July 1 software bug

[atsilvan]

I have had PT since 1995, now using Complete vers. 8.0, and every July 1 (when I change to that period) my customer accounts' history duplicates last July's figures - invoices and payments. One of my business associates who uses PT experiences the same problem. Apparently PT has not seen fit to fix this bug. I have been coping by using integrity check each year, but wish there was a permanent fix. Any help out there? Thanks.

[TheWolf]

Been dealing with over 50 clients using Peachtree and never once seen that. If it is a bug then all of us should have the problem shouldn't we?

[atsilvan]

I have it. A vendor to my company in Alabama also has it. If not a bug, then what is it? I need help, not scorn.

[TheWolf]

It is likely sync errors caused by some type of problem in the environment (network connections, power surges, etc.). Is June-July when your fiscal year closes/starts? That is usually where you see them. Run the sync test for the effected area and it should correct it. Problem is that is just a symptom of something causing sync errors with the data. Find a local tech in your area that is familiar with Peachtree and have them troubleshoot it for you.

That wasn't scorn it was a question about bugs. My understanding is that they happen with all users under the same circumstances. Find a common thread between all the cases and you may have the culprit.

[Evelyn Pesantez]

I have the same problem you do, precisely on the same period. You're not alone (as TheWolf seemed to think). I'm trying to solve it now with suggestions from "Ghost sales in history" thread. I use PT7. Pls. Let me know if you were able to solve it.

Originally posted by atsilvan
I have it. A vendor to my company in Alabama also has it. If not a bug, then what is it? I need help, not scorn.

[Robert Walraven]

Yes, it is a real problem. We have seen it in several databases that have been sent to us. As near as we can figure out the problem occurs during the yearly closing. The customer records contain detail about the activity for each accouting period and when this data is moved down by one-year's worth of periods apparently something goes wrong and data for the highest year the data was moved from does not get cleared out.

Bob Walraven
Architect of PawCom

[atsilvan]

I have had this problem since 1996 - I started with Peachtree in Sept. 1995 (ver. 4 I think) so there was no July that year to be affected. Obviously the original software was the culprit. I reported this to Peachtree years ago, but they did nothing. When I upgraded to 8.0, I asked about bugs and was assured that anything wrong with earlier versions has surely been fixed. What can we do to get Peachtree to be responsive? I'm not about to pay for support to bring up this question again only to find out I have to use the integrity check - which I already know. They ought to fix this bug! By the way, it was not just customer history, but inventory history that was affected. (My fiscal year ends Dec. 31. so it seems unrelated to end of year closing)

This is what I do each July 1 - from advice given by my vendor who is similarly affected (he is an accountant). Run balance sheet, GL trial bal reports for later comparison. Backup files. Start in period 1 (I'm not sure this really matters). Run integrity check. Reindex ALL files. Run customer journal sync. Run inventory journal sync - with NO pauses. I sync remaining journals whether I need to or not - just in case. Repeat reports and compare. After integrity check, I always find differences in inventory and purchases. I make general journal adjusting entries to get back to the original numbers, and use retained earnings to stay in balance. I have no idea if this is what I SHOULD do, but it is what I do do, and it fixes the history problems until next year. Keep in mind, I am not an accountant, just a small business owner trying to keep on top of things. At least I know who's paid what, and what items I've sold.

Peachtree should fix this.

[TheWolf]

It is a problem in the data, not the program. As Robert mentioned that data repair corrects this.

I now have 1 customer that has this problem. One of the customer records was showing last years info combined with this years. I ran reindex of customer and the journal files. Then ran the sync and it corrected it. This customer has a FY setup of july-June so it happened when he did a CFY.

[atsilvan]

What do you mean, a problem in the data? The data for all my customers who had purchases or payments last year in July would show the same numbers in their histories as soon as I changed periods to July again. Same with inventory. Isn't this data contingent on the progam?

[Robert Walraven]

The problem is that the data in the files is now wrong. When you ask to display the data in Peachtree it simply shows you the incorrect data that is there.

This is separate from the issue of how the data became incorrect in the first place. Due to the nature of the incorrect numbers it is pretty likely, as I already mentioned, that the problem occured while performing a yearly close. However, that does not mean that there is necessarily a bug in Peachtree. Closing is a very complex process that can take some time. If anything happened on the computer to interrupt the process or if any error messages were produced by Peachtree that indicated a problem and you proceeded anyway, that could be the cause.

It is very important during a close to make the job as simple as possible. Do NOT try closing your data across a network - that is asking for trouble. Always close on the same machine where the data resides and be SURE that nobody else is trying to access the data at the same time. Also make sure the computer where you are doing the close is defragmented and that no other processes are running at the time.

[atsilvan]

No network here. Why, if a year end close (in Dec. or Jan.) was involved, if it was, would it take 5-6 months for a problem to show up? A bit late to restore from a backup. Regardless of the cause, is there any way to permanently fix this?

[Robert Walraven]

Hmmm. Sounds like maybe something went wrong when you changed periods rather than closing the year.

It is possible that running a full integrity check on the data might cure the problem. If you don't know how to do this, I wouldn't attempt it on your own - better to have someone experienced do it - you can make matters worse if you don't do it correctly.