Catherine

I'll chime in, too. The conversion program is pretty darn good, and will take your 2019 returns and put them into Drake 2019, ready to roll forward. Depreciation is always the hard one, no matter WHAT software you are switching to or from. Convert all your completed returns now, and spend the post-Oct 15th deadline time fixing depreciation errors. Also view your completed returns IN Drake and make sure they match what they showed in ATX. Most of them will (or, have taxable income and total tax within a buck or two - close enough!). The few that don't will have some issue or other - track 'em down this year. Play with some of the test returns to get a feel for Drake. The most annoying thing for me when I switched (mid-Feb 2013, during the 2012 season database debacle) was having to "view" the return when I wanted to see the form (instead of the data entry screens). However, Drake calculates and views the return faster than ATX changes screens, so it was more a problem in my head than an actual issue. YMMV.

CPAperless has now discontinued its "Signature Flow" utility that got e-signatures and billed per signature (instead of a hefty monthly fee). Anyone have any ideas where we can find a new vendor for this service? I saw word of one - somewhere - months ago but as we all know this year has had a few distractions, and I can't remember who or where it was. We are specifically looking for a per-signature billing, if possible, because we only do a dozen or so e-signatures per year. Paying $15/month-plus is just stupid for that super-low volume. Thanks in advance!

I may well be able to help as well, @Lion EA, however I use Drake and I know you use a fancy-dancy program. UltraTax? But please email me or MD me here if I can help!

There are also online *schools* now. While there is no federal credit for online or private schools, for all I know there may be state provisions. So make sure it's home-school, not online private school. Homeschooling curricula don't cost anywhere near $6,000 (unless they've all seriously jacked up their prices all of a sudden). Demme Learning's math program is a couple hundred bucks for a full-year program. Analytical grammar is less than $150 for a year. Calvert's all-in-one plan is $400/year for 1 kid or $700 for three kids. So I wonder what they're spending $6K for.

If you ever need to read tax treaties, pray you get an OLD one. Those ARE written in plain English and are actually pretty easy to work your way through! The more-recent ones... well, let's just say to clear your calendar, and have the bottle of ibuprofen at the ready!

not sure how well that would work in the office, frankly. lol

Outside of us dinosaurs, I wonder who still knows (or gets taught) that if the out-of-balance amount is divisible by 9 that somewhere two numbers are transposed in the different columns?

What both @Lion EA and @BulldogTom are missing is that their versions of cross and check, or ticked and tied, are all procedures that take place after other actions, and only with thought and understanding. However, in the mortgage (and other) businesses today, the ticking and checking are a substitute for thought. They hire people who do not (or just barely) understand basic math and reading, give them a list full of check-boxes, and turn them loose. If all boxes are checked the underwriters will be happy; that's all they know, and they keep hounding until all boxes are checked. Asking them to think is far above their capabilities - and probably also not allowed by their companies!

If we get a call from an unrecognized number (or just a town name), instead of saying anything, I start humming into the phone. Scotland the Brave is a good one, but you could use the Eggplant That Ate Chicago, or Clementine, or Hallelujah Chorus, or whatever. If it's a person, they'll SAY something. If it's a robo-call, it clicks off. SO much easier on the throat than growling, and makes the others in the office laugh instead of grumble.

Many times the state forms will also use that number. The MA form, for example, while wildly different in looks, is the M-9325.

Umm... good question. It's at least $100,000, but I can't put my hands on the more-recent docs just now.

Beasley is who I use; first year was a promo through Drake but the premium didn't go up.

