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1.5

I thought it would be worthwhile to the rest of the world to share our experience with Drake Software as we tried to switch from Pro Series for the 2014 tax season.

We went to a seminar where Drake was presented to us and mainly based on the price difference, we chose to give Drake a try. Here is what we found:

Drake has been in business since 1977 and claims they have only updated their pricing plan one time since then. We quickly found out how that was possible. The interface of Drake remains in 1977. It is not user friendly and definitely makes you think, "you get what you pay for". On one hand, I may be a little biased because we were trying to switch from the expensive, but overall impressive, Pro Series. On the other hand, I worked in the tech industry for a few years and use technology every day and what they are offering is not up to par.

Drake is proud of its speed. I found that the only thing that they have footing on with speed is the software startup time. Sure it boots fast, but once you are actually using the program, the redundancies and ways of operation make it much slower in the long run. Why should I have to click a button to calculate the impact of the number I just input?

For example: After entering a number for wages or something on a 1099-MISC, you have to switch to the form mode in order to see what actually was reported and the impact on the refund/taxes due. It is surprisingly easy to duplicate information and not even know where to go in order to remove the duplication. You have no clue where the numbers reflected on the 1040 are even coming from unless you put them in yourself. This may not be an issue for others, but we have a larger practice where our front office inputs the data and the CPAs do the analysis/review. Pro Series is integrated with quickzooms everywhere and makes calculations as soon as the numbers are input. Given the choice, I would much rather take the slower boot time and fast everything time of Pro Series over the opposite, which is found with Drake.

Another thing that Drake is proud of is their quick response time with customer care. I actually found this to be true, because I had to call them all the time asking how to do things and to figure out items with the "ripping stitches" transition. They answered very promptly, but there was a vast spread of knowledge in their support staff. Talk to one person and they say you can't do something, call right back and a different person will tell you you can. Crazy.

So we gave Drake an honest effort and filed some tax returns (like anyone would) before deciding we would stick with Pro Series. I was given the task of telling Drake about our choice and found out quickly that they weren't going to give our money back in full. I eventually got in contact with one of the VPs and he said that we were not entitled to a full refund because we had filed some tax returns... "What?! You mean that because we put forth an honest effort in trying to use your software, we are penalized and not longer can get our money back?" "Yep. We have a policy..."

Unreal.

Moral of the story is, don't switch to Drake. Even if the price appeals to you, there are other options in the same price range and granted I haven't tried any of them, I can assure you that they are better than Drake. If you do choose Drake after all, I really hope you like them, because your money is now theirs and they won't give it back!

Thanks and I hope this helps.

Reason of review: Bad quality.

Drake Software Cons: It did not meet my needs, Customer service gives conflicting information.

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Guest

Terrible review. I have used Drake and Pro Series extensively.

Drake is far superior at an extremely less price. It is different than Pro Series, but using it to prepare a few returns and give it that judgement is poor.

If you use any prep software extensively and then prep a few on another software package you are always going to be disappointed in what the new one doesn't have. The state and local integration make Drake a superior product to any tax software I have ever seen.

Guest

If you don't know what you're doing and basically need a software to tell you to do your job, then Drake isn't for you. However, if you are a legitimate tax professional, educated and credentialed, you know exactly which forms the information was required for.

Drake is for professionals, not people who are unqualified to be offering tax services. Cheers.

If you're a font office preparer, don't worry about it, just enter the data. If you're a CPA, well, you know what you're doing and non of this person's opinions are really relevant.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1973091

So true I think they are uneducated people trying to save money and how good are your cpas if cant fix lol

Guest

Pro Series and Drake are very different programs. I have used both, but found Drake has MUCH better customer service, plus their software is available much earlier than Pro Series.

I lost a customer using Pro Series because they made the business returns available im about a month from the time they were due. This made the customer wait.

Shontia Vxh

I have been using Drake for years, and it is very user friendly. This software is only a tool.

You should have full knowledge of what forms you need.

Looks as though you are expecting Drake to do the return for you. If you are a tax professional; you will know what to do.

Guest

If you are a tax professional and understand taxes Drake is a great product. If you do not understand taxes you might need a simpler system with pictures and natural language. I have tried multiple tax programs and Drake is for the professional not the untrained monkey looking for simplicity.

Guest
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1674111

See my comment above. Seems we agree on that. Drake is not for the untrained monkey indeed.

Guest

Drake is far better than ProSeries. I dumped pro-series

MikeBlockCPA
reply icon Replying to comment of Guest-1673412

I dumped ProSeries & ATX (I was on both Advisory Councils), plus TurboTax and UltraTax. I am far happier with Drake.

Extensive NY CPA Journal user reviews placed Drake first in user satisfaction every year except once in the last 10 years. That time they narrowly lost to UltraTax, which costs around 10 times as much.

Guest

I made the Mistake as you did The price seemed great and ability to do both individual and other returns seemed great until I actually was trying to do the return with my client present as is my norm for a simple 1040A that would normally be an EZ if they didn't have investment income....input was difficult, you had to search for errors referenced not at all like ProSeries which provides hyperlinks to errors....The State software accompanying maybe the correct forms but it doesn't have simplicity I have to agree this Software reverts back to 1977...or 1980 I think it could be DOS not being able to see the form until print preview puts me on edge because seeing as you go allows you to ensure you've got everything before filing... I give this Software two thumbs down and strongly suggest that you steer clear of this software even at $400 this software in my mind isn't worth even $100 given the unuser friendly qualities... Save your self from Stress and a migraine and don't buy Drake Software!!!!

Tyrel Pea

They fixed the linkback issue right after your complaint for 2015. Now it's very easy to not double enter anything and you can see exactly where the info was added from and from what sources that line was calculated from.

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