BNA Tax Management

USING THE PROGRAM
BNA Tax Management opens into the user’s browser in an intuitive format that provides a clean (easy to read) vertical menu on the left, and the main menu providing links to some of the primary features of the application, including Daily Tax Reports, the Federal/Foreign Tax Library and the State Tax Library. Both libraries are further broken down into subsections that allow users to jump to specific areas, such as analysis, news, primary sources, practice tools or other options. Some of these categories are broken down further when the cursor is hovered over the section, providing access to very specific areas of the research libraries. The left-hand menu of the main window provides shortcuts to a Year-End Client Letter template, the Daily Tax Report and Tax Research Libraries, a user’s guide and other utilities, as well as a pull-down selection menu for signing up to receive daily or weekly Tax Reports and highlights by e-mail. The library shortcuts in the center of the screen and on the left are designed to give access to whole documents or subsections, allowing users to look up reference areas. Searching is also available through shortcuts that appear at the top of the screen and are always present throughout use of the program, giving users multiple methods to find what they’re looking for. An Index function is also available at the top of the screen, which provides an alphabetical index of each of the research library sections.

The search utility window depends on the access point – if a user is looking through the Internal Revenue Code and then selects Search, the utility defaults to a word search option offering other search options as well. If the user selects the search function from any of the main Library menus, he or she must also select the documents to search. Main categories within the Federal/Foreign library include the following: Primary Sources; Expert Analysis; News and Developments; and Journals, Reports, Commentary and Practice Tools. Primary sources include IR Code, Federal Regulations, IRS Information and Documents, Federal Tax Cases, Legislation and Tax Treaties. The Tax Library allows searching as many areas as wanted or all documents and libraries within the system. When searches are returned, users can select document or table of content views, and shortcuts let users move back and forward between hits and document pages. The system allows exporting and printing of retrieved documents by clicking on the first, highlighted letter of the title of a returned document. The three most recent search results are always available.

The Daily Tax Report opens in a separate window, which allows users to continue on search tasks while opening the Report, which provides news brief highlights of tax issues in a searchable and indexed format. A menu on the left provides a table of contents, as well as the ability to move between specific areas of the Report.
The Raleigh, North Carolina, firm of Pinna, Johnston & Burwell has used BNA’s online Tax Library for about two years and has used some form of BNA product (paper or CD) for about 25 years, said partner Brodie Burwell. The firm, which primarily handles estate law, trusts and foundations, has 12 legal and financial professionals and six support staff, all of whom use the program for various tasks. “We trust the analysis, and we’ve found that they do a better job for us than other programs we’ve looked at.” Mr. Burwell noted the detailed footnotes and topical breakdown of the material. “It makes it easier to find what you’re looking for and easier to train new users,” he said. “But when we need a little extra help, we’ve always had a good experience with our local service representative and with BNA’s toll-free support staff.”

SUMMARY
The depth of BNA Tax Management’s libraries is exceptional, as is the expert analysis that is provided by tax attorneys, educators and accounting professionals, and both lend themselves to the success and longevity of the company itself. The application is as easy to use as a web browser, but offers features such as e-mail briefs that enhance the product and make it a value-adding component of a tax firm that needs broad tax expertise on its staff. BNA Tax Management libraries start at a base price of $763. Trial versions are available at the company’s web site.

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