Join us for a detailed look at questions asked by members of the Business-Software.com Community. Today’s question comes from Charlotte D., of Roselle, Ill., who asked, “Is Peachtree a better product than QuickBooks?” The QuickBooks vs. Peachtree (now Sage 50) question is about as common as any that we see here at Business-Software.com. Both time-tested products are hugely successful in the small business accounting segment (a mind-boggling 90% market share for QuickBooks according to some sources), despite the variety of products available outside these two major vendors.

So what is it that sets them apart? Is one “better” than the other? The short answer to that last question is “no.” As is usually the case with business software, it’s rare for one product to be unequivocally better than the next. It comes down to which product best meets the specific needs of the individual business, whether it’s their processes, IT infrastructure, existing software portfolio, or even personal preference. Peachtree and QuickBooks are no different. Each has its strengths. So it’s up to the user to evaluate her requirements and select the option that fits best.

The Pro editions of Sage 50 and QuickBooks cost $269 and $229.95 respectively, a negligible amount when you consider the long-term value of the product. Sage Peachtree Pro Accounting 2011 helps you manage your expanding business with easy-to-use accounting features that do the basics and much more. Automate your invoices checks and track employee. Internet access required. Your bank may charge a fee to download statements. Versions 2008 - 2010.

Feature Comparison Not surprisingly, both Sage 50 and QuickBooks Pro offer essential double-entry accounting capabilities, including accounts receivable, accounts payable and general ledger. QuickBooks offers easy invoicing via its Collections Center, including batch invoicing, which enables users to apply a single invoice to all members of a group. If you spend a lot of time online you’ll enjoy QuickBooks’ integration with e-mail services like Gmail and Yahoo, as well as its integration with online banking. Additionally, QuickBooks provides industry-specific reporting templates with automated data entry. Consultant Steve Collins of offered his insight into the differences between the two products. Peachtree (now Sage 50) has a year-end close process.

It keeps 2 years open at a time so you have plenty of time to get year-end adjustments done before you have to close. Download Firmware Bb 8520 Terbaru there. QuickBooks does not have a year-end close procedure, but it does allow you to set a password to lock everything prior to a chosen date.

Sage 50′s inventory supports FIFO, LIFO, and average in the Pro and Complete versions. Move up to Premium or Quantum and you will also get the option of serialized inventory. QB only offers average costing unless you are using Enterprise and add on their Advanced Inventory option for an additional annual fee.

It adds FIFO, serial and lot options as well as inventory locations. Sage 50 gives you greater ability to customize your forms (invoices, sales orders, etc.) and financial statements. Additionally, Sage 50 offers customizable dashboards for quick insight into your business and job costing—something QuickBooks doesn’t offer in its Pro edition. Sage 50 also provides organizational tools such as email alerts, Excel and Word integration and customized reporting in addition to its foundational accounting features. According to Collins, Sage 50’s reports are more traditional than those offered in QuickBooks. He says the unconventional nature of the QB reporting can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the situation, noting that ultimately it’s a matter of user preference. And finally, if you need a solution that will run on Mac OS X your only option is QuickBooks.

You can find full feature overviews on the Sage and Intuit websites. QuickBooks Company Snapshot Usability Historically, Sage products are viewed as catering toward users who have backgrounds in accounting or finance, whereas QuickBooks has a reputation for being more intuitive and user-friendly—the implication being that Sage offers a more robust product, whereas QuickBooks offers one that’s easier to use. QuickBooks Pro’s New User Setup feature is designed to facilitate a smooth transition into using the software for the uninitiated. It coaches you through the steps of performing your first QuickBooks tasks, and automates the import of contacts from Excel or other address books. Additionally, QuickBooks has a simple interface and offers visual workflows to guide users through the software. With the release of Sage 50 2013 it’s clear that Sage has identified a need to foster a more “user-friendly” image. One of the big steps toward achieving this is the Sage Advisor, a series of animated tutorial videos and PDFs that walk users through everything from getting around Sage 50 to paying bills and managing inventory.

The Sage Advisor supplements the information available in the Community, Knowledge Base, and Sage Support resources. Collins offered the following insight regarding usability: They are very similar and you really need to look at both of them to decide for yourself. Personally, I think Sage 50 is better organized and easier to navigate. But in talking with QB users that have gotten jobs in Peachtree offices, I have met people on both sides of that argument. It really comes down to whose programmers you think like.

Just don’t get scared off by people who tell you that Peachtree is impossibly hard to use and QuickBooks is so easy that anyone can use it. They usually fall into one of three groups: (1) those who are just repeating what they have heard, (2) those who’s Peachtree experience was with the DOS version 15 or 20 years ago and are comparing that with today’s QuickBooks, and (3) those who do their job by memorizing steps without understanding what they are doing—to those people, whatever they learned first is easy and right, while anything else is difficult and wrong. Sage 50 Business Status Cost/Editions The Pro editions of Sage 50 and QuickBooks cost $269 and $229.95 respectively, a negligible amount when you consider the long-term value of the product. Sage offers expanded versions of Sage 50 starting with Sage 50 Complete at $369 for one user and Sage Premium at $569 for one user. Both of these products are offered in 3-user and 5-user versions for a jump in price.

