CPA Practice Advisor - 12

ADVANCED WORKFLOW SYSTEMS

REVIEW: PRO TAX PREPARATION SYSTEMS

CCH ProSystem fx Tax from Wolters Kluwer
https://taxna.wolterskluwer.com/professional-tax-software/prosystem-fx
CCH ProSystem fx Tax from Wolters
Kluwer is part of the CCH ProSystem fx
Suite, and is well suited for accounting
firms of any size. The system is available as an on-premise solution and is
scalable, offering a long list of modules

including Individual, Partnership,
Corporation, Employee Benefit Plan,
Fiduciary, Estate and Gift, Exempt
Organization, Electronic Filing, Productivity Software, and Data Conversion
Services, with firms able to bundle all

of the modules for a complete solution,
or purchase only the modules needed.
ProSystem fx Tax pricing depending
on modules purchased and number of
users. For more information, call 1-800739-9998, option 1 followed by option 2.

Read the full review
for this product online at:
www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/
21081481

4.75

Lacerte Tax from Intuit
https://proconnect.intuit.com/lacerte/
Lacerte Tax from Intuit is well-suited
for accounting firms of all sizes that
offer both individual and business tax
preparation services to their clients.
Lacerte handles a variety of return
types and offers exclusive integration

with QuickBooks Accountant.
Lacerte offers a variety of licensing
options, including Lacerte 200/Federal
1040, which is best for firms preparing
fewer than 200 individual federal tax
returns annually. Lacerte Unlimited

is ideal for firms that prepare a high
number of both individual and business returns. A variety of add-on
options are available for each tax package, and those interested can contact
Lacerte directly for a custom quote.
All Lacerte tax packages include the

2019
OVERALL
RATING

Easy Start Program, Automatic Data
Conversion, and a 30-day money back
guarantee.

Read the full review
for this product online at:
www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/
21081485

Covering All the Bases: How Lacerte Keeps Team Brolin On Their Game

o say that Dawn Brolin wears many hats is an
understatement. The CPA and Certified Fraud
Examiner is a principal and founder of Powerful
Accounting (www.powerfulaccounting.com), a partner
in Anderson, Brolin & Coba CPAs (http://abccpas.net),
offers IT services, provides small business accounting
and fraud prevention services, and is a nationallyrecognized consultant, speaker, author and thought
leader in the profession. She's also been honored as
one of CPA Practice Advisor's "40 Under 40" and one of
the "Most Powerful Women in Accounting" for several
years, and has been lauded by Accounting Today.

From late January through April, however, Dawn usually has her tax hat on, providing compliance services
to individuals and business entities across the country.
During the 2019 tax prep season, Powerful Accounting processed nearly 200 individual returns, and ABC
CPAs filed more than 1,000, along with partnership and
corporate returns, most of which were fairly complex
and interrelated, she says. Due to the simplification
of taxes for many lower income earners this year, the
firm had a strategy to decrease the number of simple
returns they prepared, with that time spent on more
productive clients and services.

A cornerstone of her tax practice is the Intuit Lacerte
tax preparation system, which Dawn has used since
2013, when she partnered with ABC CPAs. "Lacerte
covers all of the forms and entities, with strong tax planning and back-year tax filing," Dawn said. In addition
to using the system for current clients, the prior-year
features are essential to her work with IRS representation and with criminal and civil litigation.
Powerful Accounting hosts the Lacerte system on
a remote server that it is accessible from wherever the
staff is located. Considering how mobile Dawn is with
her multiple career endeavors, her consulting work and
her speaking engagements, the remote accessibility is
a great benefit. This is especially so during the spring,
when in addition to tax work, she is an assistant coach
for the Eastern Connecticut State University NCAA
Division-III Women's Fastpitch Softball team. She
recently traveled across the country, including a trip
to the NCAA National Championship Tournament
in late May where the team placed third nationally.
"I'm extremely mobile, but with a hosted version
of Lacerte and my Mac Book or iPad, I can work on
client returns and other engagements wherever I am,
even while in Florida for spring training."
Dawn says that Lacerte streamlines and automates

Dawn Brolin, CPA, CFE Founder and Principal
Powerful Accounting, LLC Windham, CT

the entire tax engagement process, from entering basics,
to integration with GruntWorx, which the firm uses
to scan client source documents, then populating the
return in the tax system. Brolin even maximizes Lacerte
and SmartVault by printing directly to SmartVault from
Lacerte and subsequently sending 8879's to clients
with the KBA requirements through DocuSign. This
past tax season, an intern handled most of the admin
data collection work.
"Lacerte's diagnostic tools are fantastic, and it includes great review functions, including the ability
to instantly jump to the input forms, plus form comparisons and searchability," she said. "And moving to
Lacerte was really easy, with fast support, and Intuit
converted all of our data files from our previous tax
prep solution ."
The Lacerte Tax system is available in a variety of
versions, with bundles designed for firms of any size.
Visit https://proconnect.intuit.com/lacerte and try
the free demo version.

Read the 2019 review of Lacerte Tax from Intuit at www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/21081485

JUNE 2019 ■

www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

https://taxna.wolterskluwer.com/professional-tax-software/prosystem-fx http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/21081481 https://proconnect.intuit.com/lacerte/ http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com/21081485 http://www.powerfulaccounting.com http://www.abccpas.net https://proconnect.intuit.com/lacerte http://www.cpapracticeadvisor.com/21081485 http://www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com

CPA Practice Advisor

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