Peach tree Accounting
When it comes to accounting, folks generally separate into two camps: those who transact, and those who analyze.
Any of the major small-business accounting programs--Peachtree,
QuickBooks, Microsoft Small Business Accounting, DacEasy--will serve
entrepreneurs in either camp. But if you're an analyzer, chances are
you'll feel most at home with one of the just-released editions of Peachtree Accounting.
That's especially true if you carry inventory. It's not that
Peachtree's 2007 editions have features competitors don't. It's about
depth in certain key areas and a degree of flexibility that appeals to
those who--if truth be told--kind of dig accounting.
Most of us are transactors, of course, because that's the easiest
thing to be. A good accounting program will take a lot of bookkeeping
drudgery off your shoulders--but nothing saves time like dumping your
shoebox on a paid professional. The only trouble with that particular
strategy is, even if you strike gold early on, fortune never smiles on a
business forever. You're bound to hit a rough patch sooner or
later--sooner if competitors hear about your margins. That's when a good
accounting program really comes in handy.
Star to Steer By
Just recording your transactions in a program like Peachtree creates the most important database you'll ever own--the one with your company's key financial details. Peachtree also happens to be an excellent container for customer and vendor records, syncing tightly with Microsoft Outlook and Sage Software's ACT!
Just recording your transactions in a program like Peachtree creates the most important database you'll ever own--the one with your company's key financial details. Peachtree also happens to be an excellent container for customer and vendor records, syncing tightly with Microsoft Outlook and Sage Software's ACT!
As transaction information piles up, standard Peachtree reports will
let you compare your performance to those of competitors or industry
averages kept by organizations like the Risk Management Association.
RMA's website is also a good place to find useful standard operating
ratios, like an instrument panel to steer your business in the right
direction. Before you know it, you'll be analyzing--something you can't
do if your financial data is sitting on an accountant's computer.
A CPA herself, Walker, 45, needs quick data access because she and
her husband, Lindsay, 47, manage eight separate business units with
combined annual sales of $8 million and a 60-employee payroll. Peachtree
lets her roll up the accounts of all her units when preparing payroll
or financial statements, but isolate their performance milestones when
meeting with her unit managers.
That kind of strong reporting gets stronger still in Peachtree
Premium 2007 and the new Peachtree Quantum 2007, says Dean Penderghast,
certified Peachtree consultant with Anaheim, California, Sales
Automation Services Inc. Premium and Quantum use Pervasive's 32-bit data
engine--it holds more data per record and delivers it faster than the
16-bit Btrieve engine in other Peachtree versions. Quantum can also
juggle still-larger databases and more simultaneous users than Premium.
One Bean, Two Beans.
Companies needing high-level data management and reporting include mixed product/service businesses like contractors, architects--anyone tracking jobs or projects. It's particularly critical to the margins of manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and e-tailers who face the twin challenges of costing and managing large inventories.
Companies needing high-level data management and reporting include mixed product/service businesses like contractors, architects--anyone tracking jobs or projects. It's particularly critical to the margins of manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers and e-tailers who face the twin challenges of costing and managing large inventories.
For example, Paula Gilliland, a Roswell, Georgia, accounting
consultant and owner of e-commerce site PocketScope.com, uses Peachtree
to orchestrate the comings and goings of thousands of parts and
assemblies for her $900,000 medical instrumentation business and one
client's large inventory. Many parts are used in several different
subassemblies, and if there's a failure, Gilliland, 44, has to quickly
find the bad part among hundreds of similar subassemblies, see if it's
under warranty and arrange a replacement.
Keeping too much of something increases carrying costs and, maybe,
capital costs. Keeping too little can increase handling and shipping
costs, or cost you customers. Both erode margins, so Gilliland leans
heavily on Peachtree reports when trying to arrive at just the right
inventory mix. The difficulty of this task was underscored recently when
Intel had 38 percent shaved off its quarterly profits primarily because
it didn't sync up inventory and sales. If it can happen to a company
with Intel's market experience and business resources, think how easily
it could happen to a smaller, product-oriented business.
Of course, not every growing business faces these kinds of
challenges. But if you do, you could fare worse than Peachtree's tools.
After 30 years of use by companies with 100 or fewer employees, they're
pretty well-honed.
How peachy is peachtree 2007?
Pros: Fast and easy to use with a degree of record detail
unique in its class. A new interface brings key business barometers
forward on a home page, while tabs permit quick hops to other modules.
There's new flexibility in budgeting, cash-flow analysis and the use of
lists and custom data fields. Formatting, formulas and lists are
maintained when you swap data with Microsoft Excel or Outlook.
Cons: None. But Peachtree may be more program than you need if
you sell services exclusively, or only one or two people need
simultaneous access to your books.
Download
Peachtree Accounting 2010.msi
peachtree accounting 8.0 on partsman_neil.rar
