Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!usc!ucsd!hub.ucsb.edu!spectrum.CMC.COM!spectrum.cmc.com!lars
From: lars@spectrum.cmc.com (Lars Poulsen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps
Subject: Dollars & Sense 4.x Archives - What good are they ?
Message-ID: <1991Jan2.203320.29488@spectrum.CMC.COM>
Date: 2 Jan 91 20:33:20 GMT
Sender: lars@spectrum.CMC.COM (Lars Poulsen)
Organization: Rockwell CMC
Lines: 39

It is the time of year when I start worrying again about whether I
should switch to a different accounting program. Maybe someone out there
can answer my questions and give me peace of mind ...

For 4 years, now, I have been using Dollars and Sense to track the
family's expenses, and gather data for our tax returns. And mostly, I
like it a lot. It sure is nice to be able to do a trial run of my
Federal and State tax returns in about 90 minutes when the forms come in
the mailbox. (Using an Excel template that I save from year to year).
But there is this nagging thing about the old data ...

One of the goals when switching to computerized home bookkeeping was to
be able to retrieve data from prior years on demand. It appears that
this is not at all possible with Dollars and Sense ... or is it just not
documented ?

The Dollars and Sense program maintains two years of active data in its
file. When the new year arrives, no new transactions can be posted,
until the old year has been "closed"; a procedure which includes
"archiving" the old "last year" so that the year just ended can become
"last year". This procedure produces an "archive file" in a proprietary
format, which must be "unarchived" in order to read it. The problem is
that I have never managed to succesfully unarchive one of these files.

The program insists that I must have an open data file to "unarchive"
into. So I have tried cloning the active file, but upon retrying the
"unarchive" operation at this point, I have always run out of disk space
before completing the operation. It also seems that this should fail: If
the program has slots only for two active years of data, where would the
three or four year old data that was unarchived go to ?

Am I right in concluding that I was stupid in letting the program talk
me into performing the "close" operation, and I should have saved a
backup of the data file BEFORE the close ?

Any help is appreciated.
-- 
/ Lars Poulsen, SMTS Software Engineer
  CMC Rockwell  lars@CMC.COM