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TaxCalc is now a serious contender and very ggod value
Of course its not perfect, but the year 1 achievement has been more than OK.
Individual, partnership and corporation tax returns and FBI have all worked out well.
FBI has been brilliant and an absolute doddle as it was in the 2004 Intuit version of the program.
Support has been good and has not required a multi-layer key selection to be able to speak to them either.
They are no longer at Exeter but why some people have considered that software authored and maintained in the West Country to be a disadvantage beats me. After all, a major player in the tax software market was only 10 miles away at Exmouth!
Value for money? The whole package for less than £300 surely is well worthy of serious consideration and the 2006 version can only be better still.
ASP; Most Wanted?
Maybe we should all employ the services of the claimed psychic and namesake Derek Achorah of The Most Haunted team to find ESP. Exeter is nice at this time of the year. Sorry that's ASP, (Achorah Software Products, and not Exeter S P) of course typo! Lovely mental image though!
Aweb could brand a taxcalc type product? David Ross below has the expertise.You all have a good base from which to start from. Is the old Intuit version negotiable at all? Makes sound commercial sense.
Update
I received a call from TaxCalc today and they said that the reason why they have a backlog of unanswered support requests is because of the mass mailing they did that went wrong resulting in an unanticipated high volume of calls, etc.
They helped me sort out one of my two queries. The other one needed looking into and, since it was not vital for me to have it answered immediately and knowing that TaxCalc was under pressure to deal with other more pressing issues, I agreed to leave it to them to reply to me in due course.
I do hope they get it right eventually because it could save me time in filing my tax return.
TaxCalc are answering the helpline number
Mohan,
I've been in pretty regular contact with TaxCalc to check on the status of the updates and helplines and to raise your comments with the company.
Last week I did get unobtainable sounds and a recorded message on the 0870 351 0006 number. As the article explains, TaxCalc said they'd had some trouble with their phone system, but by the time the story was published on Thursday, the number was working.
I tried it just now (Monday 5:30pm) and it was anwsered by a helpful person who said they'd been working overtime to handle support calls. If you have any difficulties with the helpline number, try 08708 776655, which also worked for me last week.
John Stokdyk
Technology editor
AccountingWEB.co.uk
They have not replied to my fax or email
I am still awaiting a reply to my fax of 5th July and my email sent a few days earlier to TaxCalc (Acorah Software Products Ltd). I started off with a lot of goodwill for them and hoped that they would continue to provide an adequate software as Intuit did. However, after wasting a lot of time because of their defective software, the last straw was when I could not could not contact them by phone (including today morning) and they would not reply to my email or fax.
I bought ProTax light and it completed my return and calculated my tax correctly. It would not allow me to FBI due to an error. I emailed them and they replied promptly informing me as to how to fix it. I will file my return next month and do not expect to have any problems. If I do, at least I can hope that Forbes will answer my email promptly and help me fix it without delay.
alternative
You can check out our software at www.tax.co.uk. It will read in your 2004 taxcalc files and you can try a demo version before parting with your cash !
They cannot be contacted by phone and will not respond to emails
Mr Ebdon-Poole of TaxCalc (Acorah Software Products Ltd) explained: "We moved premises in June and like most other businesses we were subject to the vagaries of telecoms suppliers. Our Customer helpline number is 0870 351 0006. The email [email protected] is also an efficient way of communicating with TaxCalc."
The phone number quoted above is answered with a message "It is not possible to leave a message for the required person now. Please try calling back later". The message has changed but the problem remains.
Apart from numerous phone calls, I had also sent them an email and a fax many days ago to which they have not responded.
The bugs in TaxCalc make it unusable for me as a couple of things are incorrect and cannot be over-ridden manually. Their latest version, that I downloaded today, does not fix these problems and Acorah Software Products (TaxCalc) do not want to know.
All I need is something like the old Intuit's TaxCalc to do my personal tax computation and file it by internet. Would anyone please recommend a product that I can use?
Comments not wanted!
I have emailed Taxcalc on several occasions to ask them to sort out their email problem. I am now getting the reponse that my emails are being deleted without being read. I am as busy (if not busier) than they are and do not want to have to spend time every day clearing my inbox which has been clogged with their spam.
If their software is as good as their response to my emails then I too will be looking for an alternative supplier of tax form software.
NOT IMPRESSED
It is now 10 days since the original email was sent from Taxcalc and they are still coming through with another large batch arrived this morning. They say this a bug in the Microsoft small business server and not their fault but we have not had multiple emails from anyone else, only from Taxcalc. They quote their customer helpline number as a method of contact, but this is just a recorded message that points you to the website. We sent an email to them several days ago and it appears this has just been ignored.Quite frankly I am not impressed but I suppose the more proffessional software suppliers would say this is what you get if you deal with a small untried and untested supplier. Although they have tried to pass the buck re the multiple email disaster, I have not yet heard their excuse for the distribution of our email addresses to everyone, or is that the same excuse?
Ignored emails
I've recieved another 300 emails from Taxcalc in the last two days. So much for them stopping over a week ago. Why have they started again? I emailed Taxcalc but surprise surprise no response.
""Responding to questions from AccountingWEB, ASP chief executive Tracy Ebdon-Poole commented: "Due to the lateness of completion with Intuit we have had a 12-week period in which to operate. Unfortunately we have missed certain deadlines but we have endeavoured to communicate this effectively to our customers in an open and honest fashion.""
