Windows XP Pro errors and reporting questions

[erik@gracechristiancenter]

I am not the user of this software, just the IT guy on staff. Here is our dilema:

Our bookeeping department uses the version 8.5 of the software and runs 2 versions of it on the same machine; one for general accounting and a separate one for payroll. The reason for this is confidentiality for the employees as our ledger is open to the general public.

Every year when it's time to close the year out they have been installing a 3rd and 4th version of the software, importing all the data, and then closing the previous versions. This process is creating an ntldr error and forcing a reformatting of the workstation. I am looking for a solution to this problem and figured I should as here.


My questions are as follows:

1. Is there a way to create reports and filter the payroll information to keep from having to run 2 versions of the program on a single workstation?

2. Is there an easier way to close the year out without having to replicate the current year in another version of the software?


I have deducted that installing several versions of the same software on a single machine is causing the problem as I can replicate the problem, but not sure if there method of multiple installs is/was recommended or was it a solution created by themselves.


Thanks in advance!

[Zeb]

As someone who also works on customer data, I have 15-20 installations of PowerChurch on my machine and it causes no problems.

When you close the Fund Accounting year all data from the previous fund accounting year is lost except unreconciled transaction at year end. The only way to view that information is with backups prior to closing the year or to replicate the program folder as you are already doing.

There is no known issue of installing more then one copy of PowerChurch on an nt machine that we are aware of. It is certainly a common practice, one that we do in house and suggest customers to do.

PowerChurch version 8.5 does not affect the boot record when installing and should not be causing the ntldr error.

Here is some ntldr errors. We can take a look but that doesn't sound even remotley related to something PowerChurch can cause.

[erik@gracechristiancenter]

Thanks for the reply.

Do you think it would cause a problem having several versions AND installations (i.e. 2 versions of 7.5, two of 8.0 and 4 of 8.5) because like clockwork when we close out the year and create a new installation we get the ntldr error.

The workstation is a Dell Dimension 4300 and we have 5 of the identical workstations on our campus and have had no problems of this type with any of the others.

Thanks again.

[Zeb]

Like I said above, the computer I use to work on data with is not the top of the line computer and I have probably something like 4 versions of 6.2, 5-7 versions of 7, 5-10 of version 8, and 10 or so of version 8.5. I am not writing this from the office computer so can't tell you exactly how many but there are several. It is also very common for all of the staff to have about the same amount of working data.

One thing you could try is intead of actually installing another version, just copy the contents of the folder to another location and it would work just fine. As long as there is not more then one installation within the same directory, otherwise the installation in the root of the folder will pull data from everything inside it.

The problem you are describing sounds like it could be hardware related if it is just happening on the one workstation.

Hope the information helps.

[erik@gracechristiancenter]

Thanks for the information, it is very helpful and timely. I do appreciate your time!