How clean up data effects inventory, P & L , annual leave etc if at all?

Tilley
Tilley Member Posts: 58 ✭✭

HI COMMUNITY,

AS YOU MAY KNOW OUR RECKON PREMIER ACCOUNTS COMPANY FILE IS GROANING TO A HALT AFTER 15 FAITHFUL YEARS OF STAYING WITH RECKON.

SO RECKON SUGGESTED VARIOUS THINGS LIKE STARTING A NEW COMPANY FILE BUT THAT INVOLVES TIME, MONEY (ALOT) AS WE HAVE THOUSANDS OF PARTS AND 5 USERS AND THERE ARE LOTS OF STUFF THAT CANNOT BE EXPORTED /IMPORTED LIKE MEMORISED TRANSACTIONS . LOOKS LIKE A NIGHTMARE WAITING TO HAPPEN. SO NOT KEEN TO GO DOWN THIS PATH AND IF I DO, IT MAY AS WELL BE WITH SOME OTHER ACCOUNTING SOFTWARE WHO PROVIDES SIMPLE SOLUTIONS TO FIXING BIG FILE SIZES AFTER SO MANY YEARS .

ANOTHER SUGGESTION IS THE CLEAN UP OPTION WHICH I HAVE NEVER USED.

CAN ANYONE TELL ME HOW USING THE CLEAN UP COMPANY DATA WILL AFFECT ( F AT ALL?) THINGS LIKE PROFIT & LOSS, INVENTORY, ANNUAL LEAVE ETC. WE DO PREVIOUS YEARS COMPARISONS ?

APPRECIATE ANY FEEDBACK. DO OTHER USERS DO THIS YEARLY OR EVERY FEW YEARS.

I'M ALSO INTEREST TO HERE IF OTHERS HAVE SWAP SOFTWARE AND WHAT EVER REASON FOR.

BIG THANKS IN ADVANCE

Comments

  • Rav
    Rav Administrator, Reckon Staff Posts: 15,305 Community Manager Community Manager

    Hi @Tilley

    My first suggestion would be to take a look at the steps in this help guide that I've linked below. It contains info on regular maintenance steps that should be performed on a regular basis so that you're getting the best performance out of your file.



    If you've got a number of list items look at re-sorting all your lists and also creating a portable company file copy.


    ℹ️ Stay up to date with important news & announcements for your Reckon software! Click HERE for more info.

  • Tilley
    Tilley Member Posts: 58 ✭✭

    Hi Rav,

    Sorry for the long reply.

    I have this document 'how to improve the performance of your reckon account' printed out and regularly do the verify, rebuild and portable back ups. However the file is still large after all this, which takes many hours in single user to achieve. Interested in resorting list but already do portable back up etc.

    I've never been game enough to do the clean ups as I need to know how it affects the reporting and if cleaning up old data actually affects P & L , inventory etc and I have been told it doesn't affect the company file size so what is the point?

    I have had no real support from reckon and reckons solution is a total cop out- start my company file all over again. Not an easy task. We have many custom fields and and other things we use that cannot be imported and exported.

    We have 5 users and they are constantly working. How are we supposed to find the time to restart the company file all over again and keep working.

    Reckon should have a simple solution for this.

    Every year about renewal time I have this debate with myself. Stay with Reckon no real support and the file getting bigger all the time or move to other software provider? Eventually I end up staying with Reckon as Reckon hold you to ransom with you needing to pay their subscription yearly to view the reckon company file even if you swap to another software.

    I did note that the 2022 Reckon desktop premier no longer has the ODBC solution and if you want that feature ( where Reckon can fix a problem) you have to pay for it? I wonder how many Reckon users realise that this feature has been removed?

    Someone from Reckon data offered years ago to remove some old data using this ODBC solution so I would have thought this was essential.

    I haven't actually updated to 2022 reckon yet (but will have to this weekend)as so frustrated with Reckon and their lack of a solution, I have been asking for years and yes I have made suggestion ( the ability to delete customers, supplies, messages, lists, item etc no longer being used would really help) and put in tickets etc but no real or easy or practical solution.

    If anyone has any dealings with clean ups or starting their company file all over again or know of an agent that they used I really would appreciate any feedback.

    Thanks for your input

  • Rav
    Rav Administrator, Reckon Staff Posts: 15,305 Community Manager Community Manager

    When you say your file is large, how large is it exactly? You'll find this file info by pressing Ctrl+1 when in your file.

