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50 key differences between
BusinessWorks
and Peachtree Complete for Windows
This list of 50 key differences between Peachtree Accounting for Windows and BusinessWorks clearly illustrates that these products are vastly different. This comparison is not intended to be all inclusive — there are hundreds of differences between these products.

Peachtree is usually adequate for companies with less than five employees and annual revenues under $500,000, working on a stand-alone system as opposed to multiple users on a network. A larger company, or even a small one fitting this profile that has plans for growth in the near future, will quickly outgrow Peachtree’s capabilities. For businesses with annual revenues over $500,000, BusinessWorks provides a more complete and more appropriate solution.
System Wide Peachtree 3.5 BusinessWorks 12.0
Executive Summary Reports (Flash Reports) Not Available Flash Reports are available in all modules and provide managers with an executive summary of key information.
Built-in Custom Reports Limited to opening an existing report and changing the font, point size, style and colors. Can also suppress fields that already appear on the report. Only one sort criteria can be assigned to each report. Produces reports based on the data the user selects, from any module the user chooses. The placement of the data is user defined. Can also place graphic images such as a logo or photo in the reports as well as format the text by defining the font, point size, style and colors. Up to three sort criterias can be assigned to each report.
Renaming IDs and GL Account Numbers Renaming customers, vendors, parts, employees, account numbers, etc. is not available. Any ID customer, vendor, part or job) can be easily renamed. GL account numbers can also be renumbered.
Closing Periods Users cannot close by month. They can close only the fiscal or payroll year. For better control, users can close months and close the year when appropriate.
Exporting Data Supports only comma separated values. In addition to CSV, BusinessWorks supports 30 formats including formats supported by Microsoft(r) Excel, Works, Word and Lotus(r).
Purging Data Data can only be purged at fiscal year close. Large data files can slow down processing and report printing time. The user defines how long to keep data and can purge monthly if desired.
Decimal Places Only one system-wide setting for decimal places; if 3 or 4 are needed for inventory item sales/purchasing, all quantity and unit price fields in AR and AP will contain 3 or 4 decimal places. The number of decimal places needed is defined at the inventory item level and does not affect data entry screens which do not require additional places.
Global Change Not Available Available and used to change a wide variety of part, customer, vendor or employee default information for all or a range of IDs simultaneously, thus saving time.
Network Operation Peachtree 3.5 BusinessWorks 12.0
Appropriate Inventory Locking Using real time posting, a user viewing inventory locks everyone else out of AP or AR invoicing. Uses appropriate locks so that when one user views an inventory part, other users have access to other parts of the system.
Multiple Postings Allows multiple and duplicate postings to the same customer or vendor at the same time. Does not allow users to post transactions to the same vendor at the same time. This prevents duplicate postings.
Security Peachtree 3.5 BusinessWorks 12.0
Audit Trails None. Any user can edit or erase any transaction at any time without an audit trail to reflect the change. Provides a complete audit trail of every transaction in the system. No transaction can be deleted to ensure that the integrity of the audit trail remains intact.
Passwords Levels are by module. For example, if a user has privileges in AP, they can enter invoices and print checks as well as perform any other AP functions. Broken down by module and by tasks within modules. You can determine which tasks within a module a user can access.
Access to Company Data A user with even the most minimal access has the ability to change system wide settings or even delete a company! Company maintenance tasks are open only to users with “Manager” access.
Print & Search Speed
(486 - 33 8 MB RAM)		 Peachtree 3.5 BusinessWorks 12.0
Wait time for 500 entry Parts List to start printing 2 minutes, 16 seconds 8 seconds (17 times faster!)
Wait time for 500 entry Customer List to start printing 2 minutes, 10 seconds 10 seconds (13 times faster!)
Wait time for first letter of a search to appear for a search of 5,000 entries 12 seconds Instantaneous
General Ledger Peachtree 3.5 BusinessWorks 12.0
Budgeting Budgets must be input manually as a dollar amount per month, or an annual figure which is divided equally into the months. Next year’s budget can only be a copy of last year’s budget. Account budgets must be increased or decreased manually, one account at a time. Budgets can be set up by amount or percent of an annual figure. Previous, current or future budgets can be calculated automatically using a wide variety of criteria including actuals or budgets from other periods. You can even increase or decrease the budget for multiple accounts simultaneously.
Recurring Journal Templates Recurring journal entries must have all debit and credit amounts in balance. A list of recurring entries cannot be generated for review and updating. BusinessWorks allows you to set up recurring journal entry templates for entries that may change from month to month. A recurring journal entry list can be printed for period review and updating.
Departmental Account Copying GL accounts must be entered for each department manually. GL accounts can be copied from one department to another, saving valuable data entry time.
Multiple Company Consolidation Not Available Can merge data for multiple companies or locations to provide consolidated financial statements.
