New User questions

[Joanna]

Hello! I'm new here, and new to Peachtree. We have started using Peachtree for our accounting/banking but until now we were using a MS Access database for invoicing. That system is having problems so I've set out to set up Peachtree (premium for manufacturing) for invoicing, and import the old records. There are nearly 8000 customers, about the same number of invoices, and 500 or so products.

Is this going to work? Besides reading and following the directions carefully is there anything else I need to be aware of? Can PT handle that many records? I assume the products go under inventory?

Oh, and, for the importing, can I export directly from the Access tables to PT, or is better to export to Excel first--what would be the benefit of that?

I'm sorry if these questions are too basic. I'm a little daunted, and am not an accountant--I'm the IT dept, more or less.

Thank you!

Joanna

[sbrader]

Joanna,
We also run Premium for Manufacturers and have far more customers, invoices and products than you indicate with no problem. I would strongly encourage you to work with the sample company in Peachtree and export the customer, sales and inventory records to see how they are structured in Peachtree. You don't want to discover that you imported records that you will not be able to use. For example, you cannot change the inventory type once you create the record. You don't want to find out that all of your assemblies are now non-stock items! You should go through Excel first.

I would encourage you do consider utilizing one of the certified consultants for this. They can make sure your chart of accounts, company data, etc. is properly transferred to Peachtree. It will likely save you a ton of time and anxiety down the road!

Scott

[jriehl]

We are using Access for our orders and invoices via EDI. From that we then export the invoices to a csv file and import it into PT.

The only reason I can think of to go through Excel is to check or edit the records before importing them into PT. You will need to format the exports from Access to fit the import layout in PT. Please be aware of the fact that Excel can unwittingly "change" your data if not correctly setup. For example it will strip out the leading zeros on Zip Codes if the field is not setup correctly.

I second Scott's suggestion to work with a sample company (or start a new company for testing only) until you are comfortable with the process.

I would also encourage you to consider a consultant. Unless you have a good understanding of databases and understand how you want PT setup (including COA and reporting.) a consultant may save you time and money.

[Joanna]

Unfortunately hiring someone isn't really an option right now, I wish it were.
I exported the Access customer list to Excel, cleaned it up, combined first and last names to make a "name" field, and tried to import it. It got stuck on line 18, said there was an error in the customer ID field. That field looks like every other customer ID in the whole table. (They are numbers.)
I tried exporting one of the PT sample company lists, but I couldn't see anything different that I could understand. I'm not sure what to look for.
In the import fields box I unchecked the fields that don't exist in the file to be imported--is that correct?
And I made some custom fields in the defaults for some that I need to add--is that OK?
I hope I'm not being hopelessly dense about this! And I appreciate any help a lot!
Thank you!
J

[Joanna]

I've gone through all the posts I can find here about importing, as well as the help files.
Once they did all import, but in the wrong order. I ditched the file.
Carefully went over the field order, also got rid of commas and double quotes in the Excel file. Made a new customer and exported it. Made sure I had a G/L field filled in.
I wondered if it was having a problem with Canadian postal codes, so moved a bunch of those into the "notes" field for now. But that didn't help, it still stuck on the same line, and I can't see what's wrong.
Not only that, but I'm doing this in a test company. Am I going to have this much trouble moving everything into the "real" one when it comes to that time? (if I live that long!)
Any more ideas anyone? Please?
Thank you!
Joanna

[Lisa_p]

OK, so just for fun, take that line out - does the rest of the import go?

[Joanna]

Dear Lisa, Fun??? Anyway, I had tried that before. I even tried putting in small bits at a time. It failed on line 18, so I gave it only the first 17 lines--and it failed on line 18!

OK, when I got rid of the notes field altogether (there aren't that many, we can put them in by hand) the import completed, but the fields were scrambled; it somehow got a "first name" field which I got rid of several versions of the file ago. I was *very* careful to order the fields in the import box to be the same as the Excel file--was that correct? I didn't see anything in the Help, or here, about ordering the columns in the Excel file. Also quite a few fields are missing even though I only got a message about one to skip.

Sorry, my patience is running thin here. This seems like a waste of time to me.

Thank you everybody!
Joanna

[Lisa_p]

Want to post your import file here? I'm curious.

[sbrader]

Joanna,
I am not a PT consultant, nor have I ever contracted with one, but I really think you need to consider it. I know you said it is not feasible to hire someone to guide you through this, but at some point you may need to bite the bullet and do it.

The way I look at it, if I can hire someone for, pick a number - $500, to help me with a task that I have wasted a day or more of my time on, then it is a bargain. Assuming that your time is worth something, at some point it is actually far cheaper to hire an expert to come in and help with a problem instead of spending a lot of your own time on it.

Just my $0.02.

Scott

[Joanna]

Lisa, Gee, thanks, I did, I hope it goes through. Although, I have given up--see the next paragraph. So maybe you don't have to bother unless you just feel like it. Thank you anyway!

Scott (and J), yes, you're right. I tried hard, but now I know I need help. I've sent out several emails requesting information about a data conversion.

Many thanks to everyone! I hope the next time I have a question here it will be easier!

Joanna

[Lisa_p]

I don't think your attachment worked. You need to save it with a .txt extension.

You probably don't need to hire someone to do the entire conversion for you, just guide you to the proper set up and then you can do the grunt work.

[Joanna]

Lisa, I see that you're a Peachtree consultant. Is this something you would be willing to help me with? Here? or by private email/phone and for a fee? As it turns out we are willing/able to pay for this.

Someone suggested finding out if all those 8000 customers are active, and it turns out an awful lot aren't, so I'm taking some time now to delete them. It should make the file a lot smaller. Then I can put it into Excel again and post it.

Thank you very much!
J

[Lisa_p]

Joanna - I'd love to help. You can email me at lisa at streamlineconsulting dot biz

Thanks!