Just out of curiosity.
I have an IMac with 2 operating systems: Windows 10 and MacOs Sierra. Of course, to work with Taxcycle, I have to boot with my Windows disk partition but for everything else including spreadsheets, word processing etc… I much prefer my MacOsx system.
Since Taxcycle is only available as a Windows based program, at least so far, how many firms/individuals would feel just as comfortable on MacOS based Taxcycle software if available?
Food for thought.
no thank you
Not interested either.
No thank you. Exclusively Windows here.
Thanks so much for your comments. As an add-on could you specify if you have any experience with a MacOSX operating system.
From personal observation, I see more and more offices (doctors, designers, construction planning, sales, etc…) switching over to Apple hardware from watches and phones to top of the line IMac Pro.
As for myself, I would be just ecstatic to get rid of my Windows hard disk altogether.
Again strictly out of curiosity.
We are Windows based and all of our clients use Windows based software. We are not seeing what you are seeing. In fact it is the other way around for us. A few of our clients once had business/accounting software running on Apple machines, but they have since moved to Windows.
It has never made much sense to me to go through the extra processing to run Windows software on a Mac, and there is not enough business/accounting software available to run Mac only.
I used Mac up to version 6, but have switched over to Windows since 1990. While the Mac has its uses, the accounting/bookkeeping/tax side is not as robust. When/If the systems switch over to cloud-based environments, I can see that people will become less OS centrix, but at this point, we have not achieved that with the core products.
I have use windows all my life right now I am one of the beta tester for windows 10 all my machine in the office are using the beta software. All my clients have window based units
I have owned a couple macs over the years and have no issue with them. My practice uses more than just Taxcycle that needs windows to run so there is little point in my purchasing a MAC compatible version of it.
As for clients switching to apple iMacs, I have not seen a lot of it since the majority of clients need software that is not available on the iMac
So from what I gather from your comments here, the issue is mainly professional accounting/tax software availability for Mac systems and I agree. I’ve tried some Mac tax software but they pale in comparison to Taxcycle, although as TimParris pointed out, cloud based accounting software are definitely making progress. Experimented a bit with one of them and it seems to integrate well with other Mac programs, i.e. Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat etc… but … still have to switch to Windows system for Taxcycle.
As for business>clients integration/communication, all documents sent and received, i.e. spreadsheets, pdf docs etc… can be opened/modified/saved just as well on either systems.
To sort “justify” my Mac preference, one of my life passion is music/video creation/editing … my sidekick whenever I have free time. For that, nothing compares to MacOsX, bar none.
My objective for this “survey” was not to convert anybody but rather to have a “feel” of your opinions on the subject.
Would be interesting though to dabble with a cloud based Taxcycle program.
Could be Cameron’s next pet project…
As I’m sure we all have better things to do at this time of year, I guess we could put this conversation on the back burner for a while … thanks again for your feedback … happy tax season!
Myself, I have no interest in Mac whatsoever. Hear they make good hardware though.
On the cloud issue, while I am not opposed to having a cloud based program, in my world that would ALWAYS have to be side by side a desktop based program, and more importantly yet, the data would have to reside on MY computer system.
This not only from a security point of view, while that is important, but mainly because internet is not always available. It does drop out, sometimes at the most inopportune moments, and that while I have my high speed internet backed up with a cellular alternative…
I use a mac book pro as my work station. I also have a remote desktop server in my system running windows based software that I need in my accounting office. I do see some client migrating to mac machine as work stations. I am getting numbers files instead of excel files so my setup does give me lots of flexibility. A mac version would be interesting but my experience says that it will have to be a cloud version and I’m not convinced I like that thought.
I’d echo most of the sentiments above - I think accounting and tax software is quite windows-centric and wouldn’t be interested in a Mac version of any software we use at this point.
In our entire client base there’s only one client I’m aware of that runs MacOS specific accounting software that we have issues dealing with. Even then we’re able to get a hold of excel compatible exports so it doesn’t present much of an issue.
I also wonder how long MacOS will continue to be a development focus for Apple. I keep reading more articles like this one which indicate Apple is devoting almost all of their resources to the higher margin iOS lineup: MacOS is becoming legacy software.
