Practice Set Instructions and Helpful Hints

Purchasing and Activating Your Practice Set: Use the following steps.
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Go to www.perdisco.com/peachtreeLogin to purchase your practice set and follow the

instructions. Begin by clicking Register located at the top of the Perdisco web page in
between Login and Contact Us Login|Register|Contact Us|Site map.
Enter Northridge as the university, and California State University, Northridge will
appear for you to select. The purchase price is $33.85. In addition to the practice set,
this price also includes a copy of Peachtree Complete 2011 software (therefore, dont
purchase the software separately).

You will receive an email from Perdisco that contains instructions and a serial number
needed for downloading your Peachtree software.

After making your purchase and downloading the Peachtree software, you are given
several unregistered uses of the software before it is required to be registered. Dont
wait too long before registering, or else you will lose access to your software. To register
your Peachtree software, go to www.peachtree.com/register and perform the following
steps (the use of Internet Explorer is strongly recommended, not Google Chrome):

Click the sign up link on the Register My Sage Product line at the bottom of the page.
Click the button I am a new Sage Customer.
Complete the requested data that have red asterisks. Perdisco recommends entering the following
company and address, not your address: Perdisco Pty Ltd, 10685-B Hazelhurst Drive, Suite 3965,
Houston, TX 77043, USA. Note that the address and street are on different lines.
Go to the next window and click the Product Registration drop-down menu at the top.
[Warning: Last semester, during this step, some students who used Internet Explorer 8 or 9
experienced a compatibility problem. To fix this, see the instructions after the last step below.]
Enter the serial number you received in the email from Perdisco to register the Sage 50 Product.
You will receive the registration number [called the Activation Key] and the customer ID [called the
Client ID]. Enter this information the next time you use your Peachtree software.
Compatibility Fix: Click the Compatibility View Button that is located to the right of the address bar
on your web page.

For Mac users or anyone else who cant fix the compatibility problem (Macs dont have a
Compatibility View Button), register by calling 877-481-0341 and provide your serial number to
obtain an activation key.

How Do I Begin My Practice Set?

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To begin your practice set, go to www.perdisco.com/peachtreeLogin and enter your user

name and the password you received in an email from Perdisco. Click the practice set
link at the bottom of the page and youre ready to go.

Click
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Keep your books (accounting records) on Peachtree (on the computer you are using)
and obtain assignments from Perdisco online. To earn your points, answer questions
from Perdisco and submit them online.

Grade: This practice set is worth 50 points (10%) of your ACCT 350 grade. Each practice
set has 419 points possible. The first 19 points missed will not count against you. They
are free points. Example: If a student earns 360 points out of 419, the grade will be
calculated as follows: 360/400 = 90%, and 90% x 50 = 45 points. If you lose any points
due to your practice set being graded incorrectly, submit to Professor Weiss all printouts
of the assignments that were misgraded and the points lost. In other words, you received
a green check mark to indicate that the answer is correct, but points were deducted. This
is one reason to print each assignment after it has been graded before continuing.

Saving Your Data: Peachtree automatically saves your data on the computer you are using.

Back Up Your Data File: You are strongly encouraged to back up your data file after each
session. To do so, insert a USB flash drive and click the File drop-down menu. Then click
Back Up and save your data file to the USB flash drive.

Restoring Your Data File: If you switch to a different computer, you will need to restore your
data file on that computer. To do so, insert your USB flash drive. Click the File drop-down
menu. Then click Restore and access your data file located on the USB flash drive.

Attention Mac Users: Peachtree is not compatible with Macs. Either use Boot Camp for
compatibility (partition your Mac if it came preinstalled with Boot Camp) or use the computer lab
on the second floor of Juniper Hall. Parallels can also be used, but its not recommended.

Computer Lab: If you use the computer lab, remember that your data is saved automatically on
the lab computer with which you begin the practice set. To avoid having to use the exact same
computer in the lab each time, insert your USB flash drive and restore your data. (See above)

Important: No two practice sets are the same. Every student has a different practice set with a
different solution. After each assignment is graded, you will be given the answers and be
required to make corrections in Peachtree (on your computer) so that you dont lose points for
the same errors that carry over to future assignments. Remember, corrections are not made
automatically for you. Part of your grade is based on how well you can audit your own
work to discover why your answers are wrong and fix those mistakes.

