Comparing these programs: pros and cons.

Q. Which Program is Better--QuickBooks or Peachtree?

A. It all depends on what you're looking for, the type of business you have and what your accountants prefer. They are both excellent programs. Each has different strengths and weaknesses. I usually say Peachtree is written for the accountant who wants to see the Debit/Credit on all transactions and use account numbers. QuickBooks is written for the business person, who doesn't really understand accounting but wants to manage the business and at the same time have the information the accountant needs.

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In my opinion, Peachtree does a better job of handling inventory (you sell what you buy) and QuickBooks is better for service businesses. Both software companies have made major improvements over the years to their weak areas.

Inventory

Peachtree allows you to select FIFO, LIFO, Average or standard (fixed) costing. QuickBooks uses average costing, period. Peachtree Complete allows you to have a Master Item and then have various sizes, colors, etc., without having to use separate items for each. You can enter in up to 10 prices per item and can set price calculations based on standard price or cost. Peachtree sorts its inventory purely by item number. This means if you have a large inventory you might want to put a prefix in front of the part number to designate a department.

QuickBooks Pro uses average costing. It allows you to have sub-items; this makes it easy to sort by departments or categories. QuickBooks Pro 2003 allows for up to 20 price calculations but they have to be by a percentage. QuickBooks Premier 2004 allows up to 100 price calculations that can be a percentage or amount by item.

While they both have assemblies (grouping multiple items together into a single item sold), neither one does a great job for manufacturing where you're dealing with raw material. In older versions of QuickBooks you could create a 'Group' item which worked like an assembly. In the 2003 and 2004 Pro/Premier versions they actually have an 'Assembly' item. In both programs you need to assemble the assembly before you have the inventory of the final item to sell.

Non-Inventory & Service Items

Peachtree allows you to set up Non-Inventory Parts (things you buy to sell but don't stock) and service items, but has always been weak on the reporting side. The accounting part worked fine, your financial reports were fine, but when you wanted to know how much of a non-inventory or service item you sold--forget it. If you didn't have a quantity on hand, you couldn't get the information by item. On Peachtree 9.0, they added a report that showed you by customer what items were sold but not by item.

This has always been QuickBooks strength. Most small businesses sell some services and non-inventory items. The Sales By Item Summary report lets you know which items are selling and what percentage of your sales that item represents. I have used it as a time management report to see which services I sell are the most profitable. For me, not having this report in Peachtree caused untold frustration time and again. It's the management end of the business.

The financial reports from both programs would look exactly the same. They both report the correct income and expense. The accountants and the IRS are happy. It really broke down to what management information the business owner wanted about their sales.

Sales Orders & Purchase Orders

Peachtree has always had a Sales Order & Purchase Order function. You enter in the order and then convert it to an Invoice as shipped. It handles backorders nicely on either side of the fence.

QuickBooks Pro has done a great job on Purchase Orders & backorders from a vendor since Version 99. Their weak link has been Sales Orders. QuickBooks Premier 2003 and QuickBooks Pro/Premier 2004 have a Sales Order that really works. In the new QuickBooks Premier/Enterprise 2004 versions, you can even convert a customer Sales Order into a Vendor Purchase Order.

Reports

In my opinion, this is the area of greatest difference.

Peachtree has improved its reports greatly over the years but they still leave something to be desired. The choices of filters for each report are predetermined. While you can go into the options on each report and choose which columns (fields) are shown and rearrange them, you only have a few choices of filtering on each report.

QuickBooks lets you filter any report by any field. You can customize which columns (fields) you see, rearrange the order, and the sort field. You do have to be careful that you don't over filter a report. Just remember, this is a computer you're dealing with and what may seem logical to you doesn't necessarily make sense to a computer. (For example, filtering a customer report for a vendor's name). I have filtered down reports to where only certain words entered in the memo field appear on the report.

Accounting

Peachtree requires that you use an account number. It allows you to have two fiscal years open at one time. After the first year, this is normally this year and last year. Once you've closed a fiscal year, you can't get back to that information. If you haven't purged the data, you can still run some reports for a time period of 'All' and see the information. There is no period 25, which means you must close out the previous fiscal year before you can work in the new fiscal year. For example, if you are currently in period 23 (Nov 2003), you must close out periods 1-12 (the year 2002) before you can make any entries in 2004.

QuickBooks never closes. While this alarms some accountants, after you get used to it, it's rather nice. I've been using QuickBooks since 1992 and can create a Profit & Loss Report that shows the last 11 years side-by-side. (You can see my business's life history is this report!) Depending on how your accounting preferences are set, you can use account numbers or not. If you choose to use account numbers you can use either the number or the account name when entering.

If I printed a Profit & Loss (QuickBooks), an Income Statement (Peachtree) or a Balance Sheet (both) from both programs and set them side-by-side, most people could not tell which program they came from.

So, which program should you use? Just because your neighbor uses one doesn't make it the best program for you. Talk to several people. Talk to your accountant. Get a sample demo of each and play around with them. Enter some of your transactions and then look at the reports.

The biggest problem I have found is that people decide on a program based on what someone tells them. Then they spend hours entering in all their data. At the end of the first month (sometimes sooner, sometimes later) they try to run reports for the information they need and then find out the program they chose doesn't have that report. I have worked with clients in both Peachtree and QuickBooks who should have been using the other program. Take the time to look, to play, to ask questions.

Q. I keep getting notices about new releases of the software I'm using. Should I upgrade?

A. Every year software companies introduce a new version of their software. Some programs require that you upgrade every year or you won't be compliant. Fortunately, neither QuickBooks or Peachtree is that way. I always tell my clients to review the list of new features and if you see something you've been waiting for, upgrade. If not, don't. I have found that the new versions usually contain some improvements and some new features, but usually there are no major changes to the program. When they do that, they usually give it a new name.

If you're using the payroll function of your software, you normally need to be within two versions of the current release in order to receive the updated payroll tax tables. If you're not using payroll, then it's up to you. Of course, the software companies would appreciate your upgrading every year.

If you give a copy of your data file to your accountant at year's end, then you need to make sure you use the same version. As an accountant, I tend to have multiple versions of the software I support on my computer so that I can read my client's backup regardless of the version used. Other accountants may require their clients to upgrade when they do. It's all a personal choice.

If you see a new feature that you think might be nice, get a demo of the program (you can download the demos from either web site, www.quickbooks.com or www.peachtree.com) and install it in a different directory than your current program and look it over. There is nothing worse than installing a new version only to find out you liked the old one better!

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Since Dawn Ashpole started SBA Services, Inc., in 1989, she has provided training and support in all versions of QuickBooks, Peachtree and Red Wing Business Software to more than 1,500 small- to medium-size businesses. She may be reached at sbaservices@attbi.com or 800-321-4744.