Archiving clients

Keeping a copy of the previous year's accounts before rolling forwards

If you roll forwards and start work on the new year, you cannot necessarily recover the accounts for the previous year. You can perform a Year End Roll Back, but the Statutory Database information is only held for a single year. So any changes you have made in the new year will also appear after rolling back to the old year. There are two alternatives here.

1. Save a PDF of the accounts. The simplest approach is to save a pdf copy of the accounts before rolling forwards.
2. Duplicate the client in the database. Create a copy of the client using File > Zip, but immediately unzip the client back into the same database. The system recognises that the client being unzipped already exists and say "Client ABC already on file." You can choose: Skip, Delete, Recode or Cancel. Choose Recode. The system asks for a new client code for the unzipped client. Enter it, e.g. Z24ABC. This means that both copies of the client exist on the database. To avoid confusion it is recommended that the archive copy is given a code starting Z, e.g. Z24ABC for a 2024 copy of client ABC. In Central, the duplicate copy of the client can be hidden from users by closing it. To Close the client, open the client so that all its product tabs are shown and then click Close Client on the Ribbon. When using Find Clients in Central to produce a client list, click the option 'Include closed clients' if it is required to see them. There is no easy way of hiding the archive clients in Trust Accounts (but see below for Using a separate group).

Archiving a client for whom you no longer act

The obvious solution is to create a separate archive database. You can then zip the clients in the Live database and unzip them into the archive database. But there are so many complications with this that we do not recommend it:

• There won't be a single separate archive database, but separate ones for Trust Accounts, for Central and for the Document database that is used by Central to store accounts pages.
• If there are any clients still using VAP, even for an earlier year, it needs a separate WTRUMP folder with separate temporary folders specified in DATABASE.INI.
• One needs to prevent the 2 Central databases sharing the same Document database behind the scenes, which can easily happen inadvertently.
• If a copy of a live Trust Accounts database is being created, check the option Activities > System Management > Database Parameters > Other > Link to Central. If this option is ticked then assistance will be required from CCH to link the copy database to the copy Central database, without affecting the Central data for the Live clients. Doing this is not straightforward. 

If you still wish to go down this path you should take consultancy from CCH.

The usual approaches are:

1. Change the Central client code to start with a Z. If the client in Trust Accounts is linked to Central then the code change needs to be made in Central. The next time you go into the client in Trust Accounts, its code and name are updated. (You can also get all the Trust Accounts codes updated in one operation by running Reports > List of Clients). This doesn't actually archive the clients but gets them out of the way by moving them to the end of the client list. It's probably the simplest method if you are able to change the Central client code.
2. Change the Trust Accounts client code to start with a Z. If you don't need the Accounts Production data for the clients you wish to archive, you can unlink the clients from Central (In Trust Accounts, go to the client list and use Edit > Unlink). When unlinked, the client code can be edited directly in Trust Accounts to start with a Z.
3. Using a separate group. If using the SQL Server version of Trust Accounts, you can create a separate group for the archived clients and filter the clients so that you can't see the archived clients. Doing this properly is described here. You can create a group of users that have access to the archived clients, with no one else able to see them. However you must follow all the rules for this to work. In particular any user with master account access rights or master account (Read Only) access rights can see all clients. Also any client with no individual access rights is visible to all users.

CCH recommends using the first method if possible as it’s the simplest.