Peachtree vs. QuickBooks: An In-depth Guide

Peachtree and QuickBooks (now Sage 50 and Intuit QuickBooks) are today’s most popular accounting software programs. Both programs are great financial software for small and medium-sized businesses, helping them track their finances more efficiently and complement the services of a professional accountant. 

However, you might wonder which accounting solution is better regarding features, user-friendliness, security, and more. In this article, we will compare QuickBooks vs. Peachtree using their key features and determine the better accounting solution for your business. Read on to learn more.

QuickBooks and Peachtree: An Overview

Peachtree (Sage 50)

Peachtree (now known as Sage 50) is a robust accounting software for businesses needing quality reporting and in-depth features for tracking financials, invoicing, and inventory data, which include purchase orders, job costing, check signing, payroll, and other tools for small business accounting.

As a small business owner, you can use Sage 50’s marketing software services, like customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP), and inventory management as you scale your business.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks is considered the gold standard for bookkeeping and managing financial data for many businesses. It’s user-friendly and contains tools to generate completely accurate reports, track expenses, and manage inventories. It’s also one of the best free accounting management solutions, considering its 30-day free trial on all plans.

QuickBooks offers multiple software for different business needs. For instance, QuickBooks Online is ideal for a small and medium-sized company looking for cloud-based accounting software. QuickBooks Enterprise caters to larger businesses needing advanced features and automation. They also have QuickBooks Premier for companies needing industry-specific accounting solutions.

Peachtree vs. Quickbooks: Side-by-side Comparison

Key Features

Financial Reporting

Peachtree (Sage 50)

Sage 50 allows you to generate over 150 types of reports, including specialized reports for manufacturing, construction, and other industries. It provides one-click reports on profits, payroll, receivables, and other data, allowing you to make informed decisions based on relevant financial trends in your business or company.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online lets you generate personalized reports using its drag-and-drop editor and data visualization tools, letting you highlight key business insights. You can view your business’s entire transaction history and compare transactions using custom reporting periods for cash flow forecasting.

QuickBooks also lets you automate the process of creating reports and eliminate manual data entry, which is often the stressful part and increases the chances of inaccurate data.

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Project and Job Costing

Peachtree (Sage 50)

Sage 50’s project and job costing tools give you a broader insight into your spending on all jobs and projects and where they’re allocated. It shows each job’s average cost, net revenues, and completion time. You can also easily set up job records and cost codes, streamlining project management tasks.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online enables you to stay on top of every project and its profitability through smart dashboards, which show key project detail data like income, expenses, time of completion, and labor. Their job costing tools also help you generate reports, estimate labor costs, and view potential budget oversights for future projects—this is especially useful if you manage multiple jobs on your own business.

Peachtree (Sage 50) – Additional Features

Business Intelligence

One of Peachtree’s unique features is business intelligence; it collects, sorts, and analyzes business data from different sources, helping you gain key insights about your business’s sales, operations, and more important things. The platform presents these insights through multiple automated reports and dashboards, easing all your burdens with doing manual reports.

Enterprise Resource Planning

Peachtree’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) software lets you track and manage your company’s day-to-day operations. It enables employees across different departments to collaborate and gain information in a reliable environment.

Customer Relationship Management

If you own a small business, your team may need tools for gaining customer data, tracking engagements, and closing deals. The platform’s CRM tool lets you automate several sales processes (e.g., lead generation and sales pitches), allowing your team to close deals more efficiently and retain loyal customers.

QuickBooks – Additional Features

Live Bookkeeping

QuickBooks Online offers live bookkeeping, where you can avail of their professional bookkeeping services via certified virtual bookkeepers. You’ll also get advice and assistance with account categorization, bank reconciliation, accounting reports, and more. You can access this premium feature by adding $50 to any of the platform’s pricing plans.

Employee Expense Tracking

QuickBooks supports employee expense tracking, which lets your employees submit their expenses directly to the platform (or via the QuickBooks mobile app). This allows for a streamlined way of submitting expense reports for your accountant to review and reconcile in the books.

Note: This feature is only available in QuickBooks Advanced, which costs at least $100/mo. If you’re looking for a cheaper real-time expense report tracking solution, consider an add-on like Envoice. The Envoice mobile app allows employees to submit expenses at a much lower cost and easily integrates with QuickBooks.  Register now for a free trial.

