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Errors

Error: Unable to delete project due to historical data

Scenario

Practice CS lets you delete a project only if there is no history or data of any type, or references to the project in the database. This is necessary to maintain data integrity.
Error message
If you attempt to delete a project with historical data you'll get an error.
Task cannot be completed because it is associated with historical data.
You'll receive a similar message when trying to delete a project template associated with historical data.
Historical data may include:
  • Receipts and adjustments
  • Service charges
  • Invoices
  • Time and expense transactions
  • Scheduled items including scheduled phone calls, and to do's (applies only if you have the Staff Management Module)
  • References to the project in on-screen filters, as well as report filters and report options.
To resolve this and delete the project, you'll need to find and delete any and all data associated with the project.

Tasks

Tasks can't be deleted from client projects if they are associated with historical data. You can use the information in this topic to determine how to handle a task that you wish to delete.
Tasks can be deleted from the project template, whether they are associated with historical data or not. This is by design so that your firm has the flexibility to edit your projects.
Deleting a task from the project template doesn't affect any clients projects that have already been generated. It also doesn't affect projects that are set to regenerate using the current project's task information. To find out whether the project will regenerate tasks based on the template, take the following steps:
  1. Select
    Actions
    , then
    Manage Projects
    .
  2. Filter for the project template that the task was deleted from.
  3. Double-click the client project to open it.
  4. Select
    Recurrence
     the Generation section.
  5. Within Project Generation Options, verify whether the
    Task information
     checkbox is marked or unmarked.
    • If the checkbox is marked, the project will regenerate all the tasks that are currently on the Task tab of the client project. In other words, if you deleted a task from the project template but the task still appears within the client project, the task will appear when this project is generated.
    • If the checkbox is not marked, the task will not appear on the next generation of the project because it was deleted from the template.

Solutions

Client projects

If you want to delete a client project but can't delete the historical data associated with it, you can take the following steps:
  1. Double-click on the project in Manage Projects, Client Setup, Client Dashboard Projects Portlet, or Staff Dashboard Projects Portlet to open it.
  2. Set the Tracking description to
    Completed
     or
    Canceled
    .
  3. Select
    Refresh
    .
  4. On the Recurrence screen, change the Recurrence setting to
    None
     to prevent the system from generating another occurrence of the project.
  5. Select
    OK
    .
  6. Select
    OK
     again.

Project templates

In general, it's not recommended to delete project templates because of the large amount of historical data associated that may be associated with a template.
Deleting a project template would require deleting every project ever generated, plus all time entries, invoices, and other data associated with each generated client project.
Instead of deleting the project template, you can take the following steps:
  1. Stop the regeneration on all client projects for that template by following the previous steps.
  2. Rename the project template so that it either falls at the bottom of the list alphabetically or can be easily identified as inactive.
    For example, a project ID TAX could be renamed to ZZZTAX or INACTIVETAX. To rename the project, go to
    Setup
    ,
    Templates
    ,
    Projects
    , find the project and select
    Edit
    . Change the ID and select
    Enter
     to save the change.

How to find and delete data

If you wish to delete a project or project template after considering the affect on your data, you'll need to identify the historical data associated with the item you wish to delete.
When deleting other kinds of data like clients or staff, you'll be given a
View Details
 option which lists all the historical data associated with the item. There is no such list for projects or project templates, so you'll need to find the information using the following methods.

Historical data

Delete all receipts and adjustments
  1. Go to
    Actions
    ,
    Receipt
    , then
    Adjustment Entry
    .
  2. If the Approve and Post process for Receipt & Adjustment Entry is turned on, go to the Review tab, clear the
    Unapproved only
     and
    Unposted only
     checkboxes, filter for the project or project template, then unpost and unapprove all control sheets on the screen.
  3. Go to the Overview tab.
  4. Filter for the project or project template.
  5. Mark the
    Control Date
     checkbox on the first transaction. Scroll to the last transaction and, while pressing the Shift key, click the
    Control Date
     checkbox in the last transaction.
  6. Right-click the
    Control Date
     checkbox on any of the selected transactions and choose
    Delete Entry
    .
Delete all invoices
  1. Go to
    Actions
    , then
    Billing
    .
  2. Go to the
    Review
     tab.
  3. If the Approve and Post process for Billing is turned on, clear the
    Unapproved only
     and
    Unposted only
     checkboxes.
  4. Filter for the project or project template.
  5. Right-click and choose
    Select All
    .
  6. Right-click and choose
    Delete Selected
    .
  7. If there are service charges preventing you from deleting the invoice, make a note of the clients and invoices affected and continue to the next step to delete the service charges. Once the service charges have been deleted, attempt to delete the invoice again.
Delete all service charges
  1. Use the list of affected clients and invoices you created while following the steps above to delete invoices. You'll only need to delete service charges associated with the invoices you attempted to delete earlier.
  2. Print a Service Charge Journal filtered for the client.
  3. Starting with the newest service charge, go to
    Actions
    ,
    Assess Service Charges
     and enter the
    Through
     date equal to the newest date on the Journal.
  4. Find the service charge for this client and select the checkbox.
  5. Right-click and choose
    Unpost Selected
    .
  6. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for each date in reverse date order.
Delete all time and expense transactions
  1. Go to
    Actions
    ,
    Time & Expense Entry
    .
  2. If the Approve and Post process for Time & Expense Entry is turned on, go to the
    Review
     tab, clear the
    Unapproved only
     and
    Unposted only
     checkboxes, filter for the project or project template, then unpost and unapprove all timesheets on the screen.
  3. Go to the
    Overview
     tab.
  4. Filter for the project or project template.
  5. Select all transactions by selecting the beginning of the first transaction, then scroll to the bottom of the list and select the beginning of the last transaction while pressing the Shift key.
  6. Right-click and select
    Delete Entry
    .
Delete all schedule items (if licensed for Staff Management)
  1. Go to
    Actions
    , then
    Manage Staff
    .
  2. Go to the
    Schedule Items
     tab.
  3. At the top of the screen, select
    Custom Date Range
     and enter
    1/1/1980
     in the first date and
    12/31/2029
     in the second date.
  4. Clear the
    Open only
     and
    Unassigned only
     checkboxes.
  5. Filter for the project.
  6. Right-click each schedule item and select
    Delete
    .

Delete the project

  1. Select
    Actions
    , then
    Manage Projects
    .
  2. Filter for the project.
  3. Clear the
    Open Projects only
     checkbox.
  4. Select all projects on the screen by selecting the first project, then scroll to the bottom of the list and select the last project while pressing the Shift key.
  5. Right-click in the highlighted area and select
    Delete Selected Projects
    .

Delete the project template (if desired)

  1. Select
    Setup
    ,
    Templates
    , then
    Projects
    .
  2. Find the template in the list and select it.
  3. Select
    Delete
    .

This article applies to:

  • PRODUCT: Practice CS