Application Support for Peachtree Accounting (Sage 50)

Historically, Peachtree has provided a very low level of support for running their applications on ANY database version other than what they ship. This is the primary downside to a low-cost application, as they have concentrated on providing a quality application at a low price, and not on maximum compatibility and support. What is good news is that Sage/Best Software has a much better track record with supporting their software, and we do expect the level of service to improve dramatically!

One problem often seen is that older versions of Peachtree complain about certain database parameters that it checks before the application will load. The common parameters it complains about are "Compression Buffer Size", "Delete TMP Files", and "Max Communications Buffer Size", but others may be reported as well. These settings can be found by using RegEdit and opening up the location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Btrieve Technologies\Microkernel Workstation Engine\Version6.15\Settings. For each of these settings, change the values to those requested by the program in the error messages. You may need to restart PeachTree to get to the next error message. You may also need to reboot your computer to clear memory from time to time.

Peachtree Software introduced version checking in Peachtree Accounting for Windows version 5.0. This version checking looks for a specific version of the Btrieve engine and will cause Peachtree to fail if it receives a response different from what it expects. Since Peachtree versions 5, 6, 7 & 8 all expect Btrieve 6.15, they will fail if they get the version information from the Pervasive.SQL 2000 Engine.

Peachtree Accounting for Windows 2002 (or version 9) does do the version checking, but it will accept Btrieve 6.15, Pervasive.SQL 2000 SP2a, or Pervasive.SQL 2000i (SP3), though Pervasive.SQL 2000i is designed to be 100% backward compatible with all Btrieve API applications. Peachtree Software does not recommend that their users run with Pervasive.SQL 2000, but this is primarily because they do not support it and they have not done extensive testing with it.

Workarounds:
There are a few workarounds available, and they depend on what version of Peachtree Accounting you are running, and what you want to accomplish.

The workarounds for versions 5, 6 & 7 will allow you to run Peachtree Software with the Pervasive.SQL 2000 Workstation or Workgroup Engine.

The Workaround for version 8 will allow you to run Peachtree with Btrieve 6.15 on the same machine that also has Pervasive.SQL 2000 installed, but you cannot run Btrieve 6.15 and Pervasive.SQL 2000 on the same machine at the same time unless the Pervasive.SQL 2000i application uses the newer W3btrv7.dll Btrieve interface included in Pervasive.SQL 2000i. This means that you will have to exit Peachtree Accounting, which will unload the Btrieve 6.15 engine, and then you can start Pervasive.SQL 2000 and any applications that you will be using with Pervasive.SQL 2000 without having to reboot.

We WERE able to get the older Peachtree applications running on Pervasive.SQL V8.5 for a customer. The secret is to first install the new engine, then clean up the older 6.x components. You will then receive an error that Yardi does not support running on this database version. You must then set up the registry to force the requester version information to Btrieve 6.15N.

• Peachtree Accounting Version 5.0: Set for peachw.exe and kernel32.dll.
• Peachtree Accounting Version 6.0: Set for peachw.exe and kernel32.dll.
• Peachtree Accounting Version 7.0: Set for peachw.exe.
• Peachtree Accounting Version 8.0: Set for peachw.exe. (Note: This version may NOT work with Pervasive.SQL 2000i or newer. You may need to run your applications alternately.)

Important Note: You MUST use the "N" for the Version Type field, or you may get an error "Unable to load the Windows Version of Btrieve".

PeachTree 2004 and Older Version Notes: Sage Software has announced that they will discontinue all support for versions of PeachTree Accounting 2004 and older releases as of 11/30/2006. For full details on their support policy, click HERE.

PeachTree 2004 Notes: With PeachTree Complete Accounting 2004, certain functions in Peachtree create Temporary data files, which try to create on the Workstation by default. Because of this, you have two options:
1) Install BOTH the Client/Server engine AND the Workstation Engine on each computer. This will allow the WSE to take over and access local HD files.
2) Use JUST the Pervasive.SQL 2000i Client, but then change each user's TEMP and TMP directories to point to the database server. This may have an adverse effect on the performance of other applications (such as WinZIP) that use these temporary file locations, but this allows PeachTree to work correctly again.

PeachTree 2005 Notes: We have found that PeachTree Accounting 2005 DOES work with Pervasive.SQL 2000i Workgroup Engine for sure. We have not yet tested it on Pervasive.SQL V8, but we expect it will work the same way.

