Drake Tax vs. AbakusDrake Tax on its own, or built around your firm.
Drake Tax is Drake Software's professional tax software, widely used by independent preparers, EAs, and small firms for individual and business returns.
Drake Tax
Abakus
The short answer
Drake Tax stays your system of record for preparing and e-filing returns. What we replace is the stack of separate tools around it (client portals, organizers, document-request apps, and tracking spreadsheets) with one platform built for your firm that handles intake, document collection, data extraction, and review prep, so returns reach Drake Tax cleaner and faster and you pay for fewer subscriptions.
What Drake Tax does well
- Fast, keyboard-driven data entry that experienced preparers know well
- Broad federal and state form coverage for individual and business returns
- Built-in e-filing, with portal and document tools available in the wider Drake suite
Where firms hit its limits
- Built to prepare and file returns, not to run the work around them: intake, document chasing, and client follow-up happen somewhere else.
- Keying W-2s, 1099s, and K-1s into input screens is still a large share of prep time.
- Firm-specific review checks live in people's heads, sticky notes, or spreadsheets instead of the software.
Drake Tax on its own vs. with Abakus
Drake Tax on its own
Off the shelf, built for every firm
Drake Tax + Abakus
Rules designed around your firm
Getting source data in
Keyed by hand, or through the vendor's own import options.
AI extracts W-2, 1099, and K-1 data into reviewable workpapers organized by input screen.
Document collection
Outside the tax software: email, portals, and phone calls.
Per-client checklists and reminders that stop the moment the file arrives.
Firm-specific review checks
Whatever the product ships with.
Your own pre-review checks, added in hours.
Changing the process
Wait for the vendor's next release cycle.
Change the automation around it the same day.
What we build around Drake Tax
Typical automations for firms that use Drake Tax. Each one follows your firm's rules, keeps a human review step where professional judgment matters, and changes in hours when you need something different.
AI extraction of W-2, 1099, 1098, and K-1 data into workpapers laid out like Drake's input screens
Document checklists and reminders that run before a return is ever opened in Drake
Year-over-year comparisons and pre-review checks your firm defines
Status updates to clients as returns move from prep to review to e-file
Drake Tax: common questions
Do we have to switch away from Drake Tax?
Can Abakus get data into Drake Tax?
Will automation change how we review returns?
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Practice management CompareDrake Tax is a trademark of Drake Software. Abakus Automations is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Drake Software. Product details are summarized from public information and may change.
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