The American Institute of CPAs has released its annual survey of the software CPAs used to prepare 2013 tax returns.

A joint project of the Journal of Accountancy and The Tax Adviser, the survey was conducted in May–June, 2014, with data provided by more than 3,800 CPAs and spanning 13 major products.

As in previous years, Drake Software easily won top honors in most of the categories that CPAs consider important – highest overall rating at an average of 4.5 out of five, compared with an average of 4.3 for all products. Only Ultra-Tax matched this performance. Drake also took honors for its price, quality of support, ease of use, ease of installation and updates, and best software for a new practice.

Nearly 95 percent of Drake users said they would use the software again in the year to come. More than 83 percent of CPAs said the software contained all of the forms they needed, with more than 81 percent said the software handled forms updates very well. Nearly 86 percent noted that it was very easy to obtain technical support for Drake Software.

In the 2014 survey, Drake Software again dominated as best software (4.5 out of 5.0); ease of use (4.4 out of 5.0); ease of updates (4.8 out of 5.0); and paperless e-filing (4.7 out of 5.0).

Full survey results for each of the 13 products are available online at www.journalofaccountancy.com.