What’s new in Peachtree 2004?

New in Peachtree 2004

*Denotes not applicable in Philippine setting

New to Peachtree Accounting, Peachtree Complete, and Peachtree Premium Accounting

Delayed Registration

Now when you install and start up Peachtree for the first time, you won’t be asked to register the product immediately. We’ll give you time to get familiar with how Peachtree works. The fifth time you start up Peachtree, you’ll see the Registration window, but you won’t have to register at this time. You can wait until you have accessed Peachtree ten times before you need to register the product.

Enhanced Account Allocation for Direct Deposit Employees

Now when you set up your employees for the Peachtree Direct Deposit Service, you have the choice of allocating a fixed amount to one or more of an employee’s direct deposit accounts. Because of this addition, the Direct Deposit tab in the Maintain Employee/Sales Reps window has a new look and new, more efficient functionality.

Improved Account Reconciliation

The Account Reconciliation window has a new look and new functionality in Peachtree 2004. The window is now sizable, so more transactions can appear onscreen. Also, entering interest and finance charges is now handled in one window, meaning a more streamlined reconciliation process.

Other new features include the ability to search for and find listed transactions, drill down on listed transactions, and clear listed transactions by date range (new) as well as by reference number. Additionally, you can now print the Account Reconciliation report, which gives you a hard copy of the transactions that appear in the window.

Improved Ledger Reporting in Customer and Vendor Maintenance Windows

In earlier releases of Peachtree, the Maintain Customers/Prospects and Maintain Vendors window supplied a simplified version of ledger reports whenever you clicked the Current Balances button for a selected customer or vendor. In Peachtree 2004, clicking Current Balances for a selected customer displays the same Customer Ledgers report available from the Select a Report window. This is also true of vendors; clicking Current balances for a selected vendor displays the regular Vendor Ledgers report.

By default, both reports are filtered to show balances from the beginning of the current accounting period to the current (system) date.

Improved Open Company Function

Peachtree improved the Open Company command. Now you can see the path of the company you want to open. If you have multiple companies, you can even choose from the most recently opened companies by using the Open Previous Company list.

Improved Payroll Wizard and Payroll Maintenance

For 2004, there are improvements in both the Peachtree Payroll wizard and the payroll maintenance windows. The wizard now provides more relevant onscreen information to make your setup options clearer. And the payroll maintenance windows have been renamed to the Peachtree-Maintained Payroll Tax Tables window and User-Maintained Payroll Tax Tables window to make their function clearer.

Improved Help for both the wizard and the maintenance windows will give you a clearer picture of how to set up and maintain payroll in Peachtree.

Improved Peachtree “Services” Pages

The Peachtree Services menu takes you to a variety of Internet-based service centers such as the Peachtree Internet Postage Center, the Peachtree Credit Card Center, and the Peachtree My Web Site page. These provide links that help you learn about, sign up for, and work with Peachtree Web Services.

Now the Services pages have a new, consistent look. You’ll know right away that you’re working in the Web Services area of Peachtree.

Improved Peachtree Task Windows

Task windows, the place where you enter transactions in Peachtree, have a whole new look. The windows look clean and contemporary, and some of the functions that were handled by separate pop-up windows (such as entering a ship-to name and address for sales invoices) are now handled in the task windows themselves. This makes for more streamlined transaction entry.

Tip: If there are fields that you rarely use, such as Ship To fields, you can use the Template feature to hide those fields. Or, you can use keyboard shortcuts to skip those fields. (For example, pressing ALT+D jumps the cursor directly to the Date field.)

Improved Restore Wizard

Peachtree’s Restore Wizard simplifies the process of restoring a data backup, walking you through the process of selecting a backup file, selecting what elements of the backup to restore, and what company to restore to. It even allows you to create a new company “on-the-fly,” as part of the restore process.

New Account Register

The new Account Register lets you enter a payment to a vendor or a receipt from a customer in an easy-to-use, checkbook-register window. You can filter the transactions that display on the register by date or by cash account, and sort the transactions by many criteria, including transaction date. You can customize the register to show transactions as one line or two (set in Global Options).

New Back and Next Buttons for Navigating Records

Now the data records that appear in Peachtree maintenance and task windows are easier to navigate. New Next and Back buttons let you navigate through a list of existing records. Select the Back (left arrow) button to see the previous record in the list; select the Next (right arrow) button to see the next record.

New Capabilities for Changing Record IDs

Just as you could change the record IDs of your customers and vendors, you can now change the IDs of your company’s employees and General Ledger accounts. New Change ID toolbar buttons are available on the Maintain Employees/Sales Reps and Maintain Chart of Accounts windows.

New Capability to E-Mail Forms to Customers and Vendors

In Peachtree 2004, you can e-mail certain forms to your customers and vendors from either a task window or from the Select a Report window.

 New Company Setup Guide and Preparation Checklist

The Peachtree New Company Setup wizard helps you complete a lot of the preliminary tasks needed to establish a new company in Peachtree. However, important tasks remain, such as completing the entry of default information and setting up data records and beginning balances. The new Peachtree Setup Guide, available from Peachtree Today, walks you through the final steps in the company setup process.

