ACCT341, Practice Set #4, Peachtree (Sage 50) Overview
This purpose of this assignment is to provide an overview of Peachtree (Sage 50). All parts of the
assignment are due no later than Friday, March 11, at midnight.
Although Peachtree/Sage50 trails QuickBooks in popularity by quite a margin, you may occasionally see
the software being used by some local small businesses. A couple of years ago, Peachtree was purchased
by Sage Group, a large software company based in the U.K. Recently, Peachtree was renamed Sage 50
Accounting.
Unfortunately, the free education version of Peachtree/Sage50 in the labs does not allow data files to be
saved (except to a local hard disk, which gets purged once a day on all lab computers). Therefore,
instead of doing a fourth practice set, we will survey a sample company in Peachtree and compare it to
QuickBooks. You will get a good idea of Peachtree’s capabilities by reviewing this information.
Open Peachtree Complete Accounting (Educational Version). To find the program, from the Windows
tile screen, you can type “Peachtree.” Because of the crazy file setup, several error messages may pop
up. If so, click “ok” or “cancel” to make them go away. The first window should have options to Open
an Existing Company, Create a New Company, and Other Tasks. You want to Explore a Sample
Company (under the Other Tasks Menu) called Stone Arbor Landscaping. Alternatively, you can select
“Open Existing Company” and select Stone Arbor Landscaping. If this process doesn’t work, then go to
File, Open Company, and find the Stone Arbor Landscaping file.
The questions below are organized around the different cycles or modules (customers & sales, vendors
and purchases, etc.). Peachtree is designated “PT” below and QuickBooks is “QB.”
CUSTOMERS & SALES
1. How do the PT icons shown in this cycle compare to the icons in the QB Customers section? List
the differences. (See your McClean’s Cleaners QB file.)
2. Click on Sales Tax icon, Edit Existing Sales Tax or Sales Tax Agency. Notice that you can enter
multiple sales tax codes, especially helpful when you make sales in different states, counties or
cities with different rates. T or F: In QuickBooks you can only enter one sales tax rate but in
Peachtree you can enter dozens. (When finished answering question, cancel out of sales tax
window.)
3. Click on Quotes & Proposals, View & Edit Quotes. Open the Sales Quote for Elkhorn
Apartments, by double-click on Elkhorn. Use the Print icon to print preview the sales quote.
(A) What is the purpose of a Sales Quote? (Hint: in the quote window, hit F1 or the green help
icon for a description.)
(B) T or F: Creating a sales quote produces debits and credits which affect the account balances.
(B) What is the similar feature in QuickBooks called? (Hint: this feature was not turned on for
your practice sets. Go to Edit, Preferences, Jobs & Estimates, turn on the estimate feature, and
then look to see what has been added to your Customer section.)
4. Click on Sales Order, New Sales Order. Hit the F1 key to open Help, About This Window. What
is the purpose of a sales order? Why not just skip a sales order and prepare an invoice?
5. Click on Sales Invoice, View & Edit Sales Invoice. Open the first sales invoice for Ohara Homes.
(A) Has this invoice been paid?
(B) What do the terms “2/10, net 30” mean?
(C) To what two options can an invoice be applied? (See two tabs in middle of window. Hit F1
key for more info.) Under what circumstances would you use each option? To which of the two
tabs is the Ohara invoice applied?
(D) Is Ohara’s balance greater or less than its credit limit?
(E) How much of Ohara’s invoice was Paid at Sale and how much is still due?
(F) Concerning sales tax, what does GACHER stand for?
6. Click on Receive Money, View & Edit Payments Received. Double click on the first Ohara
receipt.
(A) Does this payment apply to Ohara’s oldest invoice?
(B) To what two options can a receipt be applied? (See two tabs in middle of window. Hit F1
key for more info.). Under what circumstances would you use each option?
7. Click on Bank Deposit, View & Edit Bank Deposit. Double click on the Mar. 15 bank deposit.
Click on the little arrow next to the print icon at the top and choose preview. What is the purpose
of the top of this form (white space with numbers)?
8. Click on Credits & Return, New Credit Memo.
(A) Where did you think the term “credit memo” comes from?
(B) What account is being credited?
(C) If you were a customer, would you rather receive a credit memo or debit memo? Why?
9. Click on Customer Statement, Print Customer Statements.
(A) How does a customer statement differ from a customer invoice?
(B) How much does Ashford Hill Apts. owe, according to the latest statement?
(C) T or F: PT does not allow you to customize a statement like QB does.
(D) T or F: PT does not allow customer statements to be emailed like QB does.
10. Click on the Aged Receivables pie chart directly over the 61-90 day section. How many
customers have past due balances that are 61-90 days old?
VENDORS & PURCHASES
11. How do the PT icons listed in this cycle compare to the icons in the QB Vendors section? List the
differences. (See your McClean’s Cleaners QB file).
