2010 Review of Professional Tax Systems (Traditional Workflow)

From the April/May 2010 Issue

As you may have noticed, a few things have changed with our review of professional tax preparation systems this year. In his column in this issue, Executive Editor Darren Root, CPA.CITP, explains the rationale for these changes, along with the benefits we believe they will provide you, our readers.

LOOKING FORWARD
One of the key changes you’ll notice is that there are now two separate review categories for professional tax preparation systems: Advanced Workflow and Traditional Workflow. While it may not be obvious to you, the reader, we have also implemented a more rigorous review category/subcategory rating structure along with the addition of 1/4-star increments in our ratings.

While reviews are inherently opinion-based, we’ve taken steps to add some measure of objectivity to this subjective process. Each product in a review will continue to be scored on several key areas of its functionality, but how a program scores in each of these areas will be based on several subsections. This new grading formula will help ensure that each product is graded on the same critical functions. The chart on this page outlines each of the sections/subsections for this review genre so you have a clear picture of how the ratings were determined.

In general, the changes in the tax compliance reviews are intended to better differentiate between the types of tax programs based on the workflow and collaboration tools that they offer. The differentiation between the two review categories (Advanced Workflow and Traditional Workflow) is necessary because firms have very different needs and levels of expectation that often depend on their internal workflow processes when it comes to tax engagements.

These differences are not necessarily reflective of how many staff a practice has, whether or not they manage complex client returns, or the volume of returns they process. Instead, it is based on their paperless workflow needs, remote access capabilities and other factors.

This particular review section focuses on professional tax preparation systems that are geared toward practices with traditional workflow needs. The review of products designed for practices with advanced internal workflow processes is also in this issue and online here. Once again, the differentiation between these groups isn’t necessarily reflective of how many staff a practice has, whether or not they manage complex clients or the volume of returns they process. Rather, it is based on paperless workflow needs, remote access capabilities and other factors.

Specific features and functions that were expected from the products in this review, at least at a basic level, included the availability of add-on modules for functions such as write-up and other professional needs, as well as the level of integration between those modules and the tax suite.