Archiving FAQs

Applies to: [x] C&P Classic [x] C&P Pro [x] Job Tracker [x] C&P SQL [x] My C&P! See also:

Summary: Frequently asked questions about the archive/purge utility in Clients & Profits. Clients & Profits never removes old jobs, costs, billings, etc. Unless you explicitly purge it from the database, everything you've ever added into Clients & Profits stays there forever. As your database grows over the years, there may be fewer reasons to keep years-old data--at which time it can be purged from your database. This process is called archive/purge, and is a built-in utility in all versions of Clients & Profits. What exactly does the Archive/Purge utility do? Will archiving shrink my database? Will it make Clients & Profits run faster? Can I archive the General Ledger? What happens if I Verify/Recover an old job after archiving its costs and billings? What's the difference between Archive/Purge and the Archived Jobs utility? How do I select records to be purged? I ran a Verify/Recover on my A/P and/or A/R account balances -- now many old invoices appear unpaid on my aging. What happened? How do I remove them? What are some guidelines for safe archiving? Q. What exactly does the Archive/Purge utility do? The Archive/Purge utility permanently removes records from your database. The utility lets you select A/P invoices, A/R invoices, checks, client payments, job tickets, purchase orders, and time sheets that are either paid or closed by a date range for purging. For a complete description of the archive/purge utility, please refer to your User Guide.   Q. Will archiving shrink my database? Will it make Clients & Profits run faster? No. The database never shrinks. Instead, space is cleared out for new records. This means your archived database won't grow as fast. The size of the database has only a marginal effect on the performance of Clients & Profits, so archiving won't noticeably speed up adding, saving, finding, and printing records.   Q. Can I archive the General Ledger? Yes, but only in very unique situations. Journal entries are purged automatically when the year is closed, so they don't need to be archived/purged manually. The only reason to purge this year's JEs is if someone forgot to close the year, then new work was entered. If this happens, please see tech note #019 "What To Do If Your Accounting Year Wasn't Closed." Q. What happens if I Verify/Recover an old job after archiving its costs and billings? Don't do it -- the job's cost and billed totals won't be accurate. The job's totals will be recalculated from the remaining costs and billings in the database. The job's totals won't include anything you've archived, so won't be accurate on job profitability reports. That's why you should only archive costs and billings for jobs that are 3-4 years -- and that aren't likely to be printed on job reports.   Q. What's the difference between Archive/Purge and the Archived Jobs utility? Archiving actually deletes records from the database. The Archived Jobs file can contain summary information about old jobs, including job number, name, the location of the disk files, the printer who printed the piece, and some notes. Archiving jobs does NOT create records in the Archived Jobs file automatically; someone must add jobs to it separately. Q. How do I select records to be purged? Records are selected by a date range. Within that date range, only the closed or paid records will be archived. They are not selected by date posted, and the accounting period is ignored. Remember, every record within that date range and with that criteria will be erased. Once data is purged, it won't appear on reports. Be sure to print any report you might need BEFORE archiving. NOTE: Some of the records listed below are not available for archiving in some programs or versions. Data file: Selected by: Restrictions: Job tickets Start date Closed jobs only Purchase Orders Order date Closed POs only Accounts Payable Invoice date Paid invoices only Time Sheets Work date --- Checks Check date Cleared checks only Accounts Receivable Invoice date Paid invoices only Client Payments Payment date --- General Ledger JE date ---   Q. I ran a Verify/Recover on my A/P and/or A/R account balances -- now many old invoices appear unpaid on my aging. What happened? How do I remove them? Vendor checks or client payments were archived by mistake for invoices that still exist. The Verify/Recover matched invoices with payments, which it is supposed to do. But since the archived payments are no longer in the database, the invoice has no way to know it is paid. If this happens, there are two options: (1) restore a backup of the data BEFORE it was archived, or (2) add the missing payments again. If restoring a backup of the database isn't practical, then you'll need to add the missing payments: Accounts Payable: Use the Auto-pay function to select the invoices which should be paid, but aren't: 1. Choose Accounting > Checkbook. 2. Choose Edit > Auto-Pay Payables. 3. Enter the oldest pay date from the invoices to be cleared. 4. Select All A/P G/L accounts and Auto-pay everything. 5. Enter the A/P G/L account number in the Checking account number field. 6. Enter a starting check number which is out of the range of numbers you will ever use, like 1 or 100. 7. After clicking the Select button, review each line item, making certain the dGL is the same as the A/P G/L account number that you enter in Step 5.  If you only have a few to do you might want to consider using a Vendor Credit instead -- just make sure the dGL and cGL are the same. Accounts Receivable: You will need to add a client payment for each client that has unpaid invoices: 1. Choose Accounting > Client Payments. 2. Choose Edit > Add Client Payment. 3. Enter the client number, press tab, click on the user-defined Payment Type. 4. Then enter "Credit" over the word "Other." 5. Enter the credit amount -- then enter the A/R G/L account number as the dGL. 6. Click Save, then apply the credit amount to the old, unpaid invoices, as normal, checking that the cGL is the same A/R G/L account number.  CHECK YOUR WORK: Since you don't want these entries to affect this year's General Ledger, you must debit and credit the same account. You'll still see journal entries in the G/L, but they will net to zero. Once these Checks, Vendor Credits or Client Payments are posted, the old invoices will appear as paid -- and not appear on the aging report. Be sure to "Age Accounts first" when you rerun your aging. Also notify the Clients & Profits Help Desk, either by e-mail or fax, what you have archived so that it can be noted in your client file for future reference.   What are some guidelines for safe archiving? Run any reports desired or necessary reports before archiving. Most important: Make a permanent backup first. (Do not copy over this backup, if you ever need to research data that you have archived this will be the only way to do it.) Archive from the server, not across the network. Archiving is irreversible. Once the data is purged, it can't be recovered. No one should be working in the database while the archive/purge is running. Turn off any programs that might interrupt it, like an automatic backup or screen saver. Don't purge checks and payments. If a verify/recover is run for vendor or client balances after the invoice payments are purged, the invoices will no longer have payments. Those invoices will reappear on the aging, resulting in an incorrect aging. Don't archive records that are less than three years old. Also, notify the Clients & Profits Help Desk either by e-mail or fax what you have archived so that it can be noted in your client file for future reference. 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