>>>Does anybody have any knowledge or experience with interfacing Foxpro with Peachtree accounting package? Actually, any feature-rich, Windows-based, simple-to-use, multi-user, CHEAP, and most importantly, Foxpro interfaceable off-the-shelf accounting package will do nicely. Yes, I know I'm asking a lot, especially with the word "CHEAP" in there.
>>>
>>>I've tried to build a simple accounting package myself for my smaller clients that have special needs most off-the-shelf packages don't provide but found it too time-consuming to actually finish one. All of the customizable Foxpro-based accounting packages are too expensive, even w/o source for some very small clients that I have. Anyway, most don't need "100 page feature list package" and can get by with just the basics but always have one or two aspects of accounting they want to customize.
>>>
>>>The reason I brought up Peachtree is that it fits all aspects of what I want except I don't know how hard it is to interface with a Foxpro-based application and data.
>>>
>>>TIA
>>>John.
>>
>>
>>It is my understanding that Peachtree uses Btrieve for its
>>data access methods. It would be interesting to see how
>>hard it would be to use a product like DBFtrieve (which
>>allows you to directly read/write btrieve files from your
>>foxpro application)to interface a custom billing process
>>onto a Peachtree application.
>>
>>It is my experience that functions like payroll, accounts
>>payable, and G/L are pretty much similar from company to
>>company; but billing/AR functions can vary greatly.
>>
>>You would need some sort of technical documentation from
>>Peachtree explaining their data structures(which I'm sure
>>is not available). An alternative would be to look at the
>>data files before and after certain transactions and backward
>>engineer the data update process so that you can write programs
>>which update the Peachtree data files appropriately.
>>
>>Let me know if you hear of anyone doing this because I would
>>be very interested in collaborating in such an effort.
>Jim.
>I've been looking into integrating Peachtree with Foxpro for about 2 weeks now w/o any real good results. So far I've found out you could POKE (via DDE) certain journal transactions (which I have successfully tried) but not "permanent data items" like new inventory items which to me is absurd. It says in the manuel that you could however, do this using the "SendKeys" statement to simulate it but provides no examples how!
>
>You are correct in that Peachtree uses Btrieve for file format but structure is proprietary and is not available and in fact they said they have extended the way it uses Btrieve to its own purpose (another great news! :( ).
>
>Lastly, instead of spending any more time trying to intergrate, I've decided to use Peachtree for GL and AP and design my own AR and Inventory modules to handle the special needs of my client. I really hate to do this because they would have to switch back and forth and duplicate some data entry work but I have no choice. The best way is for Peachtree to open up the system even more, like using OLE Automation as a server for other apps to control directly.
>
>John.
>(P.S. Wouldn't it be great if there was a freeware/shareware Visual Foxpro-based general accounting program with SOURCE CODE for all to use and just add new ideas and modules over time, like how Linux is used now!!! If anyone is interested in doing something like this, please let me know. I would be more than happy to do my share to get this going!)

from the messages here on this subject, a vfp based acctg system w/ source code would not be free -- too many ppl looking for this.