Hi Tom H 

Importing historical data (from the previous years) can be awfully complex depending on how you approach the topic.

The obvious move is to use the standard import templates but this will impact the GL balances, the stock level, you need the historical data (products that are already end of life, BoM set to reflect the past). And then where to start, should you start with sales flow or the purchase flow because this would break the chonology of event, etc. In short, you are loading lot's of data that you don't really need for your business as usual. There is a pollution effect and potentially a need to archive quickly after go-live.  So this is why I beleive this is not the right approach.

The real question is why do you need years of past transactions in a brand new system? Well I see only I reason: reporting.

So another approach would be to duplicate the standard tables (need development of course) so for instance SORDERQ would become ZSORDERQ with the exact same data model and now you can load data in the Z* tables without updating stock, GL or caring to create the related products in ITMMASTER. Still formatting so much data would be quite an effort on the top of the development required and obviously the effort to manage the impact on the expected reporting. Sp this is better but not yet my favored option.

Last, would be to invest in a BI tool. You can connect the BI to both the legacy database and Sage X3 to build a common datamart. Of course, you need to invest on a license and implementing the BI software BUT you would save effort in formating the data, building the report would be easier in a BI and there are no need for development in Sage X3. In short, you have a comparable budget than the previous approach but at the end you have a BI tool !!

I let you make the maths and decide which way to go. Of course if you only need past couple of years of sales for some forecasts, it would be simplier to just develop a bespoke table in which you will store the information.

Note: If your need to archive anyway because you manage a quite large volume of data then maybe you can directly load in the standard tables (<> standard import templates) in the archive folder only. I have no experience with this approach, so be sure to run an impact analysis if you go this way.

Hello Julien,

Thank you for your excellent response.  I agree with your advice completely and will share with the client.  I am curious about archive folders as well.  If there is any information regarding Archiving, that would be welcome. 

Best - Tom

Well you have really 2 solutions for archiving:

1. The standard archiving: you can found lots of information in the on-line help and interesting info as well here: www.sagecity.com/.../time-to-tidy-up
2. The Data Management Suite (DMS) : A Sage Service add-on, subject to extra license fee, allowing to gain more flexibility on the archiving rules and better performance when adressing large volume of data.

Excellent idea.  Thank you.  Considering the number of years that X3 customers have been recording data, it would prudent for them to consider archiving their data.