Upgrading to Lacerte

[jo1]

I'm considering upgrading from Proseries (professional) to Lacerte and am wondering if anyone out there has done this recently and what they experienced?  is it worth the extra money?  Proseries has multiple technical difficulties .

[TaxGuyBill]

I've never used Lacerte, but here are my thoughts:

It is a HUGE "learning curve" to switch from ProSeries to Lacerte.  If I were to want to use different software and deal with a learning curve, there is NO WAY I would use another software from Intuit.  I would use another company.

[itonewbie]

You can download Lacerte for a free trial.

https://proconnect.intuit.com/tax/lacerte/mobile-trial/

[itonewbie]

Every software has its strengths and weaknesses.  It all depends on the types of returns you prepare and your preference for the way input is made.

[jo1]

Do you use Lacerte and were there stability issues with it over the last few years?  My biggest gripe with Proseries was the continual issues with the inaccuracies with the forms and the delay (extreme delay) in getting the forms where you could print and send to a client.  We were almost at the March 15th deadline before I could fully use the QBI this last year.  Lacerte, in the past, was a more robust software, I'm wondering if it is still the same or are there technical issues with Lacerte that created delays like it did with Proseries.

[User FIDO 61]

I cannot speak to delays in the approval of Draft forms. However, I have been using / administering Lacerte far longer than I care to remember. I processed Batch Data Entry with the pre-Windows versions.

Compounded with the change to Windows 10, this year has been one of the most glitch riddled. Issues specific to Windows 10 were as if Intuit was in denial the Operating System had been in circulation since July 2015. Lacerte 2019 has me chasing down more "internal" issues than previously. Silly little files in the undocumented bowels of Intuit that can be deleted and recreated to alleviate configuration issues. Odd Options file renaming for when the program does not display on users’ screens. Wait until you experience when one user on the network updates a client, makes a change and then another looks afterwards to see the change -- and it’s not there!

That said. Learning curve cannot be taken too lightly. My firm uses Thomson Reuters Tax & Accounting's Ultra Tax specifically for Corporate tax returns. It locks into our Thomson applications (Accounting, Fixed Assets) and imports data. Lacerte is used for individuals, fiduciary, estate, and gift. Firm tried an early version of Ultra Tax, CCH Pro Series Fx (something?) for individuals, and never got over it. We've been dual application preparing since. Thomson renewals, Per-Return cost and support are expensive.* And their User Interface is less friendly / intuitive than Lacerte. (*not that Lacerte is cheap. Also, if you're shopping for a Cloud Hosted solution - Thomson is not expensive - it's outrageous!)

Maybe hindsight, but up until around 2015, 2016 Lacerte never really took a toll on me, especially not like it has and continues to for 2019.

[Dependable]

I went the other way.  Lacerte for 20 years to Pro Series.  Took a while to get comfortable but depending on number of returns and difficulty wasn't huge difference for returns.  I kept Lacerte for some complicated returns by REP. and businesses (same price by REP)