Most ecommerce business owners have heard of Peachtree. It's one of the pioneers in the accounting software business that helps many accountants and business owners until today.
In the period where ecommerce businesses are booming, Peachtree has taken the back seat while the new players dominate. Let Unloop tell you about Peachtree and its essential parts: management centers.
When Was Peachtree Accounting Software Developed?
Peachtree started off as a general ledger software in 1978. Back then, there was little to no accounting software in the market, so Peachtree's offering was an innovative one.
Once Sage Group's Peachtree took off, it was a hit for small and medium businesses and the finance industry as a viable accounting solution. As a result, it has expanded its functions from general ledgers to other accounting functions such as inventory, accounts payable, and payroll.
Today, Peachtree remains one of the best accounting software you can find for ecommerce marketplaces. Not much has changed in the interface, but the accounting software still keeps its charm.
Peachtree Accounting Software: The Navigation Pane Management Centers
Peachtree's navigation pane includes many sections that are all useful both for accountants and managers. But for the sake of discussion, we'll tackle only the essential sections for your day-to-day business operations.
Peachtree users call these sections "management centers." They are located in the side menu of the accounting software and are used to manage things such as inventory, payroll, payables and receivables, and bank transactions. Check them out below.
Business Status
The Business Status section is your accounting software dashboard and is available in every Sage Peachtree complete accounting software. This navigation section lets you see an overview of all the relevant business information representing your small business's health.
Within the Business Status's main window, you can see revenue figures, bank account balances, accounts receivable and payable data and other relevant information.
Customers and Sales
This section in Sage50 Peachtree’s software gives you all the functions you need to complete a business transaction. You can perform tasks such as quotation, invoicing, payment collection, and deposits—among other things.
Under the Customer and Sales option, you can also access a detailed list of your customers and generate important reports such as transaction history, cash receipts, and aged receivables.
Vendors and Purchases
One of the best things about Peachtree premium accounting is it allows you to manage your suppliers. That's what the Vendors and Purchases section allows you to do. In this section, you can find a list of all your suppliers and vendors and their contact information as bills and reports.
This section's main pane allows you to manage supplier payables and bills. It also lets you manage checks, set up electronic bills, and see how cash disbursement affects your small business's cash flow.
Inventory and Services
Lets you view your products in more detail. The inventory and services section gives you the item ID, description, number of units sold, and number of items on hand.
You can execute the purchase order command from this section if your inventory is running low. It will also let you see your cost of sales trends graphically to help you manage costs and maximize your profit. Finally, it lets you generate vital inventory reports such as item costing or stock status.
Employees and Payroll
Part of having a business is employing people. Subsequently, they have to be paid for their work. So Peachtree software has an Employees and Payroll section to help small business owners manage payments for different kinds of employees.
The section has employee and vendor viewing panes. In the employee pane, you can view the regular employee's ID number and payment method. The vendor pane is for independent contractors doing professional services. Finally, in the main viewing pane, you'll have the function to track employee work hours and pay them accordingly.
Banking
This section is where you can sync and view your bank account balances. There is a function where you can click a button to pull up all the latest transactions and match it with the ones recorded on your Peachtree software.
The banking section also lets you manage your business transactions for bank reconciliation. The software marks the transaction with a red icon to indicate it's not included in the bank account transaction list, and you can choose to reconcile it manually or delete it.
Is Peachtree Software Accounting the Best?
A lot of professionals today use Peachtree, whether it's the classic software from two decades ago or the updated Sage50 cloud accounting. Some have even mastered the software as they have been using it for years.
But a business owner looking to get accounting software must weigh the pros and cons. So let us give you one of each.
Pro: Easy-To-Follow Workflow
Among all the features offered by Peachtree's current version, one of the best things is the navigation pane options. The ones you can see on the main window of each management center are iconized and arranged as a workflow, making everyday accounting tasks a little more convenient.
Con: User Interface
Peachtree has a non intuitive interface that looks complex at first glance. Anyone who isn't inclined to view numbers and graphs will find the interface crowded with details. It feels like opening multiple browser windows from an old 90s software.
An Alternative for Peachtree
If you find the Peachtree accounting software price to be high and its functionalities complex, there is an alternative for you—consider getting QuickBooks instead.
QuickBooks Online has cloud-connected features, is fairly priced, and is user-friendly. What's awesome about QuickBooks is that accounting pros like us at Unloop have mastered the tool, so you can delegate your accounting software to our capable hands for bookkeeping and preparation of financial statements.You can explore other articles on our website if you want to know more about QuickBooks. But if you want to know how the software works for your business, book a call for a consultation, or check out our ecommerce services now.