Preparing IRS Form 5500

[Guest jmarini]

We currently prepare IRS Form 5500s for our clients via interactive forms from CCH (I think they come on a CD, but we may access them via the CCH website). We are examining all our subscriptions services and costs, and wondered what other folks use to prepare 5500s. We are a small firm and some of our subscriptions seem expensive and are probably also redundant. I'd love to hear what others think are the best ways to do these forms. Thank you!

[WDIK]

As someone who had to type Form 5500's for a time, I'm happy with anything that doesn't require White-out.

Although it has limitations, Accudraft SmartForms is one of the least expensive I've come across. I do not particularly like the Q&A format for filling out the forms that Accudraft uses.

[Theresa Lynn]

I use RIA's e-Form RS (http://eformrs.com/DefaultStart.asp?login=) (the Remote Server program). You should be able to find information about e-form RS and RIA's go system program at the RIA home page (http://RIA.thomson.com).

For other forms, you can use the fill-in forms on IRS.gov or, with Adobe Acrobat of 5 or above, you can convert the plain IRS forms on IRS.gov to fill in fields, but it has no calculator. The e-Form RS at least has auto calculator functions built in.

[JanetM]

I used peak years ago when I worked as CPA. They changed the the name to hyperprep and is now called Relius.

Was glad to see that my current employer (private industry) uses Relius for 5500 for prep.

Look at www.sungardcorbel.com for more info.