Best practice for backing up of data suggests that the Grandfather, Father, Son (GFS) method is the most reliable.

GFS is the most common disk rotation method. The number of disks used is based on the number of days that you add data to Accounts Production. It works as follows:

• · Back up data on a different disk every working day. If your backup cycle is based on a five-day working week, four daily disks are required (a fifth disk set comes into play later).
• · On the fifth day, a weekly disk should be used. Three weekly disk sets.
• · In the fourth week, a monthly disk is needed. Since there are 13 four-week cycles in a year, 13 "monthly" disks should be kept.

The GFS method is easy to use if disks are labelled. It is also worth noting that as daily disks are used more frequently than the weekly and monthly disk, this need replacing more often.

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1 . Did you know that there is a choice of three ageing types within the Sales & Purchase Ledger options i.e.

• a. 30, 60, 90 days
• b. Month1, Month 2, Month 3
• c. January, February March
  

To take advantage of the different aged settings go to Sales Ledger - Options - Settings and tick the option required, the number of periods must also be specified. Remember that you must adjust your statement set-up if you require more than 3 periods for ageing.`

2. It is vital that data checks are carried out before any major procedures such as Year End / Clear Out / Vat Return and on a regular basis to ensure that the integrity of data is 100%. To run the data checks utility go to Utilities - Support - Data Integrity Options. If any issues are discovered, please contact the help desk at 1890 88 20 60

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We strongly advise that you take 2 full backups of your data prior to commencing the update. Sage recommends one backup to a removable media e.g. floppy disk and one backup to your local hard drive. After running the update procedure, any personalised changes to the accounts pages which exisit in the master format will be lost.

To run an update, click on the icon Client and datasets.

Double click on the client to show the account datasets and highlight the accounts year you wish to update. Click the 'Edit' button at the bottom of the screen.

At the option for 'Client Code' in the 'Create Client based on' section, select the master format that you wish to update to by clicking the button with the three dots.

Double-click the master format dataset year-end you wish to update to. Please note that it must be the same type of business as the existing format i.e. a sole trader cannot update to a partnership.

Select OK to return to the client list. Now click the update button at the bottom of the screen.

If there have been no changes made to the master format for the dataset specified, you will be shown the following message.

You will be asked if you want to continue with the update, click on Yes. You will be shown the update screen.

Tick the option for Update Account Formats.

The next two options are tagged by default.

If you select 'Retain Existing Nominal Codes and Group Descriptions', any changes you have made to the description of nominal codes and groups will be retained. If you do not select 'Retain Existing Nominal Codes and Group Descriptions', any changes you have made to the description of nominal codes and groups will be overwritten by the descriptions on the master.

If you select 'Retain Existing Tax Link Nominal Codes & Groups' codes and groups used in the Tax Link options will be retained. If you do not select 'Retain Existing Tax Link Nominal Codes & Groups' Tax Link groups and codes will be overwritten with those on the master.

Tick the option for 'Update Data Link Mappings'.

Do not tick the option for 'Update Audit Working Papers'.

Click OK and your dataset will be updated.

Customised Page Names

Please note: If any new pages are created by using the 'add' or 'copy' functions on the Accounts Pages window, i.e. they have a page name that is not part of the standard master set, these pages will not be overwritten by a standard dataset update.

Customised Accounts Database

Please note: If any new database codes are created (ie codes created above 8000), for the purpose of adding extra fields to the Accounts Database, these codes will not be overwritten by a standard dataset update.

Please Note - Sage Ireland will not be deemed responsible, in the event of any data loss or corruption.

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The master format referred to in this help sheet is for Sole trader 1999, please use the latest, most appropriate master format when restoring within your practice.

To restore your master formats please place your Sage Accountants Suite CD into the drive. Open Sage Accounts Production. Click on the icon for your client list

You will see your list of clients and a line of ICONS across the bottom of the client list. Select the restore icon.

Once you have clicked on restore you will be presented with the restore routine dialogue box.

The default location for all restore routines is the A:\ drive. Where the master Formats are located on CD or any other location, you will need to change where the program looks for the data.

To do this you, click on the lookup icon and you will then be presented with an 'explorer style' look- in box. Change the path it is looking at; in this example the CD drive is D.

Double-click the folder ApexData. All of the datasets that are available to be restored will be listed.

You only need to restore the following datasets unless you actively deal with any of the other account formats:

The Irl folder has the formats for all Limited Companies, the Sole folder is for Sole Trader accounts and Partner is for your partnerships.

Please double-click on the format you wish to install and you will be presented with a year-end folder, double-click the folder; you will then see the APEXZIP.ADS file, double-click this.

Double-click Double-click Double-click

You will then be back into the restore routine screen.

On clicking OK, the sole trader master format (used in this example) will restore, you need to repeat this process for each master.

N.B. The drive letter may need to change to the relevant drive letter, dependant on where your data is located.

N.B. On restoring the master format it does not automatically update the formats of all existing clients. The update routine must be run, please refer to Updating a Dataset note.

Please Note - Sage Ireland will not be deemed responsible, in the event of any data loss or corruption

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