do we have to do "year end"

[sathni]

i have just completed my first full year with zpay...

it seems you advice us to do "year end closeout", which will delete all previous data...

is this absolutely necessary?...

or can we just continue to accumulate data year-after-year?...

please advise on this issue - thx...

[Paul Mayer]

If you have a small company, you can if you want. It's just that the database grows each year and can become really huge over a number of years.

That is why we suggest making backups and keeping them separate from the computer in a safe storage area as you can always restore a backup to see old information.

Now, just to be certain that you don't want to keep the data in one place because of any futire audits. It is very important that each pay day that you print out at a minimum, the 80 Column report and the Employers Totals report and file them away and save them for at least seven years. If you ever get an audit, the IRS and State authorities want to see the paper trail, not a computer program.

[sathni]

i understand...

i have a small company.. 3 employees... so i will probably just save all data for now... and not do "year end"...

and yes, i am definitely keeping a "paper trail"...

thanks -

[TheBigZ]

Dunno if what I do will be useful to anyone, but I'll pass it on.

I never used to close the year, but with some clients, the employee list became unmanageable. And since there are still one or two reports that insist on listing every employee in the database, regardless of their pays or status, that wasn't gonna fly.

I also don't necessarily feel the need to print reams of paper (and toner) for this "paper trail". Everywhere else ya look, business is trying to go paperless, and we get beat over the head daily with all this "green" talk. I print what I must to accomplish the task. If something else comes up later that I simply MUST have a hard copy of (for audit, etc.), my setup allows me to do so relatively easily. My priorities are to accomplish the required task at the lowest reasonable overhead, with the least needless waste.

After I have prepared the last pay for a client, I close PayWindow or open a different client. I then make a copy of the file in the same directory, renaming it as (in the case of this year) clientx - 2008.dxi. So if the client file is 'smith.dxi', I simply use windows explorer, right click the file & chose copy. Then I right click & hit paste. In Vista, it then creates a file called 'smith - copy.dxi'... in XP I believe it will call it 'copy of smith.dxi'. I simply then right click the copy, chose rename, and rename it to 'smith - 2008.dxi'.

Then I can open 'smith.dxi', with the date set as Dec 31, 2008, and run the year end tool in preparation for the first 2009 pay... clearing out all the old transactions and employees. I can open 'smith - 2008.dxi' any time I need to, and run any report I might ever need. Using this sytem going forward, I'll have a 'smith - 20xx.dxi' for each year. To print my W2's and other reports for 2008, I just make sure I open 'smith -2008.dxi'. Once all the 2008 stuff is done, I can always move the 2008 files to another directory to avoid possible confusion, but I don't think it will be necessary.

I'm also a big advocate of an agressive backup strategy.

Disclaimer: I've looked over what I typed & don't see any glaring omissions, but do your own due diligence. There also may not be a big difference between what I just typed & what the FAQ tells you to do, I don't know, I haven't read it in detail... no plagiarism intended. Also note that my practice of not printing out notebooks full of paper trails is not well received by Paul, so once again, do your own due diligence. ;) Always back up your files... I have a mirrored raid on the computer with the tax/accounting/payroll data, a mirrored raid NAS hanging off my router, and I also burn it all off onto a dvd every so often.

[chris m]

Even with our relatively small company, we also much prefer using year-end closeout and then keep archive separate data files named 2008, 2007, etc. Having multi-year data in a single can get confusing with old employees, or if you accidently set the date to print a report from last year, then you forget to reset it, etc.

As for the 'reams' of printed reports, we take a middle ground approach. I print all the reports as Paul recommends, but instead of hard paper, I print to PDF files with names like "PayWindow_EmployerTotals_2008_12-15.pdf", etc. This is easily done with a PDF printer driver (there are may free ones available for download). I only print a paper copy when I need it for some specific task, otherise I just keep the PDF files. MOST IMPORTANTLY, I keep off-site backups of all these PDFs to protect this 'electronic paper trail' in the event of hardware failure or fire.

I think this actually affords better protection that a pure paper trail, since paper can be destroyed in a fire or flood, and I doubt if most people keep (or would want to keep) TWO paper copies in different physical locations.

Chris

[Paul Mayer]

That is a great idea Chris, I like that. Then you can put the entire year on a single CD and store in a safe place with your records for seven years.

Great idea!