NOTE: We recommend purging data no more than one year at a time. Begin with the "oldest" year where you think you have data, ex. End Date: 12/31/2018. Once the purge completes, run it again for the next one year period, ex. End Date: 12/31/2019. Do this process until you reach the last year you wish to purge. 

Information about Purging

• Purging is the process of removing inactive records from a company
• Purging can customers, vendors, employees, jobs, quotes, invoices, and purchases from a company
• You can choose which type of records to purge
• You can purge any date in closed years
• Purging reduces the size of the company files on your hard drive
• You can purge data at any time, including after running the Year-End Wizard
• The Purge Wizard will guide you through the step by step
• You need to make a backup before you begin purging
  • Sage recommends you make two backups: one for current reference and one to store in a secure location for emergency needs

The purge process isn’t for removing or fixing corrupt data. If you’re having data problems or suspect it’s corrupt, restore a backup of your company data.

To begin the Purge process

1. Select Tasks, System, and then select Purge Wizard.
2. The Purge Wizard Welcome Screen opens. Click Next.
3. Perform the required backup.
4. Once the backup completes, click Next.
5. The Old Transactions window lets you choose which unneeded transactions you want to purge.
6. Enter the last date with data you want to purge.  The wizard will purge any transactions of the chosen types on or before this date.
7. In the Transactions group box, select the transactions you want to purge.
   • Select Receivables to delete transactions such as quotes, invoices, and receipts
   • Select Payables to delete transactions such as purchase orders, purchases, and payments
   • Select Payroll to delete payroll transactions
   • Select Inventory to delete adjustment and assembly transactions
   • Select General Journals to delete journals and their entries
   • If you're using Complete, Premium, or Quantum versions, you have extra options:
     • Select Audit Trails to delete company audit trail data
     • Select Used Tickets to delete time and expense tickets used in payroll and sales
     • Select Unused Tickets to delete time and expense tickets not yet used
8. Enter the latest date that you want to purge.  The Purge Wizard will delete selected data entered on or before that date.
9. When finished, click Next.
10. On the Account Reconciliation window, select Yes if you use account reconciliation.  Otherwise, proceed to step 11.
    
    • Select the check box for each individual cash account that you need to reconcile before purging
    • The Purge Wizard won’t purge any unreconciled transactions that use any of these selected accounts
11. When finished, click Next.
12. Select the check boxes for each type of inactive maintenance records you want to purge:
    • Customers/Prospects
    • Vendors
    • Employees/Sales Reps
    • General Ledger Accounts
    • Inventory Items/Attribute Sets (attribute sets are available only in Sage Complete Accounting and higher)
    • Jobs/Phases/Cost Codes
    •  NOTE: You can only purge inactive records if no transaction uses them and they have a zero balance 
13. When finished, click Next.
14. You'll see a screen summarizing the options you selected.  If you need to, you can go back and make any necessary changes at this point.
15. When ready to purge, click Begin Purge.

 NOTE: It's not recommended to cancel the purge wizard after it's started.  If you need to cancel for any reason, restore the backup you created before starting the purge. 

Verifying what was purged

When the purge process completes, click the Log button to review the purged data.

Why do certain transactions or items not purge?
Using the purge log to determine why data is not purged
When should I purge my data?
How do I access purged data?
Error: "Fatal file system error 146"