Special considerations for networked company files

Managing user accounts and company files > 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.

Preferences in a network environment

Some of the choices in the Preferences window of your 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, software closes your window. When you reopen it, the data is updated.

tip : View a list of current users

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

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 you do not want someone else accessing the file 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 current 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.

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.

Problems with lock files

To let you know when another user is already accessing a shared company file, your software displays the File is busy; access denied message when you try, at the same time, to save a transaction or otherwise write data. When you see this message, wait a few moments for the other person’s transaction to finish and for your software to delete the lock file, and then click Retry.

If the power fails, if you switch off your computer while your software is running, or if your system crashes, your 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 ten company files in any folder may be opened at one time. There are more than ten 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) eleventh lock file.

It is possible that ten 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 AccountRight 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 to enable your software to function correctly.

To delete lock files

1	Ensure all users are logged out of the shared company file.

2	Close your AccountRight 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 software to create a different named lock file for each company file.

5	Restart your AccountRight software and open the shared company file.