Suppose you want two separate RTG Bills databases for two different firms on one computer. It would be convenient if you could create a separate shortcut for each firm that started RTG Bills with the correct Data Location.

Here we will provide a way to do that, but it does require some computer expertise to set it up. You need to create folders, shortcuts, and text files.

Starting with RTG Bills V2.17, the programs are usually installed in this standard location:

C:\Program Files\Rtgbills

for 32-bit Windows, or

C:\Program Files (x86)\Rtgbills

for 64-bit Windows.

The data files are installed in a different location, the Data Location. On a standalone PC (no network), the standard Data Location is:

C:\ProgramData\RTG\RTG Bills

However, on a network, the Data Location could be anywhere on the network. It might be in a shared location like this:

\\MyServer\Rtgbills

where MyServer would be replaced by the actual name of your file server.

With RTG Bills V2.21 and above, it is possible to install RTG Bills programs in more than one folder and to have each copy refer to a different Data Location. To do that, you create a file named datadir.rtg in each folder where RTG Bills programs are installed. That file will tell RTG Bills where to find the data.

The file datadir.rtg is a text file containing four lines. The first line is always 231. The second line is the Data Location for RTG Bills and the third line is the Data Location for RTG Timer. The fourth line is the license key (without hyphens) that RTG provides when you purchase a license for RTG Bills. The file looks like this in Notepad or a similar text editor:

231
\\MyServer\Rtgbills1
\\MyServer\Rtgbills1\User1
GWBHWMKGQQWT

This file says that the data files for RTG Bills are located on the network in this shared folder:

\\MyServer\Rtgbills1

and the data files for RTG Timer, for User1, are located on the network in this shared folder:

\\MyServer\Rtgbills1\User1

The subfolder User1 provides for the possibility that you have more than one RTG Timer user. Each requires a separate data folder, so you could name them User1, User2, and so on.

For a single user with a non-networked installation, both the second and third lines would normally be this location:

C:\ProgramData\RTG\RTG Bills

You can install a second copy of RTG Bills in a different location, say:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Rtgbills2

and have its copy of datadir.rtg point to different data locations, say:

\\MyServer\Rtgbills2

for RTG Bills and

\\MyServer\Rtgbills2\User1

for RTG Timer.

Thus, for the second copy of RTG Bills, the datadir.rtg file would look like this:

231
\\MyServer\Rtgbills2
\\MyServer\Rtgbills2\User1
GWBHWMKGQQWT

Finally, give the user two different shortcuts, one for each copy of RTG Bills. The data in the two programs will now be completely separate.

A word of caution is in order. Be absolutely certain you want two separate RTG Bills databases before you do this. You cannot combine two databases later.