Third-party App Integrations

The platform supports app integration with over 750 apps, including popular accounting platforms, sales channels, online banking and payments, e-commerce, etc. It lets you quickly migrate your data from other apps, automate accounting processes, and sync other business data in QuickBooks.

Ease of Use

Peachtree (Sage 50)

Peachtree has a more customizable dashboard and is loaded with features. It’s easy to set up and has robust sorting tools on its dashboard. However, the software contains dated pages; its interface might also look oversaturated, which results in a difficult learning curve for beginners.

QuickBooks

Like Sage 50, QuickBooks is also easy to set up on your device; however, one key difference is that the latter has a more user-friendly interface. Its dashboard is more optimized, lets you view essential reports (profit-loss data, expenses, and income), and has robust data visualization tools. You’ll also have access to pre-made standard reports and documents, which include tax documents, purchase orders, checks, and more.

Invoicing Features

Peachtree (Sage 50)

Sage 50 allows you to create invoices from scratch and convert quotes to invoices with one click. You can easily customize your invoices and add customer contacts stored in your account directly to the invoice. The platform also has robust client invoice management tools, which streamline your accounts receivable management tasks.

QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online has a robust set of tools for invoice creation. You can easily convert approved estimate proposals to invoices and create recurring invoices for your customers. The platform also supports batch invoicing and online payments via third-party payment processors through QuickBooks Payments.

Integrations

Peachtree (Sage 50)

Peachtree supports app integrations (add-ons) with several platforms, including Microsoft 365, FreshBooks, Xero, Stripe, Zapier, and other apps for payment processing, data analytics, CRM, payment collection, time tracking software, and more. The platform offers enough app integrations if you intend to run multiple systems for your business; however, it is limited compared to QuickBooks.

QuickBooks

One of QuickBooks Online’s own individual strengths is its diverse third-party app integrations (over 750+ apps). The platform allows direct deposit to employee accounts via Intuit payroll, Syft Analytics for forecasting financial data, and more. It also offers integrations with popular platforms for e-commerce, payment processing, inventory, time tracking, etc.

Pricing

Peachtree (Sage 50)

Peachtree offers three main pricing plans for its accounting software: Pro (starts at $58.92/mo.), Premium (costs $96.58/mo. for one user), and Quantum (costs $160/mo. for one user). The platform also offers bundle plans—if you want to pair its other tools with its main accounting software—and discounts if you opt to pay annually. 

QuickBooks

QuickBooks Online has three main pricing tiers: Simple Start ($30/mo.), Essentials ($60/mo.), Plus ($90/mo.), and Advanced ($200/mo.). They currently offer promos and discounts for annual payments. They also provide risk-free options through their 30-day free trial on all plans.

Claim to Fame

Peachtree (Sage 50)

Sage 50, as an accounting software, excels in inventory management. This feature lets you have a complete view of your inventory items, create profitability reports, and even have automatic purchase orders; the software automatically orders items from your suppliers once your inventory reaches a minimum threshold.

QuickBooks

One unique benefit of QuickBooks Online is its extensive third-party integration with various business software, payment processing, e-commerce, CRM, and other programs. It’s also widely recognized among accounting professionals and has cheaper pricing plans, making it a popular option for small businesses.

Conclusion

We recommend QuickBooks Online for startups and small e-commerce ventures operating on a budget. It offers all basic accounting features and countless app integrations, helping you get the most value for your money as a small business owner.

On the other hand. Peachtree (now Sage 50) is best for a small to medium-sized company that needs access to several financial and inventory reports. Specific companies may also benefit from its robust inventory management features. However, it’s relatively expensive compared to QuickBooks and other accounting platforms.

In addition, Sage 50 doesn’t allow you to capture receipts digitally. However, with an affordable add-on like Envoice, you can use the mobile app to conveniently capture paper bills and receipts. These are then sent to your accounting software, whether Sage 50 or QuickBooks, for processing. 

Curious about how Envoice can help round out and improve your accounting processes? See our full list of features and say goodbye to time-consuming manual bookkeeping tasks today!