Wolters Kluwer offers CCH Axcess, a modular cloud-based tax preparation, compliance, and workflow management solution.
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Wolters Kluwer ATX
Score 8.9 out of 10
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Wolters Kluwer offers the ATX Tax Preparation Software, presented as the easiest to use, most complete professional tax software for CPAs and Small Firms.
If you have a pro that uses the software then you should be fine. If you are using the software and need any support from THEIR customer support people or dedicated rep, be prepared to be frustrated! Horrible Customer Service but it is due to Wolters Kluwer not caring and purchasing various tax products but not having the ethics to make sure they are properly trained or overwhelmed
I have been using ATX for at least 15 years. It is competitively priced for a part-time tax preparation firm like mine versus some of its competitors. The software is straightforward to use with very little training needed, and it includes the "paint by numbers" i.e. "interview" tax prep approach if desired (I virtually never use that as not needed, but it is a nice alternative for the more inexperienced preparer perhaps). I have found it to be pretty intuitive to use, and the file capability is very straightforward. I will continue to use it going forward, as while there are a couple of competitors that are slightly cheaper, certainly not enough difference to warrant changing software and again I'm overall pleased with the product despite the couple of areas that I commented are a bit clunky. Not a big deal. Overall good product.
The preparation of the summary letter of the tax return module is a bit clunky but usable.
The preparation of the next year's quarterly estimates module, while automatic, is a bit clunky to override with more specific info versus what is automatically populated from the current year's return.
The print feature can be a little cumbersome getting to work on a local printer, resulting in some printing issues.
CCH offered a best-in-class product at a price point that was "reasonable", given the high volume of users in our organization and the immense number of tax returns we complete annually. We also already employ many other tools from the WoltersKluwer family of applications, which alleviates the administrative burden of reviewing a new vendor.
Turbotax is the most popular but not applicable if you are a tax preparer as it won't let you sign a tax preparer. Their tax prep version, Pro Series, is a bit more expensive, and I have found it not significantly different enough nor provide any applicable benefit to me changing. I also evaluated Drake tax prep software, but again, while it has some nice features, it could not justify the change effort compared to any incremental features I might use. ATX continues to offer the right product features for what I need at one of the cheapest costs.
