Turbo Tax Online is not the bastion of usability
By Eddie. Tuesday, 14. February 2006, 05:38:37
Last year, I used desktop turbo tax and found it to be the best thing in usability since that little plastic thing that keeps the top of the pizza box from crushing the cheesy goodness beneath it.
This year, I upped the ante a bit... and tried TT online. My taxes are a bit more complicated this year, I admit (although not much more), but there are no excuses for the strange instructions and lack of help I've found here. Nothing is worse than a help/search that can't help you or find what you're looking for. Trust is lost and you're less apt to use these tools.
A few examples of my frustrations....
Federal:
- I'm trying to figure out some moving expenses stuff... and I get this error message:
...this looks pretty cool. Except, as far as I can tell, there's no progress bar nor is there an "easy step navagator" [sic]. I have no idea what to do with this. As far as I can tell from the top and side navigation bars (not included here..sorry) I can't find a progress bar, or an easy step navigator. What is this all about?
State Taxes:
-As far as I know- there's not way to edit a single portion of my state taxes without walking step by step through every single section, GREATLY increasing the odds I'll change an option I don't intend to. In the federal portion, you can choose an "area" to step into and edit. This appears to not be the case in the state.
-See the screenshot from two posts ago. I still don't know where to put my rental information. I clicked the appropriately labeled "Where do I enter?" button and get taken back to my federal return to start entering information about my rental properties.
**Update. After walking through the W-2 portion again- I fixed the above error. But what was most frustrating about it (and worthy of an update) was that when I went to "link the city I moved too" it was already filled out! TT already had some link between the moving expenses and the city. It it just wanted a confirmation, why not present that to me at the time the above screenshot is shown?
This year, I upped the ante a bit... and tried TT online. My taxes are a bit more complicated this year, I admit (although not much more), but there are no excuses for the strange instructions and lack of help I've found here. Nothing is worse than a help/search that can't help you or find what you're looking for. Trust is lost and you're less apt to use these tools.
A few examples of my frustrations....
Federal:
- I'm trying to figure out some moving expenses stuff... and I get this error message:
...this looks pretty cool. Except, as far as I can tell, there's no progress bar nor is there an "easy step navagator" [sic]. I have no idea what to do with this. As far as I can tell from the top and side navigation bars (not included here..sorry) I can't find a progress bar, or an easy step navigator. What is this all about?
State Taxes:
-As far as I know- there's not way to edit a single portion of my state taxes without walking step by step through every single section, GREATLY increasing the odds I'll change an option I don't intend to. In the federal portion, you can choose an "area" to step into and edit. This appears to not be the case in the state.
-See the screenshot from two posts ago. I still don't know where to put my rental information. I clicked the appropriately labeled "Where do I enter?" button and get taken back to my federal return to start entering information about my rental properties.
**Update. After walking through the W-2 portion again- I fixed the above error. But what was most frustrating about it (and worthy of an update) was that when I went to "link the city I moved too" it was already filled out! TT already had some link between the moving expenses and the city. It it just wanted a confirmation, why not present that to me at the time the above screenshot is shown?
WIDGETIZE
Anonymous # 22. February 2006, 16:45
I too am frustrated by things like this. If you can code in a complicated instruction like that, why couldn't you also code in a "too fix this error, click here" instruction?
elcid73 # 23. February 2006, 16:00
One- asking me for information that TT already knows. Normally, TT is VERY good at avoiding that. In this case, it fell short.
two-as you mentioned, there's no link available... a "click here to go to this process" They provided a helpful answer, but the steps they told me to take weren't possible (at least as far as I could tell). I found it akin to saying- "to start the car, insert the key in the ignition.." but the user doesn't have a key. Now what?
Anonymous # 12. April 2007, 15:03
Beware when using TT State Return; I found the following:
When automtically downloading my brokerage statement TT assumed that Federal tax-exempt bond interest was NJ tax-exempt, which is not true.
TT did not deduct the portion of NJ tax-exempt income from my mutual funds.
TT included the NJ Homestead Tax Rebate as Other Income, while it is tax-exempt in NJ.
Anonymous # 20. July 2007, 20:02
Has anyone found a way to use the "forms method" in TT online? This is the way I always used TT desktop, and it is hell stepping through all the damn pages.