BNA Tax Management — Tax Management Library

EASE-OF-USE/ SEARCH ROUTINE — 5 Stars
The Tax Management Library is accessed through the Window’s web browser
(running Internet Explorer or Netscape). The main interface (Home) screen includes
three individual Libraries: the Federal/Foreign Tax Library, the State Tax Library,
and the Accounting Policy and Practice Library. Individual libraries are separated
into categories (or areas) such as Expert Analysis, News and Developments, Journal
Reports and Commentary, Primary Source, and Practice Tools.

Within each of these categories, sub-categories are listed and include text
links directly to coverage. For example, Primary Sources under the Federal/Foreign
Tax Library includes the Internal Revenue Code, Treasury Regulations, Federal
Tax Cases and Circular 230, to name a few. Expert Analysis includes the various
Portfolios and the Tax Practice Series. This main interface screen is intuitive,
simple to learn and easy to navigate. BNA Tax Management’s home screen
also includes a vertical navigation menu area to the left of the categories
that provides access to the various libraries, the Daily Tax Report, a tour
of the library, Help, the user’s guide and other miscellaneous sections.
At the top of the vertical menu is a toolbar that includes Search, Index and
GoTo buttons, all of which provide a separate means to access library information.

The search function is very intuitive and easy to master. When inside a library,
users may utilize the search function defaults to perform a basic word search,
access data via Global Search or conduct detailed queries through a Special
Search that narrows the search to specific sections of documents. When not inside
an individual library, users are presented with a blank search bar to enter
a word or phrase as well as a search menu that consists of the main interface
screen populated with check boxes. Users can select all documents if they wish
to select everything for their search. The GoTo function provides a specific
query function that enables users to go directly to a specific code section,
regulation, court decision, citation, IRS Publication or specific portfolio.
This is very direct! Tax Management Library search results show the areas searched
along with the number of hits, providing access to the table of contents for
a given search source as well as direct access to the selected document. The
search queries are highlighted throughout selected documents, including the
site and support links that may be selected via a simple click from within each
document.

CONTENT — 5 Stars
The Tax Management Library provides comprehensive coverage, including full text
of the federal tax code, all state tax codes, income tax regulations, IRS publications
and documents, the full text of federal cases since 1913, tax court opinions
since 1942, tax treaties, legislation, and final, temporary and proposed regulations.
In addition to these resources, the program includes more than 400 individual
portfolios and approximately 300 tax practice chapters. The Tax Management Library
Portfolios are authored by more than 1,000 tax and legal practitioners and scholars.

Tax Management Library’s Daily Tax Report provides an online news source
that is tailored to tax concerns and provides detailed coverage of legislative,
regulatory and legal developments with specialized sections on taxation, budget
and accounting, state taxes, and tax rulings and decisions. The Daily Tax Report
can be delivered via e-mail or accessed through the BNA Tax Management research
program. It also includes weekly federal and state reports. The Daily Tax Report
links to TaxCore, an optional associated product that provides linked access
to hundreds of full-text tax-related reports, statements, transcripts, memos,
rulings and other documents issued by Congress, the IRS and other governmental
and private-sector sources. BNA Tax Management’s research system also
provides numerous practice tools, including a comprehensive collection of self-calculating
forms (BNA owns SuperForm), sample tax plans and client letter templates. It
also provides the user with the ability to receive Journal highlights via e-mail
with linked summaries of articles.

CUSTOMIZATION — 4 Stars
The program is limited in its query saving capabilities, as it saves only the
last three searches that have been performed. It does not allow bookmarking
of returned documents, and there is no support for user-defined automatic searching
or filtering. Similarly, the interface provides users with very few customization
options.

INTEGRATION/OUTPUT — 3 Stars
As mentioned earlier, Tax Management Library includes the SuperForm comprehensive
interactive tax forms. However, the interactive tax forms do not directly integrate
or link to any third-party tax preparation systems. Tax Management Library users
can copy and paste materials into other documents, and the system offers a variety
of print options, including previewing, outputting or saving the document into
*.RTF or ASCII formats, or linking/printing to a Microsoft Word document.

HELP, SUPPORT & UPDATES — 4.5 Stars
Tax Management Library includes very comprehensive built-in Help features, something
that is often lacking in online systems. The Help function includes a fully
searchable Help index, glossary, and specific pointers about common tasks such
as searching, printing and using forms. The program’s (left-hand) vertical
navigation includes a user’s guide and a tour of the product. As an online
system, changes made by BNA Tax Management staff are constantly maintained and
instantly updated so no user action is required.

2007 Overall Rating: 4.5 Stars