The next step up from QuickBooks Pro is QuickBooks Premier, which runs $399.95 for the first user and supports up to 5 users. QuickBooks Premier offers expanded functionality like forecasting and industry reporting. QuickBooks Enterprise is at the high end of the QuickBooks family. For $600 per user it offers a broad set of features for reporting and finances, inventory, sales, payroll, productivity and more. QuickBooks Enterprise is in competition with Sage 50 Quantum (starting at $2,999 for 5 users).

Quantum is essentially an ERP substitute for the small business, with modules for managing finances, customers, inventory, services, jobs and employees. Functionality aside, the primary difference is that the base edition of Quantum requires a license for a minimum of 5 users, making it a significant step up in price from QuickBooks Enterprise. Hello, I’d like to ask you something about the right software for my needs. I work for a coach hire company and tour operator in the accounting department. We are a group of 3 different companies doing the same kind of business.

Now we use Sage 50 Accounts 2010, but it’s time to update the system. The principal problems that I’d like to fix are below: 1. I can’t switch on sage from one company to another company without doing log out and log in every time. This procedure determines a waste of time. I’d like to have the possibility to switch through the 3 companies immediately, without doing the log in and log out for a lot of times during the day; 2. Many suppliers are in common with the 3 companies and now I can’t know in a easy way on Sage what is the whole position respect a single supplier for the 3 companies. Ex: Supplier X provides our company A, B and C and I want to know the whole position (how many invoices I have to pay for each company) without having to get in and out continually in the account of the company A, B and C.

I want something like a report about the position of the 3 companies respect any supplier in a fast way. Is there a solution of my problems? I have to integrate more software?

We are even thinking about the possibility to change software. In your opinion is it a good idea to stay with Sage 50 and switch to the 2016 version or are there best software than sage for our situation? (Quickbooks for example). It is difficult to give advice about “right software” in a post as there are many factors. If you have multiple companies there is no way, with any program I know of, to switch without logging in.

Some QuickBooks version allow you to open two companies at a time, with some limits on the capabilities in the second company, but you still have to log in. To get information out of multiple companies without opening them you would need to use outside reporting. You can consolidate information in this manner.

QuickBooks might have some advantages but it can also have disadvantages. I would need to understand more about the features you are using to know if QuickBooks would work for you but you would still have the same issues. With Sage 50 Premium versions you can consolidate data from multiple companies, although I am not sure it will give you the level of detail you are looking for. Most likely you will need outside reporting tools regardless of the solution. CONSOLIDATION IN SAGE 50 “If you have a Premium version of the software is really simple.

You need to go to File/New Company and go through the wizard. Give it a name (ie Corporate Rollup) and choose next, at the bottom of the screen choose ‘Consolidate Existing Peachtree Companies’. You would then choose the companies from the list. They all need to have similar chart of account structure and the same Retained Earnings account in order to be able to roll up so you may need to do some account number changing but other than that it will create a new Peachtree company and make all the necessary entries so you can run a financial. Once the company is created, you can update the numbers any time under the File menu.

Dear Caren, Kindly can you guide me here on issue that, I have recently joined a church based non profit organization (diocese office), It uses a locally developed software. Organization’s data is poorly managed, almost like there is nothing, So I want to introduce here QB.

I will be dealing with daily admin expenses, Property income, Church Assessments, School Assessment, Hospital Assessments, Provident Fund, Loans, and some internationally donated welfare projects. Please kindly guide me whether I should use QB or PeachTree. I have used QB for a year but never used Peachtree. Waiting for your guidance. Sincerely Nixon •. From the little you provide, either program might meet your needs. You should work with someone knowledgeable to help you determine the right choice.

Sometimes the “best” choice is based on features, and sometimes it is based on what you know or what your accountant prefers. There are multiple solutions because different organizations have different needs. I would look more detailed at the specifics, including number of transactions and the reporting requirements. For non-profits there are also solutions that are strictly designed to meet Non-Profit accounting needs. Christine Manor is an expert in non-profits, One way to contact her is through the Sleeter Group at •. Hello, I have used both programs for years now.

My company’s accounting is in PT for the past 4 years, although I have no problem starting a new year with QB. My problem is I bought a Mac, and I really don’t want to keep a pc just for my accounting program I have been reading a lot of QB for Mac reviews and they don’t look good QB seems to be the only one to run on Mac. There is also the parallel thing with Mac to run the pc programs. I would need to install it, but also not sure if it really works or if the programs become more limited. I was wondering if the Mac version of QB is really that bad for a small business or if you recommend the parallel system? If the parallel, then which program would work better? I am a distributor so I have a lot of inventory transactions and I track the inventory to customers and jobs.

Can you help? Thank you in advance! The Mac version of QuickBooks is not necessarily better or worse, just different. Depends on the features you need.

