Child pages
  • Preparing a company file for the new AccountRight

You are viewing an old version of this page. View the current version.

Compare with Current View Page History

« Previous Version 5 Next »

This information applies to MYOB AccountRight version 19. For later versions, see our help centre.


 

 

ANSWER ID:36532

Before upgrading to the new AccountRight, you should reduce the size of your company file as much as possible. This will ensure a speedy, hassle-free upgrade, and it'll also make it a lot quicker and easier to upload your company file if you intend working online.

You should also process all unprocessed transactions before upgrading to the new AccountRight.

If you're using AccountRight Premier in a network, make sure you perform the tasks below on the computer where Premier is installed. 

How big is my company file?

In your company file, go to the Accounts command centre and click Company Data Auditor. This window has lots of info about your company file, including its size:

Image

The above example is from Clearwater, the sample company file - so it's fairly small and would be fine to upgrade as it is. But if your company file is a lot bigger, perhaps 100 MB or more, we recommend reducing its size by completing the following tasks in the order provided.

 

1. Purge historical transactions

Transactions from previous financial years take up a lot of space in your company file, so purging (permanently removing them) frees up some space. To ensure you still have access to these transactions, it's important to create a back up of your company file before you purge. Then, if needed, you can always restore the back up to view or report on the purged transactions.

The quickest and easiest way to purge these old transactions is using the Start a New Financial Year process. Don't worry, the current financial year won't be closed - it's just a way of purging different types of transactions in one go.

Want to purge transaction types one at a time?

If you're unsure about using the Start a New Financial Year process to purge transactions all at once, you can purge different transaction types one at a time. From within each command centre in your software, go to the File menu and choose Purge. For example, from the Sales command centre you can choose to Purge Closed Invoices. For sales and purchases you can also choose to purge just the detail only, or the entire invoice or bill. So it's important to read the information carefully on each window as you complete the process. You should also create a backup prior to purging anything, so you'll always be able to access the purged information by restoring the backup.

 To purge transactions

  1. Go to the File menu and choose Start a New Year then choose Start a New Financial Year.
  2. Click Back Up.
  3. Choose Back up all data then click Continue.
  4. Specify where you want to save the backup. If you like, you can rename the backup file to help identify it later.
  5. Click Save. The backup is created and the Start a New Financial Year window reappears.
  6. Click Continue.
  7. Read the info displayed then click Continue.
  8. In the New Financial Year field, enter the current financial year, i.e. the same year as shown in the field above it.
  9. Click Continue.
  10. Leave the following window unchanged and click Continue.
  11. Select the option Purge Audit Trail Entries and click Continue.
  12. Deselect the options on the following window then click Continue.
  13. Leave the following window unchanged and click Continue.
  14. Click Start a New Financial Year. If a confirmation message appears, click Yes. Transactions from previous financial years will be purged. Depending on the number of transactions, this may take some time. Despite appearances the process will eventually complete. If the process is interrupted before completion it will most likely damage your company file (which we can fix) - so it's best to be patient. 
2. Purge contact logs

Too many contact log entries can increase the size of your company file.

To see how many contact log entries you have, run the Contact Log report (Reports > Index to Reports > Card tab > Contact Log). Run the report for all cards to see if you have just a few contact log entries (which won't really impact the size of your company file), or if you have lots.

Before purging your contact logs, make sure you create a backup of your company file. This allows you to access your purged contact log entries, if needed, by restoring the backup.

To purge contact logs

  1. Go to the Card File command centre.
  2. Go to the File menu and choose Purge Contact Logs.
  3. If you haven't already done so, click Back Up to create a backup of your company file as described above. Make sure you name the backup file accordingly to make it easy to identify later.
  4. Once the backup is complete, click Continue.

  5. Leave the following window unchanged (the date should default to the first month of your current financial year), then click Continue.  

  6. On the following window, leave all contacts selected to delete all contact logs. If you have any business-critical contact logs, such as those for bad debtors, deselect these.

  7. Click Purge Contact Logs.
3. Optimise and verify the company file

Now that you've removed old transactions from your company file, it has probably left some "gaps" in the database. Optimising your company file removes these gaps to ensure your company file is as compact and efficient as possible. Then, to double-check that all is well, it's a good idea to verify the file for any issues that could affect your upgrade to the new AccountRight.

To optimise the company file

  1. Go to the File menu and choose Optimise Company File.
  2. Click OK to the information window.
  3. If prompted about retaining a previous optimisation recovery file, and providing you have created a back up earlier in this support note, click No. The company file will be optimised.
  4. Click OK to the completion message.

To verify the company file

  1. Go to the File menu and choose Verify Company File.
  2. Click OK to the information window. The company file will be verified.
  3. If no errors were found, click OK to end the verification process.
  4. If your company file is corrupted, you can:
    • Attempt to repair the company file by optimising it and repeat this procedure to check if the errors have been fixed.
    • Restore the company file from your most recent backup.

That's it - your company file size will have been reduced as much as possible. To confirm, go to the Accounts command centre and click Company Data Auditor to check your file size. Any reduction will be beneficial when upgrading to the new AccountRight