Canadian Finance Blog » Software

Tax Software Review – Udotaxes 2009

Tom Drake — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 09:00:32 +0000

While I’ve written about StudioTax in both the 2008 and 2009 tax years, I recently found out about another free Canadian tax program called Udotaxes.

Udotaxes has a very polished look that makes it appear less like free software and more like QuickTax or UFile.

There is a wizard for entering your basic information such as your name and SIN, as well as your martial status and what province you lived in at the end of the tax year. After your personal details are entered you’ll need to enter everything else directly into the fields on the tax forms and slips. The Questions section helps you find the forms you need, but does not fill in the forms.

The lack of a full interview process to get you through your forms may be a negative for those that are uncomfortable with preparing their own taxes. However, if you simply want an easier way to file your taxes rather than using a pencil and calculator, this is a simple way to enter your data and have all your forms calculate automatically.

Udotaxes does offer language support for french, though unfortunately the software does not support preparing taxes from the province of Quebec. Hopefully either Udotaxes or StudioTax will support Quebec tax forms in future versions.

Like all the others, Udotaxes allows you to create a pdf of your tax forms when you’re done and it is certified for NetFile. Due to the CRA’s NetFile requirements, you can only prepare 20 returns per licence, which is better than the 8 returns available from the paid programs but most people are not likely to reach this limit.

So give Udotaxes a try if you want a step up from doing your taxes on paper. While it is free to use, they do accept donations if you want to show your appreciation for their hard work.

Tax Software Review – StudioTax 2009

Tom Drake — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:00:03 +0000

While QuickTax and UFile are both great tax preparation programs, there are other alternatives that will do the job and are completely free. Today we’ll look at StudioTax, which I was impressed with when I used StudioTax 2008 last year.

StudioTax includes a Quick Start Wizard that takes you through most of your taxes. StudioTax is a full featured program, including support for those that are self employed and those with investments or rental income. Unlike the paid programs, that only allow filing 8 returns, Studiotax will let you file 20, which is the maximum that the CRA will allow to be eligible for NetFile.

StudioTax does have built in update checking, though it seems to only be a manual link, not run when the program starts. So if you installed StudioTax earlier in the year, be sure to update to the latest version to get any fixes or improvements to the software. Unfortunately StudioTax also does not support importing previous returns from other programs, only from StudioTax.

The other small issue I have is with the visual presentation. While it does what it needs to do, a more polished look would give it a feeling of being more user friendly and would help more Canadians to view it on the same level as QuickTax and UFile.

Started in 2004, StudioTax was developed by a group of software developers from Ottawa and has been gaining in popularity every year since. While StudioTax is free, they do accept donations. If you like the program, consider sending them a few dollars to show your appreciation for all the effort they have put into it!

Tax Software Review – UFile 2009

Tom Drake — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:00:59 +0000

Earlier this week we looked at QuickTax, which is the top selling tax software in Canada. But there is another well known program that has been gaining momentum. UFile is a serious contender in the Canadian tax preparation market.

The interview process in UFile works well, though not quite as comfortable to use as the QuickTax interviewer. UFile also includes their MaxBack Refund Analyzer, which looks at the whole family to best suggest deductions, credits, and pension splitting.

UFile’s biggest strength is in their pricing. While there are free tax programs for Canadians, you may be willing to pay for a more polished and user friendly product. Ufile is only $19.99, half the price of QuickTax Standard. Ufile’s cost effectiveness becomes even more apparent when compared to higher version’s of QuickTax, many of which add features that are in the one version of UFile. There is a Plus version of UFile that is recommended for those that are self employed.

UFile also has online versions, which are free for some if you’re either a student or have an income of less than $20,000. This Friday, February 26th, is Free File Friday for Canadians age 60 or over. You’ll only need to accept the free offer on Friday to qualify. You can then enter your taxes at a later date once you round up all your documents.

Check back next week for reviews of StudioTax and Udotaxes. Both are completely free, though they do accept donations.

Tax Software Review – QuickTax 2009

Tom Drake — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:00:04 +0000

QuickTax is the first of four different tax programs that we’ll be having a look at over the next 4 weeks. I entered my tax info into all four programs to get an idea of how each one works, and while they have many similarities, each one also has it’s own strengths and weaknesses.

QuickTax is the #1 selling tax software in Canada for a reason. Intuit, Quicken and QuickBooks are well-known brands and no other software includes as many additional features. I tried out the Standard version of QuickTax, which is likely the best version for the majority of Canadians. There is also a Premium version that may provide some additional benefit for investors. If your tax return is very simple, there is a Basic version, though you might be better off with one of the free tax programs available.

I found QuickTax easy to install. Just a few clicks and the software was installed and immediately looked for updates. QuickTax Standard 2009 includes an EasyStep Interview that helps you through every step of your return. The software optimizes your RRSP and searches for any deductions you may be eligible for.

A new feature within the interview process that I really liked is Life Changes Profiling, which points out tax implications based on what happened in 2009. This was especially helpful for me since last year I started a business, bought a house and had a baby.

QuickTax is my pick for paid tax preparation programs. It’s Standard version does cost $10 more than UFile, but it may be worth the additional expense if you have a complicated return and want an easy to use interface that lets you take advantage of its additional features.

