Bob Scott for the Progressive Accountant writes: Somewhere after everyone stops talking about healthcare, there is a
tax season coming in which the major purpose is still preparing tax
returns. And in the rapidly approaching season, there is a great deal of
emphasis by publishers of tax software on improved performance and an
unusual number of problems that afflicted tax software during the last
season is only part of the reason why.
Publishers are tuning their systems for better performance on the
Internet. Others are shaping their applications to handle different
kinds of firms. That latter category includes Thomson Reuters' UltraTax
software.
"One thing we have done is try to better accommodate some of the unique needs of larger firms that use our software," says Jordan Kleinsmith,
enterprise product manager for the Professional division of Thomson
Reuters' Tax & Accounting Business. That includes restructuring the
setup to provide for easier management for firms with multiple
locations.
Kleinsmith says UltraTax had been capable of such management but "It
wasn't as user friendly as we might have liked." The new configuration
provides "a little bit more control if they want to be consistent across
different locations, for example with the same letter or filing
instructions, or they can now in a more easier fashion deviate from
standards." The system also provides a new tracking tier, one for
reviewers, also more suited to larger organizations.
Another enhancement designed for larger firms comes in the updating
process. Previously when the updates were ready for download, offices
needed to have all users exit the software.
"That did not accommodate firms that need to be in the system at all
hours," Kleinsmith says. "They were going to take two weeks before they
could get everybody out of the system to apply updates." Now, users can
continue working with downloads occurring in the background. When they
close out of the software and reopen, the system will sync with the
download.
Intuit also has larger firms in mind. In fact, its Intuit
Practice Management which links to Lacerte, was part of the increasing
number of features the software company is offering full-service firms.
One of the most significant
changes for Lacerte Tax Software is the addition of firm-level
passwords. The past practice has been to provide firms with passwords
for individual returns. That can be a daunting tax form firms with many
return.
"What we found they would save that copy and archive to document
manager. When they wanted to review that, they had to know that
particular password," says Lacerte product manager Mary Kroenung. "If
they have 1,000 clients, they are not going to remember 1000 client
passwords," The firm-level password will give authorized personnel the
ability to open any of the returns.
In a year with an unusual number of tax software performance issues,
Intuit had the misfortune to be one of them. It faced the embarrassment
during the last tax season of having the state of Minnesota warn its
taxpayers not to use the any of the company's tax software to prepare
returns. Problems included the software's not calculating some taxes
correctly and an array of problems afflicted ProSeries, Lacerte and
Intuit Online, some of them common across the three products, some not.
"We have created a better process and we are working and building a
better relationship with every single agency to make sure that
everything works correctly," Kroenung says, although the company found
the impact of the problems was very small.
She noted that in Minnesota the
company has made sure it has been "very timely in our communication to
any of our Lacerte customers," but said that "we looked at the impact,
it was fairly small."
Intuit has also worked across the board to improve the speed with
which its forms were approved. It changed forms technology to use the
"native agency with PDF with very few changes to the forms," says
product manager Julie Kozloski. That means Intuit is not rebuilding the
state agency forms, which makes it easier to receive approval at the
state level.
Like Thomson, Intuit has worked on the process of downloading forms.
With the 2013 software, can initiate downloads from within the tax
program, says Kozloski. Users go to the download page and select the
forms they want and these download in the background.
ProSeries users also now have the ability to email password-protected
tax returns, which Kozloski says was one of the most requested
features. Practitioners can create templates for clients. "We can put a
password hint in the email templates. The taxpayer should know how to
assemble the password, " she says. Using this feature requires an email
client be installed in Windows. For those utilizing Yahoo of Gmail, they
must link through an email client
Web Work
With
Intuit Online, the company has been improving performance. "You have to
dispel the myth that the desktop system is fast than a web," says
product manager Jorge Olavarrieta. In some cases, he says, the online
application loads faster than does the desktop version with screen
loading taking about a second and a half. "A lot of our investment has
been about speed and performance," he says.
As part of Intuit Tax Online Plus, the company is offering 100
returns of any type for $1,495 and 300 returns at $3,585. That is a
change from prior years when purchasers had to buy individual or
business forms. Now, preparers can mix the returns together for the
bundled pricing.
Newer to the Internet game,
Drake is rolling out Drake Hosted, which makes the desktop suite
accessible via the cloud. The company is utilizing Citrix to provide a
hybrid cloud platform.
The system is available for the upcoming season, according to VP
James Stork. Through it, Drake hosts its tax, write-up, payroll and
document management applications for $50 per month for a 12-month
contract for the first workstation and $40 monthly for the same period
for each additional work station. There are higher rates for one-month
and six-month subscriptions. For an additional $25 per workstation, the
company will also host elements of the Microsoft Office Suite – Word,
Excel, PowerPoint and Publisher.
The other big change, Stork says, is the addition of esignature
functionality. " It captures signatures electronically with the
signature pad so the return can be digitally signed," Stork says.
CCH is fine-tuning its CCH Axcess Tax, an online product was
introduced to the market last year, but which has undergoing testing for
several years.
The company has been working on improving the navigation to the
system, says Mark Ryburn, a CCH product line manager. That includes
adding new views. "We still have the familiar tree view with the forms
down on the left," notes Ryburn. The system also forms government forms
and topical views. "People work in dramatically different ways," he
says. For those utilizing the forms view, the system highlights the form
. The company also made Tax Notebook, its online tax organizer,
available for Axcess
Also aimed at improving access to features is greater use of the tool
bar. "One thing that people have said is that they really like having
things accessible from the toolbar," says Ryburn. This year, CCH has
added an icon that can be used to show all elections being made for the
current tax year.
For both Axcess and the widely
used CCH ProSystem Tax, the company has made a "ton of improvements
around tax equalization," Ryburn says. The system has become more
streamlined in dealing with tax issues for Americans working overseas.
The system can now be configured "'the way partners want it configured,"
Ryburn says.
Ryburn says there has also been work to make it easier to detect and
fix problems. "We've added a bunch of new diagnostics," he notes. These
are offered at different levels to support reviewers, preparers and
signers.
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
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