Before beginning your practice set, you should familiarize yourself with the Student Companion
& Helpful Hints at http://www.perdisco.com/downloads/studentCompanion.VPU3f.pdf and the
Learning Center at http://www.perdisco.com/peachtreeLearning for valuable help using
Peachtree.

Using the Moodle Peachtree Discussion Board: A discussion board has been set up at
http://moodle.csun.edu. You are being graded on these assignments and, therefore, Professor
Weiss will not answer any question in which you ask for an answer that will be graded. Students
may help each other on the discussion board. But there is no guarantee about the advice you
receive because each practice set is different. Before using the practice set discussion board,
attempt to answer any questions on your own. In accounting, you must learn to think for yourself
and make a strong effort to find answers before seeking help. To track posts on the discussion
board, Moodle is configured to send the entire class an email for every post that is made by
someone on the discussion board. Therefore, think it out first before you use the discussion
board because everyone will receive an email of each one of your posts.

Warning: Its worth repeating. Each practice set is different. The name of the company, the
dates, the transactions, the dollar amounts, the quantities, and the names of vendors and
customers that you see in the screen captures on the following pages and the practice sets that
other students are completing will be different from those contained in your practice set.
Therefore, when using the Moodle discussion board, asking questions or giving advice to other
students using specific names, dates, quantities, or amounts might not have any meaning.

Very, Very Important: Use the correct dates given to you in the practice set (month and year)
when setting up your company or entering transactions especially when creating the chart
of accounts and entering the beginning balances. Students have ended up with useless
data and a loss of many hours of work because of using the wrong dates. Two different years or
two different months cannot be combined later. To find the accounting period you are using,
look at the top of any window in Peachtree as illustrated below (your dates might be different
than these). If incorrect, click it and change to the correct period before making any entries.

Click to change.

Two Chances! If your score is disappointing or you mess up the practice set beyond repair, you
get a second chance (with a new company) but only after completing all assignments the first
time.

The following pages contain helpful information and hints that students
and I have discovered while completing this practice set in the past. This
information might save you from unnecessarily losing points.
To record and post a transaction, click Save (below) after each journal entry.

 The menu below is called the Navigation Bar.

With each assignment, the following will appear to show you your progress, your grade,
and information from previous assignments.

After each assignment has been graded, it is recommended that

you make a printout of it in case you need to fix or find something
contained in a prior assignment or to obtain the content of a prior
transaction. In later assignments, you might need to fix errors in
your trial balance. Once you move to the next assignment, you
might not be able to access an old assignment. Without the facts
of earlier transactions, this wont be possible. You will be very
unhappy if you need this information and dont have it. However,
you might be able to obtain old data using the menu to which the
red arrow is pointing.

Assignment 1. Conversion to Peachtree (Week 2)

Avoid making the following two critical mistakes when setting up your company:
o When selecting the business type, be very careful to select the Simplified types
option and Retail Company as the business type. Failure to do so will result in you
using the wrong chart of accounts, which will doom you before you even begin.

o When selecting the first period of your fiscal year, be very careful to use January 2012
(below) unless the instructions indicate a different date.

The first fill-in question you will see (below) asks for the Number of Accounts. This means
how many accounts of each type, not the account number.

Account Type

Number of Accounts

Accounts Receivable
Other Current Assets
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Assignment 2. Company Setup (Week 3)

You will be asked to delete a default account (Cost of Sales Salary and Wage). See Quick
Reference Guide for additional instructions about how to do it. If you dont delete this account
before entering the balances in your chart of accounts (see below), the same balance for Cost
of Sales will also appear for this account, and a net loss (negative net income) will be listed at
the bottom of the page because of double expensing this amount. But dont worry. This can be
fixed by deleting this default account.

When setting up your chart of accounts and entering the beginning balances, you should use a
minus sign for the Allowance for Doubtful Accounts credit balance (below). Except for the
bank reconciliation statement in Assignment 10 pages 18 and 19, you wont be required to
use a minus sign for any other assignment.

To set up your chart of accounts, access the Chart of Accounts window using the
Maintain drop-down menu (below):

Remember: Be very, very careful to use the correct dates for the accounting period.
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When entering payroll details in the User-Maintained Payroll Formulas window (below),
click Next Step: Add this formula to Employee Defaults before closing the window.

