Changes at CCH & ATX

[Lee B]

According to The Progressive Accountant, CCH's CEO is retiring

and ATX has hired a new CFO and a new Chief Technology Officer.

Perhaps things will get fixed eventually ???

[Guest Taxed]

Spring Cleaning I guess!

Only time will tell if the new guy can deliver?

[Jack from Ohio]

^{Beta version planned to be released in August. I will keep everyone apprised. I will run it through the wringer to the max!}

[kcjenkins]

We are counting on you doing that, Jack.

[mcb39]

^{Beta version planned to be released in August. I will keep everyone apprised. I will run it through the wringer to the max!}

Did you receive another message about the Beta Testing?

[JohnH]

I'm wondering if ATX will make you sign a confidentiality agreement as a condition of being a Beta tester, thus locking you down and preventing you from discussing the program while you are testing it.

[Guest Taxed]

In my opinion any software company worth it salt should have a non disclosure and confidentiality agreement with its programmers and beta testers for a product that if disclosed prematurely could cause irreparable harm to the company.

If I remember another poster I think Lynnjacobs was a beta tester for ATX few years back. Perhaps she could enlighten us on this matter?

[Jack from Ohio]

Did you receive another message about the Beta Testing?

Yes. I am on the list of testers.

I have not signed a confidentiality agreement at this point, but I figure when the beta version is released, I will have to.

[mcb39]

Yes. I am on the list of testers.

I have not signed a confidentiality agreement at this point, but I figure when the beta version is released, I will have to.

As, am I...........

[rob]

I am too.

[HV Ken]

Me too!

[TaxCPANY]

Eff that. Sorry, but CCH/ATX's 2012 *debacle* mandates I jump ship. I'm still calling-in glitches to ATX, almost every week -- and, last week, had to tell a client to simply pay an assessment because ATX 2011 FAILED to calculate her NYC tax correctly.

It's become 'personal;' if I have to manually re-calculate everything ATX produces, why the hell am I paying it anything more than I would Staples/another mere copy-center?!

Intuit Online looks best, at the moment; but I won't fully know for another two weeks, til I begin to actually use it for the rest of my clients who're on-extension.

[Terry O]

I also got the heads up on being a tester. But - -I did inform them that I would be brutally honest. I would NOT change anything on my computer (ie exe/config etc) and I would just load & go!

It only took 18 revisions to FINALLY be able to roll over a return from 2012 - - - -yeah - -after hearing all along that it was MY fault. :wall:

Soooooooooooooooooooooo let's see waht happens in a month or so.

[Lee B]

TaxCPANY,

i'm also planning to demo Intuit Tax Online next month.

I would like to hear any conclusions that you come to.

[kcjenkins]

I'm just not comfortable with the idea that my files reside on THEIR servers, and I would also worry about what problems might arise if I changed software providers down the road. We've read of so many major businesses, even big banks with extensive security, they say, being hacked. How would your clients feel about their data being stored on Intuit's servers?

[Lee B]

Well,

My client's data is already on the ATX servers ,the IRS servers and your state Dept of Revenue's servers plus

it's being transmitted over the internet multiple times. In addition, unless you use cash exclusively, everyones

data is on multiple servers i.e. banks, insurance companies. brokerage firms, Amazon, your state DMV,

and I'm just getting started. Your most valid observation is, what if I decide to change software providers ?

Also, if you or any other practitioner uses the same computer or network that contains their tax software to

access the internet for other reasons, how safe is your client's data on your computer.???

[kcjenkins]

You slightly misread, or I did not make it clear, that the point you did accept, is the point that bothers me. Sure, once we efile a return it is on the software company servers and the IRS and state servers. But it's also on mine, and if I need for some reason to look at a return I did 8 years ago, it's there AND SO IS THE PROGRAM THAT CREATED IT. But if I use a 'cloud' program, and then I change companies, how much access will I have to the files? Yes, I can store a pdf copy, but I can't, as I understand it, manipulate a file except through their program. If so, and I want to amend a return I filed through a company I no longer use, do I have to recreate it in the new software? Or if a client wants to know, "If back In 19__, I had overlooked _______ what would that have changed on my return?" can I go back and 'play with the numbers'?

[Guest Taxed]

My #1 concern with cloud computing of tax prep software like intuit online is that they have total control over my client data. If for some reason I want to switch software I am at their mercy to get my data back (and at what cost and inconvenience). This year when my original tax prep software failed to deliver, I did open an intuit online account as a backup while I was looking for a replacement software.

My #2 concern is how safe is my data on their servers? Are they encrypted? If a hacker should get access to the data will the server company reimburse me and my client for our losses etc?

My #3 concern is what stops the cloud computing company to use some of the demographic data to do their own marketing or provide some of that info to data banks that do that?

[kcjenkins]

#3 seems very valid, when you just think about how their other products, like Quickbooks, routinely offer your clients 'their option' to cut you out.