Specifications

Computer Tutorial 3 Lesson 7  5
before year-end close
after setting up Accpac
before and after creating a new company
before year-end close
before moving data or applications to another server
Accpac is designed to ensure maximum accuracy and integrity of your accounting data.
Occasionally, however, your data files may become damaged. Hardware failures, power
surges, and other problems can affect data and damage or destroy it. Error messages,
inaccurate data, unusual characters on reports, difficulty opening windows, and other
uncommon occurrences are indicators of file damage.
If you suspect your files are damaged, consider doing the following:
1. Make a backup. This backup should copy all the data stored in Accpac.
2. Run Database Dump. This process resizes files and removes unused space. This
ensures that you always have the maximum amount of available space possible on
your hard drive or network drive.
3. Run Restart Maintenance. When Accpac encounters a problem during a process, a
restart record is generated. The record provides information about the error. You can
then decide whether to resume the process, start the process over, or remove the
restart record.
4. Run Data Integrity checks. These ensure a company’s data does not become so
corrupted that recovery is difficult or impossible. Regular checks allow you to find
and possibly correct potential errors. This process is illustrated in Exercise 7.1
5. Restore a backup. For some errors, you may need to restore your most recent
backup. The more recent this backup is, the fewer transactions there will be to
re-enter.
6. Clear data. Clearing data is a last resort; avoid doing it if possible. Only clear data if
all else has failed and you do not have a backup. This step involves clearing data
from the damaged files and re-entering all of the data.
The Data Integrity check is a critical file maintenance procedure that you will use on an
ongoing basis to ensure data integrity. Exercise 7.1 gives you practice using this procedure.
EXERCISE 7.1
Data Integrity
1. Click Administrative Services on the left navigation pane, then double-click the Data
Integrity icon on the right. The Data Integrity window opens as shown in Exhibit 7-1.