Hi Chuck,

To be able to Retrieve 2nd or subsequent databases (either different companies and/or years) into Adagio FX for the purposes of comparsion, you need to do the following:

- Make sure you have the Pro version of FX (which I believe you have).
- From the Retrieve Database screen in FX, use the browse button (single folder icon) to search for the location of your 2nd GL database.
- After that is done, you need to make sure that at the bottom of the Retrieve screen that the option 'Append to existing data' is selected. Otherwise you will only overwrite your existing FX data.
- You also have to enter a 'Company code' into the field entitled 'Department'. This can be up to 6 characters and will be used to Identify the new company (or year).
- Click the Retrieve button to continue.

The new transactions and amounts will be merged into your existing FX database.

Hi Chuck,

In the current release of Adagio FX, when doing multiple company/year comparisons the retrieval of the data consolidates to each account. In effect, the detail by department is lost, and the department code is 'replaced' by the company code.

There has been some discussion of maintaining the departmentalization of multi-company comparatives but as this would involve a new database structure, this change is not imminent.

Hello Chuck O'Callaghan,

Don't worry, this is on our list of "Things we'd like to do" for FX.

It is not in this release as it would have seriously impacted the release of the product. Also, it's not a serious deficiency if you don't use departments (about 75% of ACCPAC Plus/Adagio users fall into this category - not to mention 95+% of Simply Accounting and QuickBooks users). There are a couple of workarounds I can suggest if the number of department you have is small and you are not using all 6 character positions for your account-department combinations. What is the account structure of the companies you are trying to compare?

I'm not quite sure I understand your comment: Your discussion of functionality issues, like "maintaining the departmentalization of multi-company comparatives", should be open. Why not use this forum?

We often discuss possible feature enhancements to our products within this forum, and welcome the opportunity to do so.

As regards "What other issues should we be aware of before investing our valuable time in learning to use this software?" I'm not sure. You should be aware that FX does not allow references between sheets (unlike Excel). FX also does not offer the option of "Fit to page" (unlike Excel). It also requires you to type in the cell references in formulas (unlike Excel). These are the three issues that most often raise their heads for new users. On the other hand, FX will produce a wide range of financial statements linked directly to your accounting data (unlike Excel ).

Let's see if we can get to the statements you're looking for. It may well be possible.

Thanks for using FX.

Hi Chuck,

Ooops - I meant to call you and chat.

I am out of the office Tuesday, but will call on Wednesday. I also wanted to check out a couple of things regarding account re-allocation before calling.

Sorry.

There is a limit to the number of columns, but it's really large (A-ZZ like Excel). I don't think you'll find that's a problem.

At the moment there is no way to "shift" the fiscal calendar to compare real months rather than fiscal months. That's also on our "to do" list.

Hi Chuck O'Callaghan,

Well, this is embarrassing !

In my defence, I have asked R&D to implement a feature that will allow you (and others that have only a 2 or 3 digit department code) to maintain the departmentalization of the companies being "Retrieved". You will be able to isolate the department information using FX's "wildcard" specification for departments.

On Friday I'm attending the Canadian Institute of Professional Accountants convention in Banff. I'll have some idle time during the day, and would be happy to talk about interim solutions.

Feel like a drive?

Hello Chuck O'Callaghan,

The recent release of Adagio FX 2004 contains a feature that will allow you to keep the department information intact when retrieving data from multiple companies. When you specify the department to use on the retrieve, the characters "?" and "*" are available to substitute with the incoming departments. There is a complete descritpion on how this works in the help text for the Retrieve function. You can use 10?? to keep your 2 digit department codes. The use Adagio FX's wildcard support in the financial reporter to isolate your original departments.

I'm interested in any and all feedback.

Hi Chuck O'Callaghan,

Glad you like the new features! Regarding the Help, perhaps we need to write some help text on using the Help!

Just to make Chuck's post clearer - within all Adagio modules, you can call up context sensitive help by clicking on the Help button or pressing F1. It the Help contains a screen shot, you can get further help by pointing at a screen element and clicking on it.