Down To Earth - FAQ

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 Purge & Archive Data Files

Many customers ask -- I have years and years of data I want to keep but don't really look at it anymore. How do I delete the data but keep it, just in case?  Should I print reports?  Can I keep the data by year?

Purging data can be a scary endeavor but Down To Earth makes it easy to be confident. With most any DTE history purge, you have the option to save deleted records. That way the records purged are stored separatly if you ever need to restore them to the files.

Step 2: Create a report of the data being purged

As with any purge, you should print the data being purged either to a Text file and/or paper before the purge is run.

• For example, if purging Accounts Payable history, select “History by vendor” and optionally the “History by check” reports. (Enter the report date range to be the same date range that will be purged.)

Printing a report to your system for each data file being purged is recommended for easier access. To do this, select “Text file” when the Print Option menu is displayed and enter the path/filename of the report being printed. You may opt to use the DTE logicals defined to allow for more filename characters.

• For example, RPT logical is assigned to the folder where all DTE queued reports are stored. Using the same A/P example, you could enter the filename of RPT:vendhist_2000.rpt and RPT:ckhist_2000.rpt , respectively to represent the records for the year 2000.

Once created, be sure to move/copy the report file(s) to your newly created (archive) directory/folder.

 Step 3: Ready to Purge

Now that you have the data stored in report form for reference, you can purge the same date range of records from the DTE data file. The purge routines are found in the Miscellaneous menu column and are identified for the specific purge process such as “Purge history” (A/P and O/E), "Purge YTD transactions" (G/L), "Purge customer history" (A/R), etc.

Options & Choices

Purging small groups or by each year:
Although you can purge through any date, you may want to purge only a small group of data records at a time, say one year. Also be sure to enter Yes  to the Save deleted records prompt.

• For example, print the history reports from the first date in the data file through the first completed year of business using DTE - let’s say December 31, 2000. Include that ending year in the name of the report file and purge the history file through that same date.

Capturing and naming the archived records:
The saved archive file containing the deleted records is always named the same, as WRK:xxxxxx.pur where xxxxxx  is the name of the file being purged. Therefore, you must rename the file, prior to purging the next group of history records. Maintaining a reference to the dates within the file helps identify the contents in the future. 

It is STRONGLY SUGGESTED that you rename the archive file as soon as possible to eliminate the possibility of the next purge overriding the archive records by mistake.

• For example, Copy the file to the newly created archive folder and rename it - something like, aphist_pur_2000.ddf .

Success! You now have a reference report and the saved off data records should you ever need to recover the data.

Both the report(s) and data records are in flat/ascii text file format and can be opened with any system editor or Word Processing program.

Should you need to load the purged data back into the data file, DTE includes a utility to do that -- System Manager >> Files menu column >> Load file. 

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