Learning Acumatica - Need help to setup a Demo environment

HI @MikeT 

Are you a current customer of Acumatica or a new VAR?

Hi KB, and THANK you for your response. Unfortunately, I’m neither a customer and/or a VAR… I would like to eventually become an Acumatica Certified Consultant and have embarked on this journey to learn Acumatica. I need assistance to get my Demo (test) environment properly setup so I can study the self-learning guides provided by Acumatica University. 

Please note I know nothing about Acumatica and there are a few new terms used in this ERP system that I need to learn. 

Any ideas/suggestions/comments how I can get help from an experienced installer who can help me configure my Acumatica properly? If you can help me, is there a phone number I can reach you at so we can talk? Whatever makes sense to you… Thanks again.

HI @MikeT 

Here are some helpful articles for you to use:

https://www.pcbennett.com/blog/how-to-install-acumatica-locally/

https://www.acumatica.com/blog/setting-up-local-developer-instances-of-acumatica/

@MikeT First question is do you want to run this locally or in the cloud? I can help you get setup if you like. Maybe we can use this forum post as a guide for others also. The links posted by @kbeatty21 are not bad, but there are some missing steps in each of those articles.

THANK YOU for these great tips and the quick reply! I should have mentioned that I finally got Acumatica running on my computer but I cannot load the demo (sample) Tenant U100 as the Acumatica documentation recommends. Being a beginner, I have NO IDEA how the Acumatica versions and licenses work :(

Here’s the error message I’m getting when I try to “Import the Snapshot” that Acumatica has created for me to use with my training material and stuff:

(Error message: Package version ‘22.202.0040’ differs from application version 22.104.0012)

I think I need the an experienced installer to remote into my computer and help me configure it properly. I am probably a step away from making it work but, as I said, being very green in this environment, and have come to a standstill.

HELP!

Cheers,

Mike

It’s telling you that the snapshot you are trying to restore from is based on a different version than you are currently running.

If you go to “Apply Updates” inside of Acumatica, you should see an option to upgrade to 22.202.0040, which will bring your Acumatica version in line with the package version. Use the “Download Package” option with that verion selected, and then you should be able to “Install Update”.

Once your Acumatica version is the same as your snapshot version, you should be able to restore the snapshot. 

Hi rosenjon,

FYI, I have managed to install Acumatica locally on a Windows server that I am renting from a cloud provider (DATAMART) and accessing it remotely. I am trying to keep the installation as simple and easy as possible so I can start practicing from the user guides provided by Acumatica University.

What do I do? I think any experienced installer who can take 5 minutes to review my Acumatica installation will probably figure out how to setup the sample Tenant (U100), etc. 

I’m all ears! Thank you all for your assistance.

HI @MikeT 

You can find your version here of what package you need, open the Acumatica installer:

Once you go to the builds.acumatica.com, you will be able to find your version there

Acumatica uses the year as the main version for example 20.1 is 2020 R1

WOW… I like all these answers…  Thank you everyone for all that… Let me try them out and see how far I get… I’ll let you know.

Cheers,

Mike

Hi @MikeT -

Looks like you got it figured out. @kbeatty21’s solution is probably a bit more direct than mine. It’s kind of 6 of one, half a dozen of the other.

Thanks,

Jonathan

Hi guys, I’m not out of the woodwork yet. Ok, the links to website you guys provided: “builds.acumatica” is extremely useful (and thank you for that) and has all the versions listed except mine! Please see attached. What do I do now?!

False alarm… please ignore my previous email about ‘my build’. I found it… see attached.

If you have not yet deployed an instance, you will have to choose “Deploy New Application Instance”. This is where you will setup the site (you will need to have Sql Server running on your machine). You will need to provide credentials for Sql Server so that Acumatica can create a database and populate it.

Based on the conversation so far, I am going to assume you haven’t yet installed Sql Server. If this will be purely a development instance, where only you will be using it, then you should be fine with Sql Server Developer Edition, which is free: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/p/?linkid=866662

Download fromt that link, then install Sql Server. Let us know when that’s done, and I can walk you through the next step.

Hi kbeatty21 and rosenjon,

First the good news… I was able to import the snapshots of Tenants U100 and U100_Basic_company… HURRAH!  I’m a happy camper or should I say… TENANT!

Now the challenge… is there another step (e.g. restore) that I need to take before I can start poking around the GL, AP and other modules so I can view the structure, etc.?  For example, I clicked on the “Finance” menu option and then “Chart of Accounts” but an error popped up that said, “The requested resource is not available. The reuired configuration data is not entered on the Company Branches form.” which I have no idea what to do next...

Cheers,

Mike

Once you imported the snapshot, did you choose “Restore Snapshot” in the Tenants Form?

Please see screen shots of my SQL Server version that I’m running with Acumatica. I have a feeling that I might have missed a step that involves a Web. service but I’m not sure!

Cheers,

Mike

PS. Also see attached screen shot of the IMPORTED SNAPSHOT which I forgot to attach in my previous message.

Click on Restore Snapshot, and it will restore U100… (see arrow in screenshot). That’s of course assuming you haven’t already done that.

It looks like you already have Sql Server on this computer to run Sage, so it just installed your Acumatica database into that server, which is fine.

Hi kbeatty21 and rosenjon,

SUCCESS!  See attached the Chart of Accounts screen that came up after I restored the Snapshot.

First of all, I’d like to express my gratitude for all your help. You guys made my day! It’s been over a week that I’ve tried to get help from Acumatica but I did not get clear answers. I specifically asked if I could talk directly to one of their tech support people but I got no answer :(

You guys zeroed into my issues and gave me the relevant information to get my DEMO system off the ground.

I uploaded the U100 and U100_Basic_Company Snapshots and restored them accordingly. I have no idea what their differences are but I thought, as might as well, so I can study them. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Onwards and upwards for the next adventure.

Cheers,

Mike T. 

HI @MikeT -

Great! Glad you got it working. Since you aren’t a customer of Acumatica, I think maybe you can’t blame them too much for not helping out. If they took support requests from non-paying people, it might degrade the quality of support for paying people. I think the community forums like these are the proper place for these kinds of requests, so glad we were able to get you going.

Thanks,

Jonathan

Hi @rosenjon 

I understand your comment about ‘non-paying people’, and I do not blame them as I’m an ‘outsider’ at the moment. However, I think Acumatica has to look at the bigger picture… I had made my intentions clear to them that I wanted to become a Certified Consultant because I’m expanding my ERP business. I’m in a position to sell Acumatica to potential customers. In my opinion, if Acumatica invests a bit of time in me and, once I get up to speed with the program, I can sell and bring in revenues. In other words, I see it as a ‘win-win’ situation. My guess is Acumatica has a lot of business coming in at the present and perhaps not as hungry as other ERP vendors. In any case, I’m really glad and grateful for this community and the nice people like you who helped me. 

Wishing you all the best.

Mike