Peachtree Accounting 2006 Description:

Peachtree Accounting 2006 review:
3 stars (Works as advertised, but expect no support, complicated menus and junk mail) - I purchased Peachtree Accounting for my small business to keep track of my inventory, purchase and sales. The software is a power tool with numerous reports and abilities which to be honest, are beyond my needs as the owner of a small business, but that means that there is room to grow. Initial setup of my company records took a bit of time due to navigation which is counterintuitive and poor descriptions in the manual. Basically, the authors of the software and manuals assume that the software user has an accounting background and done offer a lot of help if you do not. The process is also hindered by the fact that you must start with accounts already set up based on an example business which means that I have dozens of account numbers which I will never use and had to go back and delete.



The software does do what it says, but there are some big disadvantages beyond the poor documentation and poor navigation.



Junk mail - SAGE, the company that sells Peachtree Accounting will inundate your mailbox with junk mail. Every week I get another letter from SAGE prompting me to upgrade or to purchase forms from them. I have looked on their website to find how to stop the flood of junk mail, but have yet to find out how to do so.



Support - don't expect any unless you pay for it. There is free support for the first 30 days but after that, you have to buy one of the Peachtree support plans and they are not cheap. The least expensive plan is $199 per year!



Registration - You must register this software online or it wont work which is fine. However, periodically the software tells me that I must register again. I assume that this is a bug, but it is worrisome because I don't want to pay $199 to fix this problem and I don't want to loose the ability to use the software.



Cost - This is an expensive piece of software, but look for rebates. Sometimes the rebates are equal to the cost of the software.



Lastly, if you are an average user planning to upgrade from Peachtree Accounting 2007, don't bother. Thanks to rebates, I got a free copy so I decided to upgrade even though 2007 worked fine. I actually don't notice any additional features for 2006, but again, I am not using the software to its full potential. Experienced users may benefit from the upgrade.



In summary, a good accounting software that does everything that I need to keep track of the finances for my company. However, expect to pay a lot for support, to get a lot of junk mail and to spend a good number of hours setting up your company accounts before you are able to use the software.