DON’T FORGET YOUR END OF YEAR BACKUP!

If this is the end of your fiscal year there are some things you need to do right away with your POSitive software.  Don’t get caught without an End of Year backup of PFW or PRM!

POSitive Retail Manager & POSitive GEM

FISCAL YEAR END PROCEDURES
At the end of a fiscal year there are some recommended procedures you should take.

1) Very Important - Make a special backup.
2) (Optional) - Verify data of Inventory, Invoices, Orders, Accounts Receivable
3) (Optional) - Conduct a store wide inventory recount
4) (Optional) - Change employee passwords
5) (Optional) - Change credit card encryption

***** 1) Very Important - Make a special backup *****
At the end of your fiscal year it is a very good idea to make a Special Archive backup of your POSitive SQL database.

One reason for making an Archive backup is to be able to determine stock counts and the value of your inventory at the end of your fiscal year. Because POSitive is a real time software program, changes to your inventory stock counts are ongoing and without an archive backup it is difficult to calculate stock counts on a specific day in the past.

Make a Special Backup of Your SQL Database
Making a backup is simple. Manually run your SQL Manager to make a full backup as the last thing you do on the last day of your fiscal year.
Note: The steps are the same for both SQL Management Studio and SQL Management Studio Express.
1. Log into your server.
2. Click Start, Programs, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and select SQL Server Management Studio Express or SQL Server Management Studio (whichever you have).
3. Enter the requested information:
4. Click Connect.
5. Expand the server name and expand Databases.
6. Right-click your database, expand Tasks and select Back Up.
7. Under Backup type, select Full.
8. Under Destination, click Add.
9. Enter the path and file name for the backup file. Give the backup a name which will readily identify it such as YEAREND2009PRM.bak You may save it to any location by entering a complete path.
10. Click OK.
11. Review the settings for the backup.
12. Click OK to begin the backup.

IMPORTANT NOTE
When you are ready to use the archived information for reference purposes, this data MUST be restored into a special company set so that it does not overwrite your LIVE data.
If you are unsure about how to safely make and restore backups, contact your dealer or POSitive Software Company. 800-735-866-368-2266


POSitive For Windows

FISCAL YEAR END PROCEDURES
At the end of your fiscal year it is important to Archive PFW.  It is very simple to do.

How To Archive PFW
Go to My Computer icon on your desktop
Open the drive which has PFW on it
RightMouseClick on the PFW folder (do not open the folder) and choose COPY.

Then, in a blank area, RightMouseClick and choose Paste.
Windows will then copy the contents of the entire PFW folder into a new folder.
The new folder can be renamed 2009PFW or something like that.

Why Archive PFW?
You should make a full copy of the PFW folder and subfolders including executables. This copy should be able to run on its own and should be accessed only for research purposes and not used for new transactions of any sort. In time, you may have questions about sales or inventory valuation as of the end of your fiscal year. By making a copy at the end of your fiscal year, then any information you need will be available. Eventually, this archived copy can be deleted when it is deemed to be of no further value.

How To Control The Archive
You do not want changes made to this archived copy of PFW so you may want to edit the employee list and disable all but one person from getting into the program. This can be done by changing each employee's password to something which he/she would not know.
To make this archived copy visually different from your active PFW, go to File: System: System Setup: Screen Options and change the coloring schemes. Or you could choose to edit the station setting (File: System: System Setup: Stations: edit station, and choose a distinctive "wallpaper" by selecting an existing .BMP or one you have designed yourself with Paint.

How To Cut Down On Size
Because the archived copy of PFW will no longer be updated, there are likely some unnecessary files which can be safely deleted. In the Data2 folder (where your store data is kept) there may be some files with an extension of TP1, TP2, TP3, etc. These files are old backups and can be removed.

You may also have a \data2\backups folder. These files can also be deleted in this archived copy.

If you find any $$$$xxxx.tps files which are temporary files, then you may remove them as well. Caution: files with the extension TPS are actively being used by PFW, Do Not Delete them.

Running the Archive
If your copy is on your hard drive, you can create a shortcut icon to run it.
On the desktop, rightmouseclick and choose NEW Shortcut.
Browse to the archive directory of pfw and choose PFWINV.EXE
Name the shortcut PFWARCHIVE2009.
You may now open the archive at any time, but remember that changes should not be made to the data.

Optional Procedures for PRM and PFW

 (Optional) - Verify data of Inventory, Invoices, Purchase Orders, Accounts Receivable -- Verify Inventory Files - is a procedure to compare inventory stock levels with reported stock counts. It also checks for proper assignment of SKUs, vendor inventory, and serial numbers. Note: this could take an hour or more. (SEE HELP TOPIC "Verify Inventory Files")
-- Verify Transactions - compares totals of invoices and orders with actual transactions and updates the Daily Sales Summary screen.
-- Verify Purchase Totals - compares purchases from and returns to all vendors
-- Verify AR Files - reviews AR for a given date range (SEE HELP TOPIC "Verify Data Options")

(Optional) - Conduct a store wide inventory recount --
As a business you may need to perform physical stock counts of everything in the store. One option is set all your stock counts to zero, thereby giving you a fresh start. Or, you could choose to leave the existing stock counts and you can report on discrepancies between your physical count and the current stock count. There are some special procedures to follow if you cannot count everything in the store in one day or if you want to use electronic updating of stock counts. Contact your dealer or POSitive Software Company for options and details.

(Optional) - Change employee passwords --
It is recommended that employee passwords be changed frequently to avoid compromise. Simply overwrite the existing password and Verify Password again. Make a backup first so that if you make a mistake you can restore the backup.

(Optional) - Change credit card encryption --
Credit Card Encryption is a vital key to credit card security. In order to protect your data, you should change your encryption key at least once every six months. Enter your old and new encryption key in the appropriate fields. You will need security setting access to make this change.