ATX -- Unlimited W-2/1099

ATX produces several professional tax preparation packages, including Unlimited W-2/1099, a year-end information return package that provides support for all 1099s and W-forms, as well as 940, 941, 5498 and other forms.

Electronic filing of W-2s and 1099s is included in the software price, and the company offers an optional service bureau called ClickSend through which ATX handles reporting, printing and distribution of forms. New for this year, the company has included a payroll application with the software. Unlimited W-2/1099 costs $110 for a single user or $165 for a multi-user license. The program is also available in most of ATX’s tax bundles.

Usability/Navigation – 5 Stars

All of ATX’s programs open to a well-designed interface that provides intuitive icons and pull-down menus, as well as informational components on-screen. The program’s initial interface is the Return Manager, which provides a list of clients that is sortable and filterable by vari-ous methods. Within a specific client, the program provides a similar spreadsheet interface that provides a sortable list of all W-2/1099 recipients. Data entry for Unlimited W-2/1099 is performed on form replicas, which should assist new users in growing accustomed to the interface. The company’s other tax software also provide an interview method of entry.

Unlimited W-2/1099 automatically performs calculations for FICA withholding, whether entering data manually or through import, and allows users to convert to a form W-3 or W-3C. When working on a new client/employer, employer data is entered first, followed by employee data for that client. All forms and data are saved in a single directory for each client, which makes locating and working on files generally pretty simple. Throughout the process, the program provides assorted tabs that provide access to switching to/from form view and accessing various components of the program. These tabs can be customized, and users can create custom templates to speed up their data-entry tasks. An automatic error checking system helps identify incorrect data entries.

Reporting & Import/Export Capabilities- 4.5 Stars

Unlimited W-2/1099 allows importing of existing information from Peachtree and QuickBooks, and can extract data from (and save to) Excel format. The program supports printing to plain paper or preformatted forms and includes all state payroll forms, as well as the following federal forms: W-2, W-2G, W-2C, W-3, 1096, 1098, 1098-E, 1098-T, 1099-A, 1099-B, 1099-C, 1099-DIV, 1099-G, 1099-INT, 1099-LTC, 1099-MISC, 1099-MSA, 1099-OID, 1099-PATR, 1099-R, 1099-S, 4419, 4802, 4804, 8027, 8027-T, 8809, 5498, 5498-MSA, 940, 940-EZ, 941, 941-C, 941-M, 941-SS, 941-V, Sch B (941), 943, 943-A, 945, 945-A, 2848, 8274, 843 and 9041.

Support for Paperless Transmission- 5 Stars

ATX includes unlimited e-filing with the software, as well as support for magnetic and disk filing. The company also offers its ClickSend service for an additional fee, which takes a lot of the paper and mail-intensive components out of offering payroll and year-end information return services.

Help/Training – 4.5 Stars

Unlimited W-2/1099 and ATX’s other programs offer a built-in Help utility that includes official and line-by-line instructions as well as tutorials and a virtual tutor. The company also offers web-based technical support and a web-based user community through which users can find solutions to “real life” problems. While the company doesn’t offer traditional on-site or seminar-based training, the user interface is friendly enough that few users should need such training. A video and manual are also available. Program updates can be downloaded from the ATX web site.

Relative Value- 5 Stars

In Unlimited W-2/1099, ATX provides an exceptionally easy-to-use program that offers support for most common information and employment returns, in addition to no-cost e-filing. Additional import capabilities would strengthen the program since data entry is where the most time is spent, but the ability to map from Excel spreadsheets should mitigate this somewhat since most payroll and AP programs allow export to Excel. Unlimited W-2/1099’s price point should be attractive to all potential users, but the program is best suited to firms representing mid-sized and smaller clients.

2004 OVERALL RATING: 5

For this review section, we scored
the reviewed products on the following:

Usability/Navigation, which covers ease-of-use; number of clients and form recipients; primary navigation tools; and general operation of the program, including data entry.

Reporting & Import/Export Capabilities focuses on managerial tasks, printing functions and data transfer between the program
and spreadsheets and other applications
such as payroll and AP modules.

Support for Paperless Transmission. With increasing state and federal requirements for magnetic or electronic transmission of W-2s and 1099s, as well as the cost and timesaving benefits of minimizing printing, we considered the capabilities of these programs to perform paperless transmission of year-end returns.

Help/Training looks at built-in help utilities such as right-click menus and tutorials,
external help tools such as online
support centers and functionality,
as well as productivity tools and
training options.

Relative Value provides the reviewer’s subjective opinion of what the user gets for the price. There is some variance in the pricing of the programs in this review, but it is not very wide. Value, of course, is not exclusively related to cost. However, sometimes the best deal is not the cheapest, and sometimes the most expensive option does not provide the best function.

The Overall Rating represents a comprehensive view of how a product scored in the above
categories, and is the average of
those scores rounded to the nearest
half-star.