In an environment with multiple clients and a single server, is it a bad idea to set everyone to automatically update? I am worried there could be some weirdness if two people try to update at the same time. Is it better to designate one person?
It's really your call. Once a single users does an update, the server's zip files are updated and that means that subsequently everyone will get updated. It's faster to get the files from the server than to have everyone downloading them, so it might be easier to just use a dedicated station. You can also program the Scheduler (Start>Programs>Lacerte>Update Scheduler) to do this during off-hours - that might make your life easier. Hope this helps.
We would like to schedule one station to update after hours, but it seems like the station has to be logged in for the updater to work. This is a security risk for us. Is there any way to set the Update Scheduler to work if no one is logged on?
I know nothing about this, but how much of a pain would it be to have one person who sits by the one station and updates at 6PM while catching up with reading all the magazines they didn't have time to read, or, for that matter, bringing their mystery book from home and reading their mystery book while the computer is updating?
The time taken to do the update may not even be particularly large. If it takes 5 minutes to update one station, and you have 6 stations, the whole thing will be half an hour, during a large part of which your designated person could be doing some reading while monitoring the updates with one eye.
That wouldn't really work for us. For one, we want the process automated. Also, we have had issues with being unable to update Lacerte if people are in it. (Our tax people work late) So, ideally this should happen at midnight or so, even if no one is logged in.
I may be able to get by with one workstation updating during the workday. My problem would be in the following scenario: It is early in the year and the Benefit module is not available yet. I have one station with the Update Scheduler set for noon. The Update Scheduler only updates "installed modules". When the Benefit module becomes available, the Update Scheduler won't update it because it is not currently an "installed module."
It seems you must download an update from Lacerte's web site and install it manually, selecting the Benefit module. Then the Update Scheduler will update the Benefit module because it is now an "installed module". Is there any way to get that to happen automatically?
No. There is a difference between a "release" and an "update." The Update Scheduler does exactly that - it checks for, downloads, and installs an update to your existing load. There is nothing that will ever automate the installation of an available release. I hope that makes sense. There would be significant configuration considerations, like do you want the system to install NY corp when it become available? Etc...
That's understandable. That being the case, can I make a feature request?
As part of the Update Scheduler options, you would get the window with all the check boxes for each module and each state for that module. Then you could put a check next to any combination of states and modules that you wanted (or all states and modules). This way, you would have exactly what you needed automatically installed as soon as it became available.
