2015 program

[grmy2h]

its now available for download. 

[jklcpa]

Thanks for the heads up!

[Catherine]

And some of the new features are terrific!

[JJStephens]

First year Drakie--still learning but loving it so far!

[JohnH]

I have to hand it to Drake - this program is nearly impossible to beat. 

I was out of the country much of January, and decided today (Jan 29), it's time to get serious about taxes.  Went online and renewed Drake in about 5 minutes.  The download took about 10 minutes, I entered some basic information, then loaded my states and immediately ran updates.  The whole process took less than a half hour and I was up & running.  Completed a couple of returns today and am now tweaking some macros to update them for 2015 so I can gain more speed in the data entry phase. 

All that is to say that nothing in its price range can touch this program.  Its speed and efficiency are unequaled. Learning to use it will make any tax preparer more efficient and thereby put money in your pocket.  The only thing necessary is to break that addiction to the vastly overrated "forms based" entry process and to recognize bells & whistles for exactly what they are - expensive, time-consuming, resource-hogging gimmicks.

[jklcpa]

I agree John. The only other thing I also did was to download Drake's ACA guides and saved to my desktop for easy access.

[Catherine]

I agree with both Judy and John - except I printed the ACA guide to paper as well as saved to desktop.  Sometimes it's easier for me to grab paper than to open up yet another window on my monitors (perhaps if I go to three....).

However - @JohnH do you have any macros to share?  I had one last year for MA-specific health forms (annoying, aggravating, repetitive things) and for a couple of other items but - not being used to writing macros - they took me a while to figure out.

[JohnH]

Most of my macros are state-specific or unique to my practice.  For example, I have one macro which opens Form 8948 and fills in my E-flinging Waiver Number & some other info, then returns to the main screen. I have to do that on every return I file, and the macro runs so fast I'll miss it if I look away.  I also have macros which jump to the state returns and check the boxes for paper check refund (not debit card), and "no use tax".

Here's a simple one.  It opens the Social Security benefits screen, marks it for "taxpayer", prefills the box for Medicare Premiums paid, then backs up to the box for benefits and waits for an entry.  It works for any taxpayer who pays the basic $1259 for medicare premiums.  I listed it because it shows how a macro can prefill info down the screen and then revert back to an earlier entry box to await more info. I launch it with an Alt-S, although that is strictly user-determined.  It can also be modified to do the same for a spouse when there is one, but the macro gets a little more complicated.

SSA>T>>>>1259><<

[JohnH]

Here's another macro for times when the taxpayer has no ACA issues.

It jumps to the screen, checks full year coverage, and returns to the main screen.

HC>x>~

[JohnH]

This one is pretty handy.

It answers "no" to both "Foreign Accounts" questions on the Schedule B and returns to the main screen.  There may be a simpler way to do it, but I just do what works.  (There are 27 of the ">" symbols between the two "N"'s.)

B3>N>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>N~

[Catherine]

Thank you, @JohnH for the reminder of how they work and the excellent examples.  I will spend some time this week working up a couple good ones for myself.  

Hmmm..... have to be home for a couple of hours Monday overseeing installation of a carpet runner on the stairs, and I have Drake on this computer.  That could be a good time to develop them - then I can email them to myself at the office.   

[JohnH]

The first thing to do is to erase the macros that Drake provides.  That frees up some additional keys that you might want to use because the letter is intuitive.  I don't think I use but one or two of their pre-loaded macros, which are there just to show how to write one.