Click

Assignment 3. Practice Transaction (Week 4)

When making a payment (writing a check), use Write Check when the payment is not for
inventory. This can be accessed using either the Banking tab on the Navigation Bar or the
Tasks drop-down menu. If the payment is for inventory or to a vendor to satisfy an account
payable, use Pay Bill [see pages 8 and 11]. To make the payment for the equipment, access
the following window and make entries where indicated.

Dont use for

this payment
Cash purchase of equipment.

Enter the name if the party is not a vendor. Dont use the Vendor ID menu.
If the party had been a vendor, you would have used the Vendor ID menu.
Important: Select the account that should be debited where it is labeled Expense account even though it is
not always an expense. This will most often be Accounts Payable. In this practice transaction, it is the
account Property and Equipment (1500).

Be Very Careful: When paying cash, select the correct account on the debit side of the entry.
For example, the default account set for the two payment windows below (Write Check and Pay
Bill) is Inventory (1200). If you use this account, the debit will result in an increase to inventory.

Use Write Check

when the payment is
not for inventory.

Dont use this account. For

inventory, use the Pay Bill
window (below).

Use Pay Bill when

the payment is for
inventory.

The default account set for the Receipts window below is Sales Income (4000). Be certain
that this is the account you want to credit before using it.

Assignment 4. First Transaction (Week 4)

If you make a purchase from a company that has the name Supplies in it, dont assume you
are purchasing supplies. It might be equipment. Therefore, read the transaction carefully.

Assignment 5. Transactions: Early May (Week 5)

The loan obtained from the uncle is a receipt of cash. It should be recorded using the same
window as that used for cash received from a customer satisfying an account receivable.
There are two ways to access the Receipts window. One way is to use the Task drop-down
menu and Receipts (below).

The other way is to click Receive Money using the Customers & Sales tab on the
Navigation Bar [see the next page].

Because this receipt isnt from a customer, you only need to make the entries identified below
(circled in red). The Reference box refers to the uncles check number. Ignore the Deposit
Ticket ID. You will also be required to enter the name of the uncle. Note to Computer Lab
Users: If you are working in the computer lab and the GL Account column does not appear,
do the following: Access the Edit drop-down menu, select Global Options, and under Hide
General Ledger Accounts, uncheck Accounts Receivable. Exit this window and the Receipt
window. The GL Account column will appear when you access the Receipt window again.

Enter amount.
Select Short Term Debt
(account number 2600)

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For purchases of inventory, use Receive Inventory through the Navigation Bar as illustrated
below. This can also be accessed by using Purchases/Receive Inventory in the Tasks
drop-down menu. Do not use Purchase Orders unless it is only a purchase order and not
yet a purchase.

To pay a vendor (i.e., satisfy an account payable), use Pay Bill (below), not Write Check.
Remember that the Write Check is used for the payment of anything that is not inventory.

(See next page)

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After you access the correct vendor and invoice, enter the required information (below). Make
sure you place a check mark in the Pay box, but only for the invoice that is being paid. The
Discount account box represents the account you are debiting. Remember to change that
account if it requires changing.

For a sales transaction that is part credit and part cash, use the Customers & Sales menu
(below) and click Sales Invoices to obtain a list of choices. Select New Sales Invoice from
this list.

(See the next page)

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Make similar entries to the ones below

Click here and the Receive

Payment window will appear.

In the Receive Payment window (not shown, but click the Amount paid at sale box above
to access it), the Reference box refers to the check number that was received. Ignore the
Deposit Ticket ID box until later in the practice set.

Assignment 6. First Trial Balance (Week 6)

To obtain the trial balance, use the Reports & Forms drop-down menu. Select General
Ledger and then General Ledger Trial Balance.

When completing the assignment in which you submit the amounts for the trial balance, each
account must have the balance entered in one column and a zero entered in the other. In other
words, dont leave any field (cell) blank.
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How do I correct the trial balance after it is graded? After your trial balance is graded and
you receive the correct balances, some of your accounts might have the wrong balance. How
do you fix those accounts? This is where you will begin to discover if you have the skill to be
an accountant. To correct these balances, you must audit your own work and discover the
errors you made when you recorded these transactions earlier.

Begin by identifying the accounts with incorrect balances. Then examine each of these
accounts in the general ledger in order to review each transaction that has been posted
to that account. Use the Reports & Forms drop-down menu. Select General
Ledger and then General Ledger again.

