When RTG Bills is installed on a network, the program files and the data files are placed in a single location on a networked disk drive. To use RTG Bills from a PC on the network, you need two things on the PC:

1. A shortcut to the program (rtgbills.exe)
2. A set of required system files

The network installation instructions tell you to repeat the installation from each PC that will use RTG Bills. That procedure creates the shortcut to the program and also installs the system files on the PC.

Upgrading RTG Bills to a new version can create a problem. Suppose you install the upgrade from one PC, which then works properly. When you start RTG Bills on a second PC, which worked before, RTG Bills displays an error message. It says (among other things):

A file is missing or invalid.

This happens when the new version requires new or changed system files on every PC. The upgrade installed the new files on the PC that did the RTG Bills upgrade. But you can't do the same upgrade from the other PCs, because it can only be done once.

There are two ways to upgrade RTG Bills:

• Use the installation file for the latest version
• Use RTG Upgrade to install the free upgrade

We will discuss these two methods separately below.

One way to upgrade RTG Bills to a new version is to purchase the latest version, which is offered at a reduced price, and install it on each PC. You must specify, as the destination directory, the same single network location where RTG Bills was originally installed.

The purpose of doing the installation on each PC again is to ensure that any new or modified system files are installed on each PC. (Although not every version upgrade changes the system files, there is no easy way to tell if there are such changes.)

Another option is to install RTG Timer, instead of RTG Bills, on each PC. This works because the installation program is designed to install all of the necessary system files for both RTG Bills and RTG Timer, regardless of which program you actually install. So:

Installing RTG Timer will install the files needed by RTG Bills.

As explained in the network installation instructions, RTG Timer can be installed either on a file server or on each PC's hard disk. If it is installed on a file server, there must be a separate directory on the server for each PC. Either way, if you plan to use RTG Timer, you must install it in the same location you specified originally.

However, if you are not using RTG Timer, and you only install it to upgrade RTG Bills, it is simplest to put it on the PC's hard disk. Normally that would mean it is installed in C:\Program Files\Rtgbills.

Instead of buying the latest version of RTG Bills, you may wish to use the free upgrades that can be installed by RTG Upgrade.

When there are changes to the system files, the free upgrades will include them. However, since you can only upgrade RTG Bills once, from one PC, the free upgrade will install the system files on that PC, but not on any others.

The solution is to install RTG Timer on each PC. Upgrade RTG Bills from one PC, then upgrade RTG Timer on each PC. That will install any new system files on every PC. Even if you don't use RTG Timer, you should install it, and upgrade it, on each PC.

Following the preceding instructions, you may have installed RTG Timer, even though you don't wish to use it.

If you don't plan to use RTG Timer, you can delete the shortcut on the Desktop. You can also delete the Start menu items.

If you plan to use an installation file for future upgrades, you can even delete all the files in the directory where RTG Timer was installed, to be certain that it cannot be used. However, don't do this if you want to use the free upgrades, because you need the RTG Timer files to do a free upgrade to the next version.

Finally, if you uninstall RTG Timer, be careful. You may be asked if certain files that are no longer in use can be deleted. Do not delete them! These are the system files that you installed so that RTG Bills would work.