How do I use Data management?

Summary

How to use the new Data management feature in Sage 50 Accounts v28.1 and above.

Description

Data management is a new feature designed to make your daily processing as efficient as possible. It notifies you when your data volumes are approaching recommended levels and helps you remove customer and supplier records, audit trail transactions and customer invoices that you no longer need to view regularly. It's easy to use, so let's take a look.

Resolution

View Data management

When Data management is enabled it monitors the number of records you have, and when it approaches the recommendations, you see a notification in the top-right of your software window.

If you see this notification:

Ensure you're logged into your company as either manager, an administrator user, or a user with full access.
Ask other users to log out of the company.
Click the View Data management link in the top-right corner of your software.

TIP: You can also access Data management within Tools, Period End, Data Management.
In the Welcome to Data management window, click Continue.

The Backup and archive window appears. For help with this, refer to the following section.

Backup and archive

Before you remove any records, it's important to ensure you have copies of your data for future reference and compliance. If you haven't already taken a backup today, you must back up before you can continue. We also recommend you create an archive which you can then access to view data and run reports at any time.

In the Backup and archive window, click Backup.
Check the file name and location and amend if required, then click OK.
Once the backup is complete, click Archive.
Check the Description and amend if required, then click OK.
Now you've taken copies of your data, click Continue.

The Data review window appears. For help with this, refer to the following section.

Review your data

The Review your data window shows your current number of transactions, invoices, customer records and supplier records compared to the recommendations:

Your number of records is below the recommendation.

Your number of records is approaching the recommendation.

Your number of records exceeds the recommendation.

For help with removing records, select each option below:

Remove audit trail transactions

Click Clear audit trail.
Enter the date you want to remove transactions up to. We recommend you keep at least one financial year of live data.
To increase the number of transactions that can be removed, you can choose to switch off bank reconciliation for bank accounts that have not been reconciled in at least 12 months. To do this, select the Turn off bank rec check box for the required bank account.
To remove completed transactions dated up to the date you specified, click Clear audit trail.

TIP: Once transactions are removed, you can view them by selecting the View removed transactions check box. This may take some time to appear. If you prefer, you can view these later by running the Audit Trail Historic List report within Transactions, Reports, Cleared audit trail.
To complete the clear audit trail, click OK.

Remove invoices

Click Delete invoices.
Enter the date you want to remove invoices up to. We recommend you keep at least one financial year of live data.
To remove invoices dated up to the date you specified, click Delete invoices.
Once the invoices are deleted, click OK.

Review and remove customer records

Click Review customer records.
Enter the last invoice date you want to remove records up to.

A list of customers eligible for deletion and which have a last invoice date up to the date you specified is displayed.
Select the customer records you want to remove.

TIP: To select all records, click Select all. To select a range of records hold down SHIFT and click the first and last record in the range. To select multiple individual records, hold down CTRL and click each required record.
To remove the selected records, click Delete selected records.
Once the records are removed, click OK.

Review and remove supplier records

Click Review supplier records.
Enter the last invoice date you want to remove records up to.

A list of suppliers eligible for deletion and which have a last invoice date up to the date you specified is displayed.
Select the supplier records you want to remove.

TIP: To select all records, click Select all. To select a range of records hold down SHIFT and click the first and last record in the range. To select multiple individual records, hold down CTRL and click each required record.
To remove the selected records, click Delete selected records.
Once the records are removed, click OK.

When you've finished reviewing your data, to close Data management click Close.

TIP: removing invoices may take some time so we recommend these should be done in small batches.