I think the visceral reaction to this news that I am seeing so far is to be expected. Most people don’t like change. Me included. However I really don’t think it is realistic to think that support will degrade or prices will increase dramatically. In my view the last thing Xero will want to see is droves of existing TC clients heading out the door. I think that it is more likely that we will continue to be well taken care of. Don’t let this news create unnecessary angst.
Am I the only one who doesn’t want tax returns in the cloud? I want them stored locally where I have full control.
I was ok with services like QB going online, the downtime’s have been minimal to me, but storing tax information online? No thanks.
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Just sign up with them and you can get one already
I seem to recall a question on another forum the year TaxCycle launched: How long till you sell? I believe the answer was something like: 20+ years. You started with the 2012 tax year and sold before the 10th tax season.
I know plans change, but you didn’t even make it into the 10 tax season.
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Nope. Don’t want accounting data there either…though if backed up it’s somewhat less “critical” for access. Tax is date/time sensitive and no way I want to be held up during the season, or at filing date by some stupid outage. (Doesn’t mean to say I can’t lose power at the office, screw up my own files etc…but at least those I have some degree of control over…and my Eaton powerbank is part of that.)
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Xero must be buying to make more money and by selling @Cameron will lose some control in decision making. So it’s obvious that price and customer service won’t be the same.
HUBDOC has died a drawn out and most painful death.
The official funeral is scheduled for April 27th, 2022
Some positives will come from this.
hopefully not a positive price increase
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Frankly (and sadly) @healthymanccc, I’m dubious on that score. Xero will need to pay for its investment and more often than not that’s got to come out of profits, not growth, for the most part. Unless TC can find a way to take over a vast chunk of the TaxPrep or Profile market - fast - that additional revenue is more than likely going to come from (wait for it…) … us.
Now, if they bifurcate TC into a pro / am product then they can produce additional market AND profit that doesn’t come from us. Essentially, we will do the proofing of the tax accuracy for them, and they can add fancy schmancy menus for the personal tax prep market to walk users through the process.
Well said. However, I would like to think Xero and TC are aware that if things go downhill users will leave - no one is locked into a contract. Therefore, they will maintain their good product, services, and prices for retention - positive thinking.
The competition is out there and new software is being created all the time. Take for example TC - not even a decade old and has taken a chunk of users from TaxPrep and Profile.
What about the potential of synergy being created from the acquisition? I’m an optimistic guy so forgive me for thinking everything will work out for the best. I wish you a happy New Year!
Xero does need a Canadian tax solution. Intuit did have first mover advantage with their expertise in Profile and even then it took them a number of seasons of trial and error to get a decent integrated offering. Xero was/is late to the party and still needs to catch up and will be behind for a couple of seasons. So a bunch of resources on both X and TC will go onto this. I think taxcycle was a natural fit but I too am hoping development of the base product for non-xero users continues and we don’t lose the exceptional customer service.
From: taxcycle@discoursemail.com
Sent: December 26, 2021 16:23
To: gregory@gregorymarkocpa.com
Reply to: taxcycle+8373b5a459fa498ab0a1b5e72bd75f68@discoursemail.com
Subject: [protaxcommunity.com] TaxCycle bought by Xero
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| healthymanccc
December 26 |
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Well said. However, I would like to think Xero and TC are aware that if things go downhill users will leave - no one is locked into a contract. Therefore, they will maintain their good product, services, and prices for retention - positive thinking.
The competition is out there and new software is being created all the time. Take for example TC - not even a decade old and has taken a chunk of users from TaxPrep and Profile.
What about the potential of synergy being created from the acquisition? I’m an optimistic guy so forgive me for thinking everything will work out for the best. I wish you a happy New Year!
TaxPrep is too darn expensive and Profile is just too unreliable. It crashed at the place i worked more often than not and was extremely slow from Intuit’s patches. Also in the last week of tax season, we had to try transmitting returns up to five times before there were no errors. TaxCycle and Cantax - no issues. TaxCycle - never an real issue since 2012. I switched as soon as i saw how much more it was with app development and who wrote it.
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I have the same experience with Hubdoc. Very positive about the platform before Xero. My observation is that Xero did very little to develop the platform and could have done a much better version of receipt bank (or whatever it is called now). They unfortunately couldn’t negotiate the changing environment for bank feed security. At its peak I was able to pull transactions, statements and cancelled cheque images in a fully automated manner and was a huge time saver for me and my clients. Now all that automation is gone. Intuit has done a decent job maintaining most feeds and as a result, I am also dropping Hubdoc very soon. Again biggest issue has been a lack of development followed by a complete slide of customer support unless you were a xero subscriber.
It has been a disappointing experience.
Gregory Marko PEng, MBA, CPA CMA
P:416.527.4431 | F:416.850.4600
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This season should be okay. The history has shown that big changes occur the full year without Cameron and gang. It will give us a year top look around and be prepared to jump[, if necessary. Gawd, I hope not!
agreed, 1 more year but there is weak competition . Profile is licking their chops but they did the same things. Time will tell!
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scox5 - i talked with a profile support rep and they are just as frustrated with profile as it is. It’s slow and it crashes for some lots. At the end of tax season last year, it consistently got transmission errors. When i got home from work and sent in my personal clients returns with TC, never an error.
If my first interactions with Xero are any indication of how TaxCycle will fare in the future…we will likely all be looking for new software. They are confused, disorganized and just generally not overly professionally run as far as I can tell. Amazes me that a company can get to be “big”, yet be incredibly poorly run.
So…back in late October I had a query from Xero about getting a trial account. I responded, they issued one and I took a gander. Took a look at the demo, had questions. I arranged a chat, but it never happened. Trial ended in late November.
Tax Cycle announced the purchase in late December.
A few days back I got an email from Xero - a new person - wanted to do a demo. I said no…I want a very specific set of questions answered (ie technical usage for me). No problem…they arranged a video chat with someone more “technical”. I joined the meeting, hung on for about 15 min. and gave up waiting for someone on their end. Sent an email that queried it.
Got a phone call back an hour later or so from someone (new) who didn’t have a clue in a closet about accounting (as far as I could tell). I wanted to know, for instance, about importing a chart of accounts I’ve used as a base for about 40 years now, and am not about to change for their convenience. She had no idea what I was talking about. Ditto for my query about GJs, AJEs and audit trail. I’m supposed to get a call back in a few days, but I’m not hopeful.
Not, so far, a good look. Maybe from our standpoint TC will remain fine as it is (now) only intended for pros. My guess is they want to widen that net and build a consumer version that will either ruin our version or piggyback off it. And they’d like to bring us into the Xero fold.
I’m a skeptic to this point.
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Funny thing I had a similar experience two years ago… in that my questions regarding Chart of Accounts, AJEs were not answered.
The demo… as they often do… go all over the place explaining basics ( which are obvious to anyone doing books for 20 +years) and Fluffy stuff that a busy accountant who is doing data entry after the fact does not need. While very bubbly, it appeared the agent had no technical knowledge and could not answer my actual questions that apply to how I would envision using this software in my practice. I gave up as my time is worth more than chasing after a product.
Also, was not thrilled with all the Online as that presupposes we are all in Great Internet Service area… which in NB is not the case.
I love our little forum and although some basic questions pop in from students or DIYs… most questions, comments and topics are very helpful.
Would hope Zero would consider two forums… one for professionals and a New one for the consumers.
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I checked out Xero compared against QBO and could not find any place where I thoght I or my clients would benefit from a switch.