Keystroke stores all transactions in files that have a set date and time range.
When a transaction file reaches its maximum size, it sets its date range to end with the current date and time (plus 10 minutes) and then starts a new file. When this happens, transactions that are saved in the previous file but are dated after this 10 minute buffer are now located in the wrong transaction file, are referred to as Post Dated Transactions and need to be moved ahead to the new file.
Post Dated Transactions can cause the following issues:
- Some reports may not be able to read all the necessary data.
- When ROA Payments are entered they may not be able to find all of the open invoices.
Post Dated Transactions may occur on any type of transaction (Sales Invoices, Purchase Invoices, Time Clock entries, Audit entries, Closeouts, etc).
The most common cause of Post Dated Transactions is computer clocks on a network being off by more than 10 minutes.
Example: Machine 1's computer clock is set to 12:15pm
Machine 2's computer clock is set to 12:01pm.
Machine 1 saves a transaction at 12:15pm.
Machine 2 saves a transaction at 12:01pm which causes the file to reach that maximum size and creates a new transaction file. It sets the start time for that file to 12:11pm (using the 10 minute buffer).
The transaction that was previously written by Machine 1 is in the older transaction file and now needs to be moved to the new transaction file.
Solution: Packing the transaction file specified in the warning message allows the transaction to be moved to the correct file.
Prevention: Set the Transaction File Split On option to a setting other than Size Only (Month is the most commonly used option).
Note: Packing a transaction file may take some time and it is important to have a CURRENT BACKUP of all of the transaction files (KSTRN*.DAT) before proceeding. It is also required that all Keystroke users (except for the one performing the Pack function) be out of, and stay out of, Keystroke until the Pack has completed.
See:
Packing Data Files in Configuration Manager.