The Intuit ProLine Lacerte is for mid-sized and larger practices, as well as smaller firms with more complex client needs. The program offers preparation and electronic filing for all major tax entity types, along with all states and municipal entities. The system is offered modularly, with practices selecting the entity types and state support they require. Pricing for the Federal individual package is $2,699 and $429 per state, with add-on available for unlimited electronic filing ($995), networking ($570 for the first 4, $280    for each additional 4), tax analyzer ($465 of which 25% is the annual maintenance fee which is all you pay in future years), tax planner ($665 of which 25% is the annual maintenance fee which is all you pay in future years) and other productivity tools including applications for trial balance, document management, and tax research.

The Intuit ProLine Lacerte system is also offered in a pay-per-use format, for lower-volume firms with a $395 license fee, $36 for federal and 1 state and a $4 electronic filing fee. Once the Pay-per-Return fee is paid separate business, trust, estate, and gift taxes may also be purchased.

From the moment you enter the program, you notice how many ways there are to access the information you want. There are rows with icons, buttons, and tabs at the top, a tree down the left side, and tabs at the bottom of the work screen. It isn't cluttered, it is clean, and intuitive and makes jumping through forms easy. The bottom of the window is initially reserved for the help methods supported by the program - Live Community, Tax Research Powered by BNA, and Help. It is a simple mouse drag to claim the whole screen for tax preparation.

An interview mode is utilized for data entry that breaks information into categories for general, payments and penalties, income, deductions, credits, taxes, other, state and local, and miscellaneous forms. A form-based view of client returns is available via a tab click, with the real-time calculations flowing through to the tax form. The forms view does not allow data entry but can be used for review with the ability to leave tick marks or add notes. A "Jump to Input" feature allows the preparer to see the detail of where the amount on the form originated from.

Lacerte integrates with QuickBooks, Intuit's Document Management System, Tax Planner, EasyACCT, and BNA Tax Planner, Forms Library, Tax Research, Tax Analyzer, Trial Balance Utility, Lacerte e-Organizer.

New Features for Tax Year 2009

• Expanded prior year capabilities to provide a more comprehensive view of the prior year information within the current year tax return.
• Accountants can now import assets from .xls or .csv file types.  This enables customers to take data that could be captured in fixed asset management programs directly into Lacerte quickly and easily.
• Expanded Form Notification tool to better inform our customers regarding tax form filing capabilities.
• Simplifying Gift Tax Return filing - a married filing joint Gift Tax return can be split, allowing for simultaneous filing of the needed returns within one file
• Continued expansion of the our tax content, including expanded e-filing capabilities

"With a unique design that follows the natural flow of the tax return, the Lacerte Tax Software is built to maximize productivity and streamline most critical work for the year-round, multiple person accounting firm. New for this year's version is the in-product access to the Lacerte Live Community, which allows users to quickly search for assistance either through the program's Help utility or by asking questions that can be answered by other Lacerte users," said Jorge Olavarrieta, group product manager.