To help you along the way is the new Preparation Checklist, a series of Peachtree Help topics designed to answer your questions and assist you in assembling the information needed to complete company setup.

New Display of Direct Deposit Paychecks in Account Reconciliation

Since direct deposit payroll transactions appear as a single entry on your company bank statement, direct deposit transactions now appear in Account Reconciliation as a single, lump-sum entry by date. This makes direct deposit transactions easier to track and reconcile. Also, you can drill down on direct deposit entries in Account Reconciliation. When you do, you’ll see the Payroll Register report filtered for the date of the chosen direct deposit transaction.

New Main Application (Custom) Toolbar

New in Peachtree 2004 is a customizable main application toolbar that will give you immediate access to areas of Peachtree that you work with on a continuing basis. In its default format, the toolbar appears at the bottom of the main Peachtree window and has a number of buttons in place that allow fast access to often-visited areas of Peachtree.

However, you can remove or add buttons as you choose, depending on which areas you need to work with frequently. Also, you can move and “dock” the toolbar to the other three sides of the main Peachtree window, or have it “float”—even outside the Peachtree window, if desired.

New Report-Range Selection Capabilities

When you filter a Peachtree report prior to printing, you can choose a range of data records that will appear on the printed report. In Peachtree 2004, for some data records, a new Equal To filter option is available that lets you select multiple contiguous or noncontiguous data records to appear on the report. This lends a lot of flexibility to setting up printed reports in Peachtree.

New Spell-Checking Capabilities

The new Spell Check feature allows you to check spelling in various areas throughout Peachtree. To activate Spell Check, choose Check Spelling from the Edit menu or press F7 in fields where Spell Check is available. You can even set up Spell Check to review your spelling as you type, or when you save or close a record.

New Windows-Based Installation Program

For 2004, Peachtree’s installation program has been upgraded so that you’ll see a series of helpful installation windows with clear choices for installing, updating, or removing the Peachtree product. For more assistance at any point, just click the Help button. New installation Help topics will guide you through the process.

Updated Release of Stamps (Peachtree Internet Postage Service)

The Peachtree 2004 installation CD contains the latest version of the Stamps internet postage application, which lets you print postage for invoices and checks. The installation CD contains Stamps Release 3.0.0.1.

New to Peachtree Complete and Peachtree Premium Accounting

New Fixed Assets Offerings

Peachtree 2004 offers new approaches to the task of maintaining fixed assets. First, there is a new conversion utility, available from the Peachtree installation CD, that lets you convert Peachtree Fixed Assets information to the new FAS for Peachtree by Sage fixed assets management program.

Second, now available from Sage Software is a special version of the popular FAS FirstStep fixed assets program, which lets you manage up to 1,000 assets. This new version, called FAS 50 Asset Accounting – Peachtree Edition, is fully compatible with Peachtree Accounting and available for licensing from Sage Software. (The conversion utility mentioned above can also convert Peachtree Fixed Assets information to FAS 50 Asset Accounting – Peachtree Edition.)

New Import/Export of Price-Level Calculations

In Peachtree 2004, you can now import and export price-level calculations for inventory items. This will improve the process of importing existing items from Web-based services such as Peachtree WebsiteTrader. Import/export templates that now include price-level calculation fields include the Inventory Item List, Inventory Product Catalog, and Web Site Catalog.

New to Peachtree Premium Accounting

New Company Consolidation

Peachtree Premium Accounting offers a company-consolidation option that lets you combine the charts of accounts of a number of existing Peachtree companies to create a new consolidated chart of accounts. The new consolidated company created in this way will let you see consolidated financial statements for a number of subsidiary companies operating under an umbrella organization. Say your company is a food service organization that incorporates a restaurant, a food distribution service, and a catering service. You could combine the charts of accounts of these three subcompanies to create a new consolidated chart of accounts for the entire organization.

To set up consolidated companies, use the New Company Setup wizard. To learn more about company consolidation,

New Maintain Budgets Window

The Maintain Budgets window in Peachtree Premium Accounting lets you assign dollar amounts to each income and expense account in your chart for each fiscal period for the current year and the two fiscal years following. Also for each account, you can enter revised amounts to reflect the actual dollar amounts allocated to the account for each fiscal period of the current year. To give you maximum flexibility in projecting budgets, Maintain Budgets lets you make sophisticated adjustments to the figures for each fiscal year.

In addition, Maintain Budgets gives you the option of printing a new Account Variance report, which shows the amount and percentage variance between budget and actual figures for each period in a chosen fiscal year.

New Payroll Raise History Window

Now in Peachtree Premium Accounting you can maintain the compensation history for employee records. Selecting the Raise History button on the Pay Info tab of the Maintain Employees/Sales Reps window opens the Raise History window. The Raise History window allows you to view, add, edit, and delete compensation information for the selected employee. You can enter compensation information for each employee and edit it at any time.

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