Drake SoftwareReviews of drakesoftware.com

This year you removed the proforma's from your software and then fixed the organizers so that they don't work for the business returns. I need the performa's back please.

Phone service representative was clearly not familiar with the software and was not adequately trained. The software itself has shortcomings that should be basic components, as opposed to being items that need to be manually determined. The software was unable to create safe harbor estimates and the rep told me that it had to be done manually. He suggested using their feedback link to suggest an enhancement for future use, but that itself didnt work well.

I have been a Drake customer for 10+ years and have become increasingly disappointed in the declining quality of customer support. Agents are obviously less experienced over the past couple of years, can rarely address your question and regularly ask to call you back with an answer only to never hear from them again. The quality of the support has fallen so much that i am seriously considering switching to another tax preparation software.

We've been using Drake Software for the last 10 years now and have always been very pleased with the accuracy, ease of use, and vast options the company has given us. The tax planner is helpful for clients to prepare for the next year or give them several scenarios for making decisions.

First I have to start off by noting that the end of season survey that was supposed to be available until 5/31/2023 is already unavailable on 5/30/2023 so Drake is not holding true to date promises which is disappointing since I intentionally tried to take that time to compile a thoughtful review. Moving on, I have 7 areas I found where Drake could use some additional development and improvement in their Tax software and related products and services. 1. The Drake Portals or Secure File Pro app is in need of a preparer interface. At a minimum that interface would allow preparers to message with clients with the next desired feature being the ability to access client account set-up and finally showing a listing of documents uploaded even if there is no ability to open or review the documents would be nice. 2. Drake e-Sign pricing needs to become more competitive with other products in the market. For this past filing season it was over-priced compared with the competition and it lacked the option for an unlimited signature event package. 3. The Pay-Per-Return package should allow for the SSN on a return to be updated or modified as this is allowed in the unlimited package. The disallowance of this function simply appears to be used to incentivize preparers to purchase the unlimited package or force preparers to collect payment before services are rendered or incur extra unnecessary costs from clients who decide not to file through the preparer. The fact that the function exists in unlimited packages shows there's no tax authority or data restriction and it's cruel to force preparers into such business operation decisions. 4. Drake Tax could use to incorporate the ability to store payment information in the Pay-Per-Return software to expedite the ability to purchase more returns. Alternatively, Drake could offer a consolidated location for product purchasing as discussed in the next point. 5. For this past season purchasing software, e-sign events, and other options was available in the account website while the Pay-Per-Return software required return purchasing to be done from inside the software. Payment information can be stored in the account website for an expedited purchasing experience while the software is not able to store that information as noted previously. This inconsistency and separated purchasing location is an unnecessary inconvenience and delay for tax preparers and administrators. 6. Perhaps this point is due to my inexperience with the offerings during my first year having my own subscription to the Tax software but it seems help resources lack clarity on when they involve communication with a person compared to searching published materials. It would be nice to have some indication to know when entering a help resource if you'll be connected to a person by entering that resource. 7. Finally malfunctions and bugs in the Tax software should not require a phone call to be reported to the appropriate team. Early in this past season I identified what turned out to be an issue in the software causing a diagnostic error in filing the AZ S-corp return because the software was incorrectly pulling a formatted phone number to a field in the AZ return. While identifying this issue to a chat representative I was told I had to call the support team to get the issue reported as a bug or malfunction because the chat support I was told the chat support team was not allowed to make that report. When I did call the support team, there was nothing more to be done by the phone support representative other than making the report to notify the appropriate team. This lack of permissions for the chat representatives causes an unnecessary delay in getting attention to issues in the software and may even result in some issues never getting reported. I understand there may be a need for representatives to have a requisite skill level for reporting software issues to be resolved but this can still be done through the chat support with the use of escalation within the chat support team. I'm hopeful to see improvement in at least a few of these areas before the next filing season begins as I've already purchased my subscription for next year.

I cant import data by uploading W2 or 1099 forms. Had an issue with Drake not allowing me to efile return I had already paid for, now that is fixed but I can no longer print anything. Drake acts like it is going thru the process of creating a pdf but nothing ever shows up. We think we will be using other software for TY2023

For the money, Drake Tax provides value more than many competitors. The asset manager is quite good, and the onboard document manager is handy. But for a variety of things, the software does not report things correctly without preparer oversight and adjustment (things that other tax prep platforms catch automatically). Historically, Drake has enjoyed a good reputation for product support about such issues which is why I tried it. They answer the phone, which is great. But for the few issues I have contacted Drake about, I hardly ever received a callback in response (I did get a bit irate in the one callback they did make, but they completely frustrated me at the time). They called me every day for a year and half to try to sell me the product, but aren't particularly interested if something may not be reporting correctly. I may keep a copy for occasional testing and use, but they certainly have created no loyalty to the product on my part.

I am concerned about the dramatic increase in Drake PPR pricing. For years, the initial price was $300 which included 15 returns with additional returns costing $20 each. Two years ago, the price increased to $330 for 15 returns with additional returns costing $22 each. This year, 2022, the price increased again to $345 for TEN returns with additional returns costing $29.99 each. The first ten returns’ cost of $34.50 each represents a 57% increase over last year. For next year, 2023, business returns, everything but 1040s and their derivatives, will be $44.95 per return, a more than double the per return price from two years ago. I, too, am looking at alternatives. It appears that Drake only wants to sell their unlimited package and that they had fundamentally changed their approach to small producers. I have had no problem with the software or support, but there is a limit to what small firms can stand in huge price increases two years in a row.