Contents

Backup

Changing the Start of the Financial Year

Cheque Printing

Manual Changes

Forms Designer

Internet Access


Backup

In the past, many users experienced problems with backing up and restoring of files. Pastel SOHO Accounting now offers a better way to back up your files, using operating system independent ZIP-compatible compression.

ZIP compression is an industry-standard method of safely compressing and uncompressing files. There are many shareware programs which you can use to compress and uncompress files manually. You can download these shareware versions from many Internet web sites. To find a site, visit Pastel's home page, www.pastel.com, and go to the Other Links section.

The advantages of using the Zip backup method are:

•	Pastel's data files compress by an average of 80%. This lets you fit five times as much information on one disk! It also speeds up your backup, since most of the time is taken writing to the backup disk.

•	Pastel automatically re-reads the backup disks to ensure that the data has been correctly backed up. If your backup disks are faulty, you will know about it straight away.

•	The Zip backup method does not use any operating system settings.

To use the ZIP backup option, choose it from the Backup Method frame in the File...Backup menu option:

Note that Pastel will default to the backup method setting in your parameter file. You will have to change it to the Zip Backup option each time.

When the Zip backup runs, the screen display shows you each file as it backs up, as well as the percentage compression:

Note the percentages of  compression in the above screen – these are typical values.

As the backup needs additional disks, it will ask for them.

Once the backup completes, you have to put the disks in again so that Pastel can test them. This takes only a few moments for each disk.

Restoring From Backup

If you restore from a Zip format backup, and there are multiple backup disks, please ensure that you put the disks in the correct order. If you don't, the restore process can get confused as to the sequence, and you should start the restore process again.


Changing the Start of the Financial Year

When you run the year end procedure, Pastel SOHO now lets you change the starting date of the next financial year. Previously, you could not change the start of the financial year in Pastel SOHO.


Cheque Printing

Pastel now lets you print the amount of the cheque in words. This has become a legal requirement in some countries in which Pastel SOHO is sold.

In addition, we have corrected a printing error whereby text fields always printed on the left side of the cheque instead of where you placed the fields in the forms designer.


Manual Changes

In general, the on-line help is more up to date than the manual, and it also contains much more detail. If there is a conflict between the manual and the help contents, the help should always be used.

Page 47 - Complete Verify

This option does not yet repair any damage which it finds - it just reports it to you. If you encounter an error, contact the support department for help on how to proceed.

Page 74, 79 - Batch Options

In the manual, all the batch options and the batch commands are shown in the screen shots. In fact, the options are split:

If the batch commands are shown, the button under the Transaction Assistant button is called Options. If the batch options are shown, the button is called Commands. You toggle between these views with the button.

Pages 258-259 - Email Number

The email number is not yet used. However, you must include a blank field in the import, as Pastel looks for this field.

Note as well, on the customer export, that the second last line tells you to create five separate blank fields.


Forms Designer

The Pastel Forms Designer is a generic product which is used in Pastel SOHO Accounting and in Pastel Partner Version 4. There is some functionality in the forms designer which Pastel SOHO Accounting does not use. These are:

•	Bar codes on inventory labels

•	POS (Point of Sale) invoices

•	Supporting documents.


Internet Access

You can now access Pastel's home page directly from the program. Pastel loads your default web browser, and then open either the Pastel home page or the SOHO Accounting page, depending on your choice.

You access these options in the Help...Internet menu options. For details on how these work, search for "Internet" in the on-line help.