How do I enter a Lay-Away?

Would entering the $500 in Receipts and specifying this is a Prepayment work? Then when the sale is finalized apply that Prepayment (aka deposit) to the invoice created.

Why wouldn't you c>Customer put money down on an item in December so the beginning balance

The problem is, this is a beginning balance, just setting up Peachtree to begin January 1. The money was paid in December and already entered into my previous accounting software. Peachtree will not accept a beginning customer balance without an invoice, and his money is already in the bank and entered in the beginning bank balance. Peachtree will allow a beginning bank balance without a matching entry but it won't allow a beginning customer balance. I did a work-around by creating a receipt with deposit to the bank account and then reduced the beginning bank balance to account for the extra $500. I can see that doing the first reconciliation is going to be fun, but I think after that things should go a little better.

Bob

You should have been able to enter it in the 2005 file as a Prepayment with a December date. And in your 2006 (new) file enter that credit in the customer's opening balance. Just use the Reference number and date paid as your invoice detail. You want to make sure your A/R detail on

This is how we handled starting a new 2006 file last January when many of our homeowners had prepaid their January 2005 Maint. fees in December

But I wasn't using Peachtree prior to January 1. All the previous records are in MS-Money for Business. Therein lies the problem because PT doesn't seem to like a beginning balance without first having seen an invoice and the invoice is dated Dec 10th in a different software program. I think there will be some necessary adjustments as the conversion is made and a few scribbles on paper as to what may have to be adjusted. I don't expect it all to balance within Peachtree until the second year (2007) because there doesn't appear to be an easy way to have it balance in the beginning. Financial records for the first year will continue to be part software and part handwritten paper as it is now with MS-Money. If I knew the software inside out, there would probably be a way but I'll be struggling for the first few months until I know how to get the software to do what I want it to do. I'm not even close to that point yet but I can't continue with MS-Money because it isn't adequate. Somewhere along the way the change must be made and I'll have to suffer through it. I'm keeping very accurate paper records so if the software isn't exactly correct in the beginning, it's not a big deal. Taxes and financial records will still be correct.

Bob

"Laura" wrote in message news:S0_tf.395026$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...

It does not matter where your 2005 records were being stored. Mine were in a separate PT file when I created the new 2005 file last year. I suspect that you are missing a step somewhere. Can you tell me exactly what steps you are taking to enter the beginning balance for this customer?

Do you have the trial balance completed for 2005 as well as all open payables/receiveables from MS Money collected? That's your first step.

You may need to f>But I wasn't using Peachtree prior to January 1. All the previous records

From the setup menu, I clicked on "enter customer opening balance". That brings up a window for beginning balances but it won't accept any data. By trial and error I figured that I had to first create an invoice. I did so many trial and error things that I couldn't retrace my steps in 100 years. I finally ended up accepting payment to the checking account. I'm pretty much lost and am figuring that I won't have this running as of January 1st as I had hoped. I think it'll probably take a month or two to learn the software and then be able to do something meaningful with it. Meanwhile, I've ordered QuickBooks and two other accounting programs. I'm going to end up using the most intuitive one that'll do the job. I'm not putting PT aside, but I really am in need of something that can be gotten up to speed quickly or else forget the whole changeover until next January.

Bob

Regarding MS-Money, it's a single entry system so there is no trial balance, and if there were, the software wouldn't balance. It tracks only enough information for about half of a Schedule C. For example, on the P&L Statement, MS-Money for Business doesn't figure in the value of beginning inventory when calculating cost of goods sold. That figure is in my notebook, and of course, on last year's tax return. It also doesn't display anywhere, the cost of items removed from inventory for personal use. Another notebook entry. Now you know why I want to change.

Bob