These tools help system administrators keep their MIDAS systems running efficiently.
The “Cleanup” tools allow for the quick removal of obsolete data within a MIDAS booking system.
Separate tools are provided for removing outdated bookings, invoices, clients, and users respectively.
There’s also an “Optimize Database” tool which runs a series of commands on the underlaying MySQL / MariaDB database to help it run more efficiently.
For v4.36, we’ve added a new “One-Stop Cleanup” tool to the list of cleanup tools. This new tool provides a fast way to collectively run several other cleanup tools.
The actions the new One-Stop Cleanup tool performs are:
Performing a “One-Stop Cleanup” will, in a single action:
Remove bookings that occurred more 5 years ago.
Remove invoices that were paid more than 5 years ago.
Remove clients with no bookings in the past 2 years.
Remove users who have not logged in for more than 1 year.
Optimize the database.
Whilst there are no limits imposed in our software for how long data should persist, without using the Database Cleanup tools, data will persist indefinitely.
An organization may have a requirement for client and invoice data to be kept for a specific period of time, but it’s unlikely that most organizations will need to keep such information indefinitely.
This is where the cleanup tools in MIDAS become useful.
Performing routine cleanups of very old and obsolete data in your MIDAS help keep your system running efficiently.
The 31st of March each year is World Backup Day. This day is designed to help raise awareness of the importance of keeping your critical data backed-up.
A “backup” is an additional copy of all your important files and data – for example, your family photos, home videos, documents and emails.
Instead of keeping a single copy just in one place (like your computer), the idea is that you also keep another secondary copy of everything somewhere else as well. That way, if anything should happen to the device where your original data is stored, you’ll still have a “backup” copy stored elsewhere.
Here at MIDAS HQ, we strongly believe in the importance of regularly backing-up data you can’t afford to loose. We’ve built in a number of backup features to our leading room booking and resource scheduling software to do just that!
How MIDAS backs up your data
MIDAS seamlessly makes complete and automated backups of its own database. It does this upon the first successful login each and every day. These backups are compressed, and typically backups are less than 1MB each in size. Backups are also encrypted, and stored on your MIDAS server for a length of time you specify, typically 7-30 days.
To further protect your data, these automated daily backups can optionally also be emailed daily to a specific email address too. This feature allows you to retain your own “off-site” copies of your MIDAS data within no effort!
In addition to the automated daily backups which your MIDAS system takes, we also provide the ability to instantly generate an backup at any time too! An administrator can navigate to MIDAS Admin Options → Manage MIDAS → Database, and use the one-click “Backup Now” button. We really couldn’t make it easier to backup your MIDAS data on-demand!
Restoring Backups
Database backups (whether generated manually or automatically) can be easily and readily restored at any time. You can choose to partially restore a part of a backup, or restore it in full – at any time, all through a simple interface. This may be accessed through MIDAS Admin Options → Manage MIDAS → Database → Restore. So, should you ever wish to “roll back” your MIDAS system to an earlier point in time, or if you suffer a massive server failure and loose data, you can have your MIDAS system back up and running again in no time!
For our “cloud hosted” customers, we also take complete database backups three times a day. A daily backup is then separately stored off-site for a period of six months.
So as you’ll see from the above features and processes we’ve built into our software, we take backups seriously! We make it painless to ensure your important MIDAS booking data can be easily backed up and restored with minimal fuss!
Whilst you can be confident your MIDAS data is taken care of, why not take a moment to backup your own important personal files on World Backup Day? Your family photos, home videos, documents and emails are important! Can you afford to loose them!? Yes, it may be a little tedious, but you’ll be glad you did should anything ever happen to your files!
How many backups of my important data should I make?
As a general rule, it’s a good idea to have at least three copies of your important data. At least one of these copies should be kept off-site or in the cloud. This is known as the 3-2-1 backup rule.
Here’s what it means:
Keep at least three copies of your data, including the original data and two backups.
Store the copies on two different types of media, such as an external hard drive and a cloud storage service.
Keep one of the backups off-site. Either in a different physical location or in the cloud, to protect against disasters like fire, theft, or flooding.
By following the 3-2-1 backup rule, you can ensure your important data is protected even if one copy is lost, damaged, or destroyed.
It’s also a good idea to regularly test your backups too! Testing a backups ensure they are working properly in the event you’ll need to access them. It’s important to update your backups regularly too – to keep them current.
For MIDAS v4.30 we’ve added a couple of new “Database Tools” to our software.
The “Database Tools” in MIDAS allow administrators to perform operations on the software’s database.
For example an administrator could “merge” similar client records “merge” bookings from two or more venues into a single venue, remove inactive clients or users, and more.
The two new Database Tools we’ve added for v4.30 are…
“Unfinalize” Invoices
To understand what the “Unfinalize Invoice” tool does, we first need to understand what a “Finalized” invoice is.
In MIDAS, whenever a new invoice is generated (or manually created), it’s contents may be freely edited up until the time when the invoice is either first printed or emailed to the client.
Once an invoice has been either printed or emailed to the client, MIDAS assumes that the invoice has been “Finalized”. It then protects the contents of the invoice from further editing (other than updating its status/paid amount).
This is done to ensure that the invoice that has been printed/emailed matches the invoice stored in the system.
Without this protection, it would be possible for an invoice to be printed/emailed and sent to the client, and then for a user to change the items, quantitates, or charges on it. If this were to be allowed, the invoice the client received would then be different to the invoice held in the system.
So to prevent this, MIDAS “Finalizes” (locks) invoices once they are first printed/emailed.
Now, there may be some rare circumstances where you need to modify the contents of an existing invoice instead of issuing a new invoice or a credit note.
To that end, we’ve now included an “Unfinalize Invoice” tool.
We don’t encourage the regular use of this tool, for the reasons outlined above. But in exceptional circumstances, this will allow an administrator to remove the “Invoice Date” from a previously “Finalized” invoice. Once the invoice date has been removed, MIDAS will allow the invoice’s contents to be fully editable again.
Remove Obsolete Invoices
Similar to the “Remove Obsolete Bookings” tool (which allows removal of ancient bookings from the system), the “Remove Obsolete Invoices” tool does something very similar, but for invoices.
By default, MIDAS retains invoices indefinitely. Many organization’s financial reporting procedures require that they keep records for a number of years.
But if you’ve been using MIDAS for many years, do you really need to retain invoices that were paid over a decade ago!? Probably not! – That’s where the “Remove Obsolete Invoices” tool comes in.
You can select a point in the past of between 6 months – 10 years. Invoices which were paid in full before this point in time will then be deleted from the database.
For example, selecting the “5 years ago” option would remove all invoices that were paid in full at any time before today’s date 5 years ago.
Removing obsolete invoices – and indeed bookings – using these tools are a great way of keeping your database running efficiently.
