BNA Tax Management – Tax Management Library

The system’s primary search
utility is accessed via a button
at the top corner of the screen.
However, it would be a little more
intuitive to include a basic search
field or link within the main window.
Once within the utility, BNA Tax
Management’s search functions
offer easy-to-understand search
functions that provide users with
great control over queries, including
the ability to search all documents,
whole libraries, specific sections
or specific publications. Search
results are presented in a list
that identifies the library location
of the returned record and provides
access to the table of contents
and to the specific document. When
viewing the document that produced
a search hit, BNA Tax Management
provides linked access to supporting
documents, and provides options
at the top of the screen for moving
between hits. The screen also provides
a Background Notes link to view
a history of a code back to 1954
and links to related treasury regulations,
a function to locate related analysis
in the Portfolios and in the Tax
Practice section, which includes
client letters and other communication
tools.

BNA Tax Management Library only
saves the previous three searches
and their results, which obviously
results in limited ability to automatically
review search histories. As well,
the system has no built-in ability
to store search terms and cannot
be set to automatically perform
recurring searches.

CONTENT – 5 Stars

The primary components of the BNA
Tax Management Library include the
following: The U.S. Income Library,
which provides more than 160 portfolios
of research, guidance and productivity
tools; the State Tax Library, which
offers primary source materials
and analysis focusing on income
tax, sales and use tax and property
tax issues; the Foreign Income Library;
the Estates, Gifts & Trusts
Library; and the Tax Practice Library.

In all, the system houses a comprehensive
collection of primary government
publications, documents, legislation
and cases, as well as expert guidance
and analysis on tax law from more
than 1,000 tax and legal professionals
and scholars. BNA Tax Management
also provides the Daily Tax Report
Highlights, offering news briefs
of tax and accounting issues, with
updates on SEC, PCAOB and other
regulatory and court decisions,
as well as legislative actions.
Users can have a linked highlighted
version of the Daily Tax Report
Highlights delivered via e-mail,
and BNA Tax Management also offers
a Weekly Report and a Weekly State
Tax Report. A full collection of
self-calculating forms is accessible
through the system’s Practice
Tools function, as are sample plans
and model documents and client letter
templates.

INTEGRATION – 3 Stars
The BNA Tax Management Library offers
copy and paste functions but provides
little integration with compliance
software. The system’s client
letter templates are presented online,
and, while they can be printed or
generated as a Word document, the
system does not assist in customization
of these documents and automatically
places BNA Tax Management footer
information on the pages.

CUSTOMIZATION – 3 Stars

The BNA Tax Management Library automatically
saves the last three searches to
a History function but does not
enable further saving of searches
or search criteria from within the
program. Instead, the developer
recommends using the Auto Form Fill-in
feature built into Internet Explorer.
The system does not offer user-specific
or practice area customization of
libraries or tools.

UPDATES – 5 Stars
The web-based research product is
automatically updated to reflect
tax law changes and to include materials
when they are available, including
court cases and legislation. All
updates are performed by BNA Tax
Management on its servers.

RELATIVE VALUE – 4 Stars

BNA’s Tax Management Library
offers one of the most extensive
collections of primary and secondary
research materials for tax professionals,
as well as its Daily Tax Report
and a good array of practice tools.
Greater customization capabilities
and the ability to save searches
would further add to the value of
the program.

2005 OVERALL RATING: 4 Stars

The products were reviewed based
on the following criteria:

• Ease of Use. This section explores navigation features, including accessibility of primary search tools and functions. As
  well, the ability to save common
  searches or specific results,
  or copy and paste contents of
  documents, adds to ease of use.
  Higher scores in this area reflect
  a comfortable, easy-to-use interface
  that provides intuitive access
  to key functions.
• Content. This section points out the research libraries available, including federal and state sources. It also identifies what type of content is available: primary sources such as code and rulings, as well as expert analysis and insight. A higher score here is earned by products with a comprehensive array of federal resources, including the availability of state research products. Research analysis is also considered, although not all professionals will seek such guidance.
• Integration. This section observes the ability of the software to work with tax preparation or write-up programs to automatically find areas of potential relevancy within the research, as well as
  the ability to attach or link
  saved research results to appropriate
  client files. Programs receiving
  better marks in this category
  make working between tax preparation,
  write-up and the research program
  more efficient.
• Customization. This section covers the ability of the programs to organize specific areas or subscribe to only specific areas, which allows practitioners to narrow down research content to only those areas relevant to their practice. A mountain of research is available; products scoring well in this section provide good sorting and personalization methods that enable users to tailor the program to meet their needs.
• Updates. With constantly changing tax law, the currency of information can be crucial. This section looks at how often research libraries are updated and by what method: CD, online automatic. Few practitioners enjoy performing software updates. As such, this section identifies
  the frequency and ease with which
  product updates are performed,
  with automatic, schedulable and
  online update capabilities receiving
  better marks.
• Relative Value. This section offers the reviewer’s subjective opinion of the “bang for the buck.”