Apple also made some odd choices with their new Macbook Pros that seem to indicate they’re focusing more on average consumers vs. professionals, even in their MacOS Pro offerings. I saw quite a few articles like this when the new Pros were recently debuted: Developers and creative pros are blasting Apple’s new MacBook Pro.
I’d be hesitant to get into the MacOS ecosystem with these developments occurring.
I converted to OX (using Parallels) some years ago as I became tired of the time required to ‘upkeep’ Windows running smoothly. As a small office, my time is better spent in productivity rather than as an IT guy. I have little issue with my clients communications. Perhaps clients of those offices who ‘don’t see their clients using MAC’ have little other choice to deal with them in Windows format?
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@robent, I operate my practice in my home-based office and strictly fly solo; after decades of dealing with major firms/teams and watching my health in a steady decline, I decided to retire from the rat race.
I started my own business with an objective in mind: quality over quantity. It took some time and relative efforts to build my clientele but it paid off.
Most of my new clients (including a fair number of those who migrated from my previous workplace) were amazed that they could actually sit down, have a coffee and talk about their business projects/expectations, family and life in general.
As their repeat business, year after year, will attest, I think we all found comfort and loyalty in each other.
I did have some requests to form partnerships but for me, solo is the keyword.
So obviously, my office requirements are on a much smaller scale than bigger firms and I understand and respect their choices and needs.
All I know is that I have 2 Macs operating full time, never had any problems with file transfers/client’s communication and one Windows 10 based Toshiba laptop gathering dust in a corner.
The everlasting Windows vs. Apple tug-of-war is, and will remain under constant scrutiny from critics and so-called “experts” from each side, preaching the gospel of imminent doomsday for the opposite clan.
We could compare this to the old Japanese vs. American car argument still ongoing today; it’s a matter of preference and loyalty but then again … who would’ve ever dared to believe that one day, Asian-built car companies would dominate the American/Canadian market…
I’m just happy and relieved to see my health chart on the positive side again!
We have a Windows environment out of necessity. We’ve changed our bookkeeping to web based software 100% a year and a half ago. It would be nice if software like TaxCycle could follow suit in order to be available on multiple platforms.
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I’ve been using a Mac in my practice since starting up over six years ago, and love it…I use VMWare to operate windows only based programs, such as Sage and Caseware (and of course TaxCycle and DoxCycle), but the switch between operating systems is seamless. It’s great for many non-accounting type things I use my computer for, and nice to be able to also relate to the Mac side of things for the half dozen or so clients I have that use one. I understand that there probably wouldn’t be a lot of interest in a Mac based version of TaxCycle, as most accounting and bookkeeping software is entrenched in being Windows based, but for what it’s worth, I do really like my Mac (and my iPhone!) so would switch over to a Mac based version of TaxCycle in a heartbeat if it ever magically appeared
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Quick comment. This office uses the mac os with parallels (we started with ver 1.0).
All of the web browsing, calendar, email, practise management and office tools reside on the mac side.
All of our professional tools - bookkeeping, filework and tax tools reside inside win 10 (I still really miss xp) parallels.
Our IT issues have been greatly minimized along with seeing some major productivity gains.
With the current movement afoot for software to be delivered as a service via the internet I am not really sure why this is even a discussion.
I suppose that because of the nature of services we provide, security is an everyday concern (and it should be) for all of us. Transmission/reception/storage of extremely sensitive/personal documents in a foolproof secure environment is of prime importance.
I understand the hesitation toward cloud based software and storage but realistically speaking, if I can’t trust Apple ICloud or Windows One Drive or E-Courier or online banking … we are all in a boatload of trouble.
Fundamentally I agree with what you are saying, but I think it is very important in your comment that trusting cloud based providers should be based on whether or not they have a “backdoor”, in other-words can the service provider unlock your data stored on their servers (Note:e-courier does not have a backdoor), this is the most important question that any accountant should be asking. American service providers for the most part have a backdoor and I personally would not store sensitive data with any American company.
I hope this helps.
Sincerely,
Eric C. Gold | CEO & Founder | http://e-courier.ca | Vancouver, B.C.
Toll Free +1.866.610.4631 | Direct +604.261.4631
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