Archiving Orders in ShipWorks

Background

ShipWorks gives you the ability to archive orders into an archive database. This can be very helpful if you wish to remove orders from your main ShipWorks database, but would still like to be able to easily access your order history.

Perhaps you have very old orders that no longer need to be accessed on a daily basis, but you wish to keep your ShipWorks order history for future reference.
Perhaps you need to free up database space. You can move orders from your main ShipWorks database into an archived database, allowing you to free up database space and be able to view your archived orders in your archive database.

When you archive orders, the orders you select are removed from the active ShipWorks database and moved into a new archive database which you can easily access at any time. This article will guide you through how to archive orders in ShipWorks.

Feel free to download the complete Archiving Orders in ShipWorks User's Guide attached to the bottom of this article.

First Things First

Before you can work with archives in ShipWorks, there are a couple things that you need to have in place:

We recommend that you run the latest version of the ShipWorks software. This allows you to access the latest tools and features and ensures the steps in this article will work for you. For assistance with checking your version of ShipWorks or with upgrading to the latest version, please see this help article.
You need to be logged into ShipWorks as a user with administrator rights.

Things to Consider

Prior to archiving orders in ShipWorks, there are a few important things to make note of:

! Archiving cannot be undone. Once the orders are archived and removed from the main ShipWorks database, they cannot be merged back into the main ShipWorks database from the archive.

! Archived orders can be viewed only. The archived orders cannot be edited nor can new shipments be processed.

! During the archiving process, ShipWorks will not be available to use. We recommend performing the archive during a time when the ShipWorks software is not being used.

When working in a ShipWorks archive database:

Only the archived orders and their associated information are available.
You can still search for and filter any of the orders in the database.
You cannot edit or modify any orders in an archived database.
You cannot create shipments for archived orders.
You cannot download into an archived database.

The Process

Manually Archiving Orders

The following video clip will quickly guide you through the process of archiving orders in ShipWorks. More detailed steps can be found after the video.

1. Click on the Manage tab and then on the Archive button. The Manage Archives dialog opens.

2. Click on the Archive Now button.

3. Enter the date prior to which you wish to archive orders. Orders with an order date older than the date entered will be archived and removed from the main ShipWorks database.

For example: In the screenshot, we entered 1/1/2013. So, orders with an order date of 12/31/2012 or older will be archived.

4. Click the Confirm Archive button to begin the archive process. As a reminder:

Archiving orders cannot be undone.
Archived orders are removed from the current ShipWorks database.
ShipWorks cannot be used during the archiving process by any ShipWorks users.+

5. Once the archive process is complete, click the OK button.

6. The archived database is now listed in the Manage Archives screen and gives you information on the oldest order, the newest order, and the number of orders in the archive.

Click Close to return to the main ShipWorks screen.

Archiving Automatically (Schedule Archiving)

You can also set up archiving so that your orders are automatically archived at a scheduled time and day. The following video clip will quickly guide you through the process of scheduling archiving of orders in ShipWorks. More detailed steps can be found after the video.

CLICK THE VIDEO TO VIEW FULL SIZE

1. Click on the Manage tab and then on the Archive button. The Manage Archives dialog opens.

2. Click the Schedule Archiving button.

3. Check the box for Enable auto archiving.

4. Set the number of days of orders you would like to keep in the active ShipWorks database.

The default is 90 days. This means that each time the scheduled archive runs, orders older than 90 days will be archived. The result is that the active ShipWorks database will always have orders going back 90 days and all orders 91 days or older will be archived.