Depreciation schedules
The conversion utility handled everything except the fixed assets
Ask any preparer who has switched suites what to check first and the answer is depreciation. The official conversion tools are free and generally good — but they need the previous software's native data file, and they are weakest exactly where the data is richest.
Why depreciation is the item that breaks
Assets carry more state than anything else in a return: per-treatment prior depreciation, §179 elected versus allowed, prior bonus, conventions, dispositions. Vendors' own documentation warns that assets held only in a fixed-asset manager don't convert at all. The result is a client file that looks complete until someone sells a rental.
The printout is the universal format
Every suite prints a depreciation schedule. That printout is the one artifact you're guaranteed to have, whichever direction you're moving. Convert it and import it, and the switch stops depending on whether two vendors' file formats agree.
Do it before the season, not during it
Software decisions get made between May and December and the conversions get done in November and January. That's the window where an afternoon of converting schedules costs far less than the same work in March.
Questions
- We're moving from UltraTax to Drake. Does that work?
- Yes — UltraTax as a source is just a printed schedule. Drake is a supported destination, so that direction is fully covered today.
- What if assets live in Fixed Assets CS, not the tax software?
- Print the Fixed Assets CS asset detail report and use that as the source. It's a supported input layout.