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Can anyone recommend a fiduciary accounting scftware that they are really happy with?
Thank you
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Power Member
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Last Login: 1/6/2010 6:00:00 PM
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| I used the DOS version of FATE for many years. It still works on an old, slow computer I have, and in my opinion it is still the standard that hasn't been matched. I tried the software by Legal Automation, but found it difficult to use, and gave up. So I have been using Quicken, mostly because of its ability to track securities investments and account for the special transactions that come up every so often, and because I am familiar with it. It took time to learn how to customize its prepackaged output and work around some of the prepackaged routines that produced output I didn't like, but all in all it has worked out fine. I would like to find out what software each of you use. If you want, please tell me whether you are happy with it or not. I will summarize what I learn in August at our LA chapter committee meeting. If you don't want to post, please send an e-mail to jjacob@pacbell.net. My guess is that most of you have reinvented the wheel to come up with something suitable. Maybe by sharing our experiences we can identify something that is relatively easy to adapt, and doesn't cost four figures.
John Jacobson
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I am bringing this topic to the top again to ask whether anyone else has experiences to share before my presentation in three weeks. I have received only one e-mail, which discussed using Excel. Thanks in advance for any responses.
John Jacobson
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John Jacobson (7/19/2006)
I am bringing this topic to the top again to ask whether anyone else has experiences to share before mypresentation in three weeks. I havereceived only one e-mail,whichdiscussedusingExcel.Thanks in advance for any responses.
John- we have used several over the years... but are back to excel again.
IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: To ensure compliance with requirements imposed by the IRS, we inform you that any U.S. tax advice contained in this communication (including any attachments) is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, for the purpose of (i) avoiding penalties under the Internal Revenue Code, or (ii) promoting, marketing or recommending to another party any matters addressed herein. |
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Last Login: 1/6/2010 10:32:28 AM
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| We are currently using the Fast Tax FAS program. We have one court accounting in particular that has thousands of purchases and sales of securities every two years (due to managed accounts). The program has positives and many negatives to it. Positives: - The program is great at keeping track of inventories of assets. Many times in managed accounts you will have partial sales and then subsequent purchases in a particular security. The program is very good at keeping a valid cost basis for each and every security.
- The input screen for income receipts is well designed and lets you do numerous transactions very quickly.
- You can print your reports to Excel and to Word. While the reports written to Excel end up getting mixed up due to the Excel format, I'm able to program macros and customize the report to exactly what I want.
Negatives: - If you want unlimited users and unlimited accounts, Fast Tax wants a fortune (around $10,000). We purchased a program where two users on the network could use the program at the same time and we can keep up to five accounts on the system. This is a pain in the neck because we have to archive and restore accounts as we use them.
- The reports are not user friendly for California reporting format and sometimes will repeat the last item printed on the prior page as the first item on the subsequent page.
- For California reporting purposes, business income or losses should be on one schedule. I believe the same should be done for a rental property. The software won't allow you to do this.
- The software is very inflexible regarding expenses that don't really apply to the preset categories.
- The program is written to work with other modules put out by Fast Tax for 706's and 1041's. Because of this, there are bugs, and annoyances of dealing with items you don't want to deal with.
I would give this program a rating of 7 on a scale of 10. Unfortunately Fast Tax bought out the company that used to put out FATE. All other current programs I've looked at are far less sophisticated than this program.
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| We also use Fast tax FAS and find and agree with the previous response. They also bought out Probate Plus and FAS is not as superior as the Probate Plus product. I would not reccommend it, we are not happy with it, but in reality we have not been able to find anything better.
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