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Operations that may be affected by other users

When more than one user is using MoneyWorks, their actions may affect what you are trying to do. In particular:

  • Only one user can modify a given record at a time. It does not make sense for more than one user to make changes to the same record at the same time. If you try, you will see something like this:

The first person who opens a particular record or starts an operation that may require a record to be changed will automatically and invisibly obtain a server lock on that record, preventing anyone else from make changes to it. If this were not the case, the first user’s changes might get obliterated by another user, comprising the database integrity. The server lock is automatically released when the first user is finished with the record.

  • You can’t delete any record (even an unposted transaction) if another user is looking at it. The definition of “looking at” in this case is actually rather technical (for example, the record might be in another user’s list view), so we won’t bore you with it. Suffice to say, if you try to delete a record and MoneyWorks tells you it is locked, just try again later or ask other users to log out or close list windows.
  • If you are running a report, and someone else posts a transaction, the report will offer to abort. Why? Because the ledger balances have just changed, so the report may not balance—reports need to run to completion without critical ledger data changing.