    How often do you perform this maintenance on your file including rebuilds with complete verification, resorting lists, creating portable backups etc?

    If its excessively large then your best bet may indeed be to start a new file. Yes, it might sound daunting but its certainly not a cop out and is a viable option to get your file back to optimal performance. We've got some pretty detailed information from our Data Recovery folks in the article below which outlines options in reducing file sizes using this method which I'll link below if you're interested.




    ℹ️ Stay up to date with important news & announcements for your Reckon software! Click HERE for more info.

  • Tilley
    Tilley Member Posts: 58 ✭✭

    Rav ,

    Thanks for the feedback the file was 690000K before I tried all the suggestions it is now 627760. So yes def above the 50000 recommended.

    I cannot agree with you on this re cop out.

    Reckon should have thought ahead and planned for an easier , more workable solution to fix this issue. I have upgraded since I started in 2006 and of course any file will grow in 16 years. I have been asking for many years for a solution and Reckon have not addressed this issue.

    The import and export procedure is long winded and yes daunting as no real instructions. The procedure says simply import but the procedure is much more complex that that, the import in Reckon asks for paths etc and not all lists can be exported and re imported so weeks of re imputing is required. You cannot even just export active items only, in order to remove the inactive you must export to excel and then remove inactive items , and then try and import them and when you do you get error messages. This simple fix would have made exporting and importing easier. Another solution would be the ability to export a list , edit it and re import with an replace or add option, at the moment you can only add data.

    I have spent many weekends in single user mode trying to reduce the file size and seeing what can be imported etc. with regard to the company file. I almost think it would be better to re enter all the current customers, suppliers, list ,items accounts from reports obtained from the current file then waste any more time with importing exporting. This would off course take weeks and in the mean time we still have to operate.

    Please tell me how I am to keep working and manage to find the time to achieve the restart of my company file. Remember we have 5 users. If we work in the old file we cannot simply export and import to the new file. Only way seems to be to run both files and this seem like a nightmare waiting to happen problems with using wrong file etc and how do financials run across 2 files? We will loose all our year to year comparisons of such useful data as sales, expenditure wages etc. So more work involved when we need these figures with exporting to excel etc. No partners have come forth with any feedbacks, surely I cannot be the only long term user experiencing this issue.

    Hoping to hear from someone who has undertaken this dauting task. How long it took them? how they managed to continue working while working on building new company file? If they found help who did they use? I am in Melbourne Western Suburbs.

  • Tilley
    Tilley Member Posts: 58 ✭✭

    PS I have another ticket in with Reckon as their on line chat link is broken, do you know anything about this?

  • Alex_10836088
    Alex_10836088 Member Posts: 30 ✭✭

    For those NOT experiencing this file bloat, its a ticking time bomb that you will have to face soon enough and when it happens, you've reached a point that moving is much harder. I wish i knew sooner

    If the file growing over time is a known issue, then surely those reporting this are the customers who have been loyal for many many years and they should be getting a little more love from Reckon to manage this issue without data recovery wanting to charge to do SOME of the process ? In fact, I wouldn't be opposed to paying if the process could be seamless - but its not

    In our case, the effort to 'just start a new file' is comparable to moving to another product anyway - for example, there's no way to copy over things like outstanding invoices.

    So for now, its just a matter of us getting the timing right to move on. Very disappointing as Reckon suits in most other aspects

    I was also advised that archiving and rebuilding will not reduce file size. In our case, we cannot rebuild anyway as it resets our YTD figures and noone has been able to work out why. so we get one shot at rebuilding each year - but i guess that's a separate matter

  • Tilley
    Tilley Member Posts: 58 ✭✭

    Thanks for commenting Alex, totally agree and hope someone from Reckon see these posts and does something about it. Like you we will battle on until I can find the time. I spent sunday looking at importing and exporting and like you said no no real solutions and lots of error messages. Thinking of starting from scatch and inputting data myself even though we have thousands of active items.

    if you move to a different software can you post how it works out.

    appreciate feedback

  • Datarec_ReckonLtd
    Datarec_ReckonLtd Reckon Staff Posts: 1,039 Reckon Staff


    An alternative to the export/import process for creating a new data file that retains existing Lists, Preferences, Price Levels, Memorised Reports and Memorised Transactions.