I didn’t really think I’d ever be writing this, but it appears that I am, and am doing so while it’s relatively fresh in my mind.
We, as tax pros, understand in many ways the difficulties that TaxCycle, like us, must also have had with CRA, the burnout, exasperation and dealing with the (at least early) continual changes in policy, direction, instruction and demands.
On the other hand, this is the first year in which I can honestly say I felt somewhat let down by my software. There was nothing that was a dealbreaker, but there were many small aggravations that made what was already a disgustingly fractious year even worse. Among the issues I dealt with:
Quick Search / Client Manager failed to be able to “remember” the default search results order (ie client last name, alpha first to last). Every time I opened QS it was in some random order, but mostly it appeared to be last return openend. Not helpful.
The interaction between TC and DoxCycle (DC). Where do I start? Printing often crashed TC while trying to open the client’s DC file to receive the print set. Reload and start over. Sometimes lost data, not always.
Portrait scans imported for a while as landscape. Not sure why; lasted for a while then stopped (mostly JPEGs).
Slips…and WAY too many check-offs. While it is somewhat OK to have a number of entries on a slip marked for checkoff, it would be useful to have a checkbox at the top or bottom that just says “OK everything…it’s all fine”. Particularly true for T3s.
T5013s … there are fields that don’t apply to T1s… but until one runs across one a number of times, it’s not always memorable (Box 106 eg). Maybe the field should be there with a “don’t need this field” note. Maybe that’s just me.
Spouses resident in different provinces. Yes, it happens, more than you think. Maybe a spot for “use different addresses and provinces of residence” that auto-allows each their own?
DoxCycle: kept “losing” the shortcuts in the Quick Access bar, despite repeated “saves” in Options (there’s only three items, Save, Save As and Open).
Repeated file saves from DoxCycle resulting in a dialog box about 1” wide x 6” long….needs to be expanded every time.
I actually was pleased with TaxCycle this year. Although I pay for DoxCycle, I have not used it for about 4 years. I found AFR (4 years ago) very reliable and found that entering slip information in DoxCyle for importing into TC to be of dubious value. I scan to PDF and annotate documents through my document management system.
When the AFR became unreliable this year, I used DoxCycle for a couple T1’s. I tried keying in the box numbers but decided it was easier to make an Excel template with the common box numbers and use that to enter multiple T3’s or T5’s. I like some aspects of DoxCycle but think it’s under-developed.
As for TaxCycle, I didn’t have challenges with the software. This is the first year I did NOT have problems with the client manager. It worked well for me. I created some Quick Searches that worked well. Any other problems were AFR related and not TaxCyle’s fault. I curse CRA regularly and they give me good reason to do so.
I’ll add that - from a “calculation” perspective, TC does an excellent job. I just found myself irritated by all those little operational issues. The only “calculation” problem I had was with CCA on some rentals, easily overriden.
Doxcycle on the other hand was not up to snuff.
If it was functioning as it had before the major upgrade to the newer Dot net early this year, it would have been very valuable for this tax season. As it was it was usually easier to just populate slips in Taxcycle.
Taxcycle was fine this year… I had originally tried Docycle(2013/14) but it doesnt fit my needs in a one person firm with AFR.. it is probably suited for a firm with junior persons… it sound like Docycle had many issues as did Taxfolder.. Also not a Taxfolder user. I use Client Track and it is still fabulous.
The major issue this year revolved around CRA.. slip filing, AFR non existent items, clients relying on us to have things.. multiple interactions with clients this year regarding missing items… I attribute to CRA muckups. At least we know what we are dealing with for the Mid June deadline…hoping next year will be better. Dreading the new process to onboard clients coming in the summer.. how messed up is that going to be?
This was my first year of using TaxCycle. It took some getting used to, of course, but compared to Cantax it’s night and day. Obviously, the CRA problems made everyone’s life a little harder, but, for me, TaxCycle worked great. Any questions I had, the customer service answered promptly. I found auto schedules a little annoying at times and I like a little more experimentation with the T1032, but otherwise, very glad I switched.
