I am the controller of a small publishing/consulting company in Cambridge, MA and have worked in the accounting field for the last 13 years. I inherited Peachtree when I joined my current employer 3 years ago, after using Great Plains, Real World and MAS90 at previous jobs.

I started on Version 5, upgraded to 6 in 1998 and then again to 7 in 1999 (for $149, if I remember correctly). I skipped last year's upgrade, mainly because I didn't see any new features that interested me and the cost for the multi-user version had increased substantially. Just 2 weeks ago, I received an offer from Peachtree to upgrade to Peachtree 2002, due out later this year. This time, I took the $299 offer, since I have learned from experience that Peachtree does not repeat its special introductory offers. You snooze, you lose.

Even at $299, I cannot think of another commercial software package we use in the entire company that offers better value. Peachtree throws in everything but the kitchen sink: A/R, A/P, Payroll, G/L, Inventory, Purchase Orders, Job Tracking and more. I remember paying over $900 for only the Accounts Payable module of Great Plains some 10 years ago--the whole package would have cost thousands. I honestly believe that no other professional, double entry accounting package can touch Peachtree in terms of value.

Many other eopinions on this site deplore the "steep learning curve" supposedly inherent to Peachtree. I cannot but wonder if these reviewers have actually set foot in an accounting department in the last 10 years and tried their hands on any of the competing packages. I remember needing 2 consultants and a network engineer just to get Great Plains Dynamics running on a small network 4 years ago, let alone learn how to use it. When I hired a new accounting assistant last fall who had never used Peachtree before, it took her less than a day to become familiar enough with the program to post transactions and run reports. I might be a great teacher but, seriously, Peachtree is no harder to learn than anything else out there.

I would now like to give a more detailed description of the functions most familiar to me:

Accounts Payable
Invoices are posted on a screen labeled Purchases/Receive Inventory that ties into inventory, purchase orders and job costing. You can spread the invoice amount to an unlimited number of G/L accounts and/or jobs. The vendor drop-down menu can be sorted by vendor number or vendor name, a handy feature if you can't remember if a vendor is already in your database. The program will select invoices for payment based on due date or vendor number. In version 7, Peachtree finally added a check edit list that will help you in editing your check run. When printing checks, you can either use a pre-formatted check form or create your own, which means that you can get the different fields to print exactly where you want on your check and in the font of your liking. Editing check forms is not particularly difficult but can be time-consuming. Fortunately, once you have created a form that works, there is little need to change it. Nothing I have described here is particularly innovative or unique, and can be found on many other programs. However, these programs cost thousands more.

Purchase Orders
At my company, there are 5 or 6 people outside of accounting who routinely issue purchase orders to different vendors. Using the security feature in Peachtree, I was able to restrict their access only to purchase orders: they can now create and print purchase orders right from Peachtree, tapping into the A/P vendor database. These purchase orders remain open until an invoice is later posted to them. The security feature is quite extensive and can be customized for just about every menu option: this is particularly useful when many people share the program across a network.

Accounts Receivable
You can create invoices using pre-formatted invoice forms or by designing your own. The design function is quite powerful and allows you to import bitmap files to spruce up your design (for example, by adding your company's logo to the invoice). The great advantage of the design function is that you can print professional looking invoices on plain paper and no longer need pre-printed invoice forms. Of course, the program allows you to post payments to these invoices and maintains complete customer ledgers. An invoice never disappears from the system, even if it is fully paid. You can always retrieve it and edit or delete it. This holds true for any item posted in Peachtree. Any mistake you make can always be fixed, just retrieve the item and change it! Most other programs force you to make correcting entries, and any accountant knows how messy that can get. This is by far the most user-friendly accounting program I have ever worked with.

Financial Statements
This is perhaps where the programs shines the most. I create over 30 monthly reports, including income statements, balance sheets, cash flows and budget reports. You can create current month, year-to-date or month-by-month reports, either for the company as a whole or by division. The divisional reports can then be handed to the different managers who only see the part of the company that concerns them. The financial statements can be infinitely customized and look attractive when printed. There is also a report group feature that allows you to combine any number of statements to print at the touch of a single button instead of having to print them individually. With the number of reports I generate every month, you can be certain that I make full use of this feature!

I could go on and on about the great features in Peachtree. Perhaps the most impressive one is the ability to send any report, be it a check register, an aged receivables report or a financial statement, to an Excel spreadsheet at the touch of a button. Or the fact that Peachtree lets you set up projects to which employees can post their time, and that invoices can be generated directly from these time tickets. I have never purchased a support plan or felt the need to do so. The program is extremely stable and never crashes, which is rare for any software program that runs on a network. Peachtree is the perfect solution for any small or medium sized company, but might not provide enough processing muscle for companies that post thousands and not hundreds of transactions each month. If you are a small business person in the market for an accounting package, stop your search and order Peachtree - you will not regret it.









Recommended: Yes