Over time, your Genie data file will grow as you perform your everyday tasks. For multi-doctor practices this can grow to a significant size. While there is no limit to the size of your data file, a compact data file will always perform better than one which has had no maintenance performed on it.
In fact, ensuring that your data file is kept small will make routine maintenance and emergency jobs like compacting or recovering data files quicker. To keep your data file as tidy and compact as possible, you can perform a number of different archiving or culling functions on your Genie Client.
Please note: As some archiving and culling functions cannot be reversed, we recommend ensuring that only the appropriate staff members have the ability to perform these functions. Those users in groups within File > Edit Groups with Cull or Archive Records ticked can perform these functions. Check out our Edit Groups article for more information on using the Edit Groups functionality.
Before you begin
Key definitions: Archiving vs Culling |
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| Archiving |
The action of consolidating or relocating data to be stored in an accessible, usually separate, location for future reference. |
| Culling | The action of removing data altogether to save space, considered no longer essential and therefore not accessible in future. |
Before any archive or culling process you must ensure that you have a recent and verified backup of your data. This is a non-optional cautionary step to take; the nature of these features means that any problems that occur will almost invariably result in lost data, and the integrity of your backups should always be taken seriously.
Furthermore, you may also need to refer back to removed data at a later date. The only way to do this is to have a usable backup that you know the location of.
Before archiving and culling you must also ensure you have enough room on the hard drive of your server machine to hold the archived data. Ensuring that you have at least the size of your data file available as free space on your hard drive will be more than suitable.
A note on archiving and culling
The archiving patient correspondence and pathology results processes outlined in this article simply store your infrequently used data in a format that saves space in your data file. These remain accessible, even if they are no longer stored within Genie.
Script Archives, Old Invoices, and Online Claim Text cannot be recovered or restored back into your live data once removed, however. As such, please pay careful attention the descriptions of each of the functions in this article before you carry out these steps. If you are unsure about the effect any of these functions, you should contact Genie Support for further guidance.
If you require information from these records after they have been archived or culled, you will need to restore a backup from before the archive or cull to a Genie Solo application. This restored Genie Solo can only be used for reference, not for active clinical tasks.
For more information on restoring backups, please refer to our article on How to Restore a Backup.
Archive Patient Correspondence
You can access the Archive Patient Correspondence button through File > Maintenance and Reports > Monthly > Archive Patient Correspondence. Genie will prompt you to enter the cut-off limit in months.
On clicking OK, Genie will then perform a search for all letters created before the specified cut-off limit. You will be asked to confirm to delete the number of records Genie has identified you wish to archive.
Click Archive to proceed.
Once the letters are archived they will be moved out of the data file and into an Archived Letters folders, which reside in the patients' Images folders on the server. Archived letters are still listed in the Correspondence Out tab of the contact list in the patient’s clinical window, just like those that have not been archived.
Retrieving archived letters
If you have made a mistake, such as accidentally archiving more letters than suitable, you can undo this action by holding the Alt key on your keyboard and clicking the Archive Patient Correspondence button again to un-archive.
You can view and restore single archived letters by opening them through the patient's clinical window, just as you would for any other letter.
When an archived letter is viewed through the clinical window, it is taken out of the Archived Letters folder and placed back into the data file. A window appear briefly when you select an archived letter in a patient's clinical window. This is the letter being retrieved from Archived Letters.
You can access the Archive Pathology Results button through File > Maintenance and Reports > Monthly > Archive Pathology Results.
After selecting Archive Pathology Results, Genie will prompt you to enter the cut-off limit in months.
Once you have entered this cut-off limit and clicked OK, Genie will then search for all pathology results requested before the specified period. You will then be asked to confirm the number of records to be archived.
Click Archive to proceed.
Once the pathology results are archived, they will be moved out of the data file and into the Archived Results folders, which reside in the patients' Images folders on the server.
After archiving, the result is still listed on the Pathology Results tab of the contact list in the patient’s clinical window, just like those that have not been archived.
Retrieving archived results
If you have made a mistake, such as accidentally archiving more results than suitable, you can undo this action by holding the Alt key on your keyboard and clicking the Archive Pathology Results button to un-archive these again.
You can view and un-archive archived results by opening them through the patient's clinical window, just as you would for any other result.
When an archived result is viewed through the clinical window, it is taken out of the Archived Results folder and placed back into the data file. A window may appear briefly when you select an archived result in a patient's clinical window. This is the result being retrieved from Archived Results.
You can access the Archive HIC Online Claim Text button through File > Maintenance and Reports > Monthly > Archive HIC Online Claim Text.
Please note that this information cannot be restored back into your live data once erased.
