I have used Peachtree for about 5 years. This year, I switched over to QuickBooks.

Quickbooks is definitely more mainstream and end-user friendly. The biggest issue I have with the program is that it has an endless stream of advertising for additional Intuit services built into it.

You can customize invoices and packing slips in both. The part of the program that does this in Quickbooks is far and away easier to use than that same module in Peachtree.

If you’re tracking inventory, you need Quickbooks Pro. I picked up mine at the BJs club in November for $99 on special. Either Sams or Costco ran a similar special recently.

For Peachtree, the best you can hope to do is to find a rebate through Staples, OfficeMax or OfficeDepot. They run this deal every year, and the rebate is substantial, say in the ballpark of $140.00. BUT you have to fight the rebate processing company to get your return because they are notorious for withholding rebate checks. (I had to file a formal complaint with BBB to get mine.) In short, it’s a lot of work to get this package at a fair price.

Peachtree forces you to close your accounting records every 2 years. If you have recurring customers, this is a deal breaker because you cannot access their old purchase records. As far as I know, Quickbooks doesn’t do this.

Lastly, Peachtree isn’t designed to export to any tax software, but Quickbooks is designed to integrate into TurboTax. If you use or prefer H&R Block tax software, know that Quickbooks does not work with that either.

Over the years I have tried MANY bookkeeping programs, including Peachtree, Quickbooks,MS Money and spreadsheets. My handsdown favorite has to be Money. It is no longer being supported by MS, but they made a sunsetter final vesion available free on their website, which I use. I don’t need the online stock tracking, etc so it doesn’t bother me. I also use a product, Outright, which is a subscription service through eBay. It is free, too. It tracks all of my PayPal transactions and any eBay fees I pay directly to eBay. For my Bonanza and Amazon transactions I can easily enter them manually, putting everything in one central location. They can then be easily uploaded to Excel or any CSV application.

The biggest problem I have had with so many programs is that they are simply not easy to setup to work the way I want them to. 2 years and close is a big joke. The first time I used Peachtree, back in the 80’, it was wonderful and easy to use, but even then they had an automatic ‘closing’ period. The latest attempt was so frustating I ended up selling the whole package on eBay. Accounting programs are supposed to be able to modify so they work the way your business does, not require you to change the way YOU do business in order to use them. I look for programs that are simple to use, EASY to use and lets ME be in charge. Plus, with my system it’s all free, both MS Money and Outright.

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Greenapplianceguy, I’m glad someone agreed with me on Peachtree. This USED to be a really great program, but no more in my opinion. Plus, it just cost’s too much. It’s one of those accounting programs that you just can’t modify to work your way. I value flexibility in all of my apps. If you use Money Personal, you can get the latest and greatest version, which also is good for small businesses, for free from Microsoft. Just google MSMoney Business Sunset. It’s a FREE download. I states that it will handle your inventory, but I found that it just lets you make a list of it. Since my ‘inventory’ comes from thrift stores it isn’t a big deal to me. I recommend that anyone who wants an easy to use (and modify) bookkeeping program to go this way. I have tried several versions of QB and soon gave them up. There is a large user base of Money on MS forums, so you can always read about others experiences there. At one time Parson’s Technology had a great program, Money Count’s, that I loved. But they stopped supporting it and I was at a loss for a long time until I discovered MS Money. It seems that every time I find one I like, they stop supporting it! No doubt I will be needing something else soon. I would check into the Money Sunset version soon, as I doubt it will be available too much longer. As I said earlier, I use the OutRight application through eBay as a collecting point for all my sales data. You can download all the data at the end of the year into a spreadsheet in CSV format. Money let’s you download your banking data in either OFC or OFX format. My bank also has CSV format available. I won’t want any kind of ‘automatic’ updating from my bank.

We have used Quickbooks since we started. I love it! I send my accountant a copy through email at tax time with no problems. I have never used anything else so I can’t give you a comparison.

I have used the Quickbooks online version for the last 3 years and would be lost without it. I sell on multiple venues and would never be without quickbooks.

I use Quickbooks Simple Start. When I started using it, I was using eBay’s “eBay Accounting Assistant” (which they no longer support) and I downloaded all my sales, fees, eBay and PayPal fees directly into the accounting assistant and then exported them into Quickbooks Simple Start. Everything was done for me.

This year, however, eBay quit using their accounting assistant software and I am no longer able to download everything. But I still printed up my reports from PayPal and entered my sales, fees, and shipping as one-lump sums and got it done.

I also printed my sales from Google Checkout and entered that information too. So I just combined all my eBay and Bonanza transactions into my lump sums.

When my sales pick up, I will have to keep up with it, but I like the Quickbooks and will continue to use it.

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I’m not going to be much help, but I keep mine in Excel. Since I don’t have a large number of sales, it’s still manageable for me.

Hey PC Bob, I used Peachtree back in the 80’s too and liked it alot. Switched to QB and liked it too. Then I started another business with needs to manage more inventory so I went back to Peachtree. What a slap in the face. A Sage rep called me for feedback recently… he sure got it from me! I will likely go back to QB soon but I was hoping to find out about some new up and coming software. Shoot!

I still use money for personal.

I do mine on a paper spread sheet. Had a crash and could not get back the Quick Books program I had, I had downloaded it, and could get no help from them. No one to call and their help section is no help.

I had the Quickbooks Simple Start free version for a while last year. When it ran out of room, I bought Peachtree since it looked like it would be able to take care of more things for me in general, such as keeping track of inventory. While Peachtree was able to do that, it also became quickly apparent that there is absolutely nothing in that program that can be done quickly and easily. Refunding a portion of an excess shipping charge takes all of about a minute in paypal right? It took me over an hour working with Peachtree’s support before I got an answer as to how to do that. So generating an invoice with shipping to a new customer ended up being about a half dozen steps and if you refunded $3 back to them because actual shipping was less than what you charged, that added 4-5 more steps. Inventory really wasn’t any easier.

So now I am using Quicken Home and Business. Much simpler to use. Tracks both home and business accounts. I’ve really liked it. About the only downside I’ve seen to it in reading other people’s reviews of it would be in one feature I don’t use. You can link it directly to your bank so that the bank and Quicken will communicate. Apparently this feature is fairly buggy and when it decides not to work, it doesn’t work in dramatic fashion. So you would be better off reconciling accounts manually, which is pretty darn easy.

I have been using outright.com for two years. I love it!

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The biggest issue I have with the program is that it has an endless stream of advertising for additional Intuit services built into it.