Next, review the facts for each transaction you recorded in earlier assignments and
make sure you recorded them correctly to the account you are examining. The following
are the most common errors you might have made:

If two of the accounts with incorrect balances are Inventory and Supplies, you might have incorrectly
recorded the purchase of supplies as a purchase of inventory.
If two of the accounts with incorrect balances are Equipment and Supplies, you might have incorrectly
recorded the purchase of equipment as a purchase of supplies.
If one of the accounts with an incorrect balance is Accounts Payable, you might have failed to credit
Accounts Payable for a credit purchase of inventory or failed to debit Accounts Payable for a payment to
satisfy the payable.

When you find an incorrect journal entry, go back to it and either make the correction or
delete it and record the transaction again [see the first bullet on page 15].
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Assignment 7. Finding and Fixing Errors (Week 7)

You are asked to correct a purchase that is similar to the one below. Cancel the original
transaction by deleting it and record the correct one.

To update the corrected vendor balances before submitting your answers, click Refresh.

Assignment 8. Transactions: Mid May (Week 8)

For purchase transactions, access Receive Inventory through the Navigation Bar or
Purchases/Receive Inventory using the Tasks drop-down menu [see the first bullet on
page 11].

For a purchase order, click Purchase Orders (below) and select New Purchase Order
from the list of choices.

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If you receive inventory for an earlier purchase order, access Receive Inventory through the
Navigation Bar or Purchases/Receive Inventory using the Tasks drop-down menu. Make
sure the date is correct (the date used should be when the inventory is received).

Select the correct vendor and the tab will change to Apply to Purchase Order No. (below).
If it doesnt change automatically, click that tab and enter the original P.O. number.

Enter the number of units received.

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9. Transactions: Late May (Week 10)

The sales transaction requires you to do two things: Invoice a sales order and add additional
units to the sale that werent originally part of a sales order. To do this, go to Sales Invoices
[see the last bullet on page 12]. Select View and Edit Sales Invoices from the list of
choices. Select the correct vendor to access the original sales order. The correct sales order
number should appear in the box next to the Apply to Sales Order No. tab (below). Click the
Apply to Sales tab (below) and enter the additional sale.

Alert: There are two different accounts for utilities Telephone Expense for the telephone
expense and Utilities Expense for all other utility expenses such as electricity.
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Assignment 10. Bank Reconciliation (Week 11)

Access Reconcile Accounts (below) to prepare the bank reconciliation statement.

Compare the Account Reconciliation window (below) to both the bank statement and the
prior month bank reconciliation statement provided to you with your assignment data. On the
Account Reconciliation window, place a check mark next to each check and deposit that is
listed on the bank statement. These items have cleared the bank and, therefore, should not
appear on the bank reconciliation statement. Input the items that are circled below.

Obtained from the

bank statement.

Should be zero.

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To prepare your bank reconciliation statement, access Reports (below) and select Account
Reconciliation (this Account Reconciliation link is the report). Peachtree automatically
records the interest and service charge and doesnt include them in the bank reconciliation
statement. This is unlike what you might see in a textbook-illustrated bank reconciliation
statement. Both approaches are acceptable.

To fill in the blank fields (cells) for this assignment that you submit to Perdisco, enter the date
(first column), check number (second column), and amount (third column) for each outstanding
check. Use a minus sign for the amount of each outstanding check. Also use a minus sign for
the balance you enter on the Cash Disbursements line. Dont be concerned if there are
more blank fields (cells) than entries.
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If you are unfamiliar with a bank reconciliation statement, it is recommended that you look at
the Review Primer on the class web page or go to the Banking link in the Peachtree
Learning Center at http://www.perdisco.com/peachtreeLearning.

Assignment 11. Adjusting Journal Entries (Week 12)

In this assignment, you are instructed to generate the adjusted trial balance that shows all
account balances. Notice that all is in bold for emphasis. Therefore, you should include each
account that is listed in your chart of accounts, even if it has a zero balance. If there is no
balance, enter a zero. In other words, for each field (cell), an account name and an amount (or
a zero) must be entered.
0
0

For your adjusting journal entries, use the General Journal (below).

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Assignment 12. Inventory and Aging of Receivables/Payables (Week 13)

An aging of accounts receivable and accounts payable are accessed using the Reports &
Forms drop-down menu (below),

The aging schedule for accounts payable will look like something similar to the following.

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Assignment 13. Financial Statements (Week 14) -- Optional

To print the financial statements, use the Reports & Forms drop-down menu (below). You
are not required to complete or submit this assignment. But you might want to print your
financial statements to see what they look like.

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