Activity and Skills Back-up files

[alratsr]

We have been using PC mainly for Contributions and Accounting. We would like to expand our use to Activities and Skills. I was wondering if someone can update this section and then bring in the new information as a back-up file. They are working offsite and will have a copy of the entire database, but would only update the new Activities and Skill Section (This section has not been used before). I see there are multiple files in the Restore Utlity and was wondering how these files match up to the database. Thanks!

[NeilZ]

We have been using PC mainly for Contributions and Accounting. We would like to expand our use to Activities and Skills. I was wondering if someone can update this section and then bring in the new information as a back-up file. They are working offsite and will have a copy of the entire database, but would only update the new Activities and Skill Section (This section has not been used before). I see there are multiple files in the Restore Utlity and was wondering how these files match up to the database. Thanks!

Since you didn't say which version of Powerchurch you're using, I'm going to assume you're using version 9 or higher.

Since you're using the Contributions module, I trust that the Membership Module is fairly correct and up to date, although I suspect that some of the data (birthdays, phones, anniversaries, etc) may be missing.

The Activities & Skills section is part of the Membership Module and, as such, is backed up in the Backup Utility as part of the Membership files. If, as you say, they are using a current backup of the database to do the activity and skills update, then doing a backup of only the membership database using the backup utility and then restoring to the main system would not be a problem.

That said, this also precludes that anyone has done any updates to the membership data (mailing list profile and personal profiles) in the meantime. If any such updates have been done, then the restore od the membership database with the activity and skills included would overwrite those updates.

So I strongly urge that you get the word out that no updates to Membership be done until after the restore of the database with activity and skills data. This includes adding any new contributors on Sunday, as that person's demographic data would be overwritten by the restore.

Hope this helps.