21st Century Accounting Tutorials - Installation

Planning for a smooth transition to 21st Century Accounting

To make your transition to 21st Century Accounting go smoothly, you need to answer the following questions:

Meet hardware requirements

Do you need to make any changes to your hardware or your network? You can find current requirements and recommendations in our Knowledge Base at http://www.c21accountingsoftware.com//kb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=183. (Check out the other topics while you are there.)

Know how to use Windows

We are not able to teach you how to use Windows. We assume that you know how to use Windows Explorer, that you are comfortable using the Tab key to go from field to field, and that you understand terms like “desktop,” icon, shortcut keys, files, folders, and drag-and-drop.

Review security

Do you need more security? Do you need to protect confidential data from casual eyes? Do you want to make sure that the people who access your accounting data understand correct procedures? See the details in the Setup and Daily Operations manual, “Tutorial: User IDs” and “Tutorial: Access Control.”

Revisit the Chart of Accounts

Is it time to revisit your Chart of Accounts? Flexible account structure, being able to add segments at any time, being able to change account numbers at any time – does your COA take advantage of 21st Century Accounting General Ledger account features? Redesign your COA to grow with your company. See the details in “Designing Your Chart of Accounts” beginning on page 20.

Plan your backup procedures

Do you have a backup plan? The importance of maintaining current, restorable backups of your company data cannot be emphasized too much. See the details in “Backing Up Frequently,” beginning on page 16.

System Requirements

Go to http://www.c21accountingsoftware.com//kb/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=183 for a list of hardware requirements.

Purchasers of 21st Century Accounting should follow the general recommendation for all Windows users: when you buy computer hardware, get as much processing power as you can afford and as much memory as possible.

21st Century Accounting itself has a relatively small "footprint" in terms of disk space and memory requirements, but the Windows support for any application is memory-intensive. The more memory your computer has, the more satisfied you will be with the performance of all your applications, including 21st Century Accounting.

Networking performance also profits from lots of memory in the computer you use as your application Server.