CCH Small Firm Services president Jeff Gramlich has resigned from his post in the wake of problems earlier this tax season with the company's ATX tax preparation software. Former Wolters Kluwer Financial & Compliance Services vice president and general manager Jason Marx will step into the role.
Jeff Gramlich
Gramlich had been at the helm of CCH SFS since it formed in 2006 with the acquisitions of ATX/Kleinrock and UTS/TaxWise.
Wolters Kluwer Tax & Accounting chief executive Kevin Robert recently informed the staff of Gramlich's resignation and subsequent appointment of Marx as the new CCH SFS president.
In the email, Robert thanked Gramlich for his service and extended his best wishes for the future, but did not reveal specifics behind his departure.
“Over the past seven years, Jeff has helped build a business focused on serving the evolving needs of tax and accounting practitioners with innovative products and technologies to improve both the tax preparation process and the productivity of professionals,” Robert wrote. “These were significant accomplishments in creating a new business, and I know that Jeff appreciates greatly what the team has achieved over the years.”
Earlier in the tax season there were difficulties with CCH SFS's ATX product that Gramlich publicly apologized for in a video on the company's Web site (see CCH Deals with Problems in ATX Upgrade). Since then the company stepped up its communication efforts with customers and worked on fixing the issues.
As for Marx, he had served as VP and GM of Wolters Kluwer Financial & Compliance Services’ mortgage and indirect lending business since 2007, where his focus was on deploying technology to create workflow efficiencies that improve profitability and productivity.
In the email, Robert wrote of Marx, “Jason is dedicated to understanding customer needs, finding solutions that make customers more successful and delivering quality solutions to the market. I believe that Jason is especially well-suited to lead SFS because the opportunities and challenges associated with the business areas he has led in the past are very similar to those SFS is facing today and in the future: supporting a complex and highly regulated industry; serving a large, but distributed customer base, with many small customers; and shifting market demands that require agility, innovation and execution excellence.”
20 Comments
I never could get ATX to work this past tax season. I had to make a change in mid-March. I had used ATX for over 10 years prior to this year and was quite pleased with it. But whatever CCH did when they acquired ATX did not work. And their tech support was worse than bad. Despite their claims that they have processed millions of returns successfully (which I seriously doubt) there are many, many of us who could not use the software and suffered greatly because of it. I switched to Ultratax CS and could not have been more pleased with the customer service, the support, the functionality of the software and the final product. I WILL NOT go back to ATX. Any tax practitioner with any sense should run from ATX as fast as they can. This reminds me of the Dynatax debacle years ago. They went under after that. I agree with MRLI, there will probably not be an ATX next tax season.
Posted by: BobN | May 17, 2013 10:20 AM
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I could go on and on about the technical problems we've had, but the worst part is that CUSTOMER SUPPORT IS VIRTUALLY NON-EXISTENT. The last 4 calls we have made have waited over and hour and a half and never talked to a live person, except once, and then got "disconnected" and never called us back. Emails to customer support just get bounced back, and when we finally figured out how to get one through, they sent a useless reply two weeks later. Most pathetic thing I've seen. Complete disregard for their customers. Should get their A$$es sued off.
Posted by: gordonhippe | March 16, 2013 2:15 PM
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Stupidly, so stupidly I left ProSeries because I felt the price kept going up too much. Boy was I dope, you do get what you pay for. I think I called Proseries once in 7 years. I tried a practice version of ATX and it seemed fine. Then they shipped me the program and what a disaster. Could never get the program loaded. Then they sent me TaxWise and boy what a piece of crap. They have all these ridiculous required responses. Who the hell excludes Puerto Rico income? Why do I have to find out if the employer was contacted by the IRS to verify the W-2 and why do I need the phone number? I finally get to e-filing and it keeps telling me I dont have the most up to date forms even though I just downloaded them. Dont even bother calling them. You can sit on hold for hours. I had to go find a Senior VP to get me in touch with someone. They do have a direct line for first time users and everyone I have talked to have been helpful ( Brandon, Barbara ). Does anyone think we could find a lawyer and start some kind of class action suit for lost time and for those practioners who lost clients because this piece of garbage. I am one and gone.
