• From: USA
  • Registered: 07/26/2017
  • Posts: 19

Topic: How to clean up old dandruff and past errors from closed years

I have been using FA for about 10 years now.  As I have upgraded, learned what the hell I was doing, changed my procedures, and generally used the system, there has been a slow accumulation of errors that I would like to somehow purge. 

Off the top of my head:
- Unallocated payments
- unreconciled bank transactions
- default bank reconciling starting balances

I have items that are up to 10 years old that still show up (but are locked because the years are long closed) that I would like to make go away.
Any ideas?
Thanks

2 Reply by poncho1234 (edited by poncho1234 02/07/2023 09:06:42 pm)

  • From: Colombia
  • Registered: 12/29/2014
  • Posts: 627

Re: How to clean up old dandruff and past errors from closed years

Two ideas, both not for the faint hearted:-
1. Edit the DB directly, need to backup first.
2. Take a backup and edit this, rename, reload. This would be my preferred option as using your favorite text editor beats direct editing and is easier to manage the backup's

I'm interested in what other's have to say though? So I'd wait awhile.

The FrontAccounting Wiki(Manual, examples, tips, setup info, links to accounting sites, etc) https://frontaccounting.com/fawiki/
  • From: USA, Raleigh, North Carolina
  • Registered: 01/07/2021
  • Posts: 60

Re: How to clean up old dandruff and past errors from closed years

Accountants, at least here in the United States, are taught to never purge records.  If you disagree with this then have at it.  But if you agree it's a good idea to keep them (audit trail purchases), then you're left with AJE's.  Adjusting Journal Entries.  That's what I would do personally.  Good luck.

brucek@pelhamhs.org wrote:

I have been using FA for about 10 years now.  As I have upgraded, learned what the hell I was doing, changed my procedures, and generally used the system, there has been a slow accumulation of errors that I would like to somehow purge. 

Off the top of my head:
- Unallocated payments
- unreconciled bank transactions
- default bank reconciling starting balances

I have items that are up to 10 years old that still show up (but are locked because the years are long closed) that I would like to make go away.
Any ideas?
Thanks

  • From: USA
  • Registered: 07/26/2017
  • Posts: 19

Re: How to clean up old dandruff and past errors from closed years

I am fine with there being some audit trail.  I just have no idea where the outstanding records are coming from:
- Where/how are unallocated balances calculated/stored?  I have customers that have no outstanding transactions, yet show up as having unallocated payments.

- when I first set up frontaccounting, from our paper system, there was one vendor payment (by check) that was made in the previous year.....but the vendor took 6 months to cash, so it wasn't withdrawn from the bank until the next fiscal year.  This bank account, when reconciling, has always defaulted to the wrong starting/ending balances.  Where/how are those default balances calculated/stored.

This is really more about cleaning up errors caused by bugs (I have updated FA many times on the same database), or just simple mistakes I made and couldn't properly resolve before I had to close out a year.

Thanks

  • From: USA, Raleigh, North Carolina
  • Registered: 01/07/2021
  • Posts: 60

Re: How to clean up old dandruff and past errors from closed years

Hi Bruce,

I'm a CPA licensed to practice in North Carolina.  I have used FA for some time.  It is, as you know, extremely powerful, but it's easy to get it off track if one isn't careful.   If you care to drill down a bit for me concerning the issue(s), I can noodle it better.  For starters, where are you seeing the allocated balances?  On a Financial Statement, Trial Balance, or a General Ledger Report?  Are you pretty familiar with mysql?  Ever get in there and perform queries? Do you have multi-fiscal year editing turned on?  Do you see the same bank reconciliation error every month?, or different ones? 

MacKenzie