Trading tax software for last minute filers

E

EliteEd

As a last minute filer I was fortunate enough to have fewer than 100 equity trades in 2007, and was able to enter them individually. Prior to that, I was looking for software that would be able to download the trades from the brokers and enter it in my Turbotax data. It appeared there were some reasonably priced programs, but I was unsure of whether they could download all transactions directly from TS and IB and enter them in a Turbotax format.

One such software mentioned they could only access the last three months to download from a broker. This would mean you were SOL if you waited to the last minute to file hundreds or thousands of trades.

Is there software that can download all of previous years trades directly from the broker for Turbotax entries? Assume filing in April with no wash sale transactions. Thanks.
 
Quote from condorll:

Try TradeLog

http://www.armencomp.com/tradelog/
More...

One warning with tradelog, you have to renew the subscription every year in order to keep using the software to edit anything. So even though you bought it, you will have to buy it again every year that you use it. That said, it does what you are asking and adjusts wash sales for you.
 
My main concern in this post was the ability to download the entire previous year's trades in April. One tax software mentioned it could only get the las three months data from most brokers. That is what threw me.

Wash sales are not a concern for me. My only concern is getting a full years worth of trade data entered automatically into Turbotax. It may be possible that Quicken could be a solution, and then transfer that data to Turbotax, but not sure if Quicken will download entire previous year trade data in April. Interested in anything that might help. Thanks.
 
I've had endless problems with this software. They post revisions many times per month. Their software regularly stops accepting downloads from fidelity "because fidelity changed their download format again". Every one of their revisions/upgrades requires going back to customer service because of one or more problems with download or installation.

The last time, I exclaimed their software "sucks" because of this. This prompted an email from the president of the company threatening to revoke the customer serive I had paid for. I escalated this by stating that I had paid for that customer service & they should either get me a consistently working system or refund my money. Otherwise, they should expect to be hearing from (and I fully expect to complain to) the better business bureau, the federal trade commission and ic3.gov (the govt's internet fraud complaint site). I've never seen such rude customer serive, or an utterly incompetent technical company. The way these guys rationalize their failures ("fidelity changed its format again", "the problem is with your browser",...) is enormous.

I'm going back to using gainskeeper though it's slightly more expenisve. I use such software to save my valuable time. But tradelog simply doesn't work. The software doesn't work. Their upgrade/revisions do not work. Their customer service does not work.

Avoid tradelog at all costs.
 
When I switched back to gainskeeper (from tradelog --- see prior post concerning my issues with them!), I was faced with the problem of the trades from early January that fell beyond the 90 day restriction.

All i did was the following (fidelity). I went to "history", pulled up the trades & clicked on "download" to put the .csv file on my desktop. Then gainskeeper has an option to upload from such a file. One click on that & the trades were uploaded with no problem at all. I was worried I'd have to do some techie thing to make it work, but it was easy.

This means you could do the same thing for the whole year worth of trades, at tax time exactly the same way.

I know... I worried about file formats, yada, yada, yada. But it was no problem. One click & you're there with gainskeeper.
 
Quote from aicohn:

I've had endless problems with this software. They post revisions many times per month. Their software regularly stops accepting downloads from fidelity "because fidelity changed their download format again". Every one of their revisions/upgrades requires going back to customer service because of one or more problems with download or installation.

The last time, I exclaimed their software "sucks" because of this. This prompted an email from the president of the company threatening to revoke the customer serive I had paid for. I escalated this by stating that I had paid for that customer service & they should either get me a consistently working system or refund my money. Otherwise, they should expect to be hearing from (and I fully expect to complain to) the better business bureau, the federal trade commission and ic3.gov (the govt's internet fraud complaint site). I've never seen such rude customer serive, or an utterly incompetent technical company. The way these guys rationalize their failures ("fidelity changed its format again", "the problem is with your browser",...) is enormous.

I'm going back to using gainskeeper though it's slightly more expenisve. I use such software to save my valuable time. But tradelog simply doesn't work. The software doesn't work. Their upgrade/revisions do not work. Their customer service does not work.

Avoid tradelog at all costs.
More...

I've dealt with the guy there too, he told me he was the owner. I couldn't believe the owner of a company would be so rude and lack any form of customer service. I think it's a one man show. With maybe two employees. Dealing with them makes you feel like you've been ripped off.
 
Listen, I'm very pleased to be rid of your system, your editorializing over my demeanor & my constant need to avail myself of your customer support (or lack thereof) in the first place.

I did read your email & yes, your answer worked. However, there is no problem with my internet connection. Every time I use an "upgrade" of yours (which is more than once per month), I have to spend time going through customer service to make it work. You always have some way of blaming something else, whether it be fidelity changing its data format, my internet, or whatever. I bill out at $400/hour for my time as an anesthesiologist & you have cost me many times what I paid for your software in lost time. It's elevated my blood pressure as well, and my career is stressful enough already, thank you very much.

