itonewbie
Level 15
‎10-23-2020 06:46 PM

Someone asked the same question in the FB group recently.  Not sure if it's you but I'll repeat what I said there in case it helps anyone.

The biggest difference would be adjusting to an input-sheet-driven program since ProSeries is largely form-based. ProConnect Tax is a very capable tax software since it is drive by Lacerte's engine. However, it lags far behind both ProSeries and Lacerte when it comes to features. So, don't expect database functionality or even return packaging you take for granted in ProSeries.
 
For me, having Lacerte under the hood is a big plus because being able to handle international and complex returns is important to us. Having it in the cloud without needing to worry about data loss and knowing data security is taken care of is icing on the cake. I have seen some complaints about speed but we are based overseas and (touch wood) never had a problem with the program's responsiveness.
 
The biggest pain points for us are as follows:
  • Lack of online review functions;
  • Only basic return printing function without packaging options (which require costly manual processing offline); and
  • Inability to lock returns once complete.
For those who have larger teams, the lack of dynamic access control in ProConnect Tax may be a challenge.
 

Two more points, which are VERY important. ProConnect Tax doesn't offer proforma organizers. We've learned to live with it and use our own electronic organizers without proforma data but it's definitely less than ideal. If they would offer a way to export and bridge the data, we'd be happy to build our own. Also, if you ever switch tax software, there's no guarantee that you will be able to export the data for conversion because it's not part of the built-in functionality or T&C. Under Boris Shmukler, the Product Manager, he had offered to export data manually on an ad-hoc basis but who knows what tomorrow would bring.

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Still an AllStar