ATX Blog... posted June 14th...

[taxtrio]

ATX blog posting June 14th... From Kim.

Talks about improvements made and to be made.

They will be posting weekly thru the summer about what they are doing with ATX.

Hoping for good news thru the summer.

[Lee B]

It's amazing that it's taken this long ???

Here is the full blog post:

"ATX software change reduces hard drive memory use and improves performance.

You have told us about the issues you had this tax season with our software and our support. We’ve listened, and we’ve learned. Our commitment is to improve, and we have already taken steps to deliver improved software and support performance next tax season.

We know that you need more than words to believe that we will deliver ATX software you can rely on next tax season. You need action and proof. We are going to keep you up to date on the improvements that we are making. Each week from now until the end of the year, we will be posting information on this blog about the improvements we are making to your 2013 ATX software.

This week, our topic is a problem you may have experienced: ATX 2012 used more your computer’s hard drive memory than prior versions did. This may have caused you slower performance and a great deal of frustration.

During tax season, we began working on ways to reduce hard drive memory usage. At the end of May, we released ATX update 12.17. That update reduced the amount of long-term hard drive memory used by ATX and increased the use of short-term memory capacity, also known as RAM.

What does this mean for you? It means improved performance. It means that you can rely on ATX to run, and run faster. That will save you time, increase your productivity, and reduce your frustration.

This improvement in how memory is used is just one step taken towards an improved ATX. We will continue to build upon this step – and others -- to improve ATX 2103 performance. In the weeks and months to come, we will keep you informed of other improvements we are making.

Our goal is to deliver ATX software you can rely on and earn back your trust, one step at a time.

Posted by Kim Manuel at 1:42 PM"

[JohnH]

Looks like they noticed how fast Drake is (any maybe some other competitors).

Good thing for ATX they realized smart tax preparers equate speed with greater revenue.

One would get the impression they didn't know that until now.

[Guest Taxed]

John do you think ATX can beat Drake on speed of execution??

Would be nice if there were some benchmarking software that the software review folks used to tell us the relative scores.

[Jack from Ohio]

Saw this sign in a business:

We do three kinds of work here. Good-Cheap-Fast.

You may have any TWO.

If it is Good and Cheap, it will not be Fast.

If it is Good and Fast, it will not be Cheap.

If it is Fast and Cheap, it will not be Good.

There is much more to evaluating tax software than how fast a person can put the information in. As I strive to become a professional of professionals, speed is about 3rd or 4th priority.

In my business, I have clients, not customers looking for the "fast food" version of tax preparation.

[Gail in Virginia]

I agree with you Jack until the point where the software is slowing me down so much that I can't get my clients returns filed on a timely basis. This past tax season, that is what I felt like was happening with ATX. Speed isn't primary but I do want a software that will let me work to my capacity and not the other way around.

[JohnH]

John do you think ATX can beat Drake on speed of execution??

Would be nice if there were some benchmarking software that the software review folks used to tell us the relative scores.

I don't see how ATX could ever beat Drake in speed - it never has in the past. I think they only way they can beat Drake's speed under current conditions would be to enable ATX to sense what you're about to do on the keyboard and do it for you. Maybe some sort of mind-reading capability. (Yes, I know I'm exaggerating.)

But who knows, maybe ATX is learning their lesson and they can magically fix it. They certainly are telling us that is the case with this latest missive. Past history doesn't suggest that is likely, but if they ever do succeed at this I'll certainly acknowledge their accomplishment. Aside from having moved to Drake for purely business reasons, I have no hidden agenda or loyalties of any kind. This is all about business for me.

[JohnH]

Saw this sign in a business:

We do three kinds of work here. Good-Cheap-Fast.

You may have any TWO.

If it is Good and Cheap, it will not be Fast.

If it is Good and Fast, it will not be Cheap.

If it is Fast and Cheap, it will not be Good.

There is much more to evaluating tax software than how fast a person can put the information in. As I strive to become a professional of professionals, speed is about 3rd or 4th priority.

In my business, I have clients, not customers looking for the "fast food" version of tax preparation.

I agree with the above up to a point. But taken to its logical extremes, it breaks down. I'm sure that logic worked for many tax preparers when they had clients sitting in their office while the little hourglass spun, or the software crashed. I can almost hear the conversation "Yes, I know it's agonizingly slow, but it it were faster it would cost more and/or wouldn't be as good." Hey, if that works for you and you have plenty of time to waste, go for it.

