… overall. but it has some shortfalls.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
the annual tax software survey of aicpa members was kind of special this year.
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why? because the tax year itself was kind of – to put it nicely – special.
covid-19 and congress were the culprits, of course. in a desperate attempt to keep the national economy afloat, congress passed retro(ouch!)active tax relief – the american rescue plan act – as the busy season was well under way.
the rule change challenged not just tax practitioners but the providers of tax software. everything had to be revised and updated, and quickly.
in general, the survey found, the apps got updated with impressive haste. the seven most popular products scored an average of 4.0 out of 5 for handling the retroactive change. drake scored highest with a 4.6, while proseries, ultratax cs and cch axcess tax tied for the lowest score, 3.8, which ain’t so bad.
as for the features of each tax package, the survey found some jostling around in historical rankings and ratings.
the top seven
seven products were in use by most practitioners. for obvious reasons, those designed for smaller firms were in more common use.
- ultratax cs was most common, in use by 21.6 percent.
- drake tax, in third place last year, advanced to second, now in use by 17.3 percent, up from 15.1 percent.
- lacerte, second last year, dropped to third with 14.6 percent, down from 16 percent.
- proseries held steady at 11.4 percent but rose to fourth place.
- cch prosystem fx dropped to fifth place at 9.2 percent, down from 12.4 percent.
- cch axcess tax was close behind with 9.1 percent.
- atx was in use by only 5.5 percent.
other packages – gosystem tax rs, intuit proconnect tax online, taxact, taxslayer pro, taxwise and turbotax – together added up to 11.3 percent of tax pros.
significantly, drake tax was the leader among sole practitioners, in use by 30 percent.
among the largest firms (over 500 preparers), cch axcess was most popular, in use by 35 percent.
overall: drake
practitioners were generally satisfied with their software, giving all packages an average rating of 4.3 out of 5. none were much higher or lower.
the overall leader was drake tax, graced with a score of 4.6. drake was also admired for its price, ranking first at 89.8 percent. no surprise that 96.2 percent would recommend that product to someone starting a new practice.
but even the least appreciated, atx and proseries, weren’t far behind at 4.2. recommendability, however, was 88.1 percent and 86 percent, respectively.
drake was unmatched in two areas: ease of update and installation, and ease of electronic filing, each garnering a respectable 4.8. other products weren’t far behind, all scoring 4.1 or better.
the lowest scores for all products were in integration with other software and ease of importation of data. none of the products surpassed a mediocre rating of 3.5, and drake and proseries all but flunked at just 3.0 for integration and just over 3 for importation. the best scores, at or near 3.5, were for the bigger packages, cch axcess tax and ultratax cs.
top likes and dislikes
drake got top-notch ratings for price, support and ease of use, all of which ring the chimes of new and small practices. but it got the fewest likes – about half of what other apps got – for the number of tax forms it comes with.
drake also lost out on accuracy, for which it was disliked by 6.1 percent. only atx was seen in less favor, at 11.8 percent. drake also held a distant lead (which is a bad thing) in dislikes for integration (39.8 percent – more than double most others), number of forms (22.2 percent) and tax research (39.2 percent).
the winners for fewest dislikes:
- for accuracy, ultratax (4.9 percent)
- for conversion, cch axcess (5.8 percent)
- for learning curve, atx (4.5 percent) and lacerte (4.2 percent)
across the board, the features most disliked were
- price, noted by 55.8 percent,
- support, by 26.8 percent, and
- tax research included in package, 26.1 percent.
bottom line, the profession’s leading produces of tax prep software are to be commended for their quick contribution to the covid-19 recovery, but with regard to certain features, they still have work to do.