subject: Great Plains Outdated Versions Support And Upgrade [print this page] If you are on releases 8.0, 9.0 or newer then support is not really challenging and typically provided by local consultants. In this paper we would like to talk about earlier releases such as 7.5, 7.0, 6.0, 5.5 and 5.0 on Pervasive SQL 2000/Btrieve. We will also talk about Great Plains DOS accounting. We often hear the question about upgrade and getting registration key. Lets answer it in the introduction paragraph. You need to contact your VAR and have him give you a quote from Microsoft Business Solution on reenrollment into Annual Enhancement plan and associated penalties. We are trying to answer popular questions. Feel free to email us your question if you do not see it answered below:
Q. We are on 7.5 and Pervasive and need minor data repair as for several items quantities are incorrect. We contacted local reseller and they indicated that they only deal with client on Microsoft SQL Server and do not have expertise with Btrieve. Which tool should we use and is it something you could help us with?
A. You can use any ODBC compliant tool including something like Microsoft Access (Linked Tables). We prefer Pervasive Control Center where you can do aggregated select, update or delete. Control Center can handle millions of records and in our opinion this is advantage in the case where you have large number of historical sales invoices or purchase receipts. In order to create ODBC DSN you need so-called data definition files (field, file and index.ddf). These files might already exist take a look at your company directory on the server. If you cannot find them then you can produce them in GenDDF utility and then copy them into company folder on the server
Q. We are on 6.0 Btrieve and moved Dynamics directory on the new server. When we are trying to login we are getting error message about location translation. Apparently accounting cannot be used at this point. What is the problem here?
A. When you initially install GP it save the path to the system and company tables either in UNC Path or mapped drive format. When you move Dynamics folder from one server to another the path might become different and application cannot find its database. There is location translation procedure which is described in administrator manual. So in your case it is not a problem it is rather part of data migration procedure
Q. We are Mac committed company and use Great Plains Dynamics 4.0. Database seems to be unstable and we are doing check links every weekend. It runs about twenty four hours and we have to babysit the process. Is it possible to speed it up?
A. Our recommendation is to create historical company and copy production company into historical directory. Then take a look at Financial, Sales and Purchase folder and identify which table has large side. To identify file name go to tools resource description tables. Then read manual on purging historical transaction. In order to make files smaller you need to read about shrink and rebuild (be sure you have backup prior to doing these procedures). We would suggest you to purge documents from the year 2009 and earlier for example. This procedure should increase check links performance dramatically
Q. Great Plains 5.5 and database is Pervasive SQL 2000 where we got issue with batch posting. It has large number of Sales Invoices and we are getting message that batch is marked for posting. Is it possible to unlock this batch?
A. Yes please in Pervasive Control Center run select * from SY00500. If you can see the batch in the list reset BCHSTTUS field to zero. At this point you should be able to open the batch. Our recommendation is to print batch edit list report prior to posting again. If you see errors then make correction accordingly
Q. We are on Great Plains DOS 9.2 and finally decided to upgrade to Dynamics GP 2010. Our local partner doesnt have experience in such a migration. What are the steps?
A. Technically there is migration tool from GPA DOS 9.5 to Dynamics GP 8.0. There is also upgrade diskette which should update from 9.2 to 9.5. When you are on version 8.0 the rest is easy
Q. Nobody around seems to be familiar with Great Plains DOS. Is it possible to get support?
A. Yes as there are consulting organizations who have knowledge base in Excel format. You should get exact error message or screenshot of the problem and chances are high that it is documented in the knowledge base
This question concludes our session
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