Peachtree 8 for Dummies (updated for version 2002)

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Here's what you get in Peachtree 8 for Dummies:

Introduction

About This Book

What You Can Safely Ignore

Foolish Assumptions

The Flavors of Peachtree

How This Book Is Organized

Part I: Getting Started

Part II: The Daily Drudge

Part III: The Fancy Stuff

Part IV: The Part of Tens

Icons Used in This Book

Where to Go from Here

Part I: Getting Started

Chapter 1: Mastering Peachtree Basics 

Starting the Program

Choosing opening options

Exploring a sample company

Getting around town

Opening a Company

Opening a Peachtree company from within Peachtree

Opening a company from the Peachtree opening screen

Exploring Peachtree's Windows

Exploring fields and records

Looking up information

Making a date

Using the toolbar

Getting a Helping Hand

What's this all about?

Using the Help contents

Using the Help index

Checking Out New Features in Peachtree 8

Chapter 2: Setting Up Your Company

Starting the New Company Setup Wizard

Introducing your business to Peachtree

Choosing a chart of accounts

Choosing an accounting method

Selecting a posting method

Selecting accounting periods

Chapter 3: Designing the Chart of Accounts

Understanding the Chart of Accounts

Understanding account types

Numbering accounts

Handling departments or locations

Modifying the Chart of Accounts

Adding new accounts

Editing accounts

Deleting accounts

Identifying the rounding account

Opening balances

Chapter 4: Setting Up the Background Information

Setting Purchasing Preferences

Establishing default payment terms and accounts

Aging vendor bills

Creating custom fields for vendors

Setting Sales Preferences

Establishing default payment terms and accounts

Aging customer invoices

Creating custom fields for customers

Setting up finance charges

Establishing payment methods

Setting Payroll Preferences

Using the Payroll Setup Wizard

Establishing general employee defaults

Setting pay levels

Employee fields and employer fields

Setting Inventory Preferences

Inventory items and general ledger accounts

Taxes and shipping

Custom fields

Part II: The Daily Drudge

Chapter 5: Buying Goods Working with Vendors Adding vendors Changing vendor information Viewing vendor history "De-activating" a vendor Working with Purchase Orders Entering purchase orders Printing a purchase order immediately Posting and printing later . . . or not printing at all Editing and erasing purchase orders Entering Bills Purchasing without using a PO (or entering a vendor bill) Receiving goods against a purchase order When the bill arrives . . . finally Shipping Directly to Customers Entering Credits Reporting on Purchasing

Chapter 6: Paying Bills

Paying a Group of Bills

Selecting bills to pay

Printing checks

Recording Payments

Handling Repeat Payments and Bills

Writing Checks

Voiding Checks

Paying Sales Tax

Tracking Money You've Paid with Reports

Chapter 7: Selling Products and Services

Working with Sales Taxes

Yielding to the authorities

Creating Sales Tax Codes

Working with Customers

Adding customers

Modifying customer information

Changing customer IDs

Saying good-bye when a customer is no longer a customer

Where to begin? Beginning balances

Bidding with Quotes

Entering quotes

Converting quotes to a sales order or invoice

Working with Sales Orders

Generating an Invoice

Invoicing against a sales order

Invoicing against sales

Editing a Sales Transaction

Voiding an Invoice

Recurring Invoices

Reviewing Customer Reports

Chapter 8: Collecting the Money

Recording Receipts

Applying receipts to an invoice

Entering receipts from non-established customers

Applying receipts at the time of sale

Boing! Handling Bounced Checks

Handling Credit Card Receipts

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

Creating a credit memo

Issuing refund checks for a credit memo

Entering Finance Charges

How do finance charges work?

Who and how much does Peachtree charge?

Applying finance charges

Producing Statements

Reporting on Money Your Customers Owe

Chapter 9: Paid Employees Are Happy Employees

Understanding Payroll Basics

Employees and sales representatives . . .

When should you start to use payroll?

Working with Employee Information

General employee information

Custom fields

Payroll information

Employee fields

Employer fields

Writing and Printing Payroll Checks

Paying a group of employees

Paying employees individually

Paying commissions, bonuses, or other additions

Writing the Payroll Tax Liability Check

Exploring Payroll Reports

Chapter 10: Billing for Your Time

Creating Time and Expense Items

Entering Time Tickets

Entering Expense Tickets

Paying Employees

Using Tickets to Bill Customers

Tracking Ticket Traffic

Chapter 11: Counting Your Stuff

Creating Inventory Items

General options

Custom fields

History

In the Beginning (Balance, That Is) . . .

Puttin' 'Em Together, Takin' 'Em Apart

Creating a Bill of Materials

Building assemblies

Making Inventory Adjustments

Adjusting Prices

When Does Peachtree Assign a Cost to Items?

