How Do I... WorkOffline?

How Do I... Work Offline?

If you are running Smart Contractor on a network (with your data stored on another computer on the network), you may want to take a copy of the Smart Contractor data with you so you can use Smart Contractor outside of the office, and then return to the office and merge any changes back to the Smart Contractor data on your network.

Smart Contractor allows you to do this using the "File" > "Work Offline...", and "File" > "Merge Offline Data..." options.

Here's how it works...

The "File" > "Work Offine..." menu option is (only) visible if your Smart Contractor is running connected to data on another computer. (If your Smart Contractor data is located on your local hard drive, you're already running "offline", so you can take your computer anywhere and still be able to use Smart Contractor.)

If the "File" > "Work Offline..." menu option is available, then click on it to set your computer to work offline. When you click the "File" > "Work Offline..." menu option, the program...

makes a copy of the database (on your network) and puts it on your computer,
disables the "File" > "Open Database..." and "File" > "New Database..." menu options,
enables the "File" > "Merge Offline Data..." menu option.

Note: Before "going offline", you must close Smart Contractor on all other computers that are connected to the Smart Contractor database on the network.

After you run the "Work Offline menu option, you can disconnect your computer from the network and take it with you anywhere, and view, or make any changes to the Smart Contractor data.

Note: While you are "offline", any changes you make to the Smart Contractor data in the office computer(s) will not be reflected in your "offline" computer(s), and any changes you make to the Smart Contractor data in your offline computer(s) will not be reflected in your office computer(s).

Note: While working offline, you can enter and update any data except Invoices. You cannot enter or edit Invoices while working offline.

Note: You can work offline with the same number of computers at the same time as the number of Smart Contractor licenses you have purchased.

When you return to the office, you can re-connect to the network and merge your "offline" data changes with the office database. To merge your offline data changes back to the office database...

Connect your computer to the network.
Select the "File" > "Merge Offline Data..." menu option.
The program will prompt you for the location of your office database on the network;
Browse to it and click OK.
The program will open the network database, merge your data changes to it and then connect to that database.

Data Merging Notes:

Before merging offline data, you must close Smart Contractor on all other computers that are connected to the Smart Contractor database on the network.
When the program merges your offline database to the office database, it checks to make sure you are merging with the same database you were connected to when you went "offline". If they are not the same, the program will display a message and prevent you from proceeding.

You cannot merge to a database that is different from the one you were connected to when you went "offline".
When the program merges your offline data to the office database, it checks to see if any changes were made to the offline database. If no changes were made, it displays a message to indicate that there are no changes to merge, and then connects to the online database.
If any changes were made in the offline database, the program will merge those changes to the online (office) database. When the program merges your offline data to the office database, it compares each field of data in each record in the offline database with the corresponding data in the office database:
- If data was added in the office database, that will be retained.
- If data was added in the offline database, that will be retained.
- If data was changed in the office database, that change will be retained.
- If data was changed in the offline database, that change will be retained.
- If the same data was changed in both the office database and the offline database, the program will display a message showing what data was changed in the office database and in the offline database, and ask you which version you want to keep. When you indicate which version to keep, the program will write a record to the "Offline Data Merge Log".
  
  The Offline Data Merge Log will be displayed when the data merge process is completed.
  
  To view the Offline Data Merge Log at any time after the data merge process has run, select the "File" > "View Offline Data Merge Log".
Once the data merge has completed, the program re-enables the "File" > "Open Database..." and "File" > "New Database..." menu options, and disables the "File" > "Merge Offline Data..." menu option.

Note: You can take more than one computer "offline" at the same time, and merge them back with the office data at any time. You are allowed to take as many computers offline at the same time as the number of Smart Contractor licenses you have purchased. For example, if you have purchased 1 Smart Contractor license, that means that you can only have one computer "offline" at a time. If you purchase 3 Smart Contractor licenses, that means you can have 3 computers "offline" at a time.