Speed should never be an issue with tax software - this is not rocket surgery.

[Richcpaman]

Speed isn't the issue.

Crashing, rebooting, and not having the belief that the program will run while you are with a client, that is the real issue.

Not having the ability any longer to link multiple computers in to a common client database is inexcusable.

Its tax software, not rocket science.

I now have client files on three different computers, with no way to put them all together in a logical way.

We are looking at Drake at thier seminar on Tuesday.

Rich

[Jack from Ohio]

Speed isn't the issue.

Crashing, rebooting, and not having the belief that the program will run while you are with a client, that is the real issue.

Not having the ability any longer to link multiple computers in to a common client database is inexcusable.

Its tax software, not rocket science.

I now have client files on three different computers, with no way to put them all together in a logical way.

We are looking at Drake at thier seminar on Tuesday.

Rich

Send me a private message. I can help you get all the returns on one computer.

[joelgilb]

John do you think ATX can beat Drake on speed of execution??

Would be nice if there were some benchmarking software that the software review folks used to tell us the relative scores.

I also switched to Drake and have to agree with John. No way will ATX ever be as fast as Drake.

When loading Drake I found I was in the software in 3 seconds (you click the Drake Icon and you are in!) or less and in a existing client file in about the same time. ATX has NEVER done this.

There is NO LAG on any page and although Drake does not have Live forms like ATX, viewing a return, at any time, literally takes about 2 seconds. To me that is Live enough!

Drake is the Speed Demon on the market and ATX has always been at the bottom of the list for speed, even before 2012.

That said, there is a learning curve and I am finding the longer I use it the faster I can grind out a return.

[JohnH]

Joel: I'm glad you pointed out that clarification. In reading some of the other responses, I realized that some people took my reference to "speed" to mean how fast the program crunches the numbers. That's a part of it, but far from the whole story.

Speed includes how fast it loads, how fast it processes updates, how fast it prints, how fast it backs up, etc. It also takes into account how long we might spend watching an hourglass spin or how many times we have to recover form a crash and re-enter data. Because the ultimate measure of speed isn't how quickly the program does any of that, but rather how quickly it allows you to move on to the next project. That's how we evaluate effectiveness if the merchandise we are selling is our expertise. Slow software forces us to leave inventory gathering dust on the shelf.

[Guest Taxed]

Nothing gets you more upset like looking at the hourglass in a software and then come to find out that the program is frozen!

[[email protected]]

Can anyone tell me how the integration factor is on Drake. Does Payroll communicate with tax software

[Lee B]

I sat in on a 1 Hour Webinar about their current CWU, which also contains Payroll about a month ago. Their

current CWU is clearly a DOS program that was migrated upward to run on Windows back in 2006. I was told

that they are releasing a beta version of a totally rewritten CWU and Payroll this summer. I was also told that in

the future the new CWU and Payroll will not be included for free with the Tax Software. In other words, the new

CWU and Payroll software will be separate and will cost extra $. Their current deal with it being included for

free with the Tax Software will probably stop after the coming tax season.

[Jack from Ohio]

I sat in on a 1 Hour Webinar about their current CWU, which also contains Payroll about a month ago. Their

current CWU is clearly a DOS program that was migrated upward to run on Windows back in 2006. I was told

that they are releasing a beta version of a totally rewritten CWU and Payroll this summer. I was also told that in

the future the new CWU and Payroll will not be included for free with the Tax Software. In other words, the new

CWU and Payroll software will be separate and will cost extra $. Their current deal with it being included for

free with the Tax Software will probably stop after the coming tax season.

Which software are you talking about?

For the record, Drake software is a WINDOWS program. Because of their dedication to speed and efficiency, it looks like an old DOS program.

[[email protected]]

Thank you very much. I am struggling with my option with Ultratax giving the high cost and the cost of training

[Guest Taxed]

Jen you can download a working demo, register it with Drake all free and test to see if it meets your purpose. All my payroll clients are less than 10 employees and I do not cut the checks in my shop. I tested it and it will work for my operation. For e-filing 94X forms Drake uses the IRS FIRE system and you will need a PIN from IRS that is separate from your EFIN. Drake has a video tutorial on their site if you want to take a look at it.

[joanmcq]

I've been playing around with the UltraTax demos to see how they work, and to see if the integration of the software will justify the much higher cost. I'm looking at picking up much more write-up and bookkeeping work since that is my assistant's forte, and we can both make money from it. The demos are pretty impressive, as is the price!