Jeri Dupuy, product marketing manager for RIA.

"It looks to me like we've been well ahead of the marketplace (with RS). It seems that is the way everything is going," said Jeri Dupuy, product marketing manager for RIA.

GoSystem Tax RS enables preparers to transfer client data via the Web, allowing RIA to do the bulk of the processing. Tax season 2000 marks the third year for RS, and according to the numbers, the remote server application is a hit.

Since its launch, more than 700 application servers processed over 345,000 tax returns by over 7,600 users, said Dupuy. And the company expects the numbers to keep rising.

"From a CPA aspect, the ability to work from wherever is helping to resolve the issue of employee retention," said Dupuy. "We are seeing migration (to RS) pick up, but it will be more than two more years before everybody will be on RS."

And this year RS users can take advantage of RIA's new GoTracker, which enables due date tracking and allows users to set milestones and tasks. The tasks feature categorizes how time is spent while completing the return. Tasks are then compiled into time logs enabling taxpayer invoices by flat rate, form/schedule, number of pages, time or any combination of these, said RIA. And firms using RS can set tax defaults on a firm-wide basis, at one time for multiple locations.

In October, RIA released Tax Alerts, which integrates tax information and analysis with GoSystem Tax RS, for accounting and tax practitioners, and InSource Express RS, for corporate tax professionals.

Tax Alerts informs tax professionals about new or proposed legislation, court decisions, letter rulings, or any other tax compliance-related news. And subscribers to Checkpoint, RIA's Internet-based research service, can link directly from Tax Alerts articles to RIA's editorial analysis and primary research materials.

"We think RS users will really realize the benefits of (Tax Alerts) this tax season," said Dupuy.

In other news, RIA is promoting its new customizable transmittal letters, which allow users to create custom transmittal letters that integrate with Microsoft Word. Paragraphs are built based upon conditions in the tax return and amounts merge into the transmittal letter accordingly, said RIA.

And RIA has a lot of up its sleeve for partnership returns. The company has developed an allocation and apportionment module to automatically distribute common state data to all state returns, display A&A computation results as they actually appear before carrying to state returns and perform A&A tasks independently or in conjunction with other state tasks. In addition, partnership returns can be filed electronically, regardless of size, the company added.

-- By Antoinette Alexander

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