It is always a good idea to backup your data before running your End Of Day posting operations.

CounterPoint can help you do this.  There is a menu function in Point Of Sale/End Of Day menu called "Backup". There is some configuration that needs to be completed before the function will run.  The instructions provided, may not be familiar to you.  There are Operating System commands or batch files you may want to get some help with.

Once the Backup procedure is modified to your liking, before you begin your End of Day posting, run the Backup option first. This will insure that you can restore your data to the exact point before the problem occurred, and try again. Several things can go wrong with a posting.  Remember that posting is usually the operation that causes the most changes to your system. 

Some of the common posting problems we see are listed below.  You should have procedures or policies to help minimize their occurrence.
 

• a power failure, 

• a user not logged out of the software, (this should be checked before any posting is done), - most common problem

• a remote user logs in

• an upgrade procedure is started and has not finished

• an upgrade was installed and not tested

• the disk has filled up

• the file size limit on a file has been reached

• the backup is running and has not finished, or has failed

• the posting process fails with an error you are not familiar with

Please note that restoring the data from the backup directory needs to be done manually. In Windows, Windows Explorer is used.  System commands are used with your Unix/Linux Operating System.

If a backup is not done before posting, a posting failure can leave you with partially updated files. This could result in your inventory counts, sales reports, and several other things, being inaccurate. Not knowing what was or was not updated makes auditing the problem even more complicated.

This process, preformed manually, will add some time to your End Of Day process. In the long run, this will save you time if the unexpected happens.  Note that CCS can help you setup an automated, backup then posting procedure.  We include a monitoring checkpoint that does not do the posting, if the backup fails.  On failures, the system can email you an alert that you can try to resolve as a remote user from home.  This is in use by many of our customer, once they have their system running smoothly by attending it on-site first.

In conclusion, by preparing for the worst, and knowing that you can recover from a failed posting in the matter of minutes instead of hours or even days should give you the feeling that you are working proactively to keeping your business running smoothly day in and day out.

If you need some help setting up the CounterPoint Version 7 Backup procedure, or help automating the correct sequence of events, contact us. If you need help restoring files before posting, please give us a call at 800-672-4806 or send me an email.  If you did not know, you can also start a support call by using the online Support Call Form.

Happy Wednesday

-Bryan