Reducing File Clutter

Problem

After using Goldenseal accounting software for many years, there are many closed accounts. User wants to reduce clutter in the company file.

Diagnosis

This usually comes up in December or January. The user feels that they should "start over" with a new file.

It may even happen the first year, since some other accounting programs "close out" each year and start over with a new file.

Solution

We suggest that you don't start over. At Turtlesoft. our company file has over 20 years worth of business data in it, and the old stuff often turns out to be useful. For example, you can look up the price of something you bought years ago, or see a history of all past calls from a customer or vendor.

Here are some hints for speeding up Goldenseal, even when you have thousands of records:

If you are seeing defunct accounts in clairvoyant fields, follow these steps to remove them:

1. Choose the type of account with the problem from the Accounts menu.
2. Use the Find command to locate the accounts.
3. Click on the Status popup field, and change the status to Closed.
4. Hit the Enter key to save the record.

If the Find command is becoming slow because there are thousands of records, you can speed up searches by adding a custom index for fields that you use frequently.

If a bank account has many thousands of transactions, you might want to start over with that account.

When you make reports, you can set a Date Range to limit the data you see. You can also use an Item Range of 'active items', to exclused closed accounts. Or, use the Find command to locate only recent items, and then set the Item Range to Found Items.

Comments

Entered 1/10/2011 by Dennis.