System Requirements

In order to install BigTime, you should make sure that the computer meets the minimum system requirements shown below. Keep in mind that BigTime turns your computer into a mini web-server, so you'll need to make sure that the system is able to operate as a web-server before installing BigTime.

Hardware/Software Requirements

The minimum requirements you'll need to run the system are as follows:

• IBM compatible 350 MHz Pentium II computer.
• 512 MB (megabytes) of RAM memory required (1GB recommended).
• At least 250MB (megabytes) of free hard disk space.
• Windows operating system

  For installations with less than 5 users:

  • Windows XP Professional (service pack 1 or higher) or,
  • Windows 2003 or,
  • Windows Vista

    For installations with more than 5 users:

  • Windows 2003 or,
  • Windows Vista
• A TCP-IP compliant network. BigTime acts as a mini web-server inside your corporate network, so your network needs to support that type of traffic. Most networks do, so it shouldn't be a problem. If you are running one or more MAC computers, your MAC computers will need to be able to see the PC on which BigTime is installed. You won't need to share files between these systems, but you will need to be able to see the web service on the PC.
• An integrated accounting system (this is only required if you plan to track invoices, A/R and/or vendor expenses).
  • BigTime can be integrated with QuickBooks US Edition (2003 or higher), QuickBooks Online, or several international versions of the product (Canadian, UK or Australian). It can also be connected with other accounting systems, so check with your sales rep for details. Note that BigTime needs its own copy of a license for QuickBooks if you intend to run integration "in the background" on the server (QuickBooks requires a copy of the system to be installed and registered on the server in order to connect from there to your company data file).
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (service pack 3/3a) or 2005. BigTime ships with a free copy of Microsoft SQLExpress, but that server starts to slow down when you have more than 15-20 people in your organization. Once you get to that size, consider installing the full version of Microsoft SQL Server (either on the BigTime server, or on its own server).
• File backup/recovery plan. BigTime runs within a SQLServer environment and it can create a "backup" file regularly for your company data. It's important to save that backup file off site, so that you minimize data loss in the event of a program or system failure.

Larger Installations. Installations with more than 20-30 users should consider placing BigTime on a dedicated computer, and systems which host multiple applications (e.g. - Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Sharepoint, QuickBooks, SQL Server, etc.) should have enough RAM memory to host each of those applications.