Maintenance of charts of accounts

Maintenance of Charts of Accounts:

è Open Peachtree from your desktop icons.

è A window will appear that will have different options, as you are now going to maintain the charts of accounts of the existing company, so you will select the first option, which is “Open an existing company”.

è After clicking on the first option, one more window will appear, which will ask you to browse the Peachtree account whose charts you want to maintain.

è Click on the “Browse” option on that window a window will appear displaying the name “Open Company”. There will be an option “Drives”, select the drive in which you have saved your company’s data. After selecting the drive, you will see that the drive and the company you had saved will appear as directories. Now you have to make that in directories, only the drive folder should appear as an open folder. Select the Company from the “Companies” option on the left. And then press “Ok”. 

è You can see that your company is now open.

è Now, for the maintenance of the accounts, you have to click on the “Maintain” button on the top bar, or you can say the tool toolbar.

è The fourth option, after clicking on, will be “Charts of Account…” Click on that option. A window will appear, displayed by the name “Maintain Chart of Accounts”. Now here you can maintain your accounts.

è “Account ID” is the ID given to different accounts by Peachtree itself after entering them and clicking on the “Tab” button from your keyboard. “Description: requires the name of the account, and after entering that, click on the “Tab” button on your keyboard. “Account Type” will require the type of the account it belongs and for entering the type press the key that its type starts from like for “Equity” you will press “E” from the keyboard, Press it twice or thrice until the equity appears in the “Account Type” after entering that click on the “Tab” button from your keyboard. In this window, we have to provide just these three things for every account. And for saving the account information, we will press the “Alt+S” key from our keyboard, then the Account ID you have already entered will be highlighted, which means your account is saved, and then you can enter other account IDs. 

è After adding all the accounts, you can search for any account by clicking on the “Magnifying glass” option that is present in front of “Account ID”.

Note: The difference in IDs is due to the reason that maybe you have to add further accounts that are sub-headings of the previous accounts like Cash’s ID is 100, then Cash in hand, i.e., is the sub-head of Cash will be given 101.

è After saving all the account's if you think that you have added the wrong ID of an account, then click on the “Change ID” option on the menu bar of that screen. Enter the new “Account ID” and press “Ok”.

è Or you think that you have entered the wrong “Account Type”, double-click on the account, change the Type, and then click on the “Save” button on tool bar of that window.  

è If you want to see all your accounts that are saved, click on the “Reports” button on the toolbar.

è Click on the fourth option the forth option which is “General Ledger”. A window will appear displaying the name “Select a Report”. Double-click on “Charts of Accounts”.

è A window will appear that will show all your accounts that you are going to maintain for your company, and this will also provide information about your company. 

How to Maintain Beginning Balances:

è After saving all the charts of accounts. Open Maintain and then click on the fourth option “Charts of Accounts”.

è A window will appear, displayed by the name “Maintain Charts of Accounts”. Click on the “Beginning Balances” option on that window.

è A window will appear, displayed by the name “Select Period”. In this, you have to select the period whose entries you want to enter. If I am entering data on the date 1^st January, 2010, then I wouldn’t select the period “1/1/2010 through 1/31/2010” because otherwise it will become the Closing Balance of that month, and here we are entering the beginning balances and the beginning balances for 1^st January, 2010 will be the accounts maintained on 31^st December, 2009. So we will select the period “12/1/2009 through 12/31/2009 and click “Ok”.

è Now a window will appear, displayed by the name “Charts of Accounts Beginning Balances.” And before entering data, we have to check whether we have created the Retained Earnings account. If there is no Retained Earnings account, then the software would not accept our Balances. And if there is any difference present in the balance sheet, then it will be written in “Trial Balance”.

Peachtree Account

Set up a Peachtree Account:

è Firs,t we will open the Peachtree software.

è  Following window will appear on the screen.

è As we have to create a new so, we will click on “Set up a new company”. After clicking, the following window will appear.

è A window will appear, which will display the name “New Company Setup - Introduction”. This window tells you that to create a new company, you have to enter some details. The following are the details required:

·        Your company’s name and address: In this, you have to give the specific name of the company and the address of the company. The name of the company should be short and without spaces; otherwise the Peachtree will create the name itself. Like if you name the company as Pakistan Textiles, Peachtree will make it PAK TEXT or P.TEXTILES.

·        Your chart of accounts: In this, we have to define whether we want to make new heads or we want to copy the existing heads from the existing company that relates to our company.

·        Your accounting method: As we all know that there are two methods of accounting:

1.     Accrual

2.     Cash

So here we will define what accounting method our company is using.

·        Your posting method: There are two methods for posting:

1.     Real Time

2.     Batch

In this, we select one of the methods for our company.

·        Your accounting periods: Usually, the accounting period is 12 months, but you can make fewer or more than 12 accounting so in this step, we will define our accounting period.

And if we want help, then we will click on the “Help” button. Otherwise, we will click on the “Next” option.

è Another Window will appear, which will display the name “New Company Setup – Company Information”.

As we can see that this window requires basic information like the Name of a company, Address line, City, State, Zip, Country, Email, Telephone, and fax. This is the information that we will enter in the window. Business requires telling the type of business the company is doing.

The options “Federal Employer ID”, “State Employer ID”, and “St. Unemployment ID” will be given afterwards by the software itself. So just after providing the information required, click on the “Next” button.

è A window will appear, which will be displayed by the name “New Company Setup- Charts of Accounts”. In this window, you need to mention which heads you want to record.

The first option explains that you can copy the basic information of the existing company whose business is Retail, Service, Construction, Manufacturing, or Distribution Company.

The second option explains that you can copy the basic information from the companies that Peachtree already provides.

The third option explains that you can copy all the settings from the existing company.

The fourth option explains that you can convert your company into an already existing company.

The fifth option explains that you want to make a new company.

Click on the bubble near these options that you want to do, and then click the “Next” button.

è A window will appear, displayed by the name “New Company Setup – Accounting Method”. In this step, you select the method you want to use for your company. There are two types of methods mentioned:

1.     Accrual: In this method, the income is recorded at the time of issuance of the invoice, and expenses are recorded when you receive an invoice from your vendors.

2.     Cash: Income is recorded when you receive cash, and expense is recorded when you pay cash.

After clicking on the bubble of the option you want to select and after that click on the “Next” button.

è A window will appear “New Company Setup – Posting Method” in which you will mention your posting criteria. In Real Time, the Transaction is directly transferred to the financial statement and to the General Ledger, and you can see its effect over there. In Batch, the transaction is saved in the program and then transferred to a group. After selecting the suitable option, click on the “Next” option.

è A window will appear by the name “New Company Setup – Accounting Periods”. Accounting period is the period of 12 months, but if you want to record your transaction for less than 12 months, then you should have to select the bubble of the option “Accounting period that does not match calendar” And then click on the “Next” option.

è In the next window, you will mention the start of your accounting period, and in the next option, you will enter the month of entering the data. In the last you will select the entering year and then click on the “Next” option.

è At the end, the congratulations window will appear, which means that you have successfully created a new company. And at the end, click on the “Finish” button.