The way you respond to your clients will lose you alot of business. I've posted my experience using your system (not just this instance but over a period of months), my opinion of your technical expertise, and my impression of your customer service over on the forums at elitetrader.com. This impression has been corroborated by other users.

http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1898356&highlight=tradelog#post1898356

This will not be helpful to you. But it is the plain unvarnished truth.

You have no business editorializing over my verbalized concerns with your software. Absolutely none. If you're out to destroy your business, I really can't think of a better way.

Your solution (for THIS issue) worked. But I'm back with gainskeeper already. You offer a slight price break. But I guess the adage, "you get what you pay for" is true here. The lost time & frustration in dealing wiht you isn't worth it. I might as well enter the trades by hand!

That's all.
---- TradeLog Support <support@armencomp.com> wrote:
> Did you read my last email? It is your Internet connection that is causing
> the download problem and we gave you an alternate method to download. But I
> guess you do not want to listen to reason.
>
> You have not read a single thing I have sent you and you continue to bad
> mouth our service and our software, so I am pleased to give you a refund so
> you can go somewhere else.
>
> I have credited your card in the amount of $135.20 and have disabled your
> reg code in our system.
> Please completely remove TradeLog from your PC. Any future use of our
> TradeLog software is a violation of our software user license.
>
> With replies such as yours it is no wonder that our young people are coming
> out of college with no sense of right and wrong and are shooting each other
> on campus.
>
> Love & Kisses back to you!
>
> On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 7:19 AM, Aaron I. Cohn, M.D. <
> aaron.cohn@alumni.rice.edu> wrote:
>
> > The reason this thing really sucks is that I have had repeated problems
> > with your incessant & continuous upgrades.
> >
> >
> >
> > This is not the first time. Why should I have to keep running back to
> > support for this in the first place?
> >
> >
> >
> > I bought (& paid for) support on this. If you are going to discontinue
> > support I expect a refund (& in that case, I'll go back to using another
> > product with which I have not had such problems).
> >
> >
> >
> > If you do not refund me, you can expect to be hearing from such places as
> > better business bureau, the FTC, and ic3.gov.
> >
> >
> >
> > Your choice. Give me a working product, or refund me & I take my business
> > elsewhere with a refund (or complaints to government agencies).
> >
> >
> >
> > You have 24 hours to respond.
> >
> >
> >
> > Love & Kisses,
> >
> >
> >
> > Aaron I. Cohn, M.D.
> >
> >
> >
> > *From:* TradeLog Support [mailto:support@armencomp.com]
> > *Sent:* Thursday, April 24, 2008 9:44 PM
> > *To:* aaron.cohn@alumni.rice.edu
> > *Subject:* Re: Installation problem
> >
> >
> >
> > First of all if you preface your support requests with "This thing really
> > SUCKS" I will discontinue your support. I would expect that a Rice
> > University Alumni would address our support team with some common courtesy.
> > - David Eich, Pres.
> >
> > Second of all, the problem you are having has NOTHING to do with our
> > software. It has everything to do with your internet connection or your web
> > browser. See:
> > http://www.armencomp.com/tradelog/general-use.html#setupcorrupt
> >
> > In addition, we have added another option on our download page to email the
> > setup file to yourself. So if the above does not work then use the email
> > option when you get to the download page:
> > http://www.armencomp.com/tradelog/update.html
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 7:03 PM, <aaron.cohn@alumni.rice.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Support Request from:
> >
> > Aaron Cohn
> > aaron.cohn@alumni.rice.edu
> > 361-945-2293
> > orderNum:
> > regCode: 7C30-6438-9275-8292-0109
> >
> > Installation problem:
> >
> > This thing really SUCKS. I was invited to "upgrade" to a new version. I
> > got a "Error occurred while tryin to copy a file. source file is corrupted"
> > error. The corrupted file was tradelog7.exe named at the top of the
> > message. I tried uninstalling & then reinstalling tradelog. Same error.
> > Now I'm left without a functioning tradelog in any way shape or form.
> >
> > This is the second time I've gotten in trouble trying to upgrade. I'm
> > worried about losing logs of trades I'll need at tax time. What is the
> > problem with you people?
> >
> > attached files:
> > ---------------
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > TradeLog Support
> > www.armencomp.com/support.html
> > Support hours: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST Mon-Fri
> > 800-372-6078
> >
>
>
>
> --
> TradeLog Support
> www.armencomp.com/support.html
> Support hours: 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM EST Mon-Fri
> 800-372-6078
 
All we ask for is a little courtesy when problems arise, and do not appreciate a support request that is prefaced with "This thing really SUCKS!"

Our TradeLog software is dependent on the web sites of the brokers we support. Sometimes they change something which requires us to update our import filters. This is part of our service and our users understand this and appreciate our responsiveness to such problems.

Rather than waiting a year to fix things like most software companies (whom we will not mention) we post an immediate update as soon as we become aware of such problems.

But occassionally someone becomes irrate over this and speaks to us in way that we simply will not tolerate. So we give them their money back.

Call us old fashioned, but common courtesy is something that is sorely lacking in today's world.
 
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