Before attempting to upload your accounts using DataShare Connect, please ensure the following:

• You have read THIS article
• The DataShare Connect Pre-requisites for user permissions are in place on your machine
• You are online and connected to the internet.
• You have a working Accounting Package and you are able to access the data you wish to upload within the Accounting Package.
• Your Sage 100 package must have a valid licence file.
• You know the User ID and Password that can access your Sage 100 data.
• You know which version of Sage 100 you wish to upload from (if you have multiple versions installed).
• You know the Name of the Company from which you wish to upload data.

This connector is released in ‘Release Candidate’ status. A connector with a ‘Release Candidate’ release status means that the connector is available to all customers and has been fully developed and meets all the DataShare software and security standards.  A ‘Release Candidate’ release has been developed against vendor supplied test data, meeting the Validis standard of upload processing. Connectors released in ‘Release Candidate’ status have successfully passed BETA testing and had a small volume of live data sets uploaded.

Where a connector is released in ‘Release Candidate’ status, Validis might ask customers and partners for back up files and will be requesting direct feedback to improve the connector.

It should be noted that any issues discovered with a connector released in the ‘Release Candidate’ status will be managed on best efforts but not within existing production SLAs. The ‘Release Candidate’ process may highlight issues that require further development.

For further information on "Release Candidates" connectors, please view the Release Candidates Definition article.

Launching DataShare Connect

To begin the upload process using DataShare Connect you need to be logged in to the DataShare portal.

From within the DataShare portal choose the Engagement for which you wish to upload data.

Choose the Accounting Package from the drop-down menu.

When the correct Accounting Package is selected click the Upload Data button. This will start a download of the DataShare Connect setup application. Your browser will show the download progress. In the example below, Chrome was used and the vclient.application can be seen in the download bar.

Depending on your desktop setup you may encounter some security warnings that you need to acknowledge during the installation

Click Keep to continue with the download.

When the DataShare Connect vclient.application file has finished downloading, click it to begin the installation. 

Click on Install

The DataShare Connect application will now download in full and install to your desktop to begin connecting to your Accounting Package. The DataShare Connect package is quite small and will be automatically removed from your desktop once the upload process has completed unless you choose a scheduled upload.

DataShare Connect for Sage 100

Once installed, the DataShare Connect application will automatically launch and will attempt to locate and identify your Sage 100 installation.

By default Sage 100 demands that the current Windows user has read-write access to the SQL Server that Sage 100 is using so you will not be asked to supply a User ID and Password.

However, depending on your Sage 100 permissions you may be asked to enter the Company Name, Username, and Password of the Company that you wish to upload from and click Next.

The DataShare Connect data extraction process will begin and progress will be displayed on screen. Depending on the size of your database and the number of entries it contains, this process may take a few minutes. Once all data has been extracted the data is then compressed, encrypted, and transmitted securely to the DataShare central server.

You can continue with other tasks whilst the extraction takes place.

Do not close the DataShare Connect window or interrupt the extraction process.

When the upload completes the success message is presented.

Click Close to exit DataShare Connect. At this point there is nothing more to do. Your Engagement Manager or Client Manager will be notified by email that you have submitted a new upload.

Your uploaded data is now being queued for processing in the DataShare central system. You can switch off your desktop and disconnect from the network at this point if you wish.

You can view the progress of your upload in the DataShare Portal (to see the current status you may need to refresh your browser). The status will change from processing to complete.