rfassett

Well - thankfully I have broad shoulders and can take whatever you can dish out. I was attempting to help out and you saw fit to lash out. I am glad I could provide you with a target to berate. You can thank me at some other time. In the meantime, I suggest you go back to ProSeries because ANY thing ATX would do for you now would not be enough. I was in sales long enough to know that there is a point of diminishing returns, and when rationalization has left the building it is time to cut your losses and move on. Best of luck to you.

I do not doubt that you have issues. But some of them are self imposed. You should not be attempting to rollover more than just a couple (I do one) at a time. I am using a network setup also and have used ATX successfully over the years. Near as I can ascertain, the issues with ATX this year have mostly to do with speed. I have completed only one Form 1120S so far this year and am on my way to complete upwards of 500 returns. ATX will do the job. The printing was slow for the one I did, but that will improve. You came on-board at a bad time - that is a given. I would encourage you, should you choose to leave, to take a look at ATX again periodically over the next couple of months and see if the software does not improve dramatically in terms of performance and functionality. I am sorry you are having such issues.

Wow - that is a 22 degree swing. We also are up to 11 but is does not represent nearly as much swing. Looking like up to 40 though by the end of the weekend.

I guess software, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. I have been using the Fixed Asset Manager and have been thinking I needed to post a positive comment amongst all the ATX bashing that has been going on this year. I really do like all of the improvements. I have been using FAM for quite some time and I really, really do like the 2012 version. i guess because I have been using it for so long, I do not have the issue to which you speak. But I am having to add about 50 assets right now by hand and I am thoroughly impressed. The add is quick, prior period depreciation is calculated and the overall feel of the program is far and away better than the previous version.

Shut up! Who invited Lloyd to this "poor me" session?

I agree with the others - not much you can do at this point other than wait for appeals. Again, you can ask, but don't expect a welcoming party. Yes 40% sounds high, but it is a matter of facts and circumstances. It might be right on the money for your client and she should be able to supply evidence. In closing I WILL say this, I can not remember any audit where the client at some point did not utter those "they are out to get me" words. Sometimes I take the time to explain that away, sometimes I let them go on believing it because it is fun to watch them squirm.

Are those the little blue pills? I will see what I can drum up. I understand the price has gone up, though, so be prepared. It was up to 9 degrees here yesterday but that was when I came into the office at 5:45 am. By the time I left last evening it was 5. All the way up to 7 so far this morning. Did I say BBbbbbrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And think food stamps, state health benefits and cash assistance (in addition to the EIC) and you have a family of four bringing in (through cash and assistance) somwhere north of $40,000. Still not a lot to live on, but a far cry from the $18,000 being reported. Now if he has a $2,000 house payment (or some other "expense" that does not fit) you may want to "dig deeper".

Ray, this is what the ATX Blog says. Don't know if it applies to your situation. Cannot Open Rolled Return after 12.4 Scenario: You are getting the message “The Rollover from last year was incomplete due to forms which were out of date or mismatched. Please open and close the return in last year’s program (you do not need to save it), then re-open the return in this year’s program.” after updating to 12.4 Solution to try: Immediately try to open the return again on the same workstation in 2012. Do not go into 2011 and follow the on screen directions. We have identified an issue where the rollover service is timing out. If you re-open the return immediately it initiaizes the service again to successfully open the return. Permanent Solution: We will correct the timing of the service in a future update.

There was a post on the ATX blog about the issue APF mentioned. It says it has to do with a timing out issue and you should not go back to the 2011 program but rather immediately re-attempt the rollover.

I just finished an 1120S without issue except for the following. I rolled it over earlier in the week but did not work on it. After the current update, I deleted it and rollled it over again. It asked if I wanted to roll over the missing forms (all of them were just e-file authorizations) when they became available and I said no. Opened the rolled over return without issue. Was very surprised to see the PA corporate and PA S-Corp returns available. So I went ahead an completed the return. Obviously the 4562 is not approved but is functional. My only real issue was the print speed. I printed 54 pages and it took longer than I expected but probably about 4 minutes. The only other issue I had is I like to include the cover sheet for each of the three different returns (1120S, RCT101, and PA20S) but can not figure that out yet. All in all, I believe the software still needs some tweaking and I am confident ATX will get the job done.