Reporting

Chapter 12: Tracking Project Costs

Understanding Job Costing

Creating custom fields for jobs

Reviewing Job examples

Creating Jobs and Estimates

Establishing Phases

Coding Costs

Assigning Jobs to Transactions

Purchasing

Invoicing

Adding Overhead to a Job

Purging and Jobs

Reporting on the Job

Part III: The Fancy Stuff

Chapter 13: Doing Things Your Way Setting Global Options The Accounting Screen tab The General tab Customizing Data Entry Windows Memorizing Transactions Creating memorized transactions Using memorized transactions A Strange Turn of Events Turning off the automatic events Creating your own events Looking at the event log Making a To-Do List Finding Transactions

Chapter 14: Working with Forms

Printing Forms

Previewing forms in the document window

Printing from the document window

Printing forms in a batch

Modifying Forms

Exploring the Form Designer

Moving objects

Deleting objects

Adding data field objects

Adding Text objects

Resizing an object

Formatting field properties

Aligning objects

Grouping fields

Saving forms

Chapter 15: Making Reports Work for You

Viewing Standard Reports

Customizing Reports

Using filters

Adding, deleting, and moving report fields

Changing report column width

Keeping in style

Saving a customized report

Excel with Peachtree

Stay in a Group Now . . .

Chapter 16: Reviewing the Financial Picture

Reviewing Standard General Ledger Reports

Using Masking in Reporting

Producing Financial Statements

Modifying Financial Statements

Using the Financial Statement Wizard

Using masking in financial reporting

Copying Reports and Financial Statements

Chapter 17: When the Bank Statement Arrives . . .

Understanding the Concept of Balancing

Starting Reconciliation

Marking Checks and Deposits

When the Account Doesn't Balance

Items to review

Making adjustments

Printing the Reconciliation Summary

Chapter 18: When Accounting Cycles End . . . And Other Miscellaneous Stuff

Changing Accounting Periods

Making General Journal Entries

Accounting Behind the Scenes

Batch Posting

Preparing the Payroll Quarterly Report (941)

Printing W-2s

Printing 1099s

Updating Payroll Tax Tables

Closing Payroll and Fiscal Years

A few notes about closing

Payroll

Accounts Payable

Inventory

Accounts Receivable

Job Cost

Account Reconciliation

General Ledger

Closing the payroll year

Closing the fiscal year

Purging

Some important notes about purging

Chapter 19: Managing the Money

Meet the Financial Manager

Business Summary

Key Balances

Understanding the Cash Manager

Using the Payment Manager

Using the Collection Manager

Looking at Peachtree Today

Chapter 20: Peachtree in Real Life

Handling Customer Prepayments

Creating a Prior Year Company

Moving Peachtree to a New Computer

Handling Retainage

Real-Life Payroll Situations

Payroll deductions, in general

Employee loans

Garnishments

Health insurance

Union dues

Showing employer contributions on paycheck stubs

Adding a 401(k) plan to an existing company

Multiple state withholdings

Local taxes

Chapter 21: Keeping Your House Safe

Backing Up Your Data

Restoring Information

Securing Your Data from Prying Eyes

Setting up users

Customizing user rights

Removing users

Logging on as a user

Using the Audit Trail Report to Track Actions

Turning on the audit trail

Viewing the Audit Trail report

Part IV: The Part of Tens

Chapter 22: Ten or So Common Peachtree Messages (and What You Can Do about Them) Period Changed to ## Due to Unposted Entries There Not a Valid Date in This Period This Report Contains No Data The Record You Are Trying to Access Is Currently in Use Your Security Settings Do Not Allow ERASE Access to This Area of Peachtree Accounting No Forms to Print The Transaction Refers to a Non-Existing Invoice This Program Has Performed an Illegal Operation GL Does Not Foot Could Not Find The xxx Single (or Married) Calculation File System Error 11 or 35

Chapter 23: More Than Ten Things You Can Get from the Web

Peachtree Software

IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.

The (Infernal) Internal Revenue Service

Inside Peachtree

Authorized Peachtree Support Centers

Small Business Administration

Checks and Forms

Microsoft Corporation

United States Postal Service

Buy Postage Online

Download Shareware

Just for the Fun of It

When You're Bored . . .

Chapter 24: Ten Do's (and Don'ts) to Make Your Accountant Love You

Do Communicate with Your Accountant

Do Use the Same Version of Peachtree

Do Use the Same Chart of Accounts

Don't Edit After Closing a Period

Do Delete Sparingly

Don't Adjust Customer or Vendor Balances through the General Ledger

Don't Change the A/P Account When Entering a Purchase

Don't Change the A/R Account Number When Generating an Invoice

Don't Make Any Adjustments to Balances through Retained Earnings

Do Print the Journals

Appendix: Add-On Products for Peachtree

Timeslips Corporation

Microsoft

Small Business Financial Manager

Small Business Customer Manager

Wizard Business Solutions

Consolidation Wizard

Conversion Wizard Suite

EDI Wizard Payroll

Magnetic media programs

Payroll programs

Invoice programs

General Ledger programs

Inventory

Jobs

Logic Team, Inc.

Multiware, Inc.

Origin One, LLC

AttitudePositive

Peachtree

Peachtree Fixed Assets

PeachLink

Contractor's Tool Kit

You get a lot of practical help with Peachtree 8 for Dummies!

or call free (800) 256 1786 to order by phone.

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