If you are having problems with this environment, follow these simple steps:
1) Make sure that you have the Pervasive.SQL 2000i Workgroup engine installed to each computer that will be using PeachTree. This should show up in the "Start/Programs/Pervasive" program group.
2) Make sure that the WGE is being "auto-started" by having the Engine icon placed in your Startup folder. This will show the "Pervasive Database - Preload" icon on your system tray.
3) Make sure that you have sufficient licenses. Check the Pervasive utility called the User Count Administrator for the proper number of licenses. While you can check each computer, the best one to check is the one hosting the files.(This machine will be the gateway.)You should also lock down the gateway (click here for info) so that this computer will ALWAYS be the database gateway.
4) Perform a search & destroy mission (delete the files, or rename to be safe) for all Btrieve 6.x-related components. This includes WBTRCALL.DLL, WBTRLOCL.DLL, WBTRTHNK.DLL, WBTR32.EXE, W32MKDE.EXE, WBTRV32.DLL, and W32MKRC.DLL. Do NOT delete the files from the C:\PVSW\BIN directory, since these are the newer ones. Please note that while these files should all be dated 1999 or earlier, PeachTree re-stamps some of these files with newer dates, just to confuse the issue. Be sure to delete the older ones, but to NOT delete the Pervasive.SQL 2000i (V7.9) versions.

PeachTree 2007 Notes: We are QUITE HAPPY to announce that the PeachTree 2007 releases now come with the Pervasive PSQL v9.1 database engine. This will eliminate a LOT of problems when working with other applications (such as American Medical) on v9.1, although the use of the common database engine may still impact licensing issues.

All is not perfect, however, and the user is advised of the following caveats:

• At this time, the version of Pervasive PSQL v9.1 shipping with PeachTree appears to be v9.11.045, although some modules are 9.11.044. This is noticeably newer than the official Service Pack 1 v9.10.020 release, and yet older than the v9.5 release. We do not know if specific changes were included in this special patch release for a reason, or if the base v9.1 will work at all.
• We do not know if this application will work or will be supported on v9.5 or not. The user is encouraged to contact PeachTree to find out the viability of using PSQLv9.5 and the PeachTree applications.
• Although the Pervasive v9.11.045 engine is installed, it is possible that not all tools are installed completely. Again, you MAY be able to upgrade to the PSQLV9.5 engine, which would provide all of the database's myriad tools, but which may cause other problems. If you opt for this option, please use caution. If you try it, and have either success of failure, please let us know so that we can update this page!

Based on these issues, each site will need to make their own decision and perform their own testing of the application. Goldstar Software will be happy to help in any way we can with this process!

PeachTree 2008 Notes: We were ecstatic to find out that while PeachTree 2008 still ships with the PSQLv9 Workgroup Engine, it DOES run on Pervasive PSQL Summit v10. When you attempt to run PeachTree in a PSQLv10 environment, you will receive a warning message that the V10 engine is unsupported. However, you can bypass the warning and use the "unsupported version". In our tests, the PSQLv10 components did just fine. You may wish to contact PeachTree for additional help with this configuration, as installation can be a nightmare.

PeachTree 2010 Notes: PT2010 ships with PSQLv10.12 in a Workgroup Engine, but (as usual) they have left out a number of key components. Also, it seems that the "Automatic Backup" function still suffers from problems if users are in PeachTree when it runs. This is so confusing, especially since the database has allowed for online backup since 1994. If you want better online backups, please check out our Data Protection Service.

PeachTree 2014 (a.k.a. Sage 50 2014) Notes: Not to be outdone by the idiocy of previous versions, the 2014 release of this product sinks to new lows. This release finally ships with the PSQLv11 Workgroup Engine, but Sage developers have taken some strange steps within their code for which workarounds may no longer be available. Apparently, this release attempts to update the PSQL license key every 28 days, and if you attempt to switch PeachTree to a faster and more secure Server Engine, they assume that the software is pirated and shut it down. One user who tried this kept getting messages about a problem with activation, and even though she tried to reactivate, it continued to fail. (This is likely due to the security of the server name, which requires a username and password to alter the server's configuration and licensing.) Instead of prompting the user for credentials, it just fails. If you need the security or performance of the Server Engine, you'll likely have to contact Sage and open a support ticket to see if they can address this issue. If you are running other PSQL-based applications with Sage 50 2014, you may need to host the other applications on a different server, and pay for additional licenses. Again, feel free to contact Sage with any complaints about these issues.

Database Access to PeachTree Data: Sage Software provides a freely available Software Developers Kit which provides for "proper" access to the PeachTree database. They do NOT recommend nor promote direct access to the database itself, as this can violate Sarb-Ox regulations and get some companies in hot water. Contact PeachTree for more information on their SDK if you need it. If you are NOT an application developer and you just want access to the database, then Goldstar Software can help. Please CLICK HERE for more details.

If you are a software vendor and would like to add, remove, or modify your information on these pages, we'll be happy to oblige. Simply contact us directly!