Causes for performance issues can be various. See the article below help narrow your search.
If you have spent any amount of time using computers, you have most likely endured slow applications, lagging data entry, unresponsive windows and screens, etc. This type of behavior is always frustrating. If you find that Acctivate is hanging or seems to be “slow”, we recommend you follow these steps to troubleshoot the possible performance issue.
Before our Support Team can assist in improving or recommending an improvement to your reported performance issue, we need to identify the bottleneck causing Acctivate to run in a less than ideal manner. These “bottleneck” issues can range from Server computer hardware issues (full hard disks, lack of RAM/CPU resources, etc.), customer specific data scenarios, network issues, SQL Server configuration issues, software issues, etc. This article will assist in identifying the most common bottlenecks. Unfortunately, it would be impossible to document all of the possible issues that could cause Acctivate or Microsoft SQL Server to run in a less than optimal rate.
What type of performance problem are you experiencing?Acctivate seems to be slow regardless of the routine or process I am doing.
- Acctivate is slow when all users are logged in, but fast when only one or a few users are logged in.
- Posting a transaction is somewhat fast, but the next time I post the same type of transaction, Acctivate is slow.
These symptoms first point to a lack of resources. Review the Server computer that Acctivate and Microsoft SQL Server are installed on. Here are some common recommendations:
- Verify there is ample hard disk space on the drive that Acctivate is installed on as well as the hard disk in which the Microsoft SQL Server Database is located. We strongly recommend the database is stored on an SSD as they are faster.
- Using Task Manager -> Performance tab, you may monitor the CPU usage to verify the Server isn’t simply under powered if you have many employees using Acctivate or other applications being served by this server.
- Which version of SQL Server are you using? It may be that you are hitting a number of limitations with Microsoft SQL Server Express. You may consider upgrading Microsoft SQL Server to a Workgroup or Standard edition, which will utilize more available physical server resources.
- If more than ten Acctivate users are logged into Acctivate and SQL Server is using an Express instance. You may consider upgrading SQL Server to a Standard or Workgroup version of SQL Server.
Acctivate is slow when I do this specific routine
Here are a few examples where Acctivate users may experience performance issues due to software or data related bottlenecks:
- Acctivate is slow only when posting an Invoice or specific transaction.
- Acctivate is slow only when posting transactions for a certain product or group of products.
- Acctivate is slow when selecting to look up one or certain customers or products.
These symptoms primarily point to a data or database related issue. Here are some recommendations on troubleshooting these types of issues.
- If a specific customer or product is slow to open, what is unique about this customer/product? Look for large sets of related data (Invoices, transactions, prices, etc.) Does the customer or product have a large amount of data associated with it? If so, you may consider marking the customer/product inactive and creating a new copy.
- If posting transactions can be slow, find the unique product/customer that may be causing the transaction to be slow. See above recommendation.
- If you have a large number of products with a negative on hand, consider cleaning them up via adjustment. Large amounts of negative on hand can cause the COGS calculation to run longer than needed.
- Review the Exception log for any logged long running queries. If you consistently see the same query logged multiple times, we may be able to analyze the database using Microsoft Database Engine Tuning Wizard. This tool can suggest improvements to the database, which can dramatically improve the performance of specific queries. Discuss this with a Support Rep if you would like further assistance regarding this type of work.
- Review open transactions such as transfers, assemblies, adjustment, balance adjustments and issues. If you have a large amount of them, then take the time to go through and close them if they aren't mean to be posted. All of this affects availability and can slow down Acctivate.
Please keep in mind performance issues can be caused by a combination of any of the above scenarios and making one specific change may not resolve your issue. As your company grows, your technical infrastructure should grow with it. Acctivate is highly scalable and, provided the proper hardware and resources are available, should be able to handle your growth moving forward.