketing mastermind wanna-be. (My first degree was in Marketing and I spent several years in sales and managing a marketing department.) This should have us wringing our hands in anticpation of the challenge. Maybe you and I should apply for the job but only if they will take us as a team. I think we could turn it around in a two year period and be heroes. First thing would be to reach out to every user, no matter what the cost (not just reach out, but communicate with each user (big big difference)), with a genuine and sincere apology and acknowledgement of the problems while showing a sense of remorse and it won't happen again mentality and explaining what is being done to be absolutely certain something like this never happens again to the users. That is the easy part. And then we would have to get on development and support and make sure that what we are telling the user is what is going to happen. I do not think growth should be the primary focus at the moment. That will come three years down the road. Right now we should be in lock down survival mode. What you think JohnH, shall we apply?

There have been plenty of reports in the on-line AND print publications of the ATX woes this year. The bad publictiy has not been restricted to this and the other board.

I can't blame them. They would not rate very good for 2012. No rating is better than a bad rating. They have had enough bad publicity this year. I would not put much thought into them not participating.

I don't think it is a reluctance at all, at least not on my part. And I do not feel I am working on any antiquated equipment. I assure you, my experience with 2012 ATX was a great deal more pleasant than others that had state of the art equipment. Explain that to me. I believe it is a matter of buying the tools that will do the job. There was nothing cheap about the system I put in. It was state of the art equipment at the time of installation, was professionally installed and has been professionally maintained. What is cheap about that. I believe it is those things that served me well this past season. It is a big deal and a big expense for my firm to upgrade hardware becuase it is not just a "go out and buy a plug and play" and move on. I believe my method is a well thought out and well implemented plan and "updating" or "upgrading" just for the sake of it does not fit into that plan. And if you really stop and think of it, it is the bells and whistles that make the software so demanding on the hardware. In my neck of the woods, a debit is still a debit and a credit a credit. How much computing power does that take? And the tax return still looks like it did several years ago. I repeat, how hard is it to compute a tax return (ATX's 2012 debacle excepted)? So it is for those reasons (my planning stage) that I asked the question regarding future computing requirements. It will not be the only question. When I had this current system installed, I told the hardware vendor and installers, prior to purchase, that I wanted a bullet proof system that would keep me in business for five years. I kept pushing and asking quetions and finally when the last installer was leaving he said, "pray that your system does not get struck by lightening because that is about all that is left that could hurt it". We did our homework and they did their job. And we will repeat the process this year. And hopefully be good for another five years. In the interest of full disclosure, the server blew a hard drive about 18 months into the system. It was only one of the four hard drives and did not slow us a down a lick. So no, it is not reluctance, Just good planning.

So if these are the 2013 equipment requirements, should I decide to stay the course, what do you suppose the recommended requirements would be for say three to five years down the road. I like to make major hardware purchases only every five years, so I need to know what will get me through that far. For the record, I am on the seventh year of the current set up. But I asked the same question when i had this one installed. And but for the ATX requirements (and I am certain other vendors will not be far behind if they do not already have these requirements), my system is still running very strong.

Either I haven't paid any attention this early in the past or ATX is trying to get ahead of the curve this year and has already posted the 2013 system requirements. Good information to have while evaluating software - may have to also upgrade hardware. http://atxinc.com/PDF/ATX_2013_System_Requirements.pdf

The resale market for timeshares is perpetually depressed just by its nature. Very few people buy timeshares as an investment. So when they are selling, it is either a fire sale mentality or an inherited and I do not want the headaches mentality. I once had a client in the resale business and I was astounded at the prices he was paying for these things just so the owner could get out of the maintenance and tax fees. Point is though, the FMV is not necessarily zero.

I agree with your analysis but not the facts. Google Wyndham Resorts resale and you will this that there is a very active market for re-selling time shares. I would not assume the FMV is zero. Further, you might encourage her to pursue selling. This gets her completely out of the taxes and maintenance fees and cash is ALWAYS better than a tax deduction.

I do not really have that concern. CCH has weathered many storms over the years. ATX has been a very good money maker for CCH. When it stops being a money maker, CCH will either sell it, merge it, or kill it - whichever makes most economic sense. CCH will not make that decision based on one year's performance given the circumstances. If the writing is on the wall that ATX is going to be a perpetual money loser for CCH, then it would be time to bail. I may be naive, but I do not see that happening this year. This year was an anamoly for ATX and not much more of less, in my opinion.

