CPA Practice Advisor

JAN 2012

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.

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Thomson Reuters — Source Document Processing 2012 OVERALL RATING BEST FIRM FIT Firms using other applications of the CS Professional Suite. Specifi cally, a FileCabinet CS license is required for the labeling and organizing function. An UltraTax CS license is required for the data extraction and import into the tax soſt ware. STRENGTHS • Integration throughout the CS Professional Suite. • Least expensive software per- forming all of the scan, organize and populate functions included in this review. 800-968-8900 CCH Small Firm Services — PaperlessPLUS 2012 OVERALL RATING BEST FIRM FIT Firms using TaxWise or ATX that are looking for both a document manage- ment and automated tax document tool. It's a good fi t for high-volume retail fi rms that need a solution housed entirely on premises, especially those that will use the integrated electronic signature pads. STRENGTHS • Clean and intuitive interface. New users should be able to learn how to use the program quickly. • Document management portion is easily searchable and integrates nicely with TaxWise and ATX for automatic fi ling of documents. • Only product reviewed here that has built-in integration with the Topaz electronic signature pads. POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS • Only forms W-2, 1099-MISC, 1099-R, 1099-DIV and 1099-INT may be exported to the supported tax soſt ware. Although Paperless- PLUS supports fewer forms than 888-455-0183; www.atxinc.com Intuit, Inc. — Tax Import for Lacerte and ProSeries 2012 OVERALL RATING BEST FIRM FIT Firms using the Lacerte and ProSeries tax programs seeking to reduce the time spent on organizing source documents and data entry. STRENGTHS • New Pre-Import Review provides side-by-side view of electronic values & images from source documents. • Direct download provides easy way for clients to provide W-2 & 1099 information, and an accurate way for tax practitioners to import it. 800-200-7599 • With per-return, bundled and unlimited pricing options available, it is a good value for firms with varying volumes of individual income tax returns. POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS • Only direct integration is with Lac- erte and ProSeries tax and document management, although customers can submit from and work with any document management solution. • Some fi rms and clients may be hesi- tant to download information from fi nancial institutions due to security concerns, even though Intuit uses 128-bit encryption and does not store credentials for accessing cli- ents' online fi nancial accounts. PRICING T e list prices for Lacerte Tax Import is $9.99 per imported return, $399 for 50 imported returns, $999 for 150 imported returns, and $1,499 for unlimited imported returns. Tax Import for ProSeries is $8.99 per imported return, $299 for 50 imported returns, some of its competitors, the list of forms it covers includes the most common among simple tax returns. • Does not have the capability to populate capital gain or loss activity to schedule D of tax soſt ware. PRICING T is product is available in two ver- sions: PaperlessPLUS and Paperless- PLUS Premier. All parts of the program run on a firm's local computer or network. T e list prices for Paperless- PLUS and PaperlessPLUS Premier are $490 and $790, respectively, for unlimited usage. Additional fees apply for network licenses. Interested users can evaluate the product free for 30 days with Premier functionality. POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS • Requires fi rms to use FileCabinet CS for annotating and referencing source documents instead of Adobe Acrobat (though files can be exported in standard PDF format). • Source Document Processing only accepts image fi les. If clients send the source documents they have scanned themselves in PDF format, the practitioner will have to go through additional steps to convert them to a format that will be accepted. • Besides the CS Professional Suite, Source Document Processing ser- vice does not integrate with any other third-party document man- agement or tax soſt ware. PRICING At $6 per client for an unlimited number of source documents, the UltraTax CS Source Document Processing Service is one of the least expensive among populate products. Since the price is per client, a fi rm can upload a stack of documents that is initially received and then later upload a late-arriving docu- ment such as a K-1 for no extra charge. Some fi rms elect to use the service for more complicated tax returns (for example, those with dozens of 1099s) but not for simple 1040s with only a couple of tax documents. T e price includes labeling and organizing, as well as the option to integrate extracted data seamlessly into UltraTax CS. Read the full review of this product exclusively online at www.CPAPracticeAdvisor. com/10453908 CORE PRODUCT FUNCTIONS/FEATURES PAPERLESS WORKFLOW INTEGRATION HELP/SUPPORT/TRAINING CS.ThomsonReuters.com Read the full review of this product exclusively online at www.CPAPracticeAdvisor. com/10455933 CORE PRODUCT FUNCTIONS/FEATURES PAPERLESS WORKFLOW INTEGRATION HELP/SUPPORT/TRAINING 888-455-0182; www.taxwise.com $499 for 100 imported returns, and $999 for unlimited imported returns. T e bundled pricing is for tax year 2011 returns and expires October 31, 2012. Lacerte or ProSeries users can submit an unlimited number of returns to Tax Import, with fi ve free imports before being asked to buy a license. Read the full review of this product exclusively online at www.CPAPracticeAdvisor. com/10455129 CORE PRODUCT FUNCTIONS/FEATURES PAPERLESS WORKFLOW INTEGRATION HELP/SUPPORT/TRAINING http://lacerte.intuit.com/products/tax-import http://proseries.intuit.com/products/tax-import January 2012 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 7

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