The audit trail has never been cleared since the program was first used (2003).
I do a back up once a week, but I am finding that the program is constantly crashing and needing to be restarted.
Looking into clearing the audit trail seems to be quite a big step. Having done a back up, it then asks me to print off ledgers etc. Do I need to do that and or how do I do that, is there a guide please?
The boss is not too keen on me doing this, so l doing my background homework before I even start
Why do you think that the audit trail is making the program crash?
What message do you actually get when it goes belly up?
When Sage is running look at what system resources it's using. Do you have enough Ram in your machine or is it constantly running at 100%
Is your paging file large enough for what the software is doing?
What else is running on the machine when Sage goes wrong?
When was the hard drive last defragged?
Just a few things to think about before losing any audit trails .
kind regards,
Shaun.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
You appear to have forgotten to mention what you are using. From the description, I'd guess that this is YASQ (yet another Sage question) - but when posting a question about the software you are using, you really should state what it is (and what version it is).
Right... with that point made, and assuming it *is* a Sage question...
You do need to clear that audit trail - for a number of reasons. One of those reasons is that when there is too much data held in Sage's database, it can become slow, particularly on older hardware.
Another reason is stability. From a conversation I had quite recently with someone at Sage, they recommend the number of transactions stored doesn't reach/exceed 100,000. (At least I think that's the figure I was told - and I suspect it might vary according to which version is in use; eg I know there was an actual physical limit of 32,000 - or it might have been 32,767 - transactions in the last DOS version I was subjected to). If it's becoming unstable for you, then it's possible you have - as you suspect - far too much data in it.
However, you might not be able to clear the audit trail without Sage's help. ISTR that one of the problems with having too much data in Sage is getting rid of it - the option to clear the audit trail is one of the first victims of too much data.
So: Take a full backup before trying it. Print an up-to-date trial balance, aged debtors/creditors reports, and your latest bank reconciliations. Then tell the program to clear the audit trail up to (say) two or three year ends ago. It should give you an indication of how much has been deleted. Then run the printed reports again and compare them, to make sure it hasn't messed up. If lots of old data has been removed, and those reports haven't changed, it worked.
If no (or very little) data has been removed, and/or those reports have changed afterwards, restore your backup and talk to Sage support.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
or it might have been 32,767 - transactions in the last DOS version I was subjected to
Its a smallint I recognise those maximum value that you can get in machine code with 15 1's.... Why do I remember this stuff!
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
Apologies guys, I know your all clever but not mind readers, lol.
I am running Sage Instant on Win7.
I was only guessing that not having cleared the audit trail ever, that it may be slowing the program done enough to crash it...... as I said, just a guess.
Other than email/anti virus/firewall and Livedrive running that's about it.
The other reason for clearing the audit trail, was to allow me to remove old customers & suppliers that are no longer used.
I was looking at clearing it and leaving the last 3 years intact.
the software being used was really given away when Dave used the line : "the program is constantly crashing and needing to be restarted" lol.
bad, bad, naughty Shaun. Must have a be nice to Sage day.... Nah, that would cause too much of a disturbance in the force.
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
I meant to add also that the machine is defragged monthly by our IT geek and when the program freezes, I do not get any error messages, it just freezes up. That is when I restart it.
"Its a smallint I recognise those maximum value that you can get in machine code with 15 1's..."
Near enough - it's the largest positive value that can be held in a signed short int, in which (as you say) 15bits represent the value, and the most significant bit represents the sign.
And when I start discussing binary numbers, my party trick (to bore everyone to tears) is to point out that I can count from 0 to 1023 on my fingers...
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
What version of Sage? Not that this is going to help all that much, TBH. I think I pretty much said all that needs to be said in my earlier post.
Just out of curiousity, though, how many transactions are there in its database? If, as you've said, the audit trail has never been cleared, then just looking at the very last transaction number will tell you. Otherwise, look at the start of the transaction list and look for where the numbers become consecutive; the last transaction number minus the first consecutive one is the main bulk of your database, then guesstimate the number of transactions up to that point and add them on.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
VinceH wrote:And when I start discussing binary numbers, my party trick (to bore everyone to tears) is to point out that I can count from 0 to 1023 on my fingers...
Only if you use your thumbs as well.... Don't you love it when techies get together!
on the other one I wasn't including the sign switch. Basically s9(4) comp. so two bytes giving 15 bits to play with plus the sign but you probably know the smallints in another format (mine relates back to COBOL).
In the early 80's my party trick was being one of the only people in the office able to decode hex dumps but then Abendaid came along and spoilt all that by telling you what was in the field in error... Where's the fun in that! lol
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Shaun
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
In that case, unless you are using a really old version of Sage, I don't think the number of transactions is the cause of your freezing problems - that's a long way off the 100,000 I mentioned earlier.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
Basically s9(4) comp. so two bytes giving 15 bits to play with plus the sign but you probably know the smallints in another format (mine relates back to COBOL).
Yeah, I use C mostly.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
In that case, unless you are using a really old version of Sage, I don't think the number of transactions is the cause of your freezing problems - that's a long way off the 100,000 I mentioned earlier.
I guessed that after I posted
Just looked again, its Sage Instant Plus Version 18.1.0.12, if that means anything?
It usually freezes in the bank payment section. I post a payment, then it just freezes up. Not every time, but enough to rattle me, lol
I wonder if the problem you are experiencing is in any way related to the freezing problem I mentioned in another thread?
The only difference is that I get a message box saying "waiting for [filename]" whereas from your description, you don't.
We're both on version 18, but I'm on Sage 50 and you're on Instant. I know the current version of Instant is always a year or two behind its bigger brother - so if Instant v18 is the 2012 edition, and is the same as (say) 2010 or 2011 of Sage 50, then its possible that version just doesn't pop up the message box.
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Vince M Hudd - Soft Rock Software
(I only came here looking for fellow apiarists...)
On Windows XP that's Start > Right-click My Computer > Manage => Computer Management Window > System Tools > Event Viewer > Application (although it's probably worth checking Security and System as well). You can remove the noise by using View menu option > Filter => Application Properties Window > Filter tab > Event types and unticking "Information". I'm sure it's something similar in Windows 7.
On Windows XP that's Start > Right-click My Computer > Manage => Computer Management Window > System Tools > Event Viewer > Application (although it's probably worth checking Security and System as well). You can remove the noise by using View menu option > Filter => Application Properties Window > Filter tab > Event types and unticking "Information". I'm sure it's something similar in Windows 7.
Hi Rob,
I just tried what you explained above, but the system is password protected by our IT geek. Anything to do with settings, even my volume has been muted, are out of my control.
Perhaps your user account's inability to access parts of the system are causing a problem, then? Get your IT geek to temporarily give your user account full access to your machine, try it again to see if it crashes or whatever, check the logs if it does, and then IT can return the machine to it's limited access state - presumably they can supervise you during this process if they are worried about allowing full access.
maximum value that you can get in machine code with 15 1's.... Why do I remember this stuff!
