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Crystal Reports for PeachtreeThe report creation module called Crystal Reports is included with all versions of the Peachtree Premium product line. This report creation module gives you the ability to both create your own custom reports and forms as well as take advantage of custom reports and forms created by other people. Don't confuse Crystal with the Financial Statement Editor. The Financial Statement Editor comes as part of every copy of Peachtree and is a specialized report creation tool. It is used only for the purpose of modifying the Income Statement and the Balance Sheet. No other reports or forms can be modified or created with the Financial Statement Editor. Also, the Income Statement and Balance Sheets can only be modified within strick guidelines. If you want to modify or create other reports, or if you want to make changes to the Income Statement or Balance Sheet beyond what the Financial Statement Editor allows, you'll want to use Crystal. With Crystal Reports, virtually any set of information stored in Peachtree can be printed on paper. Suppose you want to see an income statement printed at the end of each week that shows income and expenses for the 7 days just completed. To do this, you'll need an Income Statement Report that is printed based on a weekly period instead of monthly period. Reporting income and expenses on a weekly period instead of a monthly period is beyond the capability of Peachtree's Financial Statement Editor but it can be done with the Crystal program. Another time to use the Crystal Reports module is when you'd like to use an existing Peachtree field for another purpose, and then report on the activity in that field. Suppose, for example, you are a service company and want to use the Ship Via field on the invoicing screen to record the name of the technician who did the work related to a particular invoice. Crystal Reports can be used to display activity in the Ship Via field (ie technician) with sales totals so that bonuses can be awarded to technicians based on the amount of work they have completed. Another use of Crystal Reports is for the creation of a new form or the modification of an existing one. Where most people only use Crystal Reports to report on data already contained in Peachtree, we've actually found a way to use Crystal to create new input fields - existing forms can now be printed with fields that weren't previously anywhere on the form. Suppose, for example, you'd like to add a new sales order field that specifies the color of the item being purchased - or maybe you'd like an extra field to record the location of the item in the warehouse so employees can easily pick out the items to fill the order. Adding new fields to the detail lines on an Invoice or Sales Order is an especially important capability that we've learned to do with Crystal. This can greatly increase the power of your Peachtree Software. If you'd like to have us create one or more custom reports for you, the completed reports will be E-mailed to you with a simple install procedure that allows you to save the report in such a way that it the new reports are fully integrated into your Peachtree. Your new reports will be listed in your reports menu just as if it were always a part of your Peachtree - making your custom reports quick and easy to access.
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