Considerations for purging activity data

Project Accounting lets you purge and archive activities, activity groups, transactions, and budgets based on Archive Control (AC00.4) settings. Purging removes data from the system while archiving consolidates transaction activities without removing activities from the system. You can purge or archive data to:

  • reduce database storage space

  • delete activities and activity groups that are inactive

  • consolidate detail transactions to reduce the total number of transactions stored

  • zero out balances in activity groups

Archive Control (AC00.4) allows you to indicate which transaction data files are archived when you run Purge and Archive (AC311).

Transaction Consolidation (AC310) allows you to consolidate transactions for an activity or an activity group to reduce the number of transactions without removing the activity from the system. It also allows you to reconsolidate existing consolidated transactions or skip them entirely. The system purges transactions associated with the activity and creates a consolidation transaction instead; balances are retained for the activity. Budgets associated with the activity can also be removed. Use these guidelines when consolidating transaction data using Transaction Consolidation (AC310):

  • always back up the files you want to purge

  • the activities that you want to delete, and their lower-level activities, must have statuses that allow purging

  • you cannot change an activity status to allow purging if subsystem or activity commitments exist

  • you cannot consolidate activity transactions unless all associated invoices were already purged using Invoice Purge (BR300)

Purge and Archive (AC311) allows you to purge or archive transaction and budget data for activities or activity groups without consolidating them. Use these guidelines when purging activity data using Purge and Archive (AC311):

  • always back up the files you want to purge

  • the activities that you want to delete, and their lower-level activities, must have statuses that allow purging

  • you cannot change an activity status to allow purging if subsystem or activity commitments exist.

Activity Group Purge (AC300) allows you to purge activity and activity group information. You can delete activity information for an activity group or activity group list. You can either completely delete activities or zero out the balances based on your selection in the Purge Selection field. All activities or activities balances associated with the activity group will also be purged. Use these guidelines when purging activity and activity group data using Activity Group Purge (AC300):

  • always back up the files you intend to purge

  • you can purge an activity group if the activity group has a Closed status

  • all activities in an activity group will be purged regardless of the activities' purge status; only the activity group's status is verified

  • you cannot purge activity group information unless all associated invoices were already purged using Invoice Purge (BR300)

  • activity audit records are purged if the Activity Audits flag is set to yes. Otherwise, run Activity Audit Analysis Purge (AC305) to purge activity audit records.

Example 1: purging or archiving an activity

You use Project Accounting to track costs for the development of new products. The analysis on a product introduced over a year ago is complete, and you no longer need to retain its activities. You can use the activity purge program to remove the activities, their budgets, and transactions.

Example 2: consolidating transactions

You are in the fourth year of a five-year project. You want to retain project totals, but no longer need to audit transactions from the first two years of the project. You can use the activity purge program to consolidate detail transactions to reduce the number of transactions and gain more storage space.

Example 3: purging or archiving an activity group

You use Project Accounting to track project costs for building renovations. An activity group exists for the renovation effort, and all renovation projects are now completed. You can use the activity group purge program to delete the renovation activity group and all of its activities.

Example 4: zeroing out balances

You can use the activity group purge program to zero out activity balances for all activities in an activity group or activity group list. This option is useful when you are beginning to implement Project Accounting. After you have completed training or a conference room pilot, you can zero out activity balances but keep the activity structure in place for when you are ready to go live. If you converted balances and the results are not what you expected, you can zero out balances and then run the conversion again.