ContractorTools is able to work offline and sync when it is online. It does this by storing a separate copy of the data on each device, and sending database updates to the other devices connected to the same account. Those devices must then integrate the updates into their local copy of the database. This process is fairly fast when the database is small, but it becomes increasingly slower as the database gets larger.
Because of this, ContractorTools provides the ability to archive old jobs. "Archiving" jobs means you remove jobs from the active database and store them in a separate database that you can access later if necessary.
ContractorTools only archives jobs that are set to status "Closed" or "Not Awarded", or jobs that have been set "Inactive". "Closed" means that the job has been completed, and you have received full payment. "Not Awarded" means that the job was not sold. "Inactive" means that you have removed the job from the list of active jobs.
To archive jobs, you must individually set each job to either of these statuses.
To set the job status to "Closed" or "Not Awarded", select the job and tap on Job Info. There you can select the Status field to set the job status.
To set the job to "Inactive", select the job, then tap the "Make Inactive" button.
Important Notes - Read Before Proceeding!
When you archive jobs, the data in those jobs is removed from the active database. So, before you archive, you should run any reports that you might need to be based on data that will be archived! The report that you might want to run before archiving is the Sales Tax report, which is available in the Company Reports menu.
You can still access and report on data for archived jobs in the archive databases, but ContractorTools is not able to combine archived data with live data for purposes of reporting.
Be sure to have all users sign out of ContractorTools while you archive the data!
When users sign in after the archive has been run, this message will appear:
Cloud Data Has Been Reset
Someone has reset the data in the cloud from another device. You can either reset your local data from the cloud data, or merge your local data with the cloud data.
ALL USERS MUST SELECT "RESET"!!!
If any user selects "Merge", this will merge all of the old (archived) jobs back into the database!
TO ARCHIVE JOBS
To archive jobs, first you must sign out of ContractorTools on all devices except the one on which you will perform the archive.
a. Use the fastest device or computer you have to do the archive. For example, if you have an iPhone and an iPad, do the archive on the iPad. Or if you have a Mac, do it on the Mac.
b. Make sure the computer/device you use to archive the data is connected to a good high speed (WiFi or wired) internet connection. DO NOT RUN THE ARCHIVE PROCESS WHILE USING CELL DATA ACCESS.
Next, sign in to your company's admin user account. The admin user account is the first account that was set up for your company (unless another account has been designated as the admin user - there can only be one admin user account).
Next, set the status of jobs to be archived. There are two ways to do this: manually, for each job individually, or automatically based on the job date.
To set Job Status' manually, for each job individually:
a. Go to the ContractorTools main menu and select "Jobs".
b. Select a job, then tap on "Job Info".
c. Tap on Job Status.
d. Select the appropriate Job Status: "Closed" for completed jobs, "Not Awarded" for jobs were not sold.
Note: Jobs that have been set inactive can also be archived, regardless of their status.
To set Job Status' automatically, for all jobs based on their creation date:
a. On a Mac: select "Help" > "Enter Support Code" in the drop down menu at the top of the screen;
On an iPhone or iPad, select "Company Settings" in the main menu, then tap 5 times in any grey area of the screen.
b. A dialog box prompting you to "Enter a Support Code" will appear.
c. Enter "setJobStatusToArchiveSixMonths" to set jobs older than 6 months to be archived. Enter "setJobStatusToArchiveOneYear" to set jobs older than 1 year to be archived.
d. Click OK.
Once you have set the status of jobs to be archived, you are ready to perform the archive process. Go to the ContractorTools main menu and select "Company Settings". Then select "Archive".
The Archive screen has a few options to allow you to select the jobs that will be archived.
"Status" defaults to "Closed" and "Not Awarded", but you can limit the number of jobs to be archived by removing either of these.
"Tags" allows you to further limit the jobs to be archived to only include those with the tags selected.
"Also Include Inactive Jobs" defaults to on, which means that it will archive jobs that are set inactive. You should leave this set on.
You can access archived jobs after they have been archived, so should archive as many jobs as possible to keep the ContractorTools data syncing process running as fast as possible.
Select "Jobs to be Archived" to see a list of the jobs that will be archived.
Tap "Archive Jobs" to proceed with the archiving process.
Note: Archived databases are named by the date on which the archive took place, so you can only run the archive process once each day.
After Archiving
The archive process will remove the jobs to be archived from the active ContractorTools database.
After the archive process has completed, please allow time for ContractorTools to sync to the cloud before signing back in on other devices! One hour while connected to a good (WiFi or wired) connection should be enough. You can tap on "Sync Status" in the "Company Settings" menu to check the syncing status.
IMPORTANT!: When users sign in after the admin device has completed syncing, this message will appear:
Cloud Data Has Been Reset
Someone has reset the data in the cloud from another device. You can either reset your local data from the cloud data, or merge your local data with the cloud data.
ALL USERS MUST SELECT "RESET"!!!
If any user selects the option to "Merge", this will merge all of the old (archived) jobs back into the database, and you will then be back where you started!