QuickBooks is not the only accounting software package out there for small business owners. Another choice people have is a program called Peachtree Complete Accounting. Here are some neat features of the program:

Memorized Transactions – if you use an outside payroll service, this feature is a time saver. Usually payroll generated from an outside firm is entered as a journal entry and there are several accounts to post to such as wages, FICA withheld, Federal Tax withheld, State Tax withheld, garnishments withheld, retirement withheld, and checking account. If you do not use a memorized journal entry to enter your payroll, then each time you have to remember which accounts to use. However, a memorized journal entry that is created can be used as a template ~ the accounts will already be there and you just have to update the dollar amounts and description (such as payroll w/e 3/15/2011). You can set-up a memorized journal entry to enter your payroll and then another one to enter your payroll taxes.

You can also memorize invoices. For example, if a customer is invoiced $150 per month for lawn maintenance services, then you memorize the invoice once and then use it as a template to enter in subsequent months.

Another type of transaction you can memorize is payments. Let’s say you pay $1,200 in rent each month. You can memorize the payment, select it, and then print the check or assign a manual check number to the transaction. You can also memorize payments such as automatic withdrawals from your checking account that are the same each month.

Memorized transactions save you time and aggravation.

Very Specific User Access – Peachtree allows you to set-up users with very limited or broad access to areas of the program. There are 7 different areas to restrict access to: Business Status, Customers & Sales, Vendors & Purchases, Inventory & Services, Employees & Payroll, Banking & General Ledger, and Company. For example, if you want an employee only to have access to Customers & Sales, you set the other areas to no access. Within the Customers & Sales area you could further restrict access to only allow the person to maintain the customer list but not be able to have access to credit card information, create invoices, or create customer reports.

Report Snapshot Screens – The Customers and Vendors have a management tab to quickly show you the activity of a specific customer or vendor on one screen. For example, if you choose a customer, you can see all the invoices, receipts, credit memos and account totals for a specific period of time. If you choose a vendor, you can see all the purchase orders, payments, item purchase history, and totals for a specific period of time.

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