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How to Make Lists and Forms Faster in Nine Simple Steps

If your lists are slow, unresponsive, or freeze, please read on about how to configure list speed optimization. Steps #1 through #3 will take about three minutes and likely make a considerable difference in speed.

The various lists in Total Office Manager can get very large. A Customer or Work Order list might have hundreds of thousands of records. Depending on what columns you are including in that list, sorting, searching, and filtering can become slow. We offer numerous features that will help speed up the performance of your lists. In this article, we will cover two of those features known as Fast Lists and Max Lists. Be sure to check out our other speed tips. We have left the links below.

Both features mainly work by limiting the number of records shown in the lists. Fast Lists create pages and Max Lists limit the number of records in the list. We generally recommend Max Lists over Fast Lists.

Think of it this way, when you go to a shopping website like Amazon® or Ebay®, you are not shown their entire product list. You select a category or perform a search. The results are limited to a set number. If you have too many results, you narrow your search criteria.

1. List Speed Optimization (do this first)

Hide Slow List Columns

TOM was first released in 2004. Since then, we have added hundreds of additional columns to the dozens of lists inside the software. Most of those columns load quickly, while others do not. Some columns can add a lot of extra processing time to opening, searching, and sorting filters.

Example: The Customer:Job list allows users to include a column called Financial History (Yes or No). To provide this information, TOM must query every row on that list, one at a time, to see if that contact has any financial related records. This information might be handy to have but displaying it comes at a cost to speed. Not every user needs this information and can do without it.

This procedure will hide all the columns that require extra processing time for all users. Each user can always add back columns they really need themselves. Most users will never notice the columns are missing but may notice the software working much faster.

  1. From the main menu, click Edit | Preferences | Appearance | Company Preferences.
  2. Look for a button called “Hide Columns that Significantly Slow List Performance” and click it.
List Speed Optimization

This process unchecks the boxes needed to hide these columns for all users. Users may still add those columns back if they wish. You can perform this procedure any time you need to. Note: If a form is opened when you perform this action, the form will need to be closed and reopened for the changes to take effect.

2. Database Maintenance (do this second)

  1. From the Main menu, click File > Company File Information.
  2. Open the File Properties tab and take note of File Size and RAM Used by the Database.
  3. Go to the Database Stats tab. See if the Compatibility Levels are the same. If they are not, ask your IT pro for help. This topic could help them: https://www.aptora.com/tips/database-maintenance/
  4. Check the Indexes to Rebuild and Indexes to Reorganize fields. They should be around 50 or less. Regardless of their value, click the Run Database Maintenance button. Click the Refresh button or close the form and reopen it to make sure the values are refreshed.
  5. Check the File Size and RAM Used by the Database again to see if the numbers are smaller. Check the Indexes to Rebuild and Indexes to Reorganize again. Those numbers should be smaller. If this maintenance was needed, the entire database should respond faster.

Database Information and Stats

3. Adjust Form Refresh Settings (do this third)

Once you perform steps one through three, you may notice a considerable difference. Note, if you are hosted by Aptora, we take care of this step for you each night. It is okay to proceed with this though.

  1. From the main menu, click Edit > Preferences
  2. Click Refresh > Company Preferences
  3. Locate the Auto Refresh Changed Lists option and uncheck that box.

If you feel that you must have this option checked, we recommend 180 seconds or more.

Why: A forced refresh is often unnecessary and may create a large load on your database and network. This form has a label that explains why this is helpful and why you likely do not need this turned on.

4. Uncheck Columns That You Do Not Need

You may not need to follow this step. If you performed the steps in #1, that process did the same thing this process will do. The instructions below explain how to perform that process manually an select each column individually.

The larger lists have a preference form called Show Columns. This form offers a list of columns that you can include or exclude from the list. Many users leave all of them checked. Some of them are not needed while others can cause your lists to load, sort, filter, and search very slowly. Some users might notice the software freezing, unresponsive, or locking up. The following lists and forms contain these types of columns.

Show Columns
  1. Caller ID
  2. Check List
  3. Customer:Job List
  4. Customer:Job Lookup
  5. Invoice/Sale/Credit/Estimate List
  6. Invoice Items List
  7. Receive Payments List
  8. Work Order List
  9. Work Order Lookup
  10. Chart of Accounts List
Column Preferences

Quickly Hide Columns

  1. From the Main Menu, click Edit | Preferences | Appearance | Company Preferences.
  2. Look for a button called “Hide Columns that Significantly Slow List Performance” and click it.

Important Note

Users can still add these columns back to their lists. This might be needed for some users but not necessary for others. We recommend that you periodically use this utility to remove columns from users. They will add them back, if they really need them.

