Installing V11 without overwriting prior version

[SScheuermann]

Greetings and Happy New Year!

I currently use V9 and have recently purchased V11.

Due to changing needs of the church I will be doing a massive overhaul of the chart of accounts. I would like to start fresh without carrying over the old data. So, I would like to have both V9 and V11 loaded at the same time without the data bleeding over from one to the other. V9 would just be kept for reference for years 2010 and earlier, and V11 would be what we actually work with starting today.

Is this possible? How would I do it

Thank You!

Scott
Calvary Foursquare Church, Tipton IA

[tborgal]

Upgrading to V11 will not effect the data in your current version. If you start fresh or convert you current data the old version of PC+ remains in tact and can be run just as before.

[SScheuermann]

Upgrading to V11 will not effect the data in your current version. If you start fresh or convert you current data the old version of PC+ remains in tact and can be run just as before.

Hmm, I'm hesitant. Last time I upgraded PC+ it seems to me that it just seemlessly updated the software. The chart of accounts carried over and made it difficult to make some of the changes we wanted to make. The new chart of accounts will need to be radically different than what we have had in the past. Trying to make the old flow into the new seems like it would be more work than just starting from scratch.

What I would like to do is to have 2 totally seperate programs each with their seperate data. Almost like it being two seperate entities with absolutely no intermingling.

[NeilZ]

Upgrading to V11 will not effect the data in your current version. If you start fresh or convert you current data the old version of PC+ remains in tact and can be run just as before.

Hmm, I'm hesitant. Last time I upgraded PC+ it seems to me that it just seemlessly updated the software. The chart of accounts carried over and made it difficult to make some of the changes we wanted to make. The new chart of accounts will need to be radically different than what we have had in the past. Trying to make the old flow into the new seems like it would be more work than just starting from scratch.

What I would like to do is to have 2 totally seperate programs each with their seperate data. Almost like it being two seperate entities with absolutely no intermingling.

Since Powerchurch is an integrated system, having two separate programs would cause meaningless duplication.

What I would do is this:

1. Install V11, and let it do the upgrade, migrating the data from the older version. This will move all the membership and contributions data, as well as the current accounting data.
2. Since you want to redo your Chart of Accounts, you have a two options, either delete the existing chart of accounts, which can take time; or just restart accounting. This will delete all the old data, including any unposted payments and so on. However, you will still have your current Vendor records, employee records and any Accounts Receivable customer records. You'll then have access to the Accounting Setup Wizard which will help you setup your new chart of accounts, along with payroll ,etc.

You'll still have the old accounting data sitting in V10, but you can then transfer what you need to the new Chart of Accounts in v11.

What I would definitely do, is make sure that after the upgrade, all access to the old version should be removed except for the person doing the accounting changes. All other changes (membership, contributions, etc) should be done in the new version.

[SScheuermann]

So do I understand correctly that when I install V11, the prior verion (in my case V9) will still exist as a seperate program with all of its data intact and assessable through the older version? And I can choose to import the data from the old version to the new, then restart accounting?

I will have all the old data available in the old version, and in the new I can overhaul the chart of accounts without wiping out all of the vendor and contribution records?!? If so this will make things easier than I imagined.

Scott

[NeilZ]

So do I understand correctly that when I install V11, the prior verion (in my case V9) will still exist as a seperate program with all of its data intact and assessable through the older version? And I can choose to import the data from the old version to the new, then restart accounting?

Correct, the Powerchurch 11 installer will install in a new directory under the C:\Powerchurch directory, PCPLUS11. Your v9 data will not be touched, other than to be read for the conversion to the v11 tables.

I will have all the old data available in the old version, and in the new I can overhaul the chart of accounts without wiping out all of the vendor and contribution records?!? If so this will make things easier than I imagined.

Scott

Just some clarification here, the Contributions area of the database is not integrated with Funds Accounting other than in the Contributions Funds setup where you choose the bank account and income account from the Chart of Accounts. When you post Contributions to Funds Accounting, the only thing that happens is that the Contributions module creates Funds Accounting transactions and puts them in the Unposted Transaction queue in Funds Accounting. Restarting Accounting will not do a thing to ANY data in Contributions.

That said, when you're ready to install V11, I would definitely have posted any Contributions data to Funds Accounting and posted them in v9, so that the Contributions data is correctly updated in the Contributions module, and you'll have any account final balances in the v9 COA ready to bring over to the new v11 COA

Now, back to Funds Accounting. That is correct, when you restart accounting, the system will retain any Vendor, Employee (in Payroll), and Customer (in Accounts Receivable) records. If you check your v11 manual, on page 237 it will go over all the data that will be deleted, and the data that will remain.

My advice is to review the manual's information on Running the Accounting Setup Assistant on page 187 to assist you when doing this. I'd also have the manual handy as you'll probably need it to reference some of the new Funds Accounting functionality added in v10 and 11.

Hope this helps.