Accessing Peachtree Data with MS Access

MS Access is capable of accessing most databases, including peachtree (with limitations discussed later). You will need Pervasive ODBC drivers for the task.

I believe any version of Pervasives drivers will work. Peachtree uses btrieve 6.15 which is about 10 years old. The last time I did this I used Pervasive 2000i ODBC drivers, and I did not have a problem.

Be warned however: ODBC Drivers in a Btrieve/Pervasive environment use the .ddfs to read the database. Peachtree, in its infinite wisdom, has decided not to share all of the contents of the database with its users or even technical people. I run into this all the time writing crystal reports for Peachtree. These fields that are not disclosed are start with the words "Dont Use" and are followed by a number. In addition to this, there are several entire tables that are not available through the .ddfs.

If you go the ODBC route, you will need to create a DSN in Control Panel. In terms of creating a DSN, it is no different than creating any other DSN. Control Panel->Administrative Tools->ODBC Data Sources->Add then pick your driver and follow the instructions.

In terms of the limitations of using .ddfs as I mentioned above, the only workaround I am aware of for this limitation is PAWCOM -- http://www.multiwareinc.com/pawcom.htm -- which sells a pretty neat product which makes all of peachtrees data available in a relational database format, within MS Access. The price as of this writing is $379.

My problem as a consultant is that the people who pay $300 for Peachtree rarely want to pay even more to buy a tool like PAWCOM, only to spend even more money for people like me to develop reports for them. Having said that, there are definately times that this is necessary.