How Should You Move Archived Invoices to an External Drive
With the amount of data that the ProfitMaker software is now archiving, the amount of disk space used for the ProfitMaker directories is rapidly increasing. This can lead to the following possibilities: Shortage of disk drive space, backup time increased, and increased amount of media needed to do the backup.
In an attempt to help reduce the used drive space, some of the archived information can be pulled off the server drive and stored to another drive or to an external drive (Thumb drive, CD-R or DVD-R).
Invoices that have been generated and sent to customers can be written to an external drive. These are found inside the INVOICES folder stored inside the active data folder (ASIDTA by default). The following steps can be followed to remove some of these items from the server.
USE CAUTION WHEN FOLLOWING THESE STEPS AS IT CAN HAVE A DETRIMENTAL EFFECT ON THE PROFITMAKER SOFTWARE IF DONE INCORRECTLY!! A BACKUP SHOULD BE DONE BEFORE PERFORMING THESE STEPS!
· Create a new folder on the desktop
* Right Click on the desktop
* Left Click on New
* Left Click on Folder
· Open My Computer
* Double Left Click the My Computer icon on the desktop OR
* Left Click on the Start Button
* Left Click on My Computer on the start menu
· Open the network drive
*Double Left Click on the network drive where the ProfitMaker data directory is stored
· Open the data directory
* Double Left Click on the data directory (ASIDTA by default)
· Open the INVOICES folder
* Double Left Click on the INVOICES folder
· Change the view of the INVOICES folder
* At the top of the screen, Left Click on VIEW on the menu bar
* Left Click on Details
· Change the sort of the INVOICES folder
* At the top of the screen, Left Click on VIEW on the menu bar
* Left Click on Arrange Icons By
* Left Click on Date Modified
· Select invoice files to be moved
* Once the files are arranged by ‘Date Modified’, the oldest files should be at the top of the list.
If they are not, repeat the sort option again
* With the oldest files at the top of the screen
* Single Left Click the oldest item to be archived (should be the top item)
* Scroll down in the list using the Right scroll bar to the last item to be archived
* Press and hold the Shift key on the keyboard
* With the Shift key depressed, single Left Click the last item to be archived
* All items to be archived should now be highlighted
* Release the Shift Key
· Cut the items to be archived
* At the top of the screen, Left Click on EDIT on the menu bar
* Left click on Cut
· Close the My Computer view
* At the Upper Right corner of the Title Bar, Left Click on the “X”
· Paste the invoice files to be moved
* On the Desktop, Right Click the NEW FOLDER created in step # 1
* Left Click on PASTE
· Rename the New Folder
* Once all the files have been moved to the NEW FOLDER
* Right Click the NEW FOLDER
* Left Click RENAME
* Type in the name of the folder to indicate what is being archived (ie. “Invoices 01-01-XX to 12-31-XX” (less the quotations))
* Hit ENTER
· Send the renamed folder to the CD-R for writing
* Right Click the newly renamed folder on the Desktop
* Left Click on Send To
* Left Click on the CD-R drive
· Burn the data to the CD-R
* Once all files have been copied to the CD-R drive
* Insert a blank CD-R into the CD-R drive
* Double Left Click the My Computer icon on the desktop OR
* Left Click on the Start Button
* Left Click on My Computer on the start menu
* Right Click the CD-R drive
* Left Click on Write These Files to CD
· Remove the temporary folder on the desktop
* Once the burn process is complete, the CD should eject
* At the Upper Right Corner of the Title Bar, Left Click on the “X”
* Right Click the renamed folder on the desktop
* Left Click on Delete
Label the CD appropriately and store in a safe location
The files located on this archived CD are copies of the invoices that have been generated and sent to customers.
The format of the file name of these invoices are Order #, Invoice # (ie. 12345_987654.pdf where the order number is 12345 and the invoice number associated to that order is 987654).
Re-printing from the external drive
If the need arises where one of these old invoices need to be reprinted and cannot be done through the ProfitMaker software, the CD that was just created can be browsed for that particular order or invoice. Once the file has been found, check the file extension:
1. File extension is PDF: double Left Click the item to open it with Adobe Reader and print from with the new display.
2. File extension is ASJ: the invoice file will need to be copied back into the INVOICE folder in the ASIDTA data directory. Once the file is copied back into the correct folder, it can be accessed through the ProfitMaker software by using the menu option of Order History Maintenance. Once the historical order is displayed, the invoice can be reprinted via the print icon located on the toolbar of the Order History Maintenance.