I use the Drake DDM (Drake Document Management) but it's really just a filing system integrated with Drake, so returns are automatically stored in the right place. Client folders by letter, inside that by name, inside that by Tax and then by year. For many clients we have another "Tax" level folder, to save pdfs of signed POAs etc. Driver's licenses are in the client top level folder, named "Sara DL exp 2022" so just by looking at the folder we can confirm that we have the DL on file, and what year we'll need to ask for a new one. We save Preparer and Client copies of returns, the bill, and the EF acks all to the same folder. Any pertinent client email (basis info... whatever) gets printed to pdf in the folder for the tax year in question. Ditto for all client original documents (and we use Gruntworx to get a lovely indexed and bookmarked pdf for our records). Unless you want to add in quarterly review reminders, birthday cards, and that stuff (I've never had time for any of that), I don't think you need a "client management software" package that you'll then have to make worth with your other electronic records. For our 8879s, we collect them by date received, separately for feds and state, on paper (including printing out those we get electronically). At the end of the filing season, that folder is put in the filing cabinet. After three years, we scan the whole kit and caboodle and then shred the paper.

I have 7-zip; have not used it for .rar files, but in general I've found it very easy to use as well as versatile.

I had a client get one of these just this week; his return was e-filed and accepted on May 2nd. IRS wanted him to confirm his identity on the IRS web site. Name, ssn, address, filing status, refund amount. He did have a new address, but everything else (including bank info) was the same. I talked him through the IRS confirmation process, and we'll see what happens.

Anyone here in this general area, taking new clients? Some of mine are looking for somebody for 2020 or 2021 (they may stay with me through the part-year two-state transition)? Nice couple with two youngsters. Answer here or send me a private message.

I can NEVER understand why they don't just pay a lower interest rate and call it tax-exempt interest. It would save everyone involved (IRS, taxpayers, and us poor overwhelmed preparers) SO much grief! And I answered my own query here: it would make SENSE, so they CAN'T do it that way! lol.

We have some trusts where the fiduciary is an institution, and the people actually handling the trust are NOT the official fiduciary, and don't have the ability/authority to set up electronic payments. Heck, this year we even had one trust where everyone at the institutional fiduciary was working from home and they could generate payments to go out, but could not match those with payment coupons! They called us to beg if they could mail payments to us, early, and have us send in to agencies with the vouchers.

Absolutely I question them. I don't question what looks in-line with prior years. I do question when something is suddenly out of whack, or a new client, and every one of them are told that while I don't need to see the logbook or the receipts, if they are audited they will be required to provide them to the IRS, and these amounts are high enough to be a red flag. Now that you know this, client, is this still the correct figure? And I document that I have asked them (usually by email, and I print the email and response to pdf in the folder for the correct year).

Including the time it took to get the client to dredge up all the records? Two and a half years since the first docs showed up. Subsequent years have taken less time, but the client I'm thinking of usually files a minimum of six months after extension deadline has passed.

Hope you are not including me in that three - I'll re-quote you and say I'm not worthy! Judy's the expert, and Abby is right up there too. Remember my accounting and tax knowledge is due only to years of study at HKU (Hard Knock University).

Absolutely. I will often not transmit a balance sheet if the corporation is below the limits, but I always print it out. Just a year or two ago there was a $30,000 loan to a corporation recorded nowhere - but the balance sheet was off, so we knew something was very wrong. Sent the clients off to dig (and it took them some time, too - these particular clients are clueless) and they finally found the supporting documentation for that loan - including the loan schedule and interest rate (hey, they'd forgotten that interest expense, too - real winners; we're now doing monthly bookkeeping for them).

Talk to the clients about prior-year K-1's. Perhaps someone has *something* that will give you a clue where to start digging. They may not know anything about those booked loans (for example) but the K-1's may have information that will help you to nudge their memories.

It never really does anyway. I put my foot down years ago that I will NOT half-kill myself to accommodate clients who knew, back on Jan 1, what the deadline was (and this year, had extra time!). They know that, and frankly if they go PAST the deadline, that's their problem, not mine. Anyone who whines is very welcome to go elsewhere. That said, I'll do my best - within reasonable limits that *I* set.

Nope; you can do it for them online. It takes longer to FIND the *&^% fill-in form on the IRS web site than it takes actually to fill it out, but Lion provided the link to get started. The one trick is that you MUST print the page with the EIN before you close it out - once you leave that page you CANNOT get back to it, and then have to wait several weeks for the confirmation letter to arrive.