Regional Settings

For firms that are installing BigTime on system running non-U.S. regional settings, you can let the BigTime server know that you'd like to use an alternate set of regional settings for dates and currencies.

The regional settings are controlled from the Monitor, and they can be adjusted by following these steps:

1. Choose the View... Database Info menu item in your BigTime Monitor.
2. Click the REGION button on that form, and BigTime will popup a regional selection dialog box.
3. Choose the regional settings you'd like the system to use and then click the OK button.
4. Click CANCEL on the Database Info screen (to avoid re-setting your database connection information).
5. Restart the Monitor to make sure that the regional settings are applied to your system.

Keep in mind that your BigTime server must be INSTALLED using the regional settings you've specified. If it was installed using the default regional settings, then you'll need to change the default settings from within the windows registry.

The IIS service uses the computer's default regional settings, and changing them from the windows control panel will only change them for the user who is logged in at the time. There's a helpful article on how to update your computer's "default" regional settings on the Microsoft support site.

SQL Server "DBO" Requirement

For most installations, the SQL Server login is set when BigTime is installed and never changes. In fact, most of our customers just use the "sa" login.

If you'd like to create a database user specifically for BigTime, then make sure that the user is setup as the database owner for your BigTime database.

Setting up a Special BigTime SQL User

The SQL Login used by BigTime will need to be set as the database owner ("dbo") for the BigTime database. To add a new user login as the "dbo" for your BigTime database, then follow these steps:

1. Don't grant your new user rights to the BigTime database. This may see counter-intuitive, but the next step won't work if your new login is already a user in the BigTime database.
2. Login to the BigTime database as the current admin user (typically "sa").
3. From the Query Analyzer, run the sp_changedbowner stored procedure to add your new user to the BigTime database ("sp_changedbowner 'NEWUSER', 1"). This will (a) add your new login as a database user and (b) assign them the "dba" role.

You can confirm this assignment by looking at the user list for the database. Your new user should be listed as the "dbo" there.