First Installation of AA on a Server or Standalone System

 

 

 

Base System installation comes first

 

Essentially all you need is a file named ActiveAccounting-Base.exe to perform the installation.  If you do not have this file contact UDS Support at Support@udsgis.com.  We will then email you a “link” that will take you directly to a login page on our web site.  You will enter your username and password there and be given access to the file for downloading.  Once you have ‘saved’ it to disk, you may use it as many times as necessary as long as doing so doesn’t exceed your total number of user licenses purchased from UDS.

 

 

When you get to the login page read the instructions provided on that page.  Basically however you will click on the link you find there and proceed as follows:

 

A.     It will now ask you if you want to download the file ActiveAccounting-Base.exe to your hard drive.  Answer Yes, and specify a specific drive and folder where you would like it saved.

 

B.     When downloading is complete, use Windows Explorer to browse to the Active Accounting-Base.exe file and double click on it.   This will cause the Install Shield Wizard for Active Accounting to start.

 

C.    Listed below are the instructions you will see during the installation process, plus some additional helpful hints.

 

1.     The first screen says, “Welcome to the Install Shield Wizard for Active Accounting”.  Press Next to continue.

 

2.     Customer Information:  Enter name and company.  Press Next to continue.

 

3.     Choose Destination Location:  Use the browse button to select a particular drive or folder to install the Active Accounting program files in or select the default path C:\ActiveAccounting.  We recommend accepting the default directory for consistencies’.  Press Next to continue.

 

4.     Setup Type:  Offers your choice of 3 different installation types.  Select Typical and press Next. The program will be installed with all the usual system options.  This is the recommended install type for a Network Server or Standalone System running the Active Accounting program.

 

5.     Select Program folder:  The default is probably fine unless you prefer to install Active Accounting to a drive other than “C” on computer system.  Most users should at least, accept the default folder name “Active Accounting” as consistency will make ‘support’ down the road easier.   Enter your selection and press Next.

 

6.     Start copying files:  Displays the options for installation you have selected so far for you to review.  If things look good press the Next.

 

7.     After a few moments the Installation Wizard will close.

 

 

You will have to “target” the icon on this desktop to point to the Uds.exe file in the Active Accounting folder on your server.  This enables the system to know where to find the Active Accounting programs needed to run.  Right mouse click on the AA icon on this desktop, left mouse click on ‘properties’ option in the pop-up menu, and make sure the ‘Target’ path is pointed to where the Uds.exe file was installed.  Sometimes it is easier to browse to the Active Accounting folder, find the Uds.exe file, right mouse click on it, left click on Create New Shortcut, and then drag the new shortcut out onto the workstation’s desktop.  The new shortcut is now ready to be used to start Active Accounting and run it from this computer system.

 

Base System installation is complete.

 

 

 

Add-ons installation comes second

 

Now you need to install the individual add-on modules that you have purchased in addition to the Base System.  Currently you will be receiving them via email as ‘attachments’ to the email message.  Right click on the attached program file and then left click on copy displayed as an option in the pop-up menu.  Using Windows Explorer now browse to the folder on your System’s hard drive where you would like to store these add-on program files.  Right click in the folder then left click on the ‘Paste’ option shown on the pop-up menu.  The menu will now close and the program file will be copied to your chosen folder.

 

After the copy/paste of every email attachment, you need to start Active Accounting.  Double-click on your new AA icon on your desktop to start Active Accounting.

 

On the main Active Accounting menu you will see several options:  File, Edit, Options, Reports, and Help.  Please click on the Reports option.  A drop down menu will appear.  In this drop down menu you must now select “Apply Updates and Add-ons”.  This will cause a new window to appear with the title “Distributed UDS Add-ons and Updates.  You will see three buttons in this window:  Apply, Search, and Cancel.  If you pasted these add-ons into a folder on this system, you may now click the Search button to allow the system to find the add-on files for you.  If this folder is on another system, then you must instead click on the browse button to the right of the “File Name” field box.  This is a little rectangular shaped button with three dots appearing on it.  This will allow you to browse directly to the folder you saved the email attachments to and select your add-on files manually.  Either way your next step is to click on the Apply button to accomplish the installation of the add-on files to the Base System.  This will only take moments for the system to do.

 

Go to the main menu and again select Reports.  In the drop down menu that appears you will see Search for New Reports.  Select Search for New Reports. After this process is complete the Add-ons will be added as menu options to the main AA menu.

 

 

Additional Requirements for a Successful Installation:

 

1)     AA needs to have a printer driver installed through MS Windows on the computer system otherwise an error will come up immediately on starting AA.  It could be a network printer and not necessarily directly connected to the workstation.

2)     If the operating system running on the workstation on which AA is being installed is Win95 or Win98 you also need to install Active Playmaker Player and a help agent before or after performing this workstation installation, or an error will occur when starting up AA.  Active Player can be downloaded from our web site as well as the MS Agents.  Contact UDS Support at Support@udsgis.com if need be.