Overall I found TaxCycle was still as good as prior years,a few things like the client manager wiping out the search so I had to start again was annoying but with all the last minute changes happening because of CRA, I figured small things will go wrong as they push out critical changes. I seem to every so often in my print sets were it says it’s printing but nothing happens,but that could be me. Doxcycle I use but not like I use to before AFR wasn’t that good and this year I was using it like I did originally. I found in 95% of the time it did not recognize the slip didn’t recognize the fields, I was constantly having to change the slip as it was either upside down or slide way. But I think the problem with Doxcycle is that it doesn’t get updated as much as TaxCycle, it needs a major update, but also it is slowly becoming unnecessary. All my clients information and slips are already in my client area so I really only used DoxCycle as a convient place to make a working paper file. When I have to review something it makes it easier to look at one pdf with everything i did then going to all the individual files and looking.
Most of my issues / irritations were with DoxCycle. I use it to handle / store all the documents, i don’t use it to import the data from Dox to Tax, since I generally find it faster to just key it into Tax. If Dox was better at reading the data I would use that feature more.
I do like the suggestion on the unused boxes on the T5013. I have a few of them but not enough to remember which boxes don’t apply to T1s, so I found myself searching for the boxes that did not exist (which was a time waster when there was not extra time to spare).
For me I would like a way to re-organize the order of T3s and T5s on the left side bar. This year I had piles of them that I had to enter manually and I numbered them to help me organize. Re-ordering them on the left sidebar (which would also change the order on the slip summary) would be helpful.
Also I wish there was a way to make entering T5013 slips a bit easier. Perhaps putting the box number in numerical order as they are on the slips?
Although I’ve been doing tax returns for over 30 years, this was only my second year using Taxcycle. I found support was much quicker to answer my questions last year compared to this year. I waited over a week for a response for one question.
My request relates to autofill. For example when entering medical expenses, autofill is set to fill based on alphabetical order. However, clients tend to use the same provider (or have the same type of medical expense) several times. It would be great if the 1st default was the last entry with same first letter and from there go alphabetical.
I also had issues with TaxFolder. Several client’s forms would be uploaded from me, however the client would either be unable to access the form to sign or, could view but able to sign. This happened sporadically throughout the season.
@AlbertaEnterprises - Autofill in medical does what you are asking if you start typing. Usually you only need a couple letters before it hits the one you want and which point you hit return to accept the suggestion.
It doesn’t. If last entry was chiropodist and I want it again on the next line, I have to type past chiro to get chiropodist (because chiropractor comes first alphabetically). In Profile, I would only have to type c.
Sorry - I misunderstood what you were asking. You are right - it would be better if the autofill was smart enough to recognize that for a given client it is more likely to be the last entry starting with that letter.
This year, I intentionally invited a few high-maintenance clients to use TaxFolder.com. Like magic, they vanished. They fled like I’d asked them to assemble the entire IKEA kitchen without the manual.
I find entering medical expenses excruciatingly time consuming as well. The worst part is sifting through stacks of clients very personal medical receipts trying to figure out what they paid and for which family member and how much was covered. I started to create a template for clients to fill this detail in themselves but have yet to figure out how to import it into TC.
If anyone has created a TC friendly medical expense template, PLEASE SHARE!
This! Mostly I total the expenses, having circled both date and applicable claimable amount, scan them and simply enter “per list”. If CRA wants them Insems the scan. Sometimes in spreadsheet them for convenience. I’ll enter them in TC if there’s just a few.
And EVERYWHERE in TC the tilde (~) is your friend. Meds and c-dons particularly.
I actually have a excel worksheet with a reference table with about 75 different medical service providers accumulated from my clients over the years. I enter the vendor name and amount and the table will assign the type (e.g. Shoppers Drug Mart = Prescriptions). I create a quick pivot table and enter the summary amounts into the tax return. Eg. Prescriptions $xx; Physiotherapy $X and so on.