suggestions on depr programs for small business

[schirallicpa]

I have a couple of small businesses that use SAGE depreciation software, and they are paying about 1200 annually for these programs that are far more complex than they need.  One business is a elderly home, and the other is a launderer.  So we need to keep track of assets, and they both want book and tax modules.  But looking for something more cost effective for the 10 or 15 new assets they add each year.

any suggestions?

[Lee B]

I've used Star Software for a number of years. It does a good job, might be missing a few things,

but I use it for several large clients, who have hundreds of assets. It does everything I need.

I think it's in the $500 to $600 range.   (http://www.starccs.com/)

[jklcpa]

I've used Thomson Reuters Fixed Asset CS for years, first in the firm where I worked, and purchased that for my own firm 20 years ago. It is a comprehensive program with lots of help and information about the laws built into it, will track tax, book, AMT, ACE, and other. It has the ability to customize reports, sort and print with a variety of choices (such as by location, one location only, by type, etc.), print comparatives for the methods of user's choosing, future depreciation, amt adjustment report, and much more. It handles mass asset dispositions easily.  I use it for my accounting clients with hundreds of assets and multiple locations, and for my tax clients with larger commercial rentals. It is always up-to-date and handles it all with ease.

 

Last I checked the initial year's purchase was expensive, around $1,500, but then is ~ $300 each year thereafter to renew the site license and get each year's updated programs. I only paid a couple of hundred all those years ago and the annual license cost is reasonable to me to continue on with it.

[BulldogTom]

I like Cellutionware Depreciation Calculator.  www.cellutionware.com. $350 for the program and about $200 per year for updates and e-mail support.  I have used this software for the last 10 years or so.  I highly recommend it and would be willing to talk to you offline about it if you wish.  I get nothing for this endorsement, but I should. 

 

And if you look at the testimonial page, that is me being quoted on it.

 

Tom

Newark, CA

[Margaret CPA in OH]

I've been using CMI Fixed Assets (cmifixedassets.com) for many years. You can even use it for free for fewer than 50 assets. I do pay an annual maintenance fee of $145 so I can call with any questions but the software can be had for free with updates. Here are the features:

Features

◾Data Conversion from other fixed asset software, including excel.

◾Supports the Job Creation and Worker Assistance Act of 2002.

◾Supports recent changes to IRS like kind exchange rules.

◾Luxury auto limits and separate truck and van limits.

◾250,000 assets per company on single user versions and up.

◾Maximum asset value for an individual asset is 9,999,999,999.

◾Renumber Account Groups option.

◾Up to 10 User-Definable fields.

◾New Truck and Van "Luxury Auto" Limits Implemented.

◾Increased Expensing for Small Business.

◾Renumber Account Groups option.

◾Asset selection in depreciation reports and in the Find Asset command allow wild card characters * and ? on screen for the Description and User- Definable fields.

◾Custom depreciation methods allow a decimal point in the percent of basis to be taken as depreciation.

◾IRC 179 expense reduced to $25,000 for some SUV’s

◾A company can contain up to 25 schedules.

◾Location and Category number fields have 10 characters.

◾Supports Journal entries for Cougar Mountain Accounting and Cougar Mountain Fund

◾Account numbers defined in account groups (and created in journal entries) can be up to 100 characters long. Note that account group numbers are still limited to 24 characters.

◾Custom depreciation methods

◾A new export feature has been created that allows you to choose the asset data fields to export and to select the assets to export. A tab-delimited text file is created, which is very easy to open in spreadsheets, such as Microsoft Excel. Column headings can optionally be included at the beginning of the file.

◾Can Override the depreciation calculation of an asset for the current year.

◾Depreciation schedules (by month, quarter or year)

Book ACE

Federal tax State tax

AMT Other

◾Tax forms and worksheets:

Form 3468 Form 4255

Form 4562 Form 4797

Tax preference Personal property tax

◾Additional reports:

Projections Historical depreciation

Asset additions Sales

Abandonments Trades

Transfers Asset dispositions including gain/loss (full and partial)

Asset detail report (complete asset information including depreciation for each schedule [book, tax, etc.] for entire life of asset)

Version 4.1 new features

◾Brand New user interface with customizable controls.

Check out screen shots for more details.

◾Asset numbers can now be up to 10 characters long and can contain both digits and letters. Sub-assets can be three digits. The asset number format is set on the Edit Company screen and cannot be changed once it is set. If you need to access your data using prior versions of THE SYSTEM, you must select 6-digit asset numbers (no alphabetic letters) with 2-digit sub-assets.

◾Paused Depreciation Feature.

This feature allows you to pause the depreciation of an asset that has been taken out of service.

◾User Permissions.

You can now setup users with that can either have full, read/write, read only or no permissions.

◾Report Builder is now installed on all versions of CMI Fixed Assets except for the Lite version.

I no longer have business clients but some with Sch. C. At one time I had 21 clients on this and have always been pleased.

[David W Ristau CPA]

I found this stand alone program through Google:

 

http://www.depreciationworks.com/information.html

 

$ 389 initial first year multiple user site license and $ 129 per year renewing license.

 

Seems a lot more reasonably priced for your clients than Sage.

 

No surprise there....

[Lion EA]

Your software might have a fixed assets program that can stand alone or flow into your tax program.

[ILLMAS]

This is the cost of doing business, I bet everyone here hates having to shell out $$$ to buy next year tax program.