I agree with Larry. I like having PDF files rather than regenerating as Bob suggested. You have a time-stamped PDF file that "proves" what you invoiced on a certain date, rather than regenerating the data right now. If you re-generate the data later, you have to be careful of things like client names and addresses. At this client, their customers (the general public) can change their names (get married), move... So you need to prove exactly where and to whom you sent the invoice. If you store the data in a table, you have to store the name/address as it was at the time of the invoice, and not do a current lookup based on the customer ID. That IS how we do it right now since we can't store a PDF file, but again a PDF file is a better picture of what happened way back when.
Karen > Here are the benefits that I see to keeping archival PDFs in addition to > data: > > > A backup of important documents. > > > A time-stamped record of the appearance and contents of certain documents > at the time of generation. > > > Ability to fulfill document requests without using the database. > > > The possibility of maintaining "paper" copies of records without > maintaining any actual paper. > > > Integration with other document based systems (such as Sharepoint). > > > -- > Larry > >
