Farewell Peachtree Accounting, Hello Sage 50
By David H. Ringstrom, CPA
After thirty-five years, the venerable software program known as Peachtree Accounting is adopting a new moniker – Sage 50 Accounting. The software has changed hands several times over its life, most recently purchased by Sage in 1998. Sage has embarked on a global campaign to unify the naming of its products, so MAS 90 and MAS 900 are now Sage 100 ERP, while Timberline is known as Sage 300 Construction and Real Estate.
Fortunately for long-time Peachtree users, the name change is the primary distinguishing aspect of what would have been Peachtree Accounting 2013. The user interface is exactly the same as before, with a few new features added:
- Users no longer have to change accounting periods to reconcile accounts for previous periods.
- A new Insurance tab appears on vendor record screen.
- A new Set Multiple Records as Inactive screen simplifies the process of indicating which customers and vendors you no longer expect to transact business with.
- Waste-Free Check Printing allows users to print long remittances on plain paper, rather than sacrificing additional check forms just to generate additional stubs.
- International users can now enter amounts with up to fourteen digits before the decimal and five digits after. Most small businesses would never need to enter such amounts, but certain currencies around the world often result in such large amounts, which previously couldn't be recorded as full amounts within the software.
- Sage 50 builds on the Business Intelligence feature introduced in Peachtree 2012, which gives businesses the ability to seamlessly analyze their accounting records in Excel.
- A new Sage E-Marketing service empowers users to launch social media campaigns from within the software.
- An improved QuickBooks Conversion utility.
- A bit of trivia for long-time Peachtree users – according to Wikipedia the first version of Peachtree Accounting appeared in 1977, six years prior to the arrival of Lotus 1-2-3.
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About the author
David H. Ringstrom, CPA, heads up Accounting Advisors, Inc., an Atlanta-based software and database consulting firm. Contact David at david@acctadv.com, and consider attending one of his Excel training webcasts presented by AccountingWEB partner CPE Link.
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