A Guide to switching over to a Blank Database

Owned by Bryan Alborough
Last updated: May 31, 2024
3 min read

Moving your server to a new, blank database is sometimes necessary in certain situations. As your database contains all of your personalised store history and data, it is a significant operation. However, if the proper preparations are made, the impact can be minimized significantly.

The Impact of Starting on a New Database

Moving your server onto a blank database means a complete loss of all data history that is accessible from the server. Historical information such as Sales, Stock records, Activities are lost and cannot be inserted back into the database. Other information such as Supplier information, Discounts and Over-ring reasons that have been set up for your store are also cleared, but can be re-captured.

Customers are also lost, but this is not a concern if you are using an Online Platform such as Yumbi, which will have a record of your customer information and history. Otherwise, Cosoft agents are able to extract customer and street information from your old database if it is still accessible (not corrupted).

Because of the loss of all data prior to the switch to new database, it is important to try to schedule the operation to be done at the end of a month. This way there is no break in the monthly reporting that would need to be sent to the Franchise or your accountants.

Assuming the old database isn't completely corrupt, a copy must always be kept as it can still be accessed by a Cosoft support agent if old information is needed.

Step 1: Preparations

  1. Print out any history summaries that you may need for future reference. We recommend the following reports to get a good history of sales and stock.

  • KPI (Reports > Summary > KPI). The KPI report can be run over several years and will summarise information for a year of a variety of metrics such as sales totals, gross profit/food cost amounts, customer counts, transactions etc that you may wish to refer back to.

  • Sales Summary (Reports > Summary > Sales Summary) - This report gives you a very simplified summary of the total sales figures for each day over the period given, for up to a year.

  • Complete Cashup (Reports > Cashup > Complete Cashup Report)- This report displays a summary of the daily till and shop cash-ups over the selected period, broken down to each till individually for each day. It’s recommended you run this per month.

  • GRV (Reports > Stock> Complete Cashup Report)- This report will show more detailed information about the GRVs entered over a period. It’s recommended you run this to have a history of GRVs captured going back as far as necessary.

  1. Do a Full Stock Take the evening before the switch and print it out, then print out a Stock Item Listing (Reports > Lists > Stock Items) report. This will give you a full list of stock items and their costs, which will be necessary for recapturing stock at the correct unit cost.

  2. Print out the Gross Profit and Stock Variance reports for the previous month or month-to-date.

  3. Print out a Controllable stock take. This will allow you to re-set you controllables list after switching to the new database.

  4. Take note of Employees, Discount Codes, Overring codes that need to be carried over. These can all be found under the Lists menu in Backoffice

  5. Take note of what menu items are set as optional (Lists > Optional Items). This will allow you to set any optional menu items that may need to be set again.

Step 2: The Switch and After

Operation Time

The Cosoft technician attending your case will need a few hours budgeted for the database change over. We will need to set up settings and printers, KDS screens and SSTs from scratch again. Budget this time in. Cosoft techicians have a checklist to ensure a proper switch over, but note that unforseen circumstances might extend the time. It’s important to make sure all computers and devices are on and remotely accessible. Make sure that load-shedding isn't scheduled for the period.

Capturing Stock

Once the database has been completed, it’s important to capture all Stock as a Purchase. Stock WILL NOT have prices by default, so we recommend to GRV in your closing stock take. Get the Full Stocktake report that was printed from the previous day, then in Backoffice open the Purchase Stock screen and set the date to the previous day (or the date that matches the full Stock take). Then capture your full stock as a single purchase. This will input the stock into the system and update the costs at the same time.

Capturing Remaining Information

Following this, Employees, Discounts, Suppliers, and your Controllables list will need to be captured. This should be done by a manager, using the recorded notes taken and reports printed from the previous database.

How to Add and Manage Employees

How do I enable optional menu items (local specials)?

How do I customize items on my stock take worksheet?