Deleting & Consolidating History Files to help speed up processing When making backups or looking for information in your system (i.e. previous invoices or customer ledger reports) you might find that your system has become slow when processing. This is because the size of your data files keeps growing as you work in your system on a day to day basis. The size of your data files will depend on the volume of transactions that you process per year and the number of years transactions that you have stored. You might feel that you have no control over the size of your data files, but you can in fact delete and consolidate certain history once you no longer require it. By deleting and consolidating transactions, you can reduce the size of your data files which will help speed up your system. To access this function, select the Change...Delete History / Clear Files menu option. The function runs as an Assistant. PLEASE NOTE: You cannot use this function if you have open batches. Make sure that all your batches have been updated prior to accessing this function. The assistant will prompt you to update all open batches. Ensure that you have sufficient backups prior to allowing this function to make changes to your system. The changes are irreversible. The first screen in the assistant looks like this: Select the first option to Delete / Consolidate Transactions. The assistant also gives the option to make a backup at this stage if you haven t already done so. Page 1 of 5 Copyright Ritzy IT Pastel Partner Deleting History Files.doc
In the next screen you select a period up to which to delete or consolidate transactions. In this example we will choose to consolidate transactions up to and including February Last Year. Choose the appropriate period and click on Next. The following screen is displayed where you need to select whether or not to delete Invoice / Inventory History. The system NEVER deletes some files on its own unless you initiate a clearing operation. The system keeps invoice and inventory history until you explicitly delete it. This takes up a lot of space since the invoice header includes delivery address and invoice message information. Page 2 of 5 Copyright Ritzy IT Pastel Partner Deleting History Files.doc
If you are deleting history, and if you use the Serial Number Tracking add-on module, you can choose whether to delete serial number history for items that are no longer in stock. Once you make your choices, click the Next button to continue. In the Delete Open Item Transaction History screen you need to choose whether or not to delete Open Item History and either or both Customer and Supplier History. The system will not delete any UNMATCHED transactions irrespective of how old they are. The Open Item History file can be very large since the system stores every invoice and payments or credit notes matched to it. Even if you cannot see the invoice on the Customer Statement or Supplier Remittance, the invoice is still stored in the system data base. Deleting the Open Item transactions will not affect the Customer or Supplier detailed ledgers. Make the appropriate selections and click on Next. Page 3 of 5 Copyright Ritzy IT Pastel Partner Deleting History Files.doc
The transactions the system stores for two financial years can be quite voluminous. You cannot delete these transactions since they would cause integrity problems. However, the system can consolidate transactions into a single transaction per account, period, entry type, and tax type. Select the appropriate options and click on Next. In the Account Range Selection screen you can specify a range of accounts to work on or leave the selections as is if you want the assistant to include all accounts. Select the appropriate ranges and click on Next. Page 4 of 5 Copyright Ritzy IT Pastel Partner Deleting History Files.doc
The Confirm Operation Screen displays a summary of the selections you have made on the previous screens. Please ensure that you check the summary to ensure that you have selected the correct options. If you are sure that the selections are correct, click on Process. To exit the assistant without making any changes to your data, click on Cancel. Page 5 of 5 Copyright Ritzy IT Pastel Partner Deleting History Files.doc