The 2009 Software Satisfaction Awards give accountants the chance to assess how well their applications have made the transition to electronic filing and the new style of tax forms. John Stokdyk reports.
Change is a constant in the world of tax, and the software houses supporting the industry have poured millions of pounds into developing new software architectures and functions for their programs - in many cases to meet the shifting goals set out by HMRC.
Following feedback from the 2007 awards, Tax was accorded its own category in 2008, which was won by TaxCalc, the small firm/consumer application originally developed by Which? and subsequently taken on by Intuit. Under new ownership, TaxCalc has prospered. Other "best of breed" programs have performed well in the awards, including 2007 tax/practice award winner Drummohr, and Honourable Mentions for Forbes (2007) and Tax Tips & Tools from BBS Computing (2008).
Tax software results | 2007 | 2008   | +/-   |
TaxCalc Pro | - | 3.79   | ◄   |
Tax Tips & Tools | - | *3.70   | ◄   |
Digita Personal Tax | 3.46   | 3.58   | ▲   |
PerTax from MYOB | †2.88   | 3.33   | ▲   |
PTP | 3.41   | -   | ◄   |
Drummohr | 3.56   | -   | ◄   |
Forbes | *3.27   | -   | ◄   |
IRIS | †3.10   | -   | ◄   |
Sage | †2.56   | -   | ◄   |
†2007 rating for tax/practice software category included for comparative purposes.
The ratings for the larger software houses that supply tax/practice suites perhaps reflect the transitional nature of the major product families over this period. The ratings have been further complicated by several major transactions within the industry, with IRIS acquring PTP and Drummohr, CCH buying MYOB's practice wing and Thomson taking over Digita.
With the challenge of using new personal tax return formats, most vendors report that their customer support workload increased during December-January 2009, but that their applications coped (perhaps with a few caveats for HMRC's extensive list of online filing exclusions).
The 2009 Software Satisfaction Award tax category will give users the chance to verify these reports, and to track how well the major software overhauls and acquisitions have bedded in. May the best team win!
There is only a little time left for the developers to ensure their efforts are recorded - entries for this year's awards must be received by the end of March, with the ceremony taking place in October. Further details on how to enter are available on the Software Satisfaction Awards 2009 website.