Now, on to Peachtree and accounting. Let's start with tax filing deadlines. The IRS has a nifty calendar they publish which shows small business deadlines. Here are the deadlines for October. Click here.

Crystal Reports
Crystal Reports by Business Objects is a powerful report writing program that is built into some versions of Peachtree. It is part of Premium, the Vertical Market versions, and Peachtree Quantum.

Although most Peachtree users who are new to Crystal will find it difficult to program custom reports at first, in the hands of a trained operator, Crystal Reports can produce amazing output. Just about any reporting idea you can think of can be created with Crystal. If the information is in Peachtree, Crystal can usually get it out and on to paper in a neat and organized fashion.

The general rule with software is that the more flexible it is, the more power it has - and the more it can do for you. Unfortunately, it is this flexibility that makes it so difficult for most people to learn Crystal programming on their own. This is where we can help. For a reasonable price we will program your custom report for you or provide training so you'll be able to make your own reports. We provide Crystal programming training on-site, via phone, or over the Internet.

If you have a version of Peachtree that did not include Crystal Reports, you can purchase it separately. It is available from us for about $175.00. Please contact us for an exact price if you are looking for this.

If you have a version of Peachtree that includes Crystal, you can go to Reports / Crystal Reports and you'll see a dozen or so reports listed that don't come with other versions of Peachtree. These reports are programmed with Crystal by Sage Software and are included as part of your Peachtree. You can use these reports just like any of the other reports in Peachtree, but you can also use Crystal to modify them or make additional reports.

With Crystal you can print more powerful reports. An example of this would be an enhanced aging report. For example, in addition to the usual aging information, your Account Receivable Aging report can include comments and other nonstandard information. This extra information can make your collections work easier. For example, you may decide to include the names of technicians and salespeople who have worked with each of the over due customers. Crystal allows you to include this extra detail.

Crystal Reports allows other unusual reports to be created such as an income statement that is by the week instead of by the month or an inventory report with monthly anyalsis of quantity on hand.

Some Peachtree users are looking for the ability to track inventory that is located in multiple warehouses. This can be done using Crystal Reports. Suppose you want to have 3 warehouses for each item. Setup up each item 3 times in inventory. For example SMOKEALARM01, SMOKEALARM02, and SMOKEALARM03. Now you can buy and sell smoke alarms into and out of each of the warehouses. This is easily accomplished by referencing the appropriate inventory ID for each transaction. If you bought 12 smoke alarms for warehouse #3, reference SMOKEALARM03 on the purchase screen. If you bought 12 smoke alarms for warehouse #2, reference SMOKEALARM02 on the purchase screen.

When inventory is moved between warehouses, use the Peachtree command Tasks/Inventory Adjustments. Suppose you've moved 8 smoke alarms from warehouse #1 to warehouse #3. Record this in Peachtree by reducing the quantity on hand of SMOKEALARM01 and increasing the quantity on hand of SMOKEALARM03.

Now the only trick is reporting the 3 different warehouse quantities of smoke alarms as one grand total for the overall quantity of smoke alarms. This is where Crystal Reports comes in. This is a simple custom report that Crystal can easily handle.

Crystal can even be used to create new input fields for Peachtree. For example, the description field on the invoice entry screen can be used as 3 input fields instead of one. Suppose we want to keep track of the state and county where each service we are selling will be used. To do this, the operator could enter data as in the following example: "OH%Belknap%Cell phone tower maintenance contract." Now Crystal can be instructed to use the % signs as field dividers.

The text up to the 1st % is considered to be the State, the text between the % signs is considered to be the County, and the information after the 2nd % symbol is considered to be the Description of the item sold. The ability to add extra fields to Peachtree like this vastly expands the power of Peachtree software. The data in these new fields can be stored, sorted, and used as selection criteria just like the data in the Peachtree regular fields.

Reports made with Crystal can be easily exported to Excel. To do this, you'll need to highlight the report in Peachtree and then choose the Design icon at the top of the screen. This takes you into Crystal Reports. Now in Crystal, choose File/Export/MS Excel 97-2000.

Well, that's all for this time - thanks for reading and we hope you'll be with us again next month. Also, please be sure to contact us for custom Crystal reports, Crystal Reports training, or any of your other Peachtree needs.

Jim Vogt, Accountant and Consultant
Capitol Data, LLC
nhcd@metrocast.net
866-837-8867
www.JVogt.com