1099 Express — 1099 Express Enterprise 2008

From the Oct. 2008 Review of
W-2/1099 Compliance Programs

The name of 1099 Express fairly well sums up the primary purpose of the system,
which is designed for generating year-end 1099s, 1098s and form 5498. An optional
add-on to the system, W-2 Express, is offered to provide wage reporting functions.
Both allow paper or electronic format filing to the IRS and SSA. The core components
of the system are intended for use by professional accountants who may offer
after-the-fact payroll or year-end compliance services to clients who otherwise
manage their own payroll processing. The system offers import from major small
business accounting systems.

Additional offerings from the company include 1042-S Express as well as a service
bureau option through which all processes are managed by the vendor. 1099 Express
Enterprise costs $199, W-2 Express is $149; renewals for each are priced at
$95.

Usability/Navigation – 4.5 Stars
For spreadsheet lovers, the primary interface for both 1099 Express and W-2
Express will be manna, providing a quick view of all previously entered forms
for a particular client business, opening automatically to the last company
used. This view doubles as the selection screen, allowing sorting by form type
as well as by each of the form lines, such as name, SSN or any other field,
including box data. The program also offers icons and menus for other functions
such as calculation tools, spell checking, search features and Help options.

Data entry, whether creating a new form or editing an existing one, is easily
performed on well-designed form replicas, with payer/employer data pre-populated
and form fields navigable using either the tab key or the mouse. Users simply
select the appropriate form from one of the tabs, select the New icon, and immediately
start entering information. On W-2s, federal withholding and FICA amounts can
be set to automatically calculate. Data can also be copied and pasted from Excel,
or 1099s can be imported from QuickBooks, Peachtree and other programs. 1099
Express supports an unlimited number of client employers and employees/payees
per company. It supports all forms in the 1099 series, including 1098, 1098-C
and W-2g.

The program includes a link to the IRS FIRE system for submitting and checking
on the progress of files. As an alternative to the IRS’ Bulk TIN Matching
program, which can take months and requires security clearance, 1099 Express
offers the option of managing this process directly, helping to ensure against
mismatched SSNs and names, whether through accidental typos or deception. In
turn, this can help reduce potential penalties. An audit trail is also available,
recording all data changes.

Reporting & Import/Export Capabilities – 4 Stars
As previously noted, 1099 Express offers copy and paste capabilities to move
data from Excel. It also offers import options to pull in 1099 and W-2 data
from QuickBooks, Peachtree, Microsoft Access and other file formats. Since it
is spreadsheet-based, users can also use the copy and paste method to transfer
data to Excel, Access and other formats. Forms can be printed to regular paper
stock with envelopes printing to traditional formats.

Support for Paperless Transmission – 4 Stars
The 1099 Express system, and its sister product W-2 Express, both provide electronic
filing options, most notably through built-in links to the IRS and SSA online
filing systems, both of which include tracking of submitted files.

Help/Support – 4 Stars
Tech support is included free, while sample data files aid in familiarization
with the program, and a familiar Help utility provides an index and how-to functions.
The system is only offered via download from the vendor’s website, as
are program updates.

2008 Overall Rating: 4 Stars