CPA Practice Advisor

APR 2012

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.

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SALES & USE TAX Reviews For Your Firm Electronic Sales & Use Tax, Inc. – eFileSalesTax.com 2012 OVERALL RATING BEST FIT Accounting professionals responsible for businesses with sales and use tax filing requirements in California, Florida, Illinois, or Colorado seeking an e-fi le solution. STRENGTHS • User-friendly web-based system with multi-client management tools. • E-filing of returns to each of these states • Bilingual forms and instructions • Gross summary reports and PDF output • Pay-per-use system • Email/text fi ling date reminders are available POTENTIAL LIMITATIONS • Only four states and forms coverage is limited • State modules don't integrate data across multiple jurisdictions • Client communication templates are rudimentary eFileSalesTax.com is the only fully web-based sales and use tax preparation system in this year's review. T e soſt - ware is available either by annual sub- scription or as a pay-per-use applica- tion. The system offers compliance tools and e-fi ling for businesses with reporting requirements in California, Florida, Illinois and Colorado, and each of these states' subsidiary taxing jurisdictions. In addition to providing most of the states' forms, alternate forms, schedules and worksheets, the solutions for California and Florida also provide Spanish-language menus. BASIC SYSTEM FUNCTIONS Users can log into the secure eFileSal- esTax.com system using any standard browser, including tablets and other mobile devices with full browser access. T e program then opens into a sum- mary screen for the state version the user last used, displaying lists of returns in progress and options for starting new returns by selecting a business from a 877-584-2309 several clients or businesses with sales and use tax reporting obligations. Since eFileSalesTax is web-based, there is no tradi- tional local installation, but users do need to select a subscription plan and set up an account. With the same initial login, users can quickly move to preparation tasks for other states, view completed fi lings, set up reminders, or customize set ings. While in the California and Florida applications, a button is available to immediately change to the Spanish language layout. When creating new returns, the user simply selects from a list of available options, and enters information such as sales data, allocations, deductions, adjustments, exemptions and other transactional data and all calculations and rates are computed by the applica- tion. Links to form information and line-by-line instructions are available during data entry. General business information, including tax identifi ca- tion numbers, is pre-populated and verified by synching with the state revenue department. COMPLIANCE CAPABILITIES eFileSalesTax.com off ers modules for California, Colorado, Florida and Illi- nois, each with full support for subsid- iary taxing jurisdictions within those states, and approved for use by their taxing agencies. CA forms include: 401-A, 401-EZ, 401-GS, 401-ASR, Schedules A, B, C and G, and prepay- list. T is multi-business entity capa- bility eases management of compliance tasks by fi rms or entrepreneurs with ment form 1150. Florida forms include: DR-15, DR-15CS, DR-7, and DR- 15SW Solid Waste Surcharge. For eFileSalesTax.com website for future retrieval at any time. T e system off ers import of sales and tax data from QuickBooks, and export into formats that can be used by trial balance and tax compliance systems. Gross sum- mary reports and client lists are avail- able. eFileSalesTax.com includes a email and phone text alerts tool that can be used to remind users of fi ling deadlines and other is sues. HELP/SUPPORT T e web-based program is easy to use and off ers linked access to system help and offi cial instructions from each data entry line, plus an FAQ and links to resources and support are available at the top of the screen. Within the Cali- fornia version, all of this information and form instructions are also available in Spanish. Live and web-based support are included with system pricing, including the pay-per-use model. Illinois, eFileSalesTax.com off ers forms ST-1, ST-2, PST-2, ST-1x, and ST-2x. T e system also off ers amended forms for these three states. T e Colorado system is based on a secure web portal and Excel spreadsheet upload. If using the pay-per-return system, no charges are assessed until a return is electroni- cally submit ed to a state or is printed. T e general interfaces for each of the state modules remains consistent, although client lists and information are not available across the modules. Data entry and forms generation is simple, with the ability to choose between e-fi ling or printing and fi ling by mail, as well as online payment of collected taxes. T e tax tables for all of the states are automatically main- tained and updated by the vendor. INTEGRATION/IMPORT/EXPORT Completed returns can be printed or saved to PDF, even if they were elec- tronically fi led, and are saved on the www.efi lesalestax.com April 2012 • www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com 9 SUMMARY & PRICING eFileSalesTax.com has off ered online sales and use tax preparation and e-fi ling since 2001, and continues to expand the states and features available. T e program is simple enough for small business users with only a few locations or jurisdictional issues, but with data import and export options and com- prehensive forms support, is also capable of handling the compliance needs of enterprise-level entities. T e CA and IL versions each cost $229 per year for unlimited filings for any number of businesses. T e pay-per-use version of these two states is $7.95 per fi ling. T e FL version costs $39 per year for a single business, $129 for consoli- dated fi lers, and multi-company version starts at $129 per year. Other plans, as well as pricing for the CO version is available upon request from the vendor.

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