I frequently get calls from people who have recently reinstalled Peachtree or installed on a new computer asking why the GL account field is missing from all of their accounts receivable screens.  The fix is very simple.  Just go to the Options menu and choose Global.  Then clear the check box next to Accounts Receivable in the Hide General Ledger Accounts section of the Accounting tab.  The same option is there for accounts payable and payroll.

The next question I get is usually “why would they hide the GL account?”  Let’s start by answering the opposite question.  Some people want to show the GL account when entering transactions because they want it to be easy to change.  Conversely, not everyone wants it to be easy to change the GL account.  Each customer in Peachtree has a default sales account, each vendor has a default purchase account, and each inventory item has a sales account and a purchase/inventory account.  Companies that make use of those fields often don’t want the data entry person, who may not understand accounting, to be able to override those accounts when entering invoices.  For others, if they rarely need to change account numbers (as is usually the case in Payroll) they don’t want one more field to move through.

One other side effect of hiding the GL accounts is that cash account fields (as in Receipts, Payments or Payroll Entry) will only display accounts with an account type of Cash, the AR account field in Sales/Invoicing will only display accounts with the type Accounts Receivable, and the AP account field in Purchases/Receive Inventory will only show accounts with the type set to Accounts Payable.  When Hide GL Accounts is turned off, all accounts will be available in those fields.