Posted by: josh pollack | March 11, 2013 10:55 AM
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I have used ATX software for over ten years and other than minor technical problems which were normally worked out by this time, I haven't had any major issues with it. This year is hell! I can't even open the software at all since last night. I've done all the download updates they send you to on their website, etc. since you can't get through to a human being and nothing is working. My tax preparation is at a total standstill because I cannot get it to open! Whoever decided to change this software into something that looks like it belongs on a facebook page should be fired!!! I would like a refund for all the lost time I've had from dealing with this crappy program. They should have left it alone! At least it worked in the past years....now it's non-functional. I feel like I have no choice but to go find another software package.....not something I really want to spend a significant amount of money on!
Posted by: gal31658 | March 6, 2013 11:50 AM
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I use TaxSlayer software. It always works and there is always a person at the other end of the phone if you have a problem. (I have had very few). very reasonably priced in my mind. So everyone who is looking for a new software provider call them, they will send you a fully working copy of the program as a sample. They rock. A Lewis On Target Tax & Bookkeeping
Posted by: ontargettax | March 4, 2013 3:24 PM
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Here it is 3/4, and the first business returns are due 3/15, and it still is not working! What do you mean 'earlier this tax season'? It has not worked then nor is it working now!!! CCH is about to lose another customer.
Posted by: davemotes | March 4, 2013 10:22 AM
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Go to Pro-Series, never had any trouble. I have used them for the past 7 years! And they are always there if you need assistance.
Posted by: SNAFU | March 4, 2013 9:41 AM
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I am thoroughly disappointed in the ATX software this year and the fact there is no one at the other end and I have been directed to the web for answers. Will continue to limp along this year but probably not renewing at this point. The software is crashing on a regular basis and I've had to re-enter data several times for simple returns.
Posted by: Kathleen O | March 3, 2013 2:16 PM
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I had a great deal of problems with the sister tax software, taxwise in 2008 2009 and 2010. The concept of buying out smaller tax and accounting software programs and then cutting staff just to control the market just did not work for them "CCH" Itis my hope that they have learned their lesson. Certainly the Miller accounting guides were a great resource before the CCH purchase, the GAAS guide is still a good product, but I do miss the local government and non profit publications. I see wiley's non profit book is pretty good. Certainly someone had to go, I hope it was the correct person and not a CCH firm pervasive problem.
Posted by: strandcpa | February 27, 2013 8:09 PM
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As a regular user for INTUIT, I use the unlimited return and E-File (Proseries Unlimited) for a price of 4 tax return preparation. Since 2007, I had experience no problem of whatsoever... I have been offered ATX for half the price..but will stay with Intuit..
Posted by: hjubran | February 27, 2013 2:51 PM
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With the exception of thee years in the early 2000s when I worked in a multiple CPA office, I have been with ATX since the mid 90's. We had a horrible tax season a year or two before they sold out, buth this year is much worse. I have actually had the program crash overnight when it was not even being used. I have the choice of using multiple monitors or being able to load more than one tax return at a time because I use the best selling video card on the market. Because the program now loads so slowly I will literally lose one 8 hour day waiting for tax returns to open or prepare to print.
And I have yet to receive any emails apologizing or explaining what's going on although I'm sure they have it, I get them when it's time to renew.
The last time I called customer support I got a message telling me to use the web site. I guess you must be special to be allowed to sit on hold for hours.
