Importing into Pastel is a great way to speed up capturing. Pastel has got both Master file importing capabilities and document importing capabilities.
Master files can be exported and imported under Files > Export/Import:
Document export and import is accessible within each document processing screen in the Batch update button:
To get it right the first time is a little tricky. It is laid out as a data table or flat file and the field headings are not present in the document exports/imports. But once you have the hang of it , it truly is amazing and so much quicker. Pastel is also able to handle bit import batches as long you follow the data path rules and create a healthy import environment.
We love it so much that we have built generic apps for Customer and Supplier document processing. But the main reason for this opinion share is what I learnt this week.
Pastel has a very special database called PSQL. This database still works on Dos principles. It has a few rules which I was never aware of and which many of our customers did not know which created data corruptions.
Your Pastel GUI (graphical user interface) processes to the PSQL database through a path string. The Pastel GUI (referred to as the Application) sits within the Pastel main folder. The company data folders (.dat) however sits one folder deeper. For instance if you create a company COMPANY in Pastel it will automatically be opened as follows:
- Pastel Partner - C:\Pastel19\COMPANY
- Pastel Xpress - C:\Xpress19\COMPANY
This is where it is very interesting. Pastel only allows you to create a company path of up to 8 characters long and it places it within one folder of the application. The reason for this is because of the processing principle of Dos that it follows. Every transaction that it processes from the GUI goes down a path string to the COMPANY folder and is written into the applicable .dat files.
So 2 things are important here, 1 is you should never make your COMPANY folder name longer than 8 characters. Nor place it further than 1 folder away from the GUI. Both of these increase the risk of corrupting data when processing. The longer the path string the higher the risk of corruption.
I learnt this about a year and a half ago. But for some reason my mind did not make the connection on imports. We import a lot of data into Pastel. But it never crossed our minds that the place where you place the imports is critical to ensure a healthy import. We created neat and structured files in a separate import environment (not adhering to the 8 character data path or 1 folder deep principle). Now this is not really a problem for Pastel if you import 1 document at a time. But when you import a lot of documents and lines it is a risk. If the import file is far from the GUI folder it has to pull data through a very long path string to place it in the .dat files of the COMPANY.
Often this leads to Run-time errors (I found a run time error 70 on a larger GL account import this week (by the way you cannot import General Ledger accounts except if there are no GL accounts (the GL account master is the accmass.dat file))). We were able to overcome the Run time error issue by just bringing the import file into the GUI folder (worked like a charm!).
So in closing I want to encourage the use of imports in Pastel as it is an amazing feature and it is extremely stable, as long as you follow the processing rules of Pastel and you have created a healthy import environment.
At MyBI we have developed capturing and reporting Apps around Pastel to enhance BI reporting, usability and capturing ease and speed.
