My Data

We know how important the integrity of your Sage Accounts data is to you. Data corruption is a serious risk to any business system and the resulting data loss or damage can be very costly in terms of time and money. This area of our website will help you ensure that your data is protected against possible damage. We look at how to minimise the risk, recognise the warning signs and what steps to take if corruption has occurred.

Data corruption means that a data set has been damaged. In Sage Accounts, corruption is normally identified when the Check Data routine identifies errors in your data.

Corruption is normally caused by environmental influences outside of the software itself. The following are some of the known causes of corruption, although the list is not exhaustive:

• PC crashes
• Power surges
• Power failure
• Virus infection
• Interference from other software
• Hardware or network problems
• Faulty or damaged backup media

Since data corruption indicates damaged or even missing data, to prevent the following impacts, you must resolve it as quickly as possible to prevent the following:

• Duplication of work - If data is lost, it must be re-entered and possibly re-reconciled, this is both time consuming and costly.
• Down time - If the data must be repaired off site then employees dedicated to data input may face a period of down time.
• Data loss - If previous backups have failed, data loss may be permanent and the entries must be reprocessed.
• Data integrity - Unreliable data affects the validity of business critical reports, including the VAT Return.

Data corruption is most easily recognised when the Check Data routine reports a list of errors. Running the Check Data routine on a regular basis is a vital step in ensuring the integrity of your data. To run the Check Data routine, click File > Maintenance > Check Data.

There are other indicators that a data set may be damaged:

• Does the software crash or freeze during the Check Data routine?
• When opening drop-down lists, are the lists blank or do they freeze?
• Do any of the software windows show strange or random characters?
• Are recently posted transactions missing from your audit trail or stock activity?
• Do backup files fail to restore?
• Does the following message appear: "Not enough memory to continue'?
• On checking the data, does the following message appear: 'You must restore backup data'?

If you suspect that your data is corrupt, you should take a backup and run the Check Data routine immediately.

The following procedures help to minimise the possibility and impact of data corruption:

Non-fixable errors - Sage 50 Accounts 2012

• Amount paid in header (number) disagrees with total paid in splits
• Amount paid in split (number) disagrees with total paid in allocations
• Amount paid in split (number) disagrees with total net in splits
• Foreign gross amount in header (number) disagrees with matching allocation
• Foreign net amount in header (number) disagrees with matching allocation
• Foreign net amount in header (number) disagrees with total net in splits
• Foreign paid amount in header (number) disagrees with matching allocation
• Foreign tax amount in header (number) disagrees with matching allocation
• Foreign tax amount in header (number) disagrees with total tax in splits
• Header transaction (number) is mismatched with split transaction
• Metadata missing for table (TABLE)
• Net amount in header (number) disagrees with total net in splits
• Net amounts in split (number) not converted exactly - expected: (amount) actual: (amount)
• Nominal account (nominal account) has an invalid account type
• Nominal account (nominal account) is not marked as a bank account
• Revaluation has a non 0 amount
• Split (number) Allocation (number) is mismatched with header transaction
• Split transaction (number) is mismatched with header transaction
• Tax amount in header (number) disagrees with total tax in splits
• Tax amounts in split (number) not converted exactly - expected: (amount) actual: (amount)
• Transaction 0...
• Transaction (number) amount paid is greater than amount due
• Transaction (number) has an invalid transaction type
• Transaction header record (number) does not link to any splits
• You must restore backup data

Non-fixable errors - Sage 50 Accounts 2011 and below

• Amount paid in header (number) disagrees with total paid in splits
• Amount paid in split (number) disagrees with total paid in allocations
• Amount paid in split (number) disagrees with total net in splits
• CIS Return transaction has invalid Return ID
• CIS subcontractor return has invalid supplier reference
• CIS Subcontractor Return has an invalid Return ID
• CIS transaction has invalid Return ID
• Foreign gross amount in header (number) disagrees with matching allocation
• Foreign net amount in header (number) disagrees with matching allocation
• Foreign net amount in header (number) disagrees with total net in splits
• Foreign paid amount in header (number) disagrees with matching allocation
• Foreign tax amount in header (number) disagrees with matching allocation
• Foreign tax amount in header (number) disagrees with total tax in splits
• Header transaction (number) is mismatched with split transaction
• Metadata missing for table (TABLE)
• Net amount in header (number) disagrees with total net in splits
• Net amounts in split (number) not converted exactly - expected: (amount) actual: (amount)
• Nominal account (nominal account) has an invalid account type
• Nominal account (nominal account) is not marked as a bank account
• Revaluation has a non 0 amount
• Split (number) Allocation (number) is mismatched with header transaction
• Split transaction (number) is mismatched with header transaction
• Stock code (stock code) has invalid component stock code (stock code)
• Stock code (stock code) has last transaction mismatch
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) has an invalid transaction type
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) has different stock code (stock code)
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) is backwards referencing
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) is self referencing
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) quantity used is greater than quantity of transaction
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) quantity used is not zero
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) sales price is not zero
• Tax amount in header (number) disagrees with total tax in splits
• Tax amounts in split (number) not converted exactly - expected: (amount) actual: (amount)
• Transaction 0...
• Transaction (number) amount paid is greater than amount due
• Transaction (number) has an invalid transaction type
• Transaction header record (number) does not link to any splits
• You must restore backup data

Non-fixable errors - Sage Instant Accounts

• Amount paid in header (number) disagrees with total paid in splits
• Amount paid in split (number) disagrees with total paid in allocations
• Amount paid in split (number) disagrees with total net in splits
• CIS Return transaction has invalid Return ID
• CIS subcontractor return has invalid supplier reference
• CIS Subcontractor Return has an invalid Return ID
• CIS transaction has invalid Return ID
• Foreign gross amount in header (number) disagrees with matching allocation
• Foreign net amount in header (number) disagrees with matching allocation
• Foreign net amount in header (number) disagrees with total net in splits
• Foreign paid amount in header (number) disagrees with matching allocation
• Foreign tax amount in header (number) disagrees with matching allocation
• Foreign tax amount in header (number) disagrees with total tax in splits
• Header transaction (number) is mismatched with split transaction
• Metadata missing for table (TABLE)
• Net amount in header (number) disagrees with total net in splits
• Net amounts in split (number) not converted exactly - expected: (amount) actual: (amount)
• Nominal account (nominal account) has an invalid account type
• Nominal account (nominal account) is not marked as a bank account
• Revaluation has a non 0 amount
• Split (number) Allocation (number) is mismatched with header transaction
• Split transaction (number) is mismatched with header transaction
• Stock code (stock code) has invalid component stock code (stock code)
• Stock code (stock code) has last transaction mismatch
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) has an invalid transaction type
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) has different stock code (stock code)
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) is backwards referencing
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) is self referencing
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) quantity used is greater than quantity of transaction
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) quantity used is not zero
• Stock code (stock code) transaction (number) sales price is not zero
• Tax amount in header (number) disagrees with total tax in splits
• Tax amounts in split (number) not converted exactly - expected: (amount) actual: (amount)
• Transaction 0...
• Transaction (number) amount paid is greater than amount due
• Transaction (number) has an invalid transaction type
• Transaction header record (number) does not link to any splits
• You must restore backup data