You do not need a revolutionary tax-saving idea to save more money as you proceed toward growing your business. Indeed, handling taxes is complicated and can make many business owners like you sweat more during the mighty tax season. Reliable tax software can do wonders for you, provided you make an informed selection. However, there are several tax preparation tools available in the market. But if you have already eyed the best one, you must have Drake Tax software.
Drake software holds a prominent place in the complicated tax software market and is widely used because of its product excellence. It helps process millions of state and federal returns annually and is highly suitable for small and medium businesses. Still, you will need two more supporting weapons in your arsenal to benefit maximally while using Drake software:
- Cloud hosting solution for your licensed Drake Tax software
- Add-ons for Drake software.
Drake cloud hosting can make it easier for you to access the software on the go and prepare taxes from wherever you are. However, in some cases, businesses expect even the mighty Drake software to possess some additional functionalities. This is where Drake add-ons come into play and add value to the overall tax preparation/filing process.
If you have heard about hosted Drake add-ons for the first time, you need to know the basics first. Let’s get into the details.
What are Drake’s Add-Ons?
As the name suggests, Drake add-ons are third-party applications that can be integrated with Drake Tax software to add more functional values and features. As a result, you can quickly meet various complicated tax filing requirements.
Think of these add-ons as an additional fuel empowering Drake software for the better, providing the required assistance in executing taxation-specific tasks. These days, there is a wide range of hosted Drake tax software add-ons for you to choose from. To make the proper selection, you first need to know about their specific benefits related to your business.
Top 7 Must-Have Add-Ons for Drake Tax Software
1. SecureFilePro
What can happen if the business-specific or client-specific confidential documents fall into the hands of your rivals and cyber attackers?
The extent of damage can result in significant losses for your business and your clients. But this is also the last thing you would expect to happen. SecureFilePro, as a web portal system, can add another layer of security to easily share confidential documents with your clients. As a hosted Drake add-on, it allows you to collaborate with your team via a common platform. It will also ensure that your data will be secured against third-party intrusion backed by 256-bit encryption.
2. GruntWorx
A crucial part of tax preparation is managing bills and invoices. You want your team to keep track of all these documents and extract data that can be used for taxation needs. Ideally, you would like a solution to make this data extraction task easier. Worry not, as the GruntWorx web application is there for your business needs.
It has been designed with features that can automate the tasks of document management and manual data entry. This add-on utilizes OCR-based scanning and extracts data from various tax documents to improve tax preparation accuracy. Once the data is removed, it can be imported into the Drake software for seamless return filing.
3. QuickBooks
Accounting and taxation are the two sides of any business that run parallel. An inaccuracy in accounting data can lead to tax preparation errors, ultimately resulting in inaccurate tax return filing. To make things simpler and more accurate, use QuickBooks in parallel with hosted Drake software.
QuickBooks is an extensively used accounting application that can help manage business expenses, create reports, and simplify bill tracking and transactions. The reports generated using this software can be used for tax return filing. When integrated with Drake software, QuickBooks automates the data entry task. All financial data gets directly imported into the tax software, improving return accuracy and saving time.
4. E-Pay
At the core of your business, you want to get paid timely for the products or services you sell. But in many cases, untimely payments become the hurdle in maintaining the required cash flow. While having your eyes fixed on tax calculation via Drake software, you can simplify this payment side with the E-Pay add-on.
As a payment gateway powered by EPS financials, it simplifies the payment acceptance part and allows you to accept electronic payments via credit or debit cards from your clients. Once integrated with Drake software, you can start accepting payments using the E-Pay icon on the software screen.
5. TicTie Calculate
The tax preparation task is more challenging than it may seem and involves multiple rounds of data review and corrections per the suggestions highlighted by the tax professionals. The question that arises is –
How will you change the tax and accounting documents you receive from the clients for efficient tax filing?
This is where TicTie Calculate comes in handy. As a plugin used by tax and accounting professionals, it helps annotate digital documents in PDFs. Using this plugin, you can add customizable checkmarks, bookmarks, and hyperlinks to PDF documents. Its quick and easy integration with Drake software simplifies reviewing tax returns.
6. Drake Documents
If you want the utmost security for your tax data and various other documents, you need a storage solution that can provide comprehensive protection. Drake Documents, an add-on you can integrate with Drake cloud hosting, can help you go paperless by reducing the need for printed files and physical cabinets for document storage. You can also organize folders with the proper names to save time searching for specific business tax files.
Technically, Drake Documents provide two different types of cabinets: Working Cabinet and Archive Cabinet. Using this add-on, you can start storing PDF files of tax returns, tax forms, and more electronically.
7. Drake Accounting
Should you switch to manual data entry when you have a big chunk of financial records ready to be used for tax preparation? Doing so will require significant time and effort that can be saved using the Drake Accounting add-on. It is a bookkeeping application used for financial record management based on double-entry accounting for client records.
The seamless integration of Drake Tax software with Drake Accounting can help you import the bookkeeping data into Drake software and allows customization of state, federal, and local withholdings. Besides this, you can also track previous tax liabilities through this add-on application.
Improve the Efficiency of Drake Software with Drake Cloud Hosting
Integrating various useful Drake add-ons will enhance its functionality and help manage taxation tasks in the upcoming tax season. While selecting add-ons based on your business needs, you must be careful in choosing the right Drake cloud hosting provider.
Complete data protection backed by HPAC servers, data encryption for security, and backups to deal with unforeseen events is some of the service qualities you should check while hiring a Drake hosting provider. Also, keep a check on the cloud provider’s reputation in the market.