I also loved the roar. But I have to admit, the first time ever I opened up the program and heard that, I was scrambling for the power cord - wasn't sure what my system was doing. I liked the parrot too. And what about the wizard. What I really miss right now though is getting that dog to rollover. It has certainly been an entertaining journey over the years. Thanks ATX and all of those who have gone before!

joanmcq, I applaud you - working on two clients at once? Wow - my brain just does not expand that far. Fortunately though the programs look enough different that that should help in keeping things straight - besides the fact that one hand is working on income tax and the other on payroll compliance or 1099s.

Early season issues seem to be exaggerated this year because the programs have undergone significant changes. Support is working hard to get things worked out but it is taking time. The program is gaining speed with each new update. Dan mentioned that he does not care for the fact that the programs were split up but I happen to really like that. The payroll compliance module has been working wonderfully this year. I have not worked in the tax program except to roll over one 1120S and although it was slow, it rolled over everything that was available. It will be another ten days before I start working on returns and I would think that ATX will have most of the bugs worked out by then.

Sounds to me like it is all rent for the use of the equipment unless the equipment owner is providing some other service for your Schedule C guy.

Dan - I don't think you are going to get Form 940 in the tax software. It is now in the Payroll Compliance module - a separate module from the tax software. I have been using that module for the past week and Form 940 is there.

Oh no John, was that YOU that I received an email from saying you were trapped in some foreign country and couldn't leave until you paid your bill which you couldn't do because you had been robbed and would I please send money? I thought it was just a scam so I just deleted it. I am truly sorry. Cute story though. Carbon paper vs copy machine. The old meets the new. Very interesting.

You have to have returns in the program for the forms update report to populate. If you have no affected returns, nothing shows on the forms update report. That is according to a blurb on the ATX blog.

Line 21 - other income. Definitely not Schedule F.

Guardian Protection gets notified immediately of a breach and a very loud siren is activated and Guardian immediately calls law enforcement and then me - in that order. When we initially installed the system (for the first few months) I was awakened in the middle of the night by a call from Guardian several times and met the police here more than just a few times and always a false alarm.. It seemed to be the same sensor and Guardian swore it was not a bad sensor. So i camped out right underneath that sensor one night and waited. What did I find? The heating register was blowing straight up underneath the window with such force that it was moving the valances just a little - just enough to trigger the alarm. I was pleased as punch that the alarm was that sensitive. We re-directed the air flow and the problem went away. Is it a perfect system? None is - but it serves my purposes.

I guess I march to a different drummer. I have dead-bolt locks on all of the exterior doors and a motion detecting security system that monitors things when I am not here. My wife and I do our own cleaning. OH - and probably the biggest thing, most of our file cabinets are relatively empty anyway. Being digital takes care of alot of these issues.

"Furthermore they wont process returns dated before Jan 30" True - so part of the review process will be creatng the efile which would bring the date on the return to the current date. I do not have a concern about that one iota though because I can count on one hand the number of returns that I do in January. The biggest concern I have about the pushed back date is it is getting very close to the date when I usually start filing. And historically, the couple of week lead time I was afforded (between the efile start date and the date I start filing) allowed you early efilers to get all of the bugs worked out before I got involved. I like it that way. :)

I am not making any changes in my scheduling. I suspect the returns will be pretty much workable from a local perspective, just not able to be efiled. I will prepare the returns as normal but with the caveat that they can not be efiled until ???. Of course, a very thorough review of the return will need to be done before it is efiled. But that is the approach that i am taking.

This if fun. How about those overlays? Remember those? Man - are we spoiled today or what? Here is a scary thought. What will folks 30 years from now have when they look back at us and say, did they really prepare returns that way?

When I entered the profession, tax returns were still being done by hand. (As an editorial aside, I believe every preparer should begin his/her career doing a season of tax returns by hand - that is a wealth of knowledge not gained elsewhere.) Every return was done by pencil with a big eraser. Maintaining depreciation schedules were a real challenge. I bought my first computer before the firm I worked for had become automated. My first computer was an IBM 286 with 5 1/4 (I believe that is right - maybe it was 8 inch) floppy disk drive. With the computer, I bought a color monitor and a dot matrix printer and the set up cost me over $4,000 and came with a very cumbersome word processor and an equally cumbersome spread sheet. Oh, that was in 1984. Shortly thereafter, I went to work for a different firm who was automated. We had one computer station for 20-some workers. Good times!