Posted by: LaLafayette | February 27, 2013 2:27 PM
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The end of February and STILL horrifying problems with the ATX software. The additional tech support they have put on know very little about the software. All I keep getting is "I will send the issue to our Development Team and get back to you." No one ever gets back. Still tremendous wait times to speak with Tech Support, whom I have called every single day since installing ATX. I see a HUGE class action law suit in ATX's future. To do this to accountants during the tax season is criminal. I have lost clients, time and money and I am sick over this. I am trying to get a refund of my purchase price and have sent emails and made calls to no avail. I have just ordered ProSeries, the software I used previously, it will be available for download in an hour, thank God, this just may save my business!!
Posted by: DeniseL | February 26, 2013 12:35 PM
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"Earlier in the tax season there were difficulties with CCH SFS's ATX product"
Earlier, after, and guess what?? NOW TOO
ATX has made me lose money and time during this tax season more that if I were to be doing the taxes by hand. Clients moving? In my blog "Can someone please recommend me a good affordable tax program?" on the Tax Accounting Provider NETWORK , and Linkedin, there are many people who are just as mad with ATX and TRX as I am, and surely I am one of those clients already in communications with Drake and ProSeries for next season. My hard earned $$ is going to be spent on a company that develops a good product and gives good customer service. As a long standing ATX customer I have been robbed out of my money by CCH SFS. The program has issues that simply cannot be resolved, and customer service?? Please give me a break, after waiting on hold for 2 1/2 hours all they do is patch the specific problem for a day or two.
Posted by: LTA6990 | February 26, 2013 11:34 AM
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ATX has been a good product, they are addressing the glitches; I expect they'll deliver a good product next year. Unfortunately it's impossible to contact anyone; there are no resources to address problems or rejection errors. We've always been well served with ATX we'll continue to use their product another year, but I'll not endure a second tax-season without any support.
Posted by: Ed Walton | February 26, 2013 11:31 AM
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As a long time ATX user (pre-CCH) I find that the quality of the software and service has declined, especially this year. It seems like for every fix, there is a new problem created. ATX does not have an effective way of communicating with users on the issue of critical errors, which has caused me a lot of time to research, and rectify .
Posted by: Tkirks | February 26, 2013 11:29 AM
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I'm glad my office is not the only one having problems with ATX. I was beginning to think we were all incompetent! Not only is the software bad, but the customer service is equally lacking. Long, long waits on hold and then getting information that bears no relationship to the problem. One guy had me delete the whole program and reinstall it on February 1 with an office crowded to capacity at the time. Of course, it did nothing to fix the problem. My sales associate that I bought the software from did his best to fill in the gaps and he was very patient with my numerous E-mails and did solve some of the problems, but my nervous system crashed about January 25 and my employees were close behind. I really liked Crosslink that I had last year but they wanted to charge me an extra fee on all my E-filed returns for not using the bank they wanted me to use. So I will be shopping again next year, I guess!
Posted by: anitamartinez | February 26, 2013 11:18 AM
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Kamman, you do get around. See you on the forum.
taxbunny
Posted by: cversich | February 26, 2013 11:01 AM
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As a former user of ProSystemsFX and now a user of ATX, I expect the Wolters Klewer will step in and straighten the mess out. From what I read in our press, ATX is not the only software company to be experiencing major difficulties this season. In my opinion, the idiot in the White House and the eunuchs in the Legislature are more to blame than the software companies. This is just one more example of how the dysfunction in government adversely affects us all.
Posted by: patmac999 | February 26, 2013 9:31 AM
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"Earlier in the tax season there were difficulties with CCH SFS's ATX product"
There are still serious issues with ATX as can be clearly seen on the ATX forum. In my opinion, ATX has fundamental programming flaws and database issues that can not be corrected. There are reports that thousands of ATX customers have moved other software such as Drake and ProSeries. It's unlikely there will be an ATX 2013.
Posted by: MRLI | February 25, 2013 7:37 PM
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"Earlier in the tax season" ??
Halfway through the tax season, the problems continue.
What the 787 is for Boeing, ATX is for Wolters Kluwer.
Posted by: bkamman | February 25, 2013 7:00 PM
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