User Support Forum

So I had a check that I reversed and then for some reason it posted again so I tried void check and my reconciliation just kept getting worse. So I reversed all my reverses and it's a huge mess. We backup once a month. Since there is no delete what are my options? We backup with power church system and do all files each time no pictures

Ogbc wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 02, 2021 10:23 pm

So I had a check that I reversed and then for some reason it posted again so I tried void check and my reconciliation just kept getting worse. So I reversed all my reverses and it's a huge mess. We backup once a month. Since there is no delete what are my options? We backup with power church system and do all files each time no pictures

I would normally say to go back to the backup, but only backing up monthly, and doing all the files means that you could try to restore only accounting, but you'd probably have to enter everything since that backup.

The first issue is that when you reversed the check, you said it posted again. Are you sure that what posted was not the reversal? Then trying to void the check just compounded the issue, since you had probably reversed it in Funds Accounting, then tried to void it in Accounts Payable.

Please explain what you mean by 'huge mess', be precise and give as much information as possible. What is exactly off?

That said, in future, you should consider backing up at least weekly. I do it daily, and save the backups to Dropbox. I have setup the Windows Task Scheduler to do the backup automatically each day, and it does a full backup. I manually do an accounting backup at the end of the day whenever I work in Accounting so I can always restore back to what the system was before without losing a lot of data.

Unfortunately one often finds out the hard way that their backup system doesn't work the way they thought it would.

Get back to me with the information requested, hopefully we can see an easy way out of this for you.

I think you are right about compounding the problem by trying to void. I don't have access this morning to give you the specifics but it sounds like my errors will be best corrected if I restore it back a month. You said I could possibly restore just accounting does that also include all the contributions as well. I don't mind reentering to ensure it's correct this time I just want to ensure I restore it from my flash drive properly. Can you give a generic guidance on that process. I probably sound like an idiot but I promise I am a bit more knowledgeable about the system than I sound but this has caused me to wonder.

Ogbc wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 03, 2021 7:43 am

I think you are right about compounding the problem by trying to void. I don't have access this morning to give you the specifics but it sounds like my errors will be best corrected if I restore it back a month. You said I could possibly restore just accounting does that also include all the contributions as well. I don't mind reentering to ensure it's correct this time I just want to ensure I restore it from my flash drive properly. Can you give a generic guidance on that process. I probably sound like an idiot but I promise I am a bit more knowledgeable about the system than I sound but this has caused me to wonder.

Unfortunately, trying to restore Accounting from a full backup is hard, and not for the faint hearted. You have to know exactly which database files to restore as they are interrelated, and if you miss one, you can mess up the system.

A better way of doing this is to actually do a backup of the entire system. Then restore the month old backup, fix the accounting issue, then do a backup of accounting, then restore.

Here's the steps:
1. Full backup of the system - as you were doing normally
2. Restore the month old backup.
3. Fix the issue - don't 'reverse' the check. Always VOID transactions from the original module function. IE: Check from Payroll, VOID in Payroll, same with AP. If the check's from AP, VOID in AP. My motto is NEVER REVERSE A CHECK in Funds Accounting. It will only cause you grief.
4. Backup Accounting - this will save the corrections you made in accounting.
5. Restore the full backup made in step 1.
6. Restore the Accounting backup made in step 2.

You should then be back in business. It should go without saying that no one else should be working in the other modules (Membership, Contributions, etc) when you go through this, otherwise they will lose any work done between the backup in step 1, and when you restore in step 5.

Now for some additional information and advice:

If the church does not have a 'cloud' storage account on Dropbox or One Drive - set one up. This will allow you to do more frequent backups without having to worry about a USB thumb drive, or such that could go missing. This will also allow anyone who is given backup permission to do backups of their area.

Backing up Accounting does NOT backup Contributions. They are two separate modules and functionally do not use the same tables. So if you have a Financial Secretary (or the like) who enters Contributions, they should be doing their own backups of Contributions. Same with any Membership secretary if you have one, they can backup Membership.

Then once a week, you can have the system automatically do backups to save all the week's work. The link below is to a Powerchurch newsletter from 2014, which it does not mention Windows 10, the instructions listed for Windows 8 and the included screen captures work the same in Windows 10.

https://www.powerchurch.com/support/438 ... -fall-2014

Obviously, you should 'prune' the files after a year or so. The good news is that they're aren't that big, so having a lot of them will not hurt, and can save you from having to go through this in future.

I appreciate your help so much. I will be getting this done in the next couple of days.

I have run into similar situations in the past. You could try running a Selected Paid Items report on the accounts you wrote the check for and compare how many voids you have against how many checks have been posted. If you posted the check twice and voided it twice, then you are back at Ground Zero.If you posted it four times but you avoided it twice then you have two - too many checks posted.

cbrown wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 03, 2021 2:18 pm

I have run into similar situations in the past. You could try running a Selected Paid Items report on the accounts you wrote the check for and compare how many voids you have against how many checks have been posted. If you posted the check twice and voided it twice, then you are back at Ground Zero.If you posted it four times but you avoided it twice then you have two - too many checks posted.

The problem is, there were also reversals done in Funds Accounting ... that can throw everything off since the person said they also then VOIDed the same check in AP.