USA How do you prefer your app manage your files?

[michaelbluejay]

I've never found a bookkeeping app that I really liked, and when the last one I used ate my data, I decided to write my own and sell it. In working on it, I have to make some design decisions, and rather than guessing as to what users would prefer, I thought I'd ask around on forums.

The first question is, do you prefer to have data for separate years in separate files, or all together in one file? Even if in separate files, you'd be able to *see* (and edit) multiple years of transactions in one app window, they'd just be in separate files on the disk.

My worry about keeping everything in one file is that if the data gets corrupted, the whole file could become unusable. That happened to me, with 2015 data getting corrupted in early 2019, which I didn't realize until late 2019. Because I realized it so late, all of my backups in 2019 except the very earliest contained the same corruption. I wound up having to re-enter five years' worth of data into a different app. If I'd had separate files for separate years, I could have re-entered just the damaged year and saved a lot of trouble.

But maybe the convenience if having just one file for all the years outweighs the risk for most users, I don't know, that's why I'm asking. Do you prefer all the data in one file, or separate files for separate years? Thank you for sharing your opinions.

 

[JustinC]

Yes, I have had that issue as well.
It would be good if you allow the users to store the data in multiple files but also allow the users to edit the data in those files from a single-window then that would be helpful.

Just let us know when you make that app readily available.

 

[michaelbluejay]

Thank you for your reply, JustinC. I've decided to let the user decide: They can easily start a new file for a new year, or they can keep piling on the data into the same file year after year. It wouldn't be easy to let users edit multiple files' data in the same window, but I'll add that to the Feature Wish List.

I'm probably at least a year away from releasing something, as I don't have much time to work on it. I got it far enough along that I can use it myself for my own data entry, and I already like it way better than anything else I've ever used.