Journal of Accountancy and The Tax Advisor just published their annual report on tax prep software. About 6,000 CPAs participated in the survey. See www.journalofaccountancy.com/Issues/2012/Sep/20125667.htm

Our firm uses UltraTax and we have found it to be great software. It is a bit pricey, which would be my only complaint about it, but it's rare for it not to have a form that we need, and since we use RIA as our tax research software - they are interconnected so we can access the research directly from a line within the tax return.

The diagnostics are good, and once you get used to it, it's pretty user friendly.

I agree with Mark that the Journal of Accoutancy article woudl be a good resource to look over but al lin all we have been very pleased with our choice.

I have a small practice (I am semi-retired) and I use Drake because of the price factor. I really liked Lacerte, but it is far too expensive for what I do. Drake's navigation is a bit unusual, but after a brief time you get used to it it becomes second nature.