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Some common questions are listed below. Please select the question from the list below to view related information.

A: AgencyAccessPro consists of two separate databases.

1. The Front End is a database which contains the forms, lists, function buttons, etc needed to access  and add or edit Client data.
2. The Back End is a database which only contains data, there are no forms, lists or function buttons in the Back End database. Why have it at all? Because it is where all of the Client data is stored! When the Front End requests to see a client record, it is the Back End that supplies it.

Why is AgencyAccessPro setup with two separate databases?

If you have two users in your Agency, you want each user to have his or her own Front End. Otherwise everyone would have to share the same PC.

However, you would like all users to see only one collection of data. For example, if user A entered a new policy for a client, you would want user B to be able to access that new policy data. So the data is stored in a common location, one which is shared by all users. This common location is called the Back End database.

A: AgencyAccessPro consists of two separate database files.

One of them; AgencyAccessPro.accdb is installed on the user's PC, and the other (AAPData.accdb by default) is usually installed in a shared location. This file is known as the Back End Database because it is not usually accessed directly by an AgencyAccessPro user. However, it is a very important component of the system; It stores all of the data that is collected from AAP users. All of the Clients, Policies, etc. information is stored in this file. If this file was stored on a hard drive which experienced a hard drive failure, all of this data could be lost permanently! AgencyAccessPro's Backup function allows you to maintain dated backup files in the event that you need to restore a previous copy.

The backup copy should, if at all possible, be installed on a different hard disk than that of the Back End Database. It is preferrable to store the backup files on a separate PC. The Backup location can be changed from the Backup/Compact Back End Database form.

As a general rule, most organizations would want to perform a backup once a day. However, if there are dozens or hundreds of entries happening to the Database each day, it may be desirable to perform a backup more often.

The AgencyAccessPro Management Tasks form displays a function button Backup/Compact Back End Database to provide the Backup function.

A: The basic procedure for restoring a backup file is:

Action	Example
Make a note of the current Back End file name. (AgencyAccessPro's About form).	C:\AgencyAccesPro\share\AAPData.accdb
* Make a note of the current Backup Location. (AgencyAccessPro's About form)	D:\AAPBackups
Just as a precaution, rename the current Back End datafile to a temporary name.	Rename C:\AgencyAccessPro\share\AAPData.accdb to C:\AgencyAccessPro\share\AAPData_1.accdb
Copy the most recent backup file into the folder where the current Back End file exists.	Copy D:\AAPBackups\AAPdata03162009.accdb to C:\AgencyAccessPro\share
Finally, rename the backup file to the normal Back End data filename.	Rename C:\AgencyAccessPro\share\AAPdata03162009.accdb to C:\AgencyAccessPro\share\AAPData.accdb

* Please note that if there are multiple users, they could all specify different backup locations, and therefore there may be more than one place to look for the most recent backup!

A: During the normal course of a day, the data that is stored in the Back End database is being changed with additions, edits and deletions. In order to keep database response times to a minimum, if a record is deleted, the storage space which it occupied is still allocated. This means that the database will continue to grow, even though records are being deleted from it.

The Compact procedure "compacts" all of the data into a smaller database file. After running a Compact, the database file size is smaller and subsequent database operations run a bit quicker.

It is a good idea to Compact the Back End database on a regular basis, at least perhaps once a week or more often if there are hundreds of edits occurring each day. There is nothing wrong with running the Compact every time the Backup procedure is run and it is easy to do from AgencyAccessPro's Backup/Compact form.   

A: If you have more than one user of AgencyAccessPro in your agency, Security Levels could be useful.

In any given agency, there may be users with varying responsibilities. There may be users whose primary function is to add and edit clients and policies. Someone else may need access to run confidential reports and perform maintenance tasks. Still others may need to edit sensitive data (ex. employee records).

AgencyAccessPro allows you to specify access levels for each AgencyAccessPro user.

Security Access Levels allow you to customize the access level for each employee. For example, you may want to allow an employee to run Management reports, but not allow the employee to change the Agency Profile. In this case, you could give them Management authority.

There are 4 security access levels:

1. User (Lowest level - access to least number of functions)
2. SuperUser
3. Manager
4. Administrator (Highest level of security - access to all functions)

The Authority level is also used to control the ability of users to edit and delete Client Comments. Users cannot edit or delete Client Comments.

The authority level is assigned on the Employees Form.

If you are not concerned about access security for your employees, simply make all of the employees Administrators. This will allow all employees to access all functions of AgencyAccessPro, all of the time. However, if you want to limit access to certain functions, AgencyAccessPro does give you the ability to do so using these security access levels.

A: AgencyAccessPro can be used in standalone mode (only one user) or the database can be shared by two or more users accessing and editing the same data.

If you want to use the application in 'standalone' mode, you can use it as it is installed by default. But if you want two or more users to use the same data at the same time, you have to put the Back End database in a common location so that all users will have access to it.

There is extensive help for this situation in the AgencyAccessPro help file. The Appendix contains a hlep section entitled "Front End-Back End" which provides a walk thru to setup a multi-user environment.