Consolidating Data
Big Business includes a Consolidate function to remove old, finalized data. Removing this History can make your Data File smaller and easier to backup and if historical entries are no longer useful for reference, removing them will reduce clutter.
Consolidation should only be considered as a last resort for improving performance. Performance should be addressed by other maintenance, tuning, and upgrade options. Contact technical support for details.
This Solution describes the Consolidate function. (3284)
Consolidate clears postings and transactions that meet the following criteria:
• On or before the specified "Consolidate Through" Date
• Finalized (i.e. Locked, Reconciled, Closed or zeroed, depending on the transaction)
• Not the related to any transaction which is not being Consolidated
The option to remove Customer, Vendor, and Items cards allows you to remove Cards for which all activity is removed by the Consolidate process. Alternatively, you can use the appropriate Batch Delete option to remove those Cards which no longer have any history.
Please adhere to the following recommendations:
• Back up your data before Consolidating! Archive a copy for future reference.
• It is recommended you use Single-User Big Business to Consolidate a multi-user file.
• Read "Before Consolidating Data," on the following page.
• Run Consolidate only once for a given time period.
• Read "After Consolidating Data," in the following section.
Before Consolidating Data
This Solution describes the Consolidate function used remove old data. (3408)
Consolidate removes financial entries that are finalized, meaning Paid, Deposited, and Reconciled. Optionally it can remove Customers, Vendors, and Items.
Consolidation is conservative and will not remove any entry that is related to an entry that is not being removed. For example, a December Invoice paid by a January Receive Money will not be Consolidated if the Consolidate Through Date is 12/31.
Please adhere to the following recommendations:
• Back up your data before Consolidating! Archive a copy for future reference.
• Review transactions to assure that as many as possible are finalized.
• Print Reports such as a Balance Sheet to verify your Consolidation.
• Allow plenty of time for the Consolidation, especially for larger data files.
Consolidation cannot be run for dates in the Current Fiscal Year or for dates earlier than the last Consolidated Through Date, which appears at the bottom of the Maintenance Prefs screen for Company files which have been Consolidated.
NOTE: Once a period is Consolidated, you can no longer run valid financial reports for the period. For example, you cannot produce a valid 1997 Profit and Loss Statement if your data is Consolidated to any date on or after the first day of 1997. Keep a backup copy of your pre-Consolidation file for reference.
After Consolidating Data
This Solution describes the Consolidate function and the necessary procedures after consolidating your data file to remove old data. (3409)
To Compact your Data File, start Big Business (Server) and quickly hold the Option (Alt) key. On the dialog displayed, choose the option, Open the Maintenance and Security Center.
On the menu on the left click Compact, then at the TOP click the button for Compact Records and Indexes. (Do not Compact the Structure File or you will need to re-install the program!) Once the Compact is Complete, Quit and restart Big Business (Server).
The newly compacted Data File is saved in the original location and will automatically open when you start Big Business again. The original file is archived in a folder named, "Replaced Files (Compacting)" and the Date.
Once complete, run a Balance Sheet to verify Consolidation. The Balance Sheet should be identical to one run before Consolidation.