Philip Barton's Property Blog

I know from the feedback that we get that migrating data from v2.1 to v3.1 or Property Intellect has caused some confusion. I did previously write up a summary of why the system work the way they do and the design decisions behind them – you can find that blog post here - but I think some practical advice is in order. I’m posting this here as my personal take on this as there is no ‘official recommendations’ on this as it does depend so much on what you start with and what data you want to pull in.

Firstly, some frequent questions

• v2.1 and 3.1 can co-exist on the same PC
• you do NOT need to have v2.1 installed to use the import tool to pull in your old data – you need only the 2.1 data file (its usually called pi.mdb)
• v2.1 is not Vista or Windows7 compatible (it was written way before they existed). It may or may not install. It may or may not work. Or it might work, but do some really weird things. v3.x was written for Vista (and Windows 7 follows from that – I run my 3.1 installation on Windows 7 and it works extremely well)
• The import tool will make duplicate data if you run it twice (it cannot check for duplication very easily), so if you want to re-import (perhaps you didn’t like the results), then you need either to reset the system (Admin Tool->System Reset button), or simply make a backup before you do the first import (i.e. straight after the initial install) and use that to roll back if needed.
• All contractors/suppliers in your 2.1 data must have the ‘Contractor’ tickbox set.
• Rent receipts much have a category of Rent.
• Ensure there are no duplicate owner contacts (i.e. 2.1 allows 2 ‘John Doe’ contacts with the same name – 3.1 will not)

Will all my data import OK?

Mostly, yes, but it does depend on a few factors. The importer can only import data that fits the idea of what it expects to find in the 2.1 data. Missing or incomplete data will also get thrown out by the importer as v3.1 is strict on validation of data.

In practice, you will probably find that your properties come in OK, as will most of the tenancy agreements (assuming they are correctly entered in 2.1). Contacts, journal entries, tasks etc should come in fine.

Accounts can present more of a challenge due to the different ways of representing things in 2.1. Although you can import this data, I really believe the best way to handle this is simply to use 2.1 as a historic data, and set an ’opening balance’ for each tenancy in 3.1 (if the tenants are up to date, then you don’t need to do this). Then go forward from there in 3.1 – the old 2.1 data will effectively fade away in relevance over time, but is still there if you need it.

Practical Steps to Importing

When people ask me what the best way to import data is, I almost always give the following advice:

1. Install v3.1 with a blank database
2. Make a backup so that you can roll back to an empty 3.1 database if the import is not to your liking.
3. Check that the 2.1 data is sensible (see the bullet points int he FAQ bit above)
4. Run the 2.1 to 3.1 import tool. You can find this in windows Start->Programs->Property Intellect 3.1->Tools. There is also a help PDF in there as well.
5. If you already have 2.1 installed and working on the PC then the importer will automatically pick up the path to the 2.1 data file. If not, you’ll need to point it to the correct location (NOTE: if you have a .zip backup file then you will need to extract the pi.mdb file from that first)
6. Accept the defaults and let it start. Note that it can take quite a while to import (hours in some cases).
7. When it’s done, start v3.1. The importer will have placed all your tenancy agreements in a ‘pending’ state, so you will need to open each one, fill in any missing data and make it active manually.

Top Tips

1. Allow yourself time to learn v3.1. It is a very different beast from v2.1. You might want to consider running both in parallel for a while as an easier way forward.
2. Implement 3.1 before the start of the next tax year!
3. If you have a small number of properties/tenancies, then you should give consideration to just re-entering them into 3.1 – it’s probably quicker in the long run. 3.1 has tools to retrospectively fill in rent receipts from the start of the tenancy so this is not as bad as it sounds.
4. Do not try to make 3.1 an update for your 2.1 data – transactions are no longer king in 3.1 and you need to make time to get your head around how 3.1 works!

Tags: 2.1, 3.1, data, import, Software

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010 at 10:32 and is filed under Software. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.