I am not sure if this is a DoxCycle issue or an issue on our end:
Is anyone else having an issue saving a DoxCycle file after it has been open for a period of time, say 30 minutes or so? When we try to save these files it tells us it can’t be saved and gives us the option to try again or save as using a different file name. So it sounds a bit like a file locking issue.
Our workaround is to save it under a different name and then replace the old file with the new file. It works but is a pain.
We are running Windows Serve 2016 in a terminal server environment (our first season using Server 2016).
If no one else is having the issue we will get our IT people on it, but I wanted to check here first.
Yes, we had the same issue last tax season and figured out the same work-around. It was particularly bad with larger DoxCycle files and, if I remember well, when we were accessing the server via VPN.
We’ve moved away from the server and are now using Sharepoint 365. We have had no issues so far, but also have not done many of our bigger T1 clients.
The server was running on SBS2011 or 2012 and was getting old. I attributed the saving issue to that as we had to be careful with a few other things. But maybe it’s something else.
I had a similar issue with another app (Profile) using a Windows 7 Pro computer as a sort of document “server” accessed by 4 desktop PC’s. This may give you a hint.
Network configuration
Issue - too many devices. Modem, Firewall, passive router, wireless access point.
Solution - Upgraded internet to most extreme. Replace old modem and wireless access point by much better ISP modem which included wireless, removed hardware firewall, replaced with better internet service and better virus and spyware protection.
PC settings on desktop and some hardware.
Issue - Some timeout settings.
Solution - Sorry. Can’t remember which settings. There were several spots in OS and apps.
Issue - Some physical issues with built in latency
Solution - Replaced Software RAID 1 with Physical RAID 1 and added SCSI cables. Replaced VeloRaptor drives with Western Digital Black drives which are data centre rated. These are now offered with Western Digital Gold drives. Added more RAM. PC RAM increased from 16 GB to 24 GB. Replaced single graphics card with dual graphics card with more RAM to support three large monitors.
Hard Drive issues on desktop and “server”.
Issue - We partitioned the drives to C and D with the OS on C and data on D. Many apps did not like this and misbehaved. The worst offenders were MS Office with MS Outlook and OneNote. I am not sure how this affected the PDF apps. In the case of MS Office there are two copies of each file - save and temp. So whatever space you require for your MS Office app, you have to double it and add some. Also none of my apps liked going across the partition to access the data files. There may have been some Windows OS artifacts as well. Now I run a full clean-up every month.
Solution - Leave physical drive whole. Use physical RAID 1 mirrored. Two drives are mirrored. Add two more drives in RAID 1 mirrored as an internal copy of the data files only to facilitate drive upgrade and OS upgrade. Use App to copy the data files on a periodic basis, usually daily.
Issue - C drive was provisioned too small and started causing issues when 80% full or more.
Solution - Double or more your estimated drive requirement. Less costly in the long run than upgrading drives later, reconfiguring apps, and moving data. I increased my my previous 750 GB drives with 2TB drives. Next time I will buy 5TB or 8TB drives.
I am interested in moving to SharePoint Online with Office 365 Business Professional for my next major upgrade, likely this fall/winter.
Do you have any tips, traps, or resources that you could point me to?
These may sound like a dumb questions. Here goes.
Are your data files on Office 365 Business Pro’s OneDrive with a backup to SharePoint Online. Or, are the data files directly on SharePoint Online?
What resources or configuration options did you use to configure TaxCycle and DoxCycle to work with your data files residing on OneDrive or SharePoint Online?
Is this just a simple as pointing your folder settings to OneDrive or SharePoint Online?
Having the same issue as you, but not necessarily consistently or with file open for a long period of time. Using a new installation of Windows Server 2016, but not with a terminal server environment.
Our data is straight in Sharepoint Online (OneDrive Online is meant for personal use, not for a whole team to access it). We sync the Sharepoint Online to all of our staff’s computers via the OneDrive for Business sync tool. For backup, we have one computer with a 1TB hard drive that has a full sync of the whole Sharepoint directory and we use iDrive to back that computer up (iDrive also backs up Exchange Online).
TaxCycle and DoxCycle themselves work fine right off the bat. You’ll need to select “keep file on this computer” for the related folders if you want the Client Manager to work. For that reason, you’ll find this easier to manage if all the TaxCycle and DoxCycle files are saved in their own exclusive folders (as opposed to saving them in each client’s folder for instance) You’ll want each staff to set up their own Client Manager pointing to the same directory.
The option profiles are saved on Sharepoint also, and synched to each computer so that everyone has the same options at all time. You can do the same with the printing defaults if you want everyone to have the same.
Tips:
Make sure you that all your machine are on Windows 10 Pro to be able to effectively use the ‘files on demand’.
You’ll want to pay closer attention to file and folder naming to avoid too long path names.
Instead of using the default OneDrive for Business path to save all the synced files, set up a new folder right on the c: drive. Otherwise, a useless number of characters end up being used just on that first bit of the file path.
With Win 10 Pro, you’ll be able to turn on “400 characters” file path which is helps with this whole path issues. That said, Caseware (notably) and other applications don’t support 400 characters, so you’ll still want to give this some thoughts.
Caseware will work fine right off the bat as long as only one person is accessing it, but won’t be accessible by a second person or will become corrupted. So one at a time there. It will also prevent anything from synching back to the cloud while open. A best practice might be to check out the caseware file when working on it for a long time. Alternatively, you could explore Caseware Cloud. Caseware has been one of the more finicky area, but it’s still workable… just need a bit more protocol around it.
Set up different Sharepoint libraries for the various sections of your repository. For instance, we have a library for each of the following: Client Data, Team resources, Database (that’s where all TaxCycle files and Jazzit templates reside), Management, Admin. Each library can be assigned different teams, or set up with different groups for ease of managing access and privileges.
That’s what I have so far. I’m still learning quite a bit about the whole thing myself. That said, when combined with laptops, the whole set up as allowed us to support working from home with way better performance than VPN or anything else we had tried before. It opens the door to a being able to hire for remote team as well. If that’s a direction you are interested in as well, you may want to look into Microsoft 365 too, for enhanced control and security over the actual hardware and software.
Thanks Keith,
I determined over the weekend that our problem is not necessarily tied to the file being open for a long time either. And like you, it isn’t consistent, which makes it very hard to troubleshoot.
We have this problem every year. The pattern is that we contact TaxCycle and eventually they release an update that allows us to “try again” and it works. I’ve contacted them this year and had no response.
Is anyone else finding they are emailing support and not receiving any response? Or receiving a response only after emailing multiple times? This seems to be a new problem this year.
We are no longer experiencing the problem with DoxCycle saving. I am not sure exactly what the fix was because I installed a TaxCycle update, and then later that evening our IT guy made some changes in the hope of fixing the issue. If anyone is still experiencing the problem then I would assume that it was the change our IT guy made and not the TaxCycle update that resolved the problem. In that case, let me know and I will try to find out what our IT guy did to fix it.