Crystal Reports for Peachtree

Billy Jones

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Feb 9, 2001, 6:10:54 PM2/9/01

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I just received a brochure from Peachtree advertising Crystal Reports for
Peachtree 8.0. Does anyone know anything about this, or are any of you
using Crystal Reports with Peachtree now?

I've been laboring with Access for a few years, but this would be great if
it works!

Thanks,

Billy

Joe Morris

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Feb 9, 2001, 6:24:38 PM2/9/01

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What exactly was in the brochure? Where there any suggested URLs?

Billy Jones

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Feb 9, 2001, 6:50:19 PM2/9/01

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"Joe Morris" <jmo...@icode.com> wrote in message
news:3A847C36...@icode.com...

> What exactly was in the brochure? Where there any suggested URLs?

No, none on the brochure. I just visited the Peachtree web site, and found
nothing there.

It's advertised in the brochure for $99.00 when you upgrade to Peachtree
Release 8 or $149.95 regular price.

The brochure says..."Crystal Reports is now integrated with Peachtree
Release 8, allowing you to easily build custom reports that compile data
from several difference Peachtree modules at once..."

"Graphically, display report results with your choice of 80 different types
of charts. And you can get started quickly with six pre-defined reports
most requested by Peachtree customers...."

This could be really big for a heretofore weakness in Peachtree.

don...@my-deja.com

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Feb 9, 2001, 9:02:49 PM2/9/01

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Hi Billy,

Crystal Reports for PeachTree is pretty new. There have been other
versions of Crystal for some of their other products like MAS 90 and
SAGE for a few years but the PeachTree thing is new.

The problem with PeachTree is that the database is proprietary. So
getting the full version of Crystal will not connect to the PeachTree
database unless you export it to a format that Crystal can read. I
think this is how you are doing it with Access.

Crystal will connect to the PeachTree database, without you needing to
do any sort of massaging of the data. There are some sample reports
also that will help.

I haven't actually used this version of Crystal and this is all through
word of mouth but from what I understand, it's better than what was
available before.

Good luck,
Brian Dong

In article <3A847C36...@icode.com>,

Sent via Deja.com
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Robert Walraven

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Feb 10, 2001, 1:04:54 AM2/10/01

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I suspect this is just a repackaged Report Writer, which I have heard was
built on a cut down version of Crystal Reports.

Crystal Reports V8 includes VBA and completely supports COM, so you can
access ALL of the Peachtree PCA data using PawCom.

Artistry

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Feb 12, 2001, 9:10:51 AM2/12/01

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Hi:

Clicking around this web site will give a slight amount of insight into
Crystal Reports.

http://www.seagatesoftware.com/products/crystalreports/

(more details @)
http://www.seagatesoftware.com/products/crystalreports/rcad/content.asp

Thanks,
John

"Billy Jones" <bil...@worldnet.att.net> wrote in message
news:2O_g6.2332$Pg3.1...@bgtnsc06-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...

Ralph Jones

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Feb 12, 2001, 10:55:28 AM2/12/01

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Just tried taking a peek at your links. Unfortunately, Seagate has
developed the (stupid) idea that you cannot view their site without
accepting cookies. No thanks, Seagate. My hard drive is *MY* hard
drive, not yours. If you want to keep track of my wanderings on your
site, keep track of me on *your* machine. Implementing a "no entry"
policy without accepting cookies is, like, the most stupid thing in the
world. If they need cookies to sell me something (create a shopping
cart), then OK, I'll turn them on when I am ready to buy. But just to
view their site? Nah. Don't need Crystal Reports or any of their other
stuff that bad.

Please forgive my rant. These "mark you at the door" electronic dossier
sites make me a little crazy.

Billy Jones

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Feb 12, 2001, 4:04:42 PM2/12/01

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"Ralph Jones" <rajones@SPAM_ME_NOT_AT_tconl.com> wrote in message
news:3A880770.3020908@SPAM_ME_NOT_AT_tconl.com...

> Just tried taking a peek at your links. Unfortunately, Seagate has
> developed the (stupid) idea that you cannot view their site without
> accepting cookies. No thanks, Seagate. My hard drive is *MY* hard
> drive, not yours. If you want to keep track of my wanderings on your
> site, keep track of me on *your* machine. Implementing a "no entry"
> policy without accepting cookies is, like, the most stupid thing in the
> world. If they need cookies to sell me something (create a shopping
> cart), then OK, I'll turn them on when I am ready to buy. But just to
> view their site? Nah. Don't need Crystal Reports or any of their other
> stuff that bad.
>
> <stepping down from soapbox>
>
> Please forgive my rant. These "mark you at the door" electronic dossier
> sites make me a little crazy.