Accounts Payable Peachtree 3.5 BusinessWorks 12.0
Expense Allocation Tables Not Available Used to save data entry time by automatically distributing amounts based on user-defined percentages. Up to 20 GL accounts can be assigned to an allocation table.
Credit Memos/Debit Memos Not Available Used to adjust invoices and helps provide a complete audit trail of changes made to invoices.
Ability to Track Open Credits Not Available Completely supported including the application of open credits and reporting capability.
Cash Flow Analysis Limited to one summary report. Available, and includes complete detail to let you analyze how much cash will be needed to pay invoices based on a variety of selection criteria.
AP and AP Discount by Vendor If multiple AP accounts are used, the account must be entered on the Purchases screen, making it easy to post to the wrong account (system default is the last account used). Default AP and AP discount accounts can be set up at the vendor level; if left blank, it will default to the system AP and AP discount accounts.
Accounts Receivable Peachtree 3.5 BusinessWorks 12.0
Credit Memos/Debit Memos Not Available Used to adjust invoices and helps provide a complete audit trail of changes made to invoices.
Ability to Track Open Credits Not Available Completely supported including the application of open credits and reporting capability.
Payment Analysis Reporting Not Available Available as a standard report to analyze a customer’s payment trends including average days to pay.
Cash Flow Analysis Limited to one summary report. Available, and includes complete detail to let you analyze how much cash will be received based on a variety of selection criteria.
Payroll Peachtree 3.5 BusinessWorks 12.0
Employee Review Report Report can be created showing date, but cannot be sorted by a review date range. Employee review list can be printed by review date or department for a specific date range, with numerous other selection criteria.
Allocation of Wages to Multiple GL accounts Gross wages or hours can be allocated to a very limited number of GL accounts per paycheck, depending on the company’s payroll wage type. Using task codes, an employee’s wages can be allocated to a large number of GL accounts and Worker’s Compensation codes. Reports are also available showing wages by task code.
Tracking Tax Deposits No automatic tracking of tax deposits. Fully automated tax deposits tracking.
Direct Deposit Not Available Fully implemented direct deposit system.
Order Entry Peachtree 3.5 BusinessWorks 12.0
Quotes Limited functionality with expiration date only. Full quote functionality including status, percent probability, expiration date and required date. A quote from one customer can be used as a template and copied to a quote, sales order or invoice for another customer.
Sales Order Printing Not Available Orders can be printed with a variety of options including open items, back ordered quantities, orders on hold, and previously printed orders.
Tracking On Order, Committed and Back Ordered Limited functionality. Complete tracking with multiple reports and inquiry screens.
Automatic Conversion of Orders to Invoices Not Available Can choose to automatically convert all orders or a range based on customers, orders and categories. Can also have the system automatically skip orders where inventory quantities are insufficient, backorder and select or go negative on hand.
Tracking Returns Not Available Returns are tracked in the Order Entry module by invoice or by part with full reporting capabilities.
Inventory Control Peachtree 3.5 BusinessWorks 12.0
Fields in Inventory for On Order, Committed or Back Ordered Quantities Not Available Can easily view the On Order, Committed and Back Ordered quantities in the part maintenance screen as well as on a report.
Serial Number Tracking Not Available Tracks and provides the serial status (on hand, issued, reserved, missing) for an unlimited number of serial numbers for each part. Serialized On Hand, Receipts, Issues and Returns reports are available.
Multiple Warehouses Not Available Tracks quantities and history for up to 99 user-defined warehouses. Parts can be easily transferred between warehouses. Many reports are available that can be sorted by warehouse.
Product Line Tracking Not Available Product line tracking is supported for more detailed reporting of inventory performance for a group of parts. Prices and posting accounts can be globally changed for all parts assigned to a product line.
Global Price Change and Model Part Not Available Both of these features are included in BusinessWorks to save data entry time.
Pricing Levels/Pricing Methods/Quantity Price Levels Supports only five absolute prices per part. Pricing methods include absolute, margin, markup or product line.

Three pricing levels are available (good, better, best) and up to five user-defined quantity breaks are available per part.
Standard Costing Not Available Available with BusinessWorks.
Physical Inventory Worksheet only. Complete functionality including the ability to lock other users from Inventory. Also can update parts by absolute or relative counts.
Job Cost Peachtree 3.5 BusinessWorks 12.0
Tracking Job Phases Limited to phase ID, description and cost type. Complete tracking of job phases including phase ID, description, start and completion dates, suggested price, estimated costs and comments.
Tracking Overhead Method Amounts Not Available Six different overhead methods are available for automatic calculation of additional costs for a project.
Entering/Tracking Bids Not Available Included in BusinessWorks.
Analyze Job by Cost Code Limited to ID, description and cost type. Has categorized job codes and automatically calculates changes in prices and costs based on job code detail. Additionally has the ability to merge detail from inventory parts