Peachtree Insider Newsletter

I'm responding to the article on charging interest on past due invoices: 

Before I start with my complaint, I want to say that Peachtree does a pretty good job of handling our fairly complex needs, and I don't regret choosing it over a host of other options -- including two integrated packages that are specifically designed for our industry (independent school).  But there are still areas where significant improvement can be made. 

We charge interest on late payments, but Peachtree needs to expand interest rate options.  Most small companies I'm aware of have a simple approach "X% per month on late charges."  This doesn't work in Peachtree because you can only charge an annual interest rate.  For example, before converting to Peachtree, our terms were "Due on the 1st of the month, past due after the 10th and subject to a 2% per month late fee on the past due balance."  On the APR calculation, if I run interest charges on June 11th of the month, unpaid charges that were due May 1st get charged roughly triple what what unpaid charges from June 1 are charged.  And, I won't even get into the issue that February has 28 days, 4 months have 30 days, and 7 months have 31 days!

In addition, interest is calculated against unpaid invoices.  We have customers who have irregular payment habits, or who are paying on account.  We used to be able to post on-account payments as separate entries, because our interest charges were based on the total past due balance.  When we converted to Peachtree, we found that interest was charged on past due invoices, but no offset was given to on-account payments.  We found this out the hard way -- a customer who had $17,000 in past due charges, but who had made 10 payments of $1500 each, was charged $340 of interest, instead of $40.  That wasn't a pleasant phone call to handle! 

Unfortunately, I think some of the features in Peachtree were written by programmers who have never worked in a small business.  Sage needs to get a user group together to identify problems like this -- and I'd even pay my own travel expenses to join it!

Jeff - Thanks very much for your comments and suggestions. We will take a close look at those issues you raised about how interest is calculated and we'll consider new options we may be able to add to give you greater control.

I can certainly understand the reason for your comment about how features are built, but I'll tell you that everything we design in Peachtree is done so using input like you posted. We talk to, visit, email and otherwise correspond with hundreds of Peachtree users about their needs, but we can always learn more! If you or anyone else is interested in becoming a Peachtree Product advisor, please let us know, or you can just send us your suggestions any time. Thanks again.

Hi Bruce - which feature are you referring to? Have you spoken with Customer Support about this issue to determine if the conflict you mentioned can be resolved?

I just installed Peachtree Premium Accounting 2010.  It allows multiple companies to be opened at the same time.  With one company opened, I can choose File-Open Company.  I'll get a warning that says in so many words "do you want to keep the current company open?"  I believe my co-worker clicked "Do not show this message again" and NO.  Now she no longer has the option to open two companies at once.  How do I fix this?