Latest Mac Home & Business update introduces form-filling bugs?

[mlohrer]

I will try to keep this very simple, but if the explanation isn't clear LMK.

(1) Assets are any fixed capital equipment purchased for an activity (eg, a business, a farm) that has a life of more than 1 year, and its cost is spread out over time via depreciation - that info, time-line and expense tracking is what the Asset Entry worksheet does for you by having a data-base of the myriad types the IRS recognizes, otherwise its a daunting "detail challenge".

(2) Create a simple Schedule C for "My Auto Repair Business" - just open and create the Schedule C but don't bother fill in anything more.

(3) Then, in Forms mode search for the form "Asset Entry" - numerous types will show up on a selection list, and you select Asset Entry - Schedule C.

(4) You will be prompted for an asset name - eg, "Welding Machine", and then prompted to link it to a Schedule C - select the "My Auto Repair Business".

(5) At this point you should be looking at an Asset Entry Worksheet, with a list of fields all related to an asset - name, date acquired, date in service, cost, etc.

(6) Field 5 is Type of Asset - position yourself in that field and a drop-down list of only 2 types appears.   FROM THAT VERY FIELD select the Turbotax Help icon, and you'll see that in fact there should be a list of 15 - 20 different types that Turbotax supports, all listed in that Help description; all these types SHOULD be showing up in the selection drop-down menu (in fact, used to show up...)

This discussion likely useless to others, but don't know how to keep it off the Community forum, let me know how if necessary...

[mesquitebean]

To assist @ mlohrer in explaining that, here is an image from the Windows version (but it's not the latest update.)  I don't use the Mac version.    When I create a test asset for a business in Forms Mode, this is what I see on the Asset Entry Worksheet for that asset.   There's actually more choices for "Asset Type" than what I could capture in the image.   There is a scroll bar that displays more in the list, so this is just the first 11 asset types.

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Apparently mlohrer is only seeing 2 choices in that long dropdown list.

[mlohrer]

Thanks and you are exactly correct: that’s what it should be on the Mac version too,  and in fact was as of the last functioning update, but isn’t in this latest update…

[macuser_22]

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@mlohrer wrote:

Thanks and you are exactly correct: that’s what it should be on the Mac version too,  and in fact was as of the last functioning update, but isn’t in this latest update…

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I agree that there are only 2 entries, but that does not appear to be new.   

Release r34 dated June 10, 2020 (before the recent update) only had the same 2.

I also booted back to the original 2020 release that I have which is r10 dated December 22, 2019 and it also only had 2 entries.    It appears that the 2020 Mac version has always only had 2 entries.

I can report it as a bug, but it does not seem to be connected to the update.

Here is a screenshot from the Dec 22, 2019 R10.

I also checked the 2019 version and it has the entire list.

[mesquitebean]

@macuser_22    There's some PII on that second image you posted that you may wish to redact.

[mlohrer]

Not possible that this bug has ALWAYS been present in the 2020 version, because I've been entering assets up until the last few updates (maybe thru April releases?) that are NOT of the 2 types now showing, and the full list has always been present when doing those.  

Might have been introduced sometime after that, but frankly perplexed by the report that it was there in the December release....

In any case, please do report it as a bug, and I agree it may not be tied directly to this latest release but I'm quite confident there was an extensive period was it was NOT present, again, because I've got assets of types no longer listed.

[macuser_22]

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@mlohrer wrote:

Not possible that this bug has ALWAYS been present in the 2020 version, because I've been entering assets up until the last few updates (maybe thru April releases?) that are NOT of the 2 types now showing, and the full list has always been present when doing those.  

Quite possible that the update broke it.   It would appear not to be in the application itself but in a form update that is in the "Applications Support"  Folder so reverting the Application will not change the form.

Another CHAMP reported that the latest update also broke the Windows version the same way.  @mesquitebean  must not have installed the last Windows update yet.

Anyway, I submitted it to the Moderators who opened a bug report on it.

[mlohrer]

Understood, and explains the mystery as to how the early application version now exhibited the problem...interesting wrinkle.

In any case, "interview mode" continues to live on....not good.

Thanks for getting the bug report in, hope we get back to normal operation soon, have work to do with this product!

[macuser_22]

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@mlohrer wrote:

Understood, and explains the mystery as to how the early application version now exhibited the problem...interesting wrinkle.

In any case, "interview mode" continues to live on....not good.

Thanks for getting the bug report in, hope we get back to normal operation soon, have work to do with this product!

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That is the problem with updates for any software - fix one thing and break something else which is why critical software goes through regression testing before updates are issued, however for tax software that is not possible since it is so volatile due to tax law changes and IRS form changes which require frequent updates - a full regression test takes weeks or months to do - the more complex the software, the longer it takes.  Even then bugs creep through (I debugged critical  communications software for 20 years before I retired).

[mlohrer]

And I worked for decades in electronics manufacturing developing control software - personally done plenty of regression testing, and I fully understand that bugs happen.  But  as daunting a task as "testing" may be, these recent bugs are incredibly sloppy workmanship, and frankly not usual for Intuit based on past history - something has changed there and not for the better, let's hope it goes back to normal once the new season starts up.

[mlohrer]

New Mac update has been released, but the same "forms bug" appears to be present ("missing asset types" issue) - is it possible that somehow I've not properly installed new forms as part of the update process?  Or, perhaps this "bug" was not addressed in this update?

Any insight on this?

Thanks

[mesquitebean]

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@mlohrer wrote:

New Mac update has been released, but the same "forms bug" appears to be present ("missing asset types" issue) - is it possible that somehow I've not properly installed new forms as part of the update process?  Or, perhaps this "bug" was not addressed in this update?

Any insight on this?  Thanks

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According to Champ @rjs , the update addressing that issue is supposed to be released sometime next week.   Updates frequently happen on a Thursday.  See the comments in this related thread:

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/business-taxes/discussion/re-how-do-i-select-asset-type-a-from-dro...

[ccedarburg]

I'm having the same problem with my Windows application.  Only getting office in the home option at the asset type drop down.  That's not what I need.  Do you think uninstalling and reinstalling the program could fix it?

[DoninGA]

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@ccedarburg wrote:

I'm having the same problem with my Windows application.  Only getting office in the home option at the asset type drop down.  That's not what I need.  Do you think uninstalling and reinstalling the program could fix it?

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Uninstalling and reinstalling will not fix this problem.

This is a known problem and TurboTax support should have an update for the software in the near future.  Updates normally occur each Thursday when required.

However, you should be entering the Assets in the Step-by-Step interview and not in Forms mode.  If you enter your Assets in the TurboTax interview they will be properly recorded with the correct recovery times.  Also the Form 4562 Deprecation and Amortization will also be correctly completed if you use the interview mode.

[mlohrer]

Agree, reinstalling useless.

What has served as a work-around is using the tedious "interview mode", takes a half an hour or so to familiarize yourself with the fixed asset entry stuff.

There have been a series of bugs by Intuit in this area, and in all cases I've been able to get a "correct" form set up via the interview mode, and then returned to forms-mode for numerical entry revisions, etc - just DON'T land on the asset type field an inadvertently change it!  (FYI: actually, landing on it will not change it, whatever you entered via interview mode will stay there as long as you don't explicitly change it to one of the few listed in the dropdown menu...