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Reviews For Your Firm TAX PLANNING SYSTEMS BNA Income Tax Planner 2013 OVERALL RATING 5 Read the full review and see expanded ratings for this product online at: www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/11077549 • Imports tax data from several BEST FIT popular tax preparation programs Firms with clients requiring complicated tax planning across multiple • Many reporting options including charts and graphs states and frms that take advantage of its web-based capabilities (such as • Calculates present value of total accessing the program from multiple taxes and cash fows over multiple year periods computers and/or locations). POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS STRENGTHS • Only planning product among • We b v e r s i o n a l l o w s m a n y administrative functions, but those reviewed with mobile apps launching plan creation and caland web-based administrative culations requires a plug-in that tools. CCH ProSystem fx Planning 2013 OVERALL RATING 4.5 4.5 • Interactive tutorial and ample BEST FIT help resources Firms using other components of the ProSystem fx Suite or CCH Axcess POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS Tax that take advantage of the direct • Only produces spreadsheet-type integration. reports (no graphs or charts) • Reporting output limited to PDF STRENGTHS fles (no direct exports to Excel or • Imports tax data from ProSystem other programs) fx Tax and CCH Axcess Tax The ProSystem fx Suite from • Te license allows for an unlimited number of users at a firm CCH ofers integrated applications for tax and accounting frms. While location 4.75 10 855-466-9435 www.bnasoftware.com CCH also has cloud-based solutions known as CCH Axcess, for now Planning is only a network or locally installed program which can import tax data from either ProSystem fx Tax or CCH Axcess Tax. However, plans can be created manually for frms not using the CCH suites. SUMMARY & PRICING Firms using the ProSystem fx or CCH Axcess suites may want to consider the planning product due to the integration benefts, though it can be used as a standalone program for estimating tax for clients with complex tax situations. The software costs $716 for either a standalone or network installation for any number of users within a licensed frm location. Tere is no additional charge for states. 800-PFX-9998 www.cchgroup.com Read the full review and see expanded ratings for this product online at: www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/11077547 Lacerte Document Management BEST FIT System While frms using Lacerte Tax and DMS will benefit with the direct • Comes bundled with Lacerte Tax Analyzer and DMS integration, it may also be considered as a standalone product because it is • Quickly estimates yearly wages from pay stubs with the W-2 Proeasy to use and a lower cost alternajector tive than the products reviewed. Lacerte Tax Planner is sold as part of the Lacerte Productivity Plus Bundle. Tis bundle, which is $349 for as many Lacerte user "seats" the firm has purchased, also includes Lacerte Tax Analyzer and Lacerte Document Management System. A free demo comes with the Lacerte POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS STRENGTHS Tax program, allowing potential • User-friendly interface similar to • Not preconfgured to calculate tax SUMMARY & PRICING users to try all aspects of the program for all states (though a user can Users of Lacerte Tax and DMS will that of the tax program. before purchasing it. create a generic state) benefit from the time savings and • Easily imports client tax data from accountants.intuit.com • Calculates tax for only one state efciencies that the planning product Lacerte Tax. provides through its integrations. • Reports can be printed directly to per plan Thomson Reuters Planner CS 2013 OVERALL RATING SUMMARY & PRICING A user-friendly and power tax planning system, BNA Income Tax Planner diferentiates itself from the market with its accessibility from the web and versatility to integrate with several different tax compliance programs. Pricing varies based on platform and specifc frm state needs, with the base federal system starting at about $600. Read the full review and see expanded ratings for this product online at: www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/11077548 Intuit Lacerte Tax Planner 2013 OVERALL RATING may not work on all portable devices Bloomberg BNA, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bloomberg L.P. and a widely recognized publisher of specialized news for business, offers several sofware programs used by tax and accounting professionals. BNA Income Tax Planner with optional Fifty States is a powerful tool for creating both federal and state tax plans for clients with complex tax situations. BEST FIT Firms using the Tomson Reuters CS Professional Suite that can beneft from the integration between Planner CS and the suite's tax preparation and document management products. • Integration with several components of the CS Professional Suite • Many options for customizing reports and graphs • W-4 Calculator POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS • No option to export reports to Excel STRENGTHS Te CS Professional Suite from • Capable to producing projections for an unlimited number of years Thomson Reuters offers an inte- September 2013 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com Intuit's Lacerte tax software is used by many small and mediumsized frms for tax compliance. Lacerte Tax Planner imports client data from the tax preparation sofware to project individual income taxes for up to ten years with up to ten scenarios each. Read the full review and see expanded ratings for this product online at: www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/11077550 grated set of tax, accounting, and practice management applications. Planner CS tightly integrates with the suite to provide tax projections for a virtually unlimited number of years and scenarios. SUMMARY & PRICING Planner CS is a powerful tax planning product for frms with clients who have complex tax situations and multistate issues. Users of the CS Professional Suite will find time savings and efciency gains because of the integration. W hen not attached with UltraTax CS, the standalone current price is $710 for the Federal application, $200 for one state, and $320 for all states. 800-968-8900 cs.thomsonreuters.com