When you select Archive HIC Online Claim Text, you will be advised as to how much space will be recovered.
What is being archived in this process is the text component of the transmission. No claims are deleted.
The transmission text is archived to the Archived Transmissions folder within the HIC Online folder in the Genie folder of the machine that performed the archive function.
Archiving of patient records does not delete the patient records from the database, but rather marks them as inactive so that they no longer appear in basic searches and on the recall list etc. We do not recommend deleting patient records, as although it is possible to restore deleted patient records, it is a tricky and time consuming process.
To archive patient records start by navigating to Open > Patients then cancelling the search window that appears and selecting the Patients menu > Find Inactive Patients.
This will then prompt you to choose the cut off date of when the patient was last seen e.g. patients not seen in the last 24 months.
This search is made using the Last Seen field. This field is given the value of the current date whenever the Clinical Window is opened and saved, or the patient is invoiced. If any patient records are found, Genie will offer to mark them as Inactive in their demographic window.
Marking inactive patients as active again
It is possible to make inactive patients active again, either on an individual basis, or through a bulk method. To mark a single patient as active again, locate their record through Open > Patients, highlighting their name in the result list, and clicking the demographic icon 
, then unticking the Inactive box and clicking Save.
To reactivate patients who have been made inactive based on how long it was since they were last seen, start by navigating to Open > Patients then cancelling the search window that appears and selecting the Patients menu > Find Inactive Patients.
This will then prompt you as to the cut off date of when the patient was last seen e.g. patients not seen in the last 24 months.
When prompted about whether you would like these patients to be active or inactive, select to Keep Active.
Before following the instructions below, please note that the Script Archive cannot be restored back into your live data once culled.
You can access the Cull Script Archive button through File > Maintenance and Reports > Monthly > Cull Script Archive.
After selecting Cull Script Archive, Genie will prompt you to enter the cut-off limit in months.
As stated on the button itself, you must legally keep script archive records for a period of 12 months. Click the OK button to proceed. You will be alerted how many old scripts will be deleted. Click OK.
Now that you have carried out this step, you will need to compact your data file. See the Compacting your data file section of this article for instructions to carry this out.
Before following the instructions below, please ensure that you are meeting ATO requirements for record storage. Please also note that Old Invoices cannot be restored back into your live data once culled.
You can access the Cull Old Invoices button through File > Maintenance and Reports > Monthly > Cull Old Invoices. Genie will prompt you to enter the cut-off limit in months.
Click the OK button. You will be prompted to confirm that all fully paid invoices will be deleted prior to the displayed date.
Click the OK button to proceed. You may see some windows appear as Genie sifts through the transaction records in your database. Next, a window will appear advising the number of transactions, sales, payments, and GST records to delete and that deleting these will permanently remove them from your data file.
Click Delete to remove these files, and you may see some progress windows for a moment advising that these records are being deleted. Once the process is complete, Genie will display the window below to advise you the purge was successful.
You can refer back to File > Practice Preferences > Practice Details in the Purged From and Last Purged fields for details of when you last performed this action in Genie.
Once you have performed a cull of old invoices you may find that the Locked column will become ticked in the Billing vs Income Report. This is to ensure the correct totals for the selected period of time are kept rather than reverting to 0 once the invoices have been deleted.
After performing any archiving or culling processes, the data file does NOT automatically shrink in size. You will need to compact your data file to recover the space gained. Make sure everyone is logged off the network before continuing, as it requires Genie Server to be run in maintenance mode.
Accessing the Maintenance and Security Centre via Genie Server
- Navigate to your Genie Server machine and open the Genie Server
application - Navigate to Help > Maintenance and Security Centre
Accessing the Maintenance and Security Centre via Genie Solo
- Navigate to your Genie Server machine and close Genie Server by navigating to File > Quit (Windows) or Genie Server > Quit Genie Server (Mac)
- Enter '0' into the Disconnect From Server In message or select Disconnect all Clients and Quit and click OK
3. Open Genie Solo 
4. Navigate to File > Maintenance and Reports > Maintenance & Security Centre
Compacting the Data
- In the Maintenance and Security centre, click on the Compact tab to the left
- Select the Compact records and indexes icon
- You may receive the prompt below:
- After you confirm this prompt the window will reopen and you will see a progress bar at the bottom of the window which will advise which table Genie is in the process of compacting as it moves through all the tables of the data file
- If the process was successful, you will be presented with the following message which references the location of the replaced data file:
- Close the Maintenance and Security Centre window and you will be prompted that the program will now quit. Accept this prompt
- Reopen the Genie Server program as per usual
- If you receive any errors or red crosses alongside the Compact records and indexes button during the compacting process, please contact Genie Support for further assistance.
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