rstanton@portia.Stanford.EDU (Richard Stanton) (02/16/91)
I recently purchased Parsons Technologhy's Personal Tax Preparer, and have found a major problem with it. I've tried calling their (not toll-free) service number about 30 times. 29 times it has been busy, and the 30th I was put on hold for several minutes, then heard the distinctive sound of someone picking up a phone and putting it straight down again, cutting me off. The program allows you to use a mini-spreadsheet to calculate numbers for any entry on your form. The problem is that if you change one of these spreadsheets which already exists, the program doesn't necessarily alter you tax return. It seems that if you remember to tell it to update the form immediately, it works OK. However, if you're like me, and just want to enter all your data, press ESC a few times, then recalculate the entire form (an option that the program has - in theory), you may be in for a nasty surprise. It just keeps on using the old number from the previous mini-spreadsheet, and there seems to be no way of finding out about this without manually checking everything. Since I've just about finished my return, I can't be bothered to return the program and get another, but my advice to anyone else out there trying to decide what to do is: 1) DON'T buy this program. It's not bad apart from this utterly abysmal problem, but it also doesn't seem to want to audit and check the entire return, only a single form at a time. It has reasonable help, but DOESN'T have the original IRS instructions for the tax forms. 2) If you've already bought it, and don't want to return it, be VERY, VERY careful about believing the numbers it tells you Not being able to trust the numbers produced by a tax program seems to be a major problem. I know at least one such program promises to pay you any difference if it miscalculates you taxes, but this one is sold "as is, without any warranty of any kind", except for replacement of defective disks. "In no event shall Parsons be liable or responsible for any problems that arise because of defects with Personal Tax Preparer" I know this is pretty standard language, but it sucks. Richard Stanton pstanton@gsb-lira.stanford.edu
goldman@mbcl.rutgers.edu (02/18/91)
In article <1991Feb15.172639.14317@portia.Stanford.EDU>, rstanton@portia.Stanford.EDU (Richard Stanton) writes: > I recently purchased Parsons Technologhy's Personal Tax Preparer, and have > found a major problem with it. . customer support complaint deleted... > The program allows you to use a mini-spreadsheet to calculate numbers > for any entry on your form. The problem is that if you change one of these > spreadsheets which already exists, the program doesn't necessarily alter > you tax return. It seems that if you remember to tell it to update > the form immediately, it works OK. However, if you're like me, and just > want to enter all your data, press ESC a few times, then recalculate the > entire form (an option that the program has - in theory), you may be in > for a nasty surprise. It just keeps on using the old number from the > previous mini-spreadsheet, and there seems to be no way of finding out about > this without manually checking everything. > > Since I've just about finished my return, I can't be bothered to return > the program and get another, but my advice to anyone else out there > trying to decide what to do is: > > 1) DON'T buy this program. It's not bad apart from this utterly abysmal > problem, but it also doesn't seem to want to audit and check the entire > return, only a single form at a time. It has reasonable help, but > DOESN'T have the original IRS instructions for the tax forms. > . further complaint deleted. > > Richard Stanton > pstanton@gsb-lira.stanford.edu As a followup, I would recommend that nobody buy their MoneyCounts program either. I bought MoneyCounts (v 5.0 I think) and it had THE WORST user interface of any program I have ever had to deal with. (Accounts couldn't be referred to by name: they had to be referred by NUMBERS (01-50: checking a/c's, etc.) Their programs are cheap -- for a reason. -- Adrian Goldman | Internet: Goldman@MBCL.Rutgers.Edu Molecular Biology Computing Laboratory | Bitnet: Goldman@BioVAX Waksman Insitute, | Phone: (908) 932-4864 Rutgers University, | Fax: (908) 932-5735 Piscataway, NJ 08855 USA |
dtb@adpplz.UUCP (Tom Beach) (02/18/91)
Actually I seemed to have good luck with the "recalculate all" function key. My problem occurred when it was time to PRINT the forms. I was using LaserJet output. THe 1040 was fine, but about half the supporting forms, and I had a bunch of them, didn't print the title line of the form. Fortunately, the ASCII files it prepared were OK and I was able to get them out but it would have been better i the LaserJet output worked for all the forms and scheduled. Of course Postscript would have been even better. Does anyone know a tax prep software package with Postscript support? Tom Beach ******************************************************************************** * Tom Beach * Note was taken. Passively, since active verbs tend to * * ADP Dealer Services * betray the actor. Very serious note. Taken all * * 2525 SW 1st Ave * over the place. * * Portland, OR, 97201 * John LeCarre, The Russia House * * dtb@adpplz.UUCP * * ********************************************************************************
tporczyk@na.excelan.com (Tony Porczyk) (02/19/91)
The News Manager) Nntp-Posting-Host: na Reply-To: tporczyk@na.excelan.com (Tony Porczyk) Organization: Novell, Inc. San Jose, California References: <1991Feb15.172639.14317@portia.Stanford.EDU> <473@adphdw20.UUCP> Date: Tue, 19 Feb 1991 01:07:16 GMT In article <473@adphdw20.UUCP> dtb@adpplz.UUCP (Tom Beach) writes: > >Actually I seemed to have good luck with the "recalculate all" function >key. My problem occurred when it was time to PRINT the forms. I was >using LaserJet output. THe 1040 was fine, but about half the supporting And another one to the list: My personal information sheet said married filing jointly, 2 exemptions. After recalculation it still said so, but the tax summary said 1 exemption. After 10 minutes of futile efforts I had to change it manually. That cute bug (if you don't catch it) guarantees you're gonna pay your Uncle through the nose. Tony
gt5139c@hydra.gatech.edu (PETER L. THOMAS) (02/20/91)
In article <313.27bfb1c3@mbcl.rutgers.edu> goldman@mbcl.rutgers.edu writes:
As a followup, I would recommend that nobody buy their MoneyCounts program
either. I bought MoneyCounts (v 5.0 I think) and it had THE WORST user
interface of any program I have ever had to deal with. (Accounts couldn't be
referred to by name: they had to be referred by NUMBERS (01-50: checking a/c's,
etc.) Their programs are cheap -- for a reason.
