We all know it’s important to back up our files, but in many cases, it takes a crisis to drive the point home. Are you backing up your Quickbooks data regularly? Here are a couple of cases in which experienced bookkeepers learned this lesson the hard way:
- The QuickBooks file was stored on a desktop computer and backed up to the same computer; the computer crashed and the file was lost.
- The scheduled automatic back-ups within the Quickbooks file stopped running and no one took the time to re-set them. The bookkeeper went to create a portable file and accidentally selected “restore a portable file”. All the warnings popped up asking if she really wanted to over-write the data; she was distracted; typed “yes” anyway. The file she restored was three months old.
In both of these cases, months of accounting data had to be manually re-entered. DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOU!
Here are some tips to ensure your data is safe:
- Set the Automatic Back-up schedule within the Quickbooks program to run after hours. Set the schedule to run at a minimum, once a week
- The computer used to schedule the back-ups needs to be left ON and the hibernation mode turned off. (Seems like a no-brainer, but very easy to forget!)
- Make sure the data file is backed up to an external drive or the cloud. If you have a server, great, but servers crash too, plan for the worse.
- Pay attention to the QuickBooks warnings and verify that your back-ups are running as scheduled. Computer updates can often cause the back-ups to stop running.
A little planning on the front end will ensure that your data is protected, even when computers are lost, stolen or damaged. If you need additional help, please call us!