5. Using the Fast Lists Feature

The Fast Lists feature was designed to make the process of searching through excessively large lists (such as the Customer:Job List for large companies) faster. It works through pagination (organizing the contents of the list into pages). With this feature turned on, you might have fifteen pages to tab through rather than one very large list.

Enable Fast Lists

To use the Fast Lists feature you must first enable it in Preferences. You must have permissions in security to access this preference. This preference will apply to all users. Here is how to turn on Fast Lists.

  • Click Edit | Preferences | Appearance | Company Preferences.

  • Check the List Speed checkbox and select the Use Fast List radio button.

  • In the “Maximum records per page” box, enter how large you want your pages to be. We generally recommend 500.

Usage of Fast Lists

Your lists will now include four new buttons at the top left called First Page, Previous Page, Next Page, and Last Page. Conduct your search as normal. Use those buttons to move through the various pages of search results.

Paging Controls

Tips

  • When sorting a list, you will be sorting ONLY the records visible in the lists. For most users, this is not an issue.
  • When you open the list, right-click, click Open List in MS Excel, the Max List feature will export the entire list of active records, regardless of how many are being displayed on those lists.
  • User Filters will search the entire record set (all pages).
Disadvantages of Fast Lists
  • When you open the list, right-click, click Open List in MS Excel, only the results of that page are exported. The Max List feature will export the entire list of active records, regardless of how many are being displayed on those lists.
  • When Fast Lists is enabled, the Customer:Job list will load in “Flat” view. That is, it will display Parent:Child relationships with the parent name, a colon, and then the child name. (Ex. Megamart and Megamart:Store1). Max Lists does not have this issue.

6. Using the Max Lists Feature

This is generally the option we recommend for speed list optimization.

The Max Lists feature was designed to make the process of searching through excessively large lists (such as the Customer:Job List for large companies) faster. It works by limiting the number of records that are displayed in a list. The user decides how many records will be displayed.

To use the Max Lists feature you must first enable it in Preferences. You must have permissions in security to access this preference. This preference will apply to all users. Here is how to turn on Fast Lists”

  • Click Edit | Preferences | Appearance | Company Preferences.

  • Check the List Speed checkbox and select the Use Max List radio button.

  • In the “Maximum records per list” box, select how large you want your pages to be. We generally recommend 100.

7. Faster Customer:Job History

  1. Click File | Preferences | Customer:Jobs | My Preferences.
  2. Look for the “Show Balance on Sales Tab in the Customer History Form” and consider unchecking that box.

The process of calculating and displaying that value can slow down this form. If you do not need this information, uncheck the box.

8. Load Customer:Job List Form Faster

  1. Go to Preferences | Customer:Job | My Preferences.
  2. Check the “Load the Customer:Job List Empty

The Customer:Job List form will open without loading the entire Customer:job list. You can still search as usual.

Note: If you are using the Max List or Fast List feature, this may not be as effective and not needed.

9. Load Customer Related Forms Faster

When you open a form to edit it, the entire Customer:Job list is loaded. This to make changing the customer faster. If you rarely change the customer, you do not need this list preloaded.

  1. Go to Preferences | Customer:Job | Company Preferences.
  2. Check the box called Do Not Load Customer:Jobs on Add
  3. Check the box called Do Not Load Customer:Jobs on Edit

Forms will open without loading the entire Customer:job list. You can still change the customer by clicking a Load List option.

More Speed Tips

  1. When you open a Fast Lists enabled list, such as the Customer:Job list, Work Order list or Invoice/Sale/Credit/Estimate list, it will load blank. This allows the window to open more quickly and enables you to use the various filter options (i.e. User Filters, Quick Filter, etc.) to more quickly search through the lists as it will only load what you need and none of what you don’t. However, you are still able to use the Default Filter to “Show All” and load your entire list.
  2. With Fast Lists enabled, the lists include “paging” options. Imagine you have a Customer:Job list with 300,000 records. Instead of trying to load all 300,000, the list will only load a certain amount per page (set by the user). You will be able to open, search, filter, and sort much faster than before.
  3. When you activate Fast Lists for the first time, the feature will hide certain columns, found in certain lists. These columns are ones that slow down your lists because they perform calculations each time the lists are opened, sorted, filtered, or searched. There are not many of these columns and you can always reactivate them. For example, in the Customer:Job list click the Customer:Job menu in the upper left side of the form. Now click Form Preferences | Show Columns. These are columns whose names end with an asterisk, such as Financial History*. Max Lists does not do this. Your column selections are not changed.
  4. When sorting a list, you will sort the entire list (all records, from all pages) and return the sorted results.
  5. User Filters will search the entire record set (all pages).

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