Backup your database

1. Silent Partner backups are really easy to restore, so there is no need to contact your IT department
   
2. Point-in-time for comparisons - it's easier to identify and restore records in the case of accidental deletion.
   
3. Any time you go to make large changes (like mass edit) to the database, back it up! If you make a mistake, reversing it is just a few clicks away.
   

Here's how to make a backup. From the green screen either click the icon (as below) or go to Maintenance - backup and restore-backup

Select your backup options.

Include donation batch archives, will also backup the excel copies of your posted backed, but will add to the size of the backup

Save a backup: save the backup to the location specified above.

Save Backup and Upload to Silent Partner Software: this will save your backup locally, but also send a copy to our servers

Upload to Silent Partner; erase when done: this makes a backup, sends it to our servers and then removes the local copy. Great for saving space.

If you’re backup is completed successfully you will see this message.

Step 1

Open Silent Partner and Login

From the Main Screen click Help - check for program updates.

If this gives you an error, please send an email to support@silentpartnersoftware.com

Select “Yes” to continue updating the program.

If the update was successful, you’ll be prompted to run an update on the Silent Partner Desktop Application

Once the checkup is complete you can continue using Silent Partner as normal.

Use this article for receipt corrections or to reissue receipts.

Close off the Year

Before you can enter, for example,  donations in 2014, you will need to close off the previous year (in this case 2013). In Silent Partner closing of the year is a bit of a misnomer. You are not truly closing it off in an accounting sense; it is really more of a year end process.

Basically this process moves your current year forwards to 2014. Thus, if you haven't "closed off" 2013, 2013 is your "current year"

You can always check on what your current year is either by clicking Lookup tables / Branch offices, where the current year is displayed, or by looking at the "Summary information" window for any donor, where the annual giving for each of the last six years is shown along with other donation info – the most recent year of the six shown is your current year.

However, you can never enter donations for a year later than the current year; so until 2013 is closed, you can't do anything for 2014.
Closing off the year will not impede your ability to issue receipts and Silent Partner will always let you make entries up to two calendar years back.  If your current year is 2013, you can still enter and receipt transactions from 2012 and even 2011!

So, if you've been wondering why your January pre-authorized batches aren't showing up in the "batches to be posted" window, that's the reason.

All of the above is to say that in our view, there is no reason at all to wait longer in closing off 2013.

You will still be able to enter 2012 donations and print 2012 receipts after you have closed off, but you will then also be able to start on 2013 business.

So How do you close off the year?

1. Do backup of Silent Partners’ data just before you close off.
   
2. Click Maintenance and then Year-end processing. (While at the green screen)
   
3. It will ask "Are you sure you want to close off the year 2013?"  Answer Yes.
   1. You may get a message saying "Year 2013 cannot be closed off.  There are still donations to be posted for batch(es)" and then the batch numbers of unposted batches. In that case, finish posting those batches and try again.  Don't worry; after you close off, you can still create new batches for the previous year.
      
   2. Alternatively, it may say "There are still receipts to be printed for 2013 -- close anyway?"  It is quite safe to answer "Yes" ... you will still be able to print those receipts after closing off.
      

So, what happens when you close off?

First,the "current year" is advanced by one ... in this case, from 2013 to 2014.

Second, each donor's  record is updated ... the amount in the year-to-date-giving total field is transferred to the last-year-total-giving field, whose  contents have been moved to the year-before-last-giving total field and so on down the line.

So if you had a donor whose "Summary Info" window previously showed something like this:

2013     459.83
2012     1650.00
2011      235.00
2010      0.00
2009     175.75
2008     1200.00

you would now see:

2014     0.00
2013     459.83
2012     1650.00
2011     235.00
2010     0.00
2009     175.75