Special considerations for networked company files

You need to be aware of factors that affect the way you work when multiple users access a company file over a network.

■	Preferences in a network environment.

■	Preventing data entry while generating reports.

■	Storing custom reports and forms on a network.

■	Displaying up-to-date information.

■	Improving performance.

For more information about setting up AccountEdge Network Edition on a network, see the Network Implementation Guide or your Getting Started guide.

Preferences in a network environment

Some of the choices in the Preferences window of your AccountEdge software can affect how everyone works with your company file. These preferences are clearly marked System-wide.

Multi-user file locking for daily transactions

Multi-user file locking ensures that changes cannot be made in a window while related data is being changed by another user in another window.

For example, a user is recording information in a sales transaction window while another user is changing details of the customer card being used in the sales transaction. In this situation, multi-user file locking disallows changes being saved in one of the windows until the changes have been saved in the other window.

If you would like to know when another user has changed data in a window, go to the Setup menu, choose Preferences, click the System tab, and select the Automatically Refresh Lists When Information Changes option. If another user changes information you are viewing, AccountEdge software closes your window. When you reopen it, the data is updated.

tip : View a list of users

If you have been prevented from accessing the company file, you can determine which user is locking you out. To do this, go to a computer that has access to the company file and view the list of active users (go to the File menu and choose Active Workstations).

Single-user file locking for special tasks

Only one user should have access to the company file during file maintenance procedures such as backing up, checking and optimising. For example, optimising a company file rearranges its internal structure, so ensure that the file is not being accessed while this process is taking place. Other single-user tasks are part of bookkeeping practice. For example, when you print a report, you do not want anybody to change data, that will appear in the report while it is being printed.

tip : View a list of users

To check whether any other users are currently using the company file before you set a single-user lock, go to the File menu and choose Active Workstations.

Single-user file locking prevents all but the first logged-in user from accessing a shared company file—other users cannot even log in. To enable single-user access, click Single-user access in the Sign-on window.

The tasks that require single-user file locking include:

■	backing up a company file

■	restoring a backup file

■	company file verification

■	purging data

■	exporting data

■	importing data

■	starting a new financial year

■	creating, changing or deleting report batches

■	optimising a company file

■	setting up, changing or removing user accounts

■	synchronising cards and Address Book contacts

Problems with lock files

AccountEdge software displays a File is busy; access denied message when another user is accessing a shared company file and you both try to simultaneously save a transaction or write data. When you see this message, wait a few moments for the other transaction to finish and for your AccountEdge software to delete the lock file, and then click Retry.

If the power fails, if you switch off your computer while your AccountEdge software is running, or if your system crashes, your AccountEdge software is unable to delete the lock file. You will need to delete the lock file manually. See ‘To delete lock files’.

The following situations can cause lock files to accumulate in the folder where the company file is stored, resulting in various error messages when you try to open the company file:

■	Someone else is currently signed on with the same User ID. Someone else is using the company file with your user ID, or a lock file from an irregularly ended session is present.

■

No more than 10 company files in any folder may be opened at one time. There are more than 10 lock files—the maximum permitted—in the folder where the company files are stored. This can occur legitimately if there are more than ten company files in the folder, ten of which are open simultaneously, so that an eleventh open file would create an illegal 11th lock file.

It is possible that 10 lock files have accumulated in the folder owing to crashes and other problems.

■	You have reached the maximum number of simultaneous users allowed under your AccountEdge software Workstation Licence. If you know this is incorrect, the problem may be a lock file.

Any of the above messages may mean that there are old lock files cluttering the folder where you store the company file. You need to delete the lock files before your AccountEdge software will run correctly.

To delete lock files

1	Ensure all users are logged out of your AccountEdge software.

2	Close your AccountEdge software.

3	Locate the folder where you keep the shared company file.

4	Delete all lock files.

A locked file is named ‘Lock????.flk’, where ???? represents a number from 0001 to 0010. If there is more than one company file in the same folder, the number allows your AccountEdge software to create a different named lock file for each company file.

5	Restart your AccountEdge software and reopen the shared company file.

Other options for dealing with lock files

If you are logged in the company file as the Administrator User ID, you can also log other users out of the file. The logout active users feature is not visible unless you are logged into the company file as the Adminstrator user ID.

To logout a user ID

1	Ensure you are logged into the company file as the Administrator.

2	Go to File menu and select Active Workstations. The Active Workstation window appears.

3	A list of users will appear in the list.

4	Click in the select column adjacent to the user you want to log out of the company file.

5	Click the Logout button.