To do a purge - which deletes old transactions and inactive profiles - you must obtain an authorization code from Technical Support (800-397-1499).
Please see the How to document #718 for the most up-to-date instructions.
Purge Transactions – Delete Inactive Profiles
A. Who should do a purge?
Anyone who wants to eliminate inactive owner, property, unit and tenant profiles that have no transactions after the selected purge through date and eliminate all transactions prior to the purge through date.
The purge default is to keep last year and the year before transactions and to delete inactive profiles with no activity after December 31, 2011 (during 2014). Work orders more than 5+ years old are deleted. Change the defaults if you want.
The purge function purpose is to eliminate transactions plus inactive profiles
that are no longer needed on a daily basis. Eliminating transactions from a database does not change the current financial status because a single journal entry for the net of the transactions for each account eliminated is posted to the appropriate ledger.
The advantage of purging is a smaller database requiring less time to perform rebuilding, some posting, filtering and reporting functions. It will also require less time to backup, restore or transfer data files. The disadvantage is that to see the purged transactions you must look in a different database than your active one. The instructions that follow will help you create a database as of the purge date. This database will be available from the dropdown list on the logon screen and will be read-only.
You might want to run a test purge on your home computer before doing the real one. See the Help on Add a New Computer to see how to take a copy of your database home.
Note that inactive units and tenants associated with those units, and inactive tenants will be deleted, even if there are balances. Open credit balances and security deposits are transferred to the owner or to the management group if the owner is inactive.
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If the tenant is active, but the unit is inactive, the Open Credits and deposits will be transferred to the Owner (if active) or the Management Group.
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If the tenant is inactive and the unit is active, the Open Credits and deposits will be transferred to the Owner (if active) or the Management Group.
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If any inactive ledgers have balances, and they have no transactions since your purge date, the profiles will be deleted and those balances will be transferred to management.
Inactive owners with no activity that are associated with a property profile will not be deleted.
We recommend that you do not do a purge in January or February until you have completed your 1099s.
B. Before purging:
Under Miscellaneous Reports, run the Internal Audit report. Look at anything that appears under Accounting Error or Accounting Warning.
Also print and examine the following reports, then take corrective action.
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Reports, Ledger Reports, Ledger Balances - today's date, just for inactives. If any inactive ledgers have balances, and they have no transactions since your purge date, the profiles will be deleted and those balances will be transferred to management.
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Reports, Tenant Reports, Tenant Balances -
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for inactive tenants, open credits not equal to zero
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Again for inactive tenants, security deposits not equal to zero. Those open credits and security deposits should be disbursed before purging.
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Do the same for inactive tenants with unpaid charges that you want to maintain. Those inactive tenants will be removed, along with their transactions.
| • | For past active tenants, run Unpaid Charge details. Limit to Charge Security Deposit, then LMR, then Pet Deposit (if applicable). If any of the charges have remaining amounts on charges prior to the purge date, clear those up by editing the charge and reducing the amount to the amount paid. |
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For all tenants with open credits less than $0, resolve the issues with their negative open credits. For active tenants, if those transactions occurred before the purge date, the negative open credits will remain but the history of how they came to be will be lost.
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Go to GL, Reconcile Bank Account. Look at each bank account and be sure there are no uncleared transactions with dates before your purge date. If there are such transactions:
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If you are sure they will never show on a future bank statement, clear them (with an adjustment to management). All transactions will be purged, regardless of their cleared status.
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Or change the date to fall within the data that will be kept.
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C. After all corrections have been made:
Run the following reports to use to compare after the purge is completed.
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Reports, Ledger Reports, Balance Sheet - consolidated for owners, properties, and management groups on today’s date.
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Reports, Bank Reports, Bank Balance Breakdown - for today’s date
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Reports, Ledger Reports, Ledger Balances - for today’s date (include inactives)
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Reports, Tenant Reports, Tenant Balances – include all tenants except inactives, for today’s date – print last page only.
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D. Perform the following tasks
1. Make 2 backups of your data.
2. Put them on CD or Zip disk and put them in a safe place.
3. In My Computer or Windows Explorer, find the RPROMAS folder on the computer where the data resides.
4. Double click on the RPROMAS folder.
5. Click on File, New, Folder.
6. Change the folder name to DataMMYY where MMYY is the date of your purge. (For example, if you are purging on May 2014, the folder would be named DATA0514.)
7. Create a folder under DataMMYY named LL12_Database.
8. Copy the files from RPROMAS\DATA\LL12_Database to RPROMAS\DataMMYY\LL12_Database.
9. At the PROMAS logon screen, choose System Security as the database.
10. Do not enter a User Name. For the Password type in the one you chose when you registered (usually REGISTER).
11. Click OK.
12. Click on the Users tab.
13. Click New User.
14. Enter a User name of OLDDATA.
15. Enter a Password of OLDDATA.
16. Enter Initials of OLD.
17. In the Database Class field type in OLDDATA.
18. In the Limit to Date field choose "Never Allow Posting".
19. Save.
20. Edit any other users on the list. Enter a Database Class of CURRENT for each one.
21. Save.
22. Click on the Database Directories tab.
23. Highlight your current database and click Edit Database.
24. In the Database Class field type CURRENT.
25. Save. If you have more than one database, do the same for each.
26. Click New Database.
27. For the Database Name type "Data thru MM/DD/YYYY" where MM/DD/YYYY is the date on which you are purging.
28. For the Database Class type OLDDATA.
29. For the Path type .DataMMYY (as created in step 5).
30. Save, then Close.
31. Pull up the logon screen for PROMAS.On the Database field choose Data through MM/DD/YYYY. For User Name type OLDDATA. Verify your data is there, then log out.
E. To perform the purge
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Go to <<File, Database Utilities>>. Mark all 3 checkboxes and Run Database Utilities.
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Go to <<File, Purge Transactions>>.
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Change the Prior Years to keep defaults (optional).
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Do not mark the "Remove All Same Day Voids from the Database" if you want to see transactions voided after the purge date.
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5.
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Do not mark the Rebuild before purge checkbox. If you have not rebuilt recently, exit the purge and rebuild before continuing.
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Verify your settings and then click the Purge Database of Transactions and Profiles button.
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7.
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You will be prompted for an Authorization code. Call the Help Desk at 800-397-1499.
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8.
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You will receive a number of warning messages. Respond yes to each warning message if you choose to proceed.
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If you get an error message during the purge, write it down. Either make the necessary corrections or call the Help Desk.
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When the purge completes successfully a message will display telling you how many transactions and profiles were deleted, followed by a screen allowing you to view the log file.
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Close the purge functions and go to File, Database Utilities. Mark all the checkboxes and click Run Database Utilities. This rebuild reduces the database file sizes.
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F. After purging
Print the same reports as in C above and verify that the numbers are exactly the same. Unpaid charges for inactive tenants will be deleted. Otherwise the reports should be the same. If there are any differences contact the Help Desk.
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