Running Data Integrity Checks

• When and why do I need to run Data Integrity Checks?
• How do I run Data Integrity Checks?

When and why do I need to run Data Integrity Checks?

Data Integrity Checks are internal auditing routines that verify your posted transactions to insure that the individual components of each transaction are in balance-in essence whether the parts equal the whole and vice versa. Data Integrity Checks do not modify data. Nor will the Data Integrity Check locate incorrect entries that have been made, such as human error, but will diagnose situations where actual data has been corrupted due to hardware failure.

It is recommended that you run the checks at least once per week or anytime you suspect an event may have resulted in damage to your database. Examples of such events would be a server crash, power failure during posting or a "blue screen" error that causes your workstation to "freeze." Whenever the software is unexpectedly interrupted to prevent completion of a task, it is advisable to run the Data Integrity Checks. Data Integrity Checks should also be run if you experience an out of balance situation in reporting. For example, your A/P detail ledger balance does not match your A/P Trial Balance figure.

Some of the failures that occur can be corrected using MIP utilities. However, there are other type failures that can only be corrected manually by MIP personnel or not at all. These failures would require a restore of your database from a "good" backup. Thus, it is recommended that you adopt a policy to run your data integrity checks on a frequent basis, so that in the event of severe data damage you can restore from good backup without losing a large number of transactions.

If you own the MIP Advance system and get the message that you do not have exclusive access, be sure to review the System>Manage Concurrent Users and System>Manage Services forms; sending emails to the users accessing the system and explaining the need for exclusive access, remind them to save their changes and log out of the system quickly. Afterwards, if you still need to establish exclusive system access, open System>Manage Services. Click the Set Maintenance Mode button and set the organization and system databases offline. This will set the system into maintenance mode and prevent others from logging on to the system but it will also kick the logged on user's out of their databases; thus losing any unsaved work. Once the Data Integrity Checks are complete, you will need to clear these check boxes on the Set Maintenance Mode form and place the organization and system databases back online.

How do I run Data Integrity Checks?

If you own the MIP Advance system and get the message that you do not have exclusive access, be sure to review the System>Manage Concurrent Users and System>Manage Services forms; sending emails to the users accessing the system and explaining the need for exclusive access, remind them to save their changes and log out of the system quickly. Afterwards, if you still need to establish exclusive system access, open System>Manage Services. Click the Set Maintenance Mode button and set the organization and system databases offline. This will set the system into maintenance mode and prevent others from logging on to the system but it will also kick the logged on user's out of their databases; thus losing any unsaved work. Once the Data Integrity Checks are complete, you will need to clear these check boxes on the Set Maintenance Mode form and place the organization and system databases back online.

Complete the following steps:

1. Verify that no workstations are currently using the product.
2. With Administrator user rights, log on to the system and select Organization>Data Integrity Checks.
3. Place a check mark to the left of the integrity checks you want to perform. Click the Select All button if you want to run all integrity checks.
4. Click Start to begin the checks.
5. Once completed, a display window will appear listing the results of the checks.
6. Use Ctrl P to print the results. Be sure to print the results if there are any failures. Once this window is closed, you cannot get a copy of the results unless you rerun the Data Integrity Checks.

Note that Data Integrity Checks take time to process. It is recommended that the first time you run integrity checks you do so at a time you can afford to be out of the software for some time. You will need to benchmark how long the integrity checks take to process for your organization. The amount of time needed for the checks to complete will vary based on the hardware configuration and the size of the database being checked.