>I have to load the ASCII file into a temp vfp table. Sort the temp table by effective date (create an index on the date field). Then post the transactions to a VFP table in effective date order.

I have just a couple of suggestions. Does the index on the temp table exist before you append the data in the ASCII file? If so, I believe it is quicker to create the temp table without the index, append the data, then index on the effective date. You are probably already doing that.

Does any of this take place across a network, or is the ASCII file and the destination tables on the same machine?

What about increasing the memory from 64MB? VFP is a memory hog. Is anything else taking up memory when this application is running?