I watched the movie (The Dilemma) on TV last night not at all thinking I would be facing a dilemma today. I just got my renewal in the mail today and realized my renewal discount is worth nearly $300. I have stated previously that I do not make a practice of early renewing, but $300 can buy a lot of lunches during the year. And if I am going to write a check in six months anyway, why not save the $300. I really need to think this through. As I have mentioned before, I did not have alot of the issues that some of you had this year. And that 10% discount equates to a 21.2% return on the investment according to my amortization program. In other words, if I invested the discount amount on May 31st and received the non-discounted amount back on November 30th, it would represent a 21.2% return for that 6 month period. On the other hand, I could forgo the discount and just pay the non-discounted price as late as possible. I would never achieve that kind of return though while my money waited to be spent. I was able to pay a small downpayment in early December last year and the balance in February (with the payment date actually being pushed further into February because of the filing issues). I am torn but am leaning toward the early renewal. I know this issue has been beat up in other threads, but I am just now starting to think this through rationally. The only real down side would be that I would lose whatever return I could get on the money for six to nine months (or whatever would be the amount of time it would take to get a refund). From a rational perspective, I think I am leaning toward the early renewal. Any thoughts?

There are all sorts of posts about these things and the AICPA has issued some sample letters as have some of the malpractice insurance companies. You should contact your insurer for guidance if you have not. My letter simply states that I have prepared the tax returns for xx number of years for the client and I will be happy to supply the client with another copy to give to them. I get all kinds of flac from the banks about this but tell them that is all I can do and they need to do their own diligence. The most funny one I have had is a bank called me to ask if one of our mutual clients was still in business. I said, "do you have gas in your car". The response was "yes, why?" I said, "then get off your rear-end and get in your car and drive the five miles to his place of business and see if he is open." She (the banker) doesn't call me anymore.

Not uninformed. But very much a realist and very much one to pick his battles carefully. If keeping my head in the sand is one of my traits, I would suggest you give it a try. It gives a much different perspective on life. And this is not a my (fill in your own word) is bigger than your (fill in your own word) discussion.

Unless you are in our profession - then the money is secondary - at least that is what some of my great clients think.

I know there were some features that were removed but I commend ATX for taking the move to make the software more functional for the balance of the year. I did not miss any of those features and the removal of those only proved to speed up my productivity. Would I like to have them back? Sure, but not at the price of my productivity. Do I expect them to lower the price for removing them? No, as long as it did not lower my productivity. The software is just a tool for our profession. Any tool that does the job we need it to do when we need to do it is a tool well respected. Case in point, I was installing legs on a table earlier today and the screws had allen wrench tops. I did not have an allen wrench which made the job problematic. I did not have a small enough screw driver to make it work. So I finally got my DeWalt power drill out and I had the right tip to do the job. Should I have sent the table back because I did not have the right tool? I could not agree more that this tax season was extremely frustrating. For me, ATX was third in line. Congress was very first, personal issues played second just ahead of ATX. I do think ATX finished the season strong and if they maintain that momentum into the next year, we should be in very, very good shape. I hate to say that the whole ATX iissue is being blown out of proportion, and I do understand the level of frustration many of us felt, but as for me and mine, we are taking a wait and see approach. And to display my confidence that I believe ATX will get the job done, I am not wasting any of my valuable time over the summer and fall to evaluate different software. You are all hereby put on notice that you can feel free to say "I told you so" if my gamble turns out to be a bust.

Thanks Ken. Good info.

Just curious, how much discount is anyone going to give their clients next year for all the frustration you caused your clients this year? Just as I thought. I know I won't. And I don't expect one from ATX. Those that lost revenue and can prove it was because of ATX should take it up individually with ATX or take it up in court. My biggest beef is with the government and issues it caused, not with ATX.

Actually my office does. We take off at noon on the 15th and return at 8 am on the 17th to work on quarterly payroll and sales tax reports. Our "season" does not end until those filings are complete. So yeah, while you are off basking in the sun in some exotic place, some of us are still "slaving away" albeit with shorter days. Hope you had a GREAT time!

Well that will teach you to go on vacation while the rest of slave away. I know of no probable remedy beyond what you have done other than try to get the return in as soon as possible to get the bleeding stopped in case the IRS does not rule favorably on your plea.

Sounds like you are going to have to contact support then. What you are doing should work.

Go to myatx.com and login with your user name and password. Go to downloads. Find the ATX 2012 download 12.13 click on it and save it to your desktop. After it has saved (which should not take more than a couple minutes with a high speed connection) go to your desktop and find that file, double click on it and follow the prompts.

Are you saving the update to your desktop and then installing it from there?