Peachtree Business Intelligence is a new add-on for Peachtree 2012. It can be used with Peachtree Complete, Premium, or Quantum. While it is a very powerful tool, the idea behind it is simple. Many people copy Peachtree reports to Excel or export data to .CSV files so they can analyze the data, rearrange it, or combine it with other data. PBI automates, not just the process of moving data from Excel to Peachtree, but also manipulating that raw data into useful reports and charts.
The process of creating a report starts in the PBI Report Manager inside Peachtree where you define what data you want to move to Excel, whether you want it summarized or in detail, and if you want to run any macros or copy formulas once the data gets to Excel. The second part of the process is to open the Excel file containing the raw data and build the report you want using pivot tables, formulas, or any other tool you like in Excel. Once the report definition in the Report Manager is linked to your finished spreadsheet, you can run the report from inside Peachtree any time and have a finished report in Excel without having to repeat any manual processes.
Obviously this is a very simplified explanation of creating reports with Peachtree Business Intelligence. I’ve included a link below to a video that Sage produced to introduce people to PBI. It will help you get an idea of how it works and what it can do.
One of the big benefits of PBI is that the majority of the report design is done in Excel. That means most people can become productive with PBI much faster than they can with Crystal Reports (which is not being eliminated). And if you’re not already proficient with Excel, any investment you make in learning it will be useful outside of PBI too.
An evaluation copy of Peachtree Business Intelligence will be included with Peachtree 2012. But if you have been looking for an easier way to create custom reports, you should consider purchasing it along with your 2012 upgrade. If purchased alone, PBI will sell for $250, but you can get it for only $100 when bundled with a Peachtree 2012 upgrade.