I haven't received any emails apologising for missing deadlines. The only email I received was the infamous one of 2 weeks ago of which I have now received in excess of 4,300.
As for the Partnership return the dates were wrong on the screen. They showed 2003/04 it's irrelevant that it printed OK if they can't get the dates right what else is wrong with the software that we don't know about?
Their careless and shoddy attitude towards all users who have already paid for this in full really is not good enough.
I have asked for a refund but yes you guessed it my email has been totally ignored despite the assurances as noted in the main article above.
""Ebdon-Poole explained: "We moved premises in June and like most other businesses we were subject to the vagaries of telecoms suppliers. Our Customer helpline number is 0870 351 0006. The email [email protected] is also an efficient way of communicating with TaxCalc.""
What a load of rubbish, has anybody had a reply from these people in the past week or two? I know I haven't
Not only have we paid for software which clearly is not what was advertised but we also have to pay the extortionate telephone rates on 0870 if we need support. Wouldn't mind if the thing worked properly in the first place.
After many years of using a very professional piece of software I will not be renewing next year. Their whole attitude stinks.
ASP Really Do Bug You, But Then So Did The Intuit Nit Wits.
I'm Sorry ASP, but it really is as dreadful as all the negative reports coming out keep saying. Warning; Anything else to the contrary hereafter, above, is just probably sycophantic. Certainly for practice work anyway it toils like anything. For instance it doesn't spot all common FBI errors like too many characters. These will be returned all the same if you do a test transmission first- recommended! When ASP's Taxcalc says its ready to file with no errors that's a worthless claim in my experience.Then there is all the bugged boxes which just wont tick. Necessitating in the manual form override route. The recent up date gave unnecessary error messages as well. Still, I may commit myself to another year with you after this one since as a user I'm developing the original V.1 software and presumably their business for them. So I'd like a return on the initial outlay and input. Surely, it can't get any worse next year ASP? For instance where are the promised CT600 pages as well as above mentioned partnership? Money back? Sometimes IR's free software is the better option over ASP's bugged to frustration Taxcalc software. Oh! It's really bad but just in the short term... of course we hope.
To add insult, again, I came across a copy of my Intuit Professional Advisors mail shot which fanfared their intended improvements to taxcalc in 2005! I didn't renew because of that cheeky dupe- I remembered! I'm feeling good again! Thanks to Intuit I'm going down the right route now. Maybe ASP will, soon..... Or they will go the way of the unreliable Intuit.
How does it 'toil' for Practice work?
I have a keen interest in what practitioners require. in writing our product Tax Manager I have included what we need in our own Accountancy practice. At the moment we are working on internet submission and a simple invoicing model.
I would be interested in hearing what past professional customers of TaxCalc have to say
TaxCalc2005
I sent a long e-mail to ASP detailing all the faults I have found. No reply. So I phoned them and they told me all feedback was considered. Yeh, right.
One of the most basic requirements of a data entry system is to use the ENTER key. All they have to do is convert it to the TAB character and it's done. But no. So you have to reach over the other side of the keyboard and press TAB. Even then TABbing after the last textbox should take you to the NEXT button. But no. You have to reach for the mouse.
It doesn't even carry forward the GENDER of the client. Basic stuff.
I used to program data entry systems for accounts production. Is there anyone out there who could who would be interested helping to develop a TaxCalc that actually works? You would need the understand all the IR forms (I currently only use SE pages plus the Core pages. Any offers?
What other software is out there, which is useable?
TaxCalc 2005 not based on Intuit version
In a recent conversation with ASP I was told that the current version of Tax Calc was not based on the Intuit code as Intuit would not pass on the souce code. Therefore ASP are employing the original team from Which that manufactured the code in the first place to re-write it from scratch: not an easy task I would think.
Personally I am supporting this effort even though there are some major flaws. The team at ASP seem to be keen but I worry that despite their enthusiasm they don't have the wherewithall to bring it off. I shall continue this year and reassess the next version.
As if life isnt hard enough....
Like many when ASP took over from Intuit I thought "great news" and breathed a sigh of relief expecting to receive for our money simply an updated version of the Intuit software for 2005 with added extra of CT800 returns.....
I feel that this is a case of misselling their product to us.... was it pointed out that this would in fact be simply a new program with the capability to import data from Taxcalc 2004? I expected to install the new program and find EXACTLY the same program engine as before - why else call it Taxcalc?
The problem is the errors are so obvious and so basic that it makes you wonder if ASP really do understand how to prepare a tax return in the first place or whether they have simply sat down with an IR tax calculation guide and just had a go at it! This all means that I have very little faith in the program itself and find myself manually checking the return far more than I would have before.
Some of the issues that annoy me are:
The program is so slow now - no longer can you fly through a return in 20 minutes.... there is a delay in simply moving from one box to the next which gives the same sensation as if you were using an old 486 computer!
After importing data from 2004 the computer doesnt like it if there is a line gap in the address... begging the question why import it in this format in the first place only to demand a manual change by the user (once youve worked out why the error has come up!)
The capital account in the balance sheet is just plain ridiculous - wrong opening balance (would be better if it was just left blank than to put the wrong figure in) and it doesnt even reference in the profit!
On the SE pages it doesnt put in the basis period meaning a manual input....
And how long does it take to print the return!!.......... It's all very nice that it does it through Adobe but I was quite happy with the way it worked before....
All in all I am on the brink of changing to another supplier for tax software - ASP need to sort things out... and very very quickly... preparing a return is taking twice as long and that constitutes a cost to our practice of more than just the software cost!