Adrian,
MC V.6.5 is a vast improvement over 5.0, which came out several years back.
I wouldn't attack Parson's on the basis of an obsolete version. MC6.5 has been
fantastic for me, and has an excellent user interface, with a lot of "smarts"
built in to select the most likely payees, amounts, account names, etc. so you
do not have to type the whole thing in each time.
Good luck!
--Petetimr@gssc.UUCP (Tim Roberts) (02/20/91)
I have two major gripes with the Parsons Tax Preparer.
(1) "Recalculate All", ALT-F6, clearly does not. This may be related to the
problem which started this thread. I made a preliminary pass through my
return, then went back some weeks later with final data and made updates.
Next, I did ALT-F6 to recalculate all (which takes multiple minutes on my
10MHz 286), then I printed ASCII. This asks if you wish to recalculate
before printing. Naturally, I said NO, since I just recalculated. Well,
the "printed" results were NOT the same as the on-screen version!
I redid the print ASCII, answered YES, and the results matched.
You can be sure I am going to make careful use of a calculator when I
transcribe the ASCII data to the forms.
(2) Except for the ugly "print ASCII", the fricking program CANNOT print to any
file other than LPT[123] or COM[123]. This is a NEAR FATAL flaw, shared by
a large number of applications.
ATTENTION APPLICATION DEVELOPERS!!! Many, many real-life users DO NOT HAVE
printers attached to their computers! Instead we/they need to copy our
FORMATTED print files to floppy and run them to a shared print station.
Win 3.0 has the right idea; set the default print destination to "FILE:",
and the program asks you for a destination file name each time you print.
While it is true that PD utilities such as LPTX and PRN2FILE can work
around this, (A) they do not work with every application and (B) why should
I have to do this? This is such a simple problem to fix.
--
timr@gssc.gss.com Tim N Roberts, CCP Graphic Software Systems
Beaverton, OR
This is a very long palindrome. .emordnilap gnol yrev a si sihTmaurit@nrtc.nrtc.northrop.com (Mark Aurit <maurit>) (02/20/91)
In article <313.27bfb1c3@mbcl.rutgers.edu> goldman@mbcl.rutgers.edu writes: >As a followup, I would recommend that nobody buy their MoneyCounts program >either. I bought MoneyCounts (v 5.0 I think) and it had THE WORST user I disagree. Im quite pleased with the product, and really dont know what this person has against the user interface. Its just as good as much of the junk on the market, and for a simple accounting system, which are normally quite conservative in nature and application, is not at all bad. And for $35 its a good deal. I have no problems recommending it. Mark maurit@nrtc.northrop.com
goldman@mbcl.rutgers.edu (02/21/91)
In article <473@adphdw20.UUCP>, dtb@adpplz.UUCP (Tom Beach) writes: > Actually I seemed to have good luck with the "recalculate all" function > key. My problem occurred when it was time to PRINT the forms. I was > using LaserJet output. THe 1040 was fine, but about half the supporting > forms, and I had a bunch of them, didn't print the title line of the form. > > Fortunately, the ASCII files it prepared were OK and I was able to get > them out but it would have been better i the LaserJet output worked > for all the forms and scheduled. Of course Postscript would have been > even better. > > Does anyone know a tax prep software package with Postscript support? Tom: Yes. MacInTax for Windows (as windows has built in postscript support.) That's the one I'm using. I don't think the information in the program is terribly useful -- no more so than reading the instructions that are printed in the 1040 -- but the output looks great, and it's what you see is what you get. If that's what you want. Adrian Adrian Goldman | Internet: Goldman@MBCL.Rutgers.Edu Molecular Biology Computing Laboratory | Bitnet: Goldman@BioVAX Waksman Insitute, | Phone: (908) 932-4864 Rutgers University, | Fax: (908) 932-5735 Piscataway, NJ 08855 USA |
dsew@troi.cc.rochester.edu (David Sewell) (02/22/91)
Are the people having problems with the Parsons Tax Program using the "final filing version" that Parsons sent out recently? -- David Sewell, English Dep't, University of Rochester, New York USA dsew@cc.rochester.edu || dsew%cc.rochester.edu@uorvm.BITNET