DATA DIRECTORIES FOR LACERTE

Can't speak to combined directories since we never did that, but we're using separate Idata, Cdata etc and have not had your problems.  I would imagine if the program is looking for separate data directories, not having them would be a problem.

For backup ease, starting in 2004 we moved all data under a subdirectory "Clientdata" (learned the hard way not to use spaces).  Under Clientdata, we have a subfolder for each year, then Idata etc. under that.

Don't know if this means much, but for the year '99 (perhaps other years, too) I would back up all my hard-disk data from all programs, to floppies, simply to "A:," letting all data on the floppy be in one large directory and not in any special directory. If necessary, I could restore from the floppy, simply from "A:" and not from any special data directory of any particular program.

Usually I would do a different backup every day to a different floppy, based on what new work was done on a given day. Therefore, I'd have individuals, partnerships, S-corps, C-corps, and fiduciaries all sharing one floppy.

I think I did my actual hard-disk work, though, using all the "Lacerte-default" subdirectories (IDATA, PDATA, and so on).

I don't recall any problems from back then.

What happens when you use spaces in a directory name? I sometimes use spaces and never noticed a problem.

Last year we moved client data under a common "Client Data" subdirectory and ran into all sorts of problems that tech. support said resulted from the space between words.  Removing the space cleared things up.  I assumed it was do to tid bits of DOS still hanging around.

In the "old days" the directory name was limited to 8 letters, no spaces, Now it can be longer, but I didn't know that spaces cause a problem. I do have spaces in some names and never had a problem, but I will make sure not to do it in Lacerte. Thank you.

I have all my data on a separate "Lacertedata" directory. I set it up this way due to some networking considerations, and received a blessing of the Lacerte support team. I am getting the error message every time communication manager is activated. They are harmless, but annoying. Lacerte support people told me it's because all of the files are supposed to live inside the Lacerte/07tax shell. They did not say anything about having separate directories for each type of the return. They also told me it was a bug and they are working to fix it. That was in April'08. I am still getting the error messages on every transmission.

If I were you, I would call their support people again and talk to a different person before considering to change your system. You may get a different reply.

I did a standard Lacerte install and have all of the separate subdirectories but each time I use the communication manager it runs forever until I press cancel. Sometimes I get an error message when using the communication manager but I just ignore it since it is not critical.

In all the years I have used Lacerte, their support team never said anything about the data needing to reside in the "Lacete7tax" directory. I, too, get error messages and slowdowns at times when the communication manager is used. Even if it is just to send them an e-mail, which shouldn't have anything to do with the data directory. I have called support many times but I never get a decent response. They have you rename certain files and create new ones and it is a waste of time. I don't think any of them know the answers. They have known about these problems for years (because I tell them every year) and it never gets fixed.

I am in the process of creating the new directories for each tax type because the explanation made sense to me and because if I continue to have problems, at least I know that is not the issue. I have our data in a different partition on the server than the program, not in Lacerte7taxIdata, etc.

I have always had my data directories for each type of tax return separate. It just made sense to me to do that.

However, I have had a lot of errors this year where the program tells me there is an error and the program needs to shut down. Tech support tells me I need to uninstall and reinstall my program to fix this.

I never found that uninstalling and reinstalling fixed any errors. Without knowing what type of errors you are getting, this is just one of their standard responses. These types of errors have been going on for years with no explanation.

I have not had errors in previous years, just 2007. The other years have been fine, no major problems.

Having worked in support for a number of years, I have found that re-installing (using the /force command) resolved many issues - especially when the main .exe file was damaged.

As for data directories - it makes absolutely no difference where you store them, but it recommended that you maintain different folders for different tax types. This is just so that if there is some type of database corruption (usually caused by AV programs) that your entire database doesn't get whacked. Com mgr errors are unrelated (except EF acknowledgement related) and most (if not all) can be resloved by tech. There are not any "outstanding defects" that I am aware of. I have uploaded a guide that you might find useful and it's at http://www.lacertesoftware.com... as well.

Hope this helps.

Bill

Thank you, Bill, You are truly wonderful and this forum has been very instructional for me this year.

Bill,

Would you uninstall and then reinstall or just install using the /force command?

Thanks much.

If I was trying to fix what I thought was an installation or program issue (instead of data or system issues) I would problably start with uninstall/reinstall first. It is easy and fast if you are using the CD. This is particularly useful if issue is with a workstation or you are installed standalone.

The next thing i would try is a setup /force. You can use this command to overwrite both server and workstation installations. /force can also be used with the websetup.

As a last resort you can rename and reinstall the program.

Thanks so much for your assistance. I really appreciate your help on this.