Lacerte

What do you like best?

Lacerte has accurate and updated calculations, as well as promptings to look at potential forms which might be needed for filing.

Lacerte's diagnostics are above and beyond any other software I have worked with. With guiding questions to give completeness to the return.

Also included is an analysis of every return prepared. This will compare the return to the IRS database averages for similar returns filed. This gives tremendous insight to potential missed information or possible pitfalls that could flag the return with the IRS.

Customer support, and the Lacerte community, are always quick, friendly and very accurate with any issues I might run into - usually becasue of operator error :-)

Finally, there is contunued Professional Education credits offered through Intuit each year as part of the package. Through these classes I learn new fetures and tips, and get my CPE hours!

What do you dislike?

The price is a little higher than I was hoping, but I find it well worhth the extra cost when compared to other software applications.

Recommendations to others considering the product:

Try the free period and learn as much as you can. The learning curve is not as steep as some softwares, but the use is different than most programs. If in doubt as to where something goes... right-click on a field and you can "jump to input" - what a lifesaver that has been too!!

What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Quick, easy input screens help tax completion in about the half the time I spent using ATX.

The software is input driven rather than form driven - this means it will auto-populate required forms based on your input. No more searching around for what needs to be filed for the return when something changes.

These features have saved close to 40 - 50% on the time it takes each return to be prepared.