Working With Archived Accounts

Each database in Collect! is actually two databases, an active database and an archive database. When you have Clients and Debtors that you are not working, you can move them into the Archive database. This removes them from maintenance functions and improves performance. All associated records are transferred with the accounts. So cosigners, transactions, notes, contacts and attachments are archived as well. This is very useful if you have thousands of historical contacts and transactions slowing down your response time.

Accounts are readily accessible, even though they are archived. You can still work with the accounts, view them, look at their notes, financial details, print reports and summaries. However they are Read Only and you cannot edit any of the archived records. At any time, you can easily restore the accounts from Archive and they are returned to your working database.

There are a few things to keep in mind when working with archived clients and debtors.

1. If you archive a client, all the client's debtors are archived. You can't restore just one. But if the client is not archived, you can archive one or more debtors and restore them individually, if needed.

2. You can use Browse, Find By to search for records by Name and File Number in the archived accounts, but you must have the archive database open and you must first rebuild the archive debtor keys.

3. If you intend to archive accounts, you should ensure that all financials are finalized on the account. If you archive an account that has not been reported on a month end statement, the financial information will not be included when you generate your statements.

4. If you intend to archive accounts, you should ensure that you have recalculated any debtors that you intend to archive. You should also recalc the client. Please be aware that if you press RECALC on the the Client form, it does not recalc the underlying debtors. If you archive accounts that have not been properly recalculated, the Client totals may appear incorrect in your working database.

Archiving Accounts

There are two ways to archive accounts, during an upgrade and afterward, using the Tools, Archive menu.

Archiving When Upgrading

When you upgrade your database, you are given the option of archiving Closed accounts with a Worked Date older than a date that you specify. Please refer to Upgrade Database for details.

Archiving During Normal Use of Collect!

At any time when you are in your working database, you can select Tools, Archive to archive a Client, a Debtor or a list of selected accounts. Please refer to Help topic, Archive for details.

You can also archive accounts using the Task Scheduler. There are several criteria you can set when you configure your archiving task. Please refer to Help topic, Archive Accounts in Scheduler for details.

Open The Archive Database

At any time, you can switch into the Archive database by opening the list of archived clients or archived debtors. When you close these lists, Collect! returns to your active working database. Select Browse Archived Records to switch into the Archive database.

When the Archive database is open, you can perform searches and print reports on the archived accounts.

Rebuild Archive Debtor Keys

Index keys for archived accounts are not updated automatically. You should refresh them before performing searches or generating reports.

To rebuild the Archive Debtor keys, select Tools, Utilities and then select Rebuild Archive Debtor Keys. After the keys are rebuilt, you can use Browse, Find By to search for records in the Archive database.

Database Structure

The following information is useful for planning your scheduled backups of the Collect! system.

Each Collect! database folder contains an archive folder. This is the Archive database. If you archive records from your masterdb database, they are archived into the masterdb\archive folder. If you archive records from your demodb database, they are archived into the demodb\archive folder.

Working With Archived Accounts

When you Recalc Clients, totals for archived debtors are included in the calculations.

When you search for archived accounts, you may use partial names and file numbers. Remember that you must be in the Archive database first. So select Browse, Archived Clients or Browse, Archived Debtors before doing a search.

Before you search archived accounts, you will want to refresh the archive index keys. To do this, run the Rebuild Archive Debtor Keys utility from the Tools, Utilities menu.

Client and Debtor Notes are accessible for archived accounts, but they are Read Only.

Transactions, Cosigners, Attachments and all other details can be viewed in Read Only mode for archived accounts.

You can print analysis and summary reports for your archived accounts, but once again, you must be in the Archive database. So select Browse, Archived Clients or Browse, Archived Debtors before printing your report if you want to retrieve information from archived accounts.

You cannot work in both databases, active and archived, at once. So you cannot print a report with data pulled from both databases at the same time.

See Also

- Archiving Topics