You have three options: 1. QuickBooks Mac 2.

Run Parallels or VMWare Fusion on Mac so that you can run Windows and then the windows version of QuickBooks. Note you must purchase windows license to run under parallels or VMFusion 3. Run in a hosted environment.

If you are interested in further discussing the options please reach out to me directly through the contact us page of the website •. Hi Care, I have two business. Both of them I want to grow to several locations. What do you recommend me Peachtree or Quickbooks. First I have a Restaurant.

I want to open some others in the same city as well as other states. I want a system that I can integrate with my POS in new locations.

Am looking for table order POS as well. Second Business is a Seafood Distribution. (just started it. Before I use this business to buy just for my restaurant). I started selling to other restaurants 3 months ago. I am using quickbooks and I find it OK but the business has a lot of growing potential, and It will be easier with a the best software. In the close future I want to have Inventories in up to 5 different cities.

I will have sales people in each city. I need to see how much inventory do I have in each city. And place reorder points for each inventory hub. What do you recommend me?

Regards, Alex •. I have used both for several years. Both have good things and bad things about them. Figuring out which one is for you can seem daunting. Both are owned by big companies whose goal is to force you to upgrade every few years. Nettime Cs Suite 2 08 Crackers. Here’s what I would do if I were you and you have a small business (less than 5 employees). Farm your payroll out to a seperate payroll company.

It will be cheaper and more reliable in the long run. Use a seperate POS system for sales and inventory. Then make one daily entry into QB or Peachtree for daily sales and make periodic general journal entries to inventory.

If possible NEVER upgrade your accounting software. Once you have a system that is reliable and worksstick with it. Same with your computer operating systemkeep using it with the accounting softward.

If you are using XP then stick with QB or Peachtree 2008 and older. Try to skip Vista altogether.

Use Windows 7 for QB peachtree 2010 and above. Stay away from QB Peachtree 2009. Both have problems with Windows 7. In my opinion you should lean towards Sage Peachtree over QB, if for no other reason than the difference in their data bases. Peachtree uses a high-quality standard data base that works well with other data bases. QB uses their own custom database that in many cases does not work well with other data bases. Also with Peachtree (now Sage 50 in the US) you are more likely to learn about real accounting while you use the product.

QB treats real accounting as something to be hidden which is a disadvantage in the long run. I need to know some things about QuickBooks. For instance, I have a lot of the old style voucher checks that I would like to use up. The older Peachtree version would allow me to design a new check style so that I could use these checks up. I have been unable to find out if QuickBooks will allow me to do that.

So do either QuickBooks or Peachtree allow that in their new versions? Also, I am looking for POS information for QuickBooks. I believe that I read that they have their own software but how big of an inventory load will it work for?

And will QuickBooks carry various locations? You might be able to tear off the top stub and use the Peachtree checks but QuickBooks does not offer significant ability to customize the check layout. New check stock can be purchased at very good prices from Checks-for-Less Peachtree offers almost unlimited check layout customization. With regards to POS, Intuit does offer a POS solution but there are many solutions that you could consider that will link depending on your needs. I would suggest you speak with someone who specializes in POS. If you would like a recommendation, please contact me by email and I will provide information. I’m a small property manager (6 family) and currently, I’m entering all of my income and expenses into Excel.

This is sooooo tedious and repetitive and most importantly TIME CONSUMING. Believe it or not as of today 4/22/14, I still did NOT complete my 2012 tax return. I think my situation is an easy fix – lots of people have small rentals, right? Plus, I’m not incorporated – its a small family business and the business model doesn’t change from year to year. Its always the same thing – income is from tenants – nothing else. And my expenses are merchants like Home Depot, plumbers and the gas & electric company. So why is this so hard for me?

I have QuickBooks Pro 2008, but it was so difficult to learn that I went back to Excel. Can you PLEASE leave me at least a comment at least guiding me to what is a good simple program for small landlords – QB Sage 50 or something else. Or, maybe I just need a little couching.

Thank you, thank you in advance, Mike Prigorec •. It could be done with either QuickBooks or Sage 50.

I would suggest upgrading to a current version of QuickBooks Pro and getting some training. If you are interested in training, please contact me at 203-254-7736. Basically I would set up each property as a class. Then you can view profit and loss by class (property). Every transaction – invoice, sales receipt, check or bill – gets recorded with a class. Tenants are customers and the income can be recorded on invoices (if billed) or sales receipts if recording as received. The ideal time for making a transition is the beginning of the new year.

Getting historical data from Sage 50 to QuickBooks is non-trivial and can get expensive. Most firms keep the old system for history and start the new year in the new system. Alternatively you could start at the beginning of a quarter and just put in beginning balances or import a smaller quantity of transactions. Payroll in QuickBooks is not quite as flexible as Sage 50 so if you have needed custom calculations in Sage 50 that might be an issue. I would be happy to speak with you and/or provide a demo if needed to see if QuicKBooks is the right solution. You can contact me at 203-254-7736 •.