12. T or F: Creating a purchase order produces debits and credits which affect the account balances.
13. Click on Enter Bills, View & Edit Bills. Open the Bill for Davis Timber & Yard.
(A) To what two things can a bill be applied? (See two tabs. Hit F1 key for more info.) Under
what circumstances would you use each option? To which of the two tabs is the Davis bill
applied?
(B) What exactly is being purchased from Davis Timber & Yard?
14. Click on Pay Bills, View & Edit Paid Bills. Double click on SoPower payment. To what two
things can a payment be applied? (See two tabs. Hit F1 key for more info.) Under what
circumstances would you use each option? To which of the two tabs is the SoPower payment
applied?
15. Click on Electronic Bill Pay, Set up E-Bill Pay. What are the benefits of electronic payment?
16. Click on the Aged Payables pie chart. How many vendors are owed balances 31-60 days past
due?
INVENTORY & SERVICES
17. Click on Inventory Items, New Inventory Items.
(A) From the Item Class drop down box, list the item classes available for setup. How does this
compare to QB?
(B) From the Cost Method drop down box, what are the three costing methods available? What
costing methods are available in QB? (Search help menu for inventory cost methods.)
18. From the graph entitled Cost of Sales Trend, is the company becoming more or less profitable
over time?
19. In your opinion, does it appear that PT’s inventory module is more or less sophisticated than
QB’s? Explain.
EMPLOYEES & PAYROLL
20. Click on Employees, View & Edit Employees. Double click on AHardman.
(A) How much is Hardman’s hourly pay rate (not the same as billing rate)?
(B) For federal purposes, what is Hardman’s filing status, how many withholding allowances
does he claim, and what additional amount of withholding has he requested?
(C) What four types of taxes are withheld from Hardman’s payroll check (see Employee Fields)?
(D) What five types of taxes does the employer pay on Hardman’s behalf (see Company Fields)?
21. Click on 1099s, Print 1099 Report. What is the name of the vendor for whom the 1099 dollar
limit has been met?
22. Click on Time & Expense Tickets, New Time Ticket. Click on the back arrow to get to RDillion’s
time ticket.
(A) How many hours did Roy Dillion work on Jan. 24? What type of work did he do? What is
his billing rate? Is this the same rate on his wage rate?
(B) T or F: Time must be entered on a daily basis – no weekly time sheets are available.
(C) T or F: QB does not have a time/billing function.
23. Click on Payroll Setup, Set up Tax Formulas Manually. Click on the item FICA EE1
(employee’s FICA for 2013). T or F: According to the figure in the formula box, the FICA
ceiling listed is the correct amount for 2013. (Hint: for 2013, only the first $110,700 of wages is
taxed.)
24. Click on Forms, Federal Forms.
(A) Of the list of federal forms that PT will help prepare, what the purpose of the following
forms: 940? 941? I-9? W-4?
(B) T or F: QB does not have the ability to help prepare federal payroll tax forms.
ANALYSIS (see top menu)
25. At the top menu, go to Analysis. What does the graph produced in the Cash Flow Manager
portray?
26. What does the graph produced in the Collection Manager portray?
27. What ratios are automatically calculated in the Financial Manager?
GENERAL JOURNAL ENTRY
28. Go to Tasks on the top menu and then to General Journal Entry. Click the back arrow to view the
most recent entry.
(A) What is the purpose of the last entry made?
(B) Is this a reversible entry? (reversing entries are used by accountants to simplify their lives).
(C) Is this a recurring entry? (recurring entries are pre-schedule entries which are recorded
automatically by the program)
REPORTS (see top menu)
29. At the top menu, go to Reports & Forms, Financial Statements, Standard Balance Sheet. Double
click. Based on the top menu icons, determine the following:
(A) T or F: PT does allow export of reports into Excel like QB does.
(B) T or F: PT allows you to design the financial report layout, unlike QB.
(C) T or F: Unlike QB, PT allows you to create reports in PDF format.
(D) T or F: Unlike QB, PT allows reports to be emailed.
(E) T or F: Like QB, PT allows you to drill down (quick zoom) the totals on the financial
statements to a list of the underlying transactions.
30. Go to Reports & Forms, Internal Accounting Review. What is the purpose is this report?
FIXED ASSET MANAGER
31. Click on Maintain on the top menu, and then on Fixed Assets. T or F: PT Educational Version
includes a fixed asset module that will calculate depreciation for you.
32. T or F: QB includes a fixed asset module that keeps track of data but does not calculate
depreciation.
SUMMARY
33. Provide your overall impression of PT based on this review. Specifically:
(A) How would you assess PT’s interface and user-friendliness compared to QB? Be specific.
(B) How would you assess PT’s capabilities and complexity compared to QB? Be specific. For
example, there might be several functions that PT does but not QB and vice versa. And there are
likely several functions that one software package does better than the other. List as many of
these differences as you think of.