Okee dokee. :-)

Craig Landon

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Feb 12, 2001, 10:12:40 PM2/12/01

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Ralph Jones wrote:

> Just tried taking a peek at your links. Unfortunately, Seagate has
> developed the (stupid) idea that you cannot view their site without
> accepting cookies. No thanks, Seagate. My hard drive is *MY* hard
> drive, not yours. If you want to keep track of my wanderings on your
> site, keep track of me on *your* machine. Implementing a "no entry"
> policy without accepting cookies is, like, the most stupid thing in the
> world. If they need cookies to sell me something (create a shopping
> cart), then OK, I'll turn them on when I am ready to buy. But just to
> view their site? Nah. Don't need Crystal Reports or any of their other
> stuff that bad.
>
> <stepping down from soapbox>
>
> Please forgive my rant. These "mark you at the door" electronic dossier
> sites make me a little crazy.
>

A "little"?

Robert Walraven

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Feb 13, 2001, 6:27:11 PM2/13/01

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PT will have information on their web site on the 20th. If you have V8 you
should be able to download an update with a demo version of Crystal Reports.
They say it is the full-blown CR and will give you access to all the data.
How they are going to do that is a bit of a mystery, but we should know
soon.

Joe Morris wrote in message <3A847C36...@icode.com>...

Artistry

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Feb 14, 2001, 7:41:25 AM2/14/01

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Thanks!

I didn't realize I had left my cookies on. Probably from shopping earlier.

Time to View files and Delete.

John

"Ralph Jones" <rajones@SPAM_ME_NOT_AT_tconl.com> wrote in message
news:3A880770.3020908@SPAM_ME_NOT_AT_tconl.com...

Robert Walraven

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Feb 22, 2001, 1:08:11 AM2/22/01

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Peachtree is shipping a demonstration version of Crystal Reports with the
upgrade to V8 that should be available soon. What I have heard is that they
are actually going to ship the upgrade rather than have it available for
online update (possibly due to the inclusion of CR?) I've also heard that
the CR that is included is a 30-day trial version and that you will need to
buy CR after that. And apparently there are not a lot of canned reports
provided and those that are are pretty simple.

The interesting question of course is what is being provided. Access to the
data is through Btrieve drivers that can read DDF files that come with the
update. While this may sound exciting, you will probably find the
functionality to fall far short of what you might need.

The first problem is that only a subset of the data is defined in the DDFs:
Charts, Company, Cost Codes, Customers, Employees, Default Information, Job
Est, Jobs, Jrnl Hdr, Jrnl Row, Line Item, Phase Codes, and Vendors. While
this subset may do in some cases, it is our experience that other parts of
the database are frequently needed to produce more complex reports.

The second problem is that the DDFs map you directly into the structure of
the Peachtree records. In order to understand what this means consider the
Customer records - the record contains customer Sales and Receipts for each
of the 42 Peachtree internal accounting periods, but rather than viewing
this data as a table, the sales and receipts for each period are represented
as separate fields in the DDF definitions. That makes report design of this
data pretty messy. Because of the direct mapping, the DDF files contain
many definitions for fields that are not used, which is also a bit
confusing.

The third problem is that the JrnlHdr and JrnlRow tables contain records for
all the journals mixed together. Some of the fields have meaning only for
particular kinds of journals. To pull the Sales Journal information out of
these files, for example, requires some well defined filters.

I'm not sure where Peachtree is headed with CR - maybe they will have
expanded DDFs in V9. But it is pretty clear that their internal record
structure is never going to make a CR interface easy to work with. Perhaps
they see this as a ploy to market CR and make a little money based on CR's
reputation.

Billy Jones wrote in message
<2O_g6.2332$Pg3.1...@bgtnsc06-news.ops.worldnet.att.net>...

Craig Landon

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Feb 22, 2001, 9:14:41 AM2/22/01

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Having a lot of experience using CR with a high-end accounting program (Platinum
by Epicor), with a well-defined table structure and with access to all the DDFs,
I can attest to the fact that building CR reports, while ultimately rewarding
compared to the standard reports, can be VERY time consuming, particularly with
error-checking. I can only imagine the headaches of sifting thru tables where
the field categories, much less the fields, may or may not be relevant to what
one is trying to achieve.

If the user is a computer layman, and isn't very familiar with DDFs, Btrieve,
database tables, file structure, etc., it will be a classic case of a negative
cost/benefit stealing the user's productivity time, irrespective of the quality
of any given report ultimately produced.

OTOH, it can't be much worse than the current PT Report Writer.