There are also online versions of QuickTax, including some that may be completely free. To qualify for the free QuickTax versions, you either need to be a student, make less than $20,000, or only have T4/T4As to enter with no investments, including RRSPs.

QuickTax Standard Giveaway!

To enter to win one of two copies of QuickTax Standard, leave a comment (use valid email address so I can contact the winners) in this article before the end of next week.

After leaving a comment so that I know you’re interested in these books, you can get bonus entries by doing either (or both) of the following:

Subscribe to Canadian Finance Blog email, where you’ll get each article, 5 days a week with no spam emails. If you’re already subscribed and leave a comment, you will automatically get this bonus entry!
Follow Canadian Finance Blog on Twitter and re-tweet any of our tweets during the two weeks!

This contest is for one copy of QuickTax Standard and is open to anyone in Canada. The deadline for entries is Friday, March 5th at 11:59PM MST and the winners will be contacted by email on Saturday. There will be two winners, chosen with a random number generator from Random.org. If a winner does not reply within one week, a new name will be drawn. Good luck!

Budgeting Tools Online And Beyond

Guest — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:00:19 +0000

One of the biggest obstacles to making and keeping a budget is not knowing where to begin. Thankfully, the Internet age has brought with it some wonderful tools designed to help you keep an eye on your spending. Here are just a few.

1. Wesabe.com: A lot of Web-based budgeting tools are similar, but one of the things that set Wesabe apart is its promotion of a user community. In addition to monitoring your spending and getting investment tips, you can chat with other users and get firsthand advice about saving and budgeting from people who know what works.

2. Billster.net: Billster is a free service ideal for helping you plan your monthly debts and payments, and it also has a great function called “Shared Bills” that lets you monitor things you owe as part of a group, e.g., if you and your roommates are splitting the cost of utility bills.

3. Yodlee.com: Yodlee is another fantastic service that lets you centralize your accounts, from checking and savings to credit cards and loans, and to visualize how to save money.

Those services are all free, but if you want to pay for programs, there are some helpful ones on the market:

1. Quicken: Probably the most recognizable name in budgeting software, Quicken will run you about $100, but you can download it directly to your computer and start working. You can set up auto payments and see your spending over weeks, months, quarters, or entire years.

2. Mvelopes: You can buy either a one-year or two-year membership for Mvelopes, which is a great tool for digging into your personal finances and finding ways to cut needless spending. They’re also on Twitter.

Again, those five tools are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to personal finance software online. With a little research and determination, you’ll have your finances organized before you know it.

This guest post is contributed by Raine Parker, who writes on the topic of accounting degrees. She welcomes your comments at her email: raine.parker6@gmail.com.

Free Alternatives For Preparing Your Taxes

Tom Drake — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:00:11 +0000

In previous years, Canadian readers may have completed their taxes with QuickTax or Ufile. Both of these are great programs and I plan to look at them in more detail later this month. However, there are a couple of free programs for preparing your taxes that I wanted to quickly share with you. While this tax software may not have all the bells and whistles of the bigger titles, they work as expected, especially for those with uncomplicated returns.

StudioTax

I used StudioTax for the 2008 tax year and was happy with it. StudioTax has a great wizard that will get you through most of the forms. You then have the option to add any specific forms you require and fill then out one field at a time.

Udotaxes

I haven’t tried Udotaxes yet, I believe it might be the first year it’s been out. I have installed it and looked around and it’s very polished for a free program.

Once I have all the forms for my personal taxes, I’ll try these programs out an provide a more detailed review. In the meantime, for those of you that are lucky enough to have your necessary documents, why not save some money and try out these free tax preparation programs?

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Manage Your Canadian Accounts With BudgetPulse

Tom Drake — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 10:00:10 +0000

BudgetPulse is a money management website that could be a great way for you to report and budget based on all your Canadian accounts. It’s actually something that they DON’T do that makes it work so great for Canadians looking to track and forecast their personal expenses.

I’ve previously written about other websites like Mint, Quicken Online and Wesabe. A common complaint with all of these have been either no or little support for Canadian banks and credit cards. This is because these websites use your log-in credentials to pull data from financial institutions. While some support the major Canadian banks (but not credit unions and many credit cards), other will not allow you to even sign up.

There is another issue related to these sites logging into your financial information. While it can be convenient, it’s quite a security risk for one site to hold your passwords for every financial product you have.

However, BudgetPulse has neither of these problems since they do not sync to your banks and credit cards. It’s a simple online money application. You enter your income and expenses and create reports, budgets and goals. You can either enter the information manually or import it from MS Money, Quicken or data files that you can download from your bank’s website.

Then you are able to manage your transactions, budget with handy sliders and set savings goals. Savings goals are interesting since not only can you work towards your own objective, you can share it with friends or family and they can contribute towards your goal. There are also charts and graphs that can give you different perspectives on your financial situation.

A new feature they recently launched is online fundraising for non-profit organizations. This shows your goal and how far you have come to completing the goal. People can contribute by PayPal, Amazon or pledge to pay money.

So give BudgetPulse a try if you want to get your own finances reported in one place, which can be a great way to find expenses to cut and save more of your money.