Backups - Backups - Backups !!

If your computer was damaged by fire, floods or vandalism, or if it got wiped by a virus or crashed and your hard drive was unrecoverable, would your data files be safe? Your data is vitally important to your business, and can so easily be safeguarded by putting in place a system of regular backups and storage off site.

The cost of doing this would be minimal - the cost of not doing it could be enormous.
Most accounting software packages have a built-in backup system. You can back up your data to a folder on your computer's hard drive, to a 3.5" floppy disk, to a Zip disk or to a CD, depending on what is available on your computer. Do it as often as possible. And more importantly, do it regularly onto disks or CDs that you can take off site. It is also important to have a set of backup disks or CDs (preferably three) that you rotate, noting which one you use each time, so that you are not backing up onto the same one each time. That way are not relying on just one disk or CD, which may get damaged without you realising it, and you have several back-dated data options to restore from if something goes wrong.

How often to back up is a frequently-asked question. The real question is how much data could you afford to lose - a morning's, a day's, a week's, a month's? It really depends on how much data is being input, and how long would it take to be re-input if your data files were damaged and you had to restore to the last available backup. In our office we do a backup at the end of each day of any data that has been input during the day, and then that is taken off-site. Some people do this weekly, as their data input is not huge.

If you have a system backup set to run at the end of each day, make sure that your data files are actually being included in the backup. Double check the location of the files that the backup includes, especially if you have recently changed or upgraded your accounting software.

Verify your backups

This is very important. If you don't verify after each backup, now is the time to start doing so, otherwise you could end up with backup files that are corrupted or disks that are faulty and never know it until you actually need to restore them, by which time it is too late!

If you are using Accredo Mercury or Saturn, or Profax accounting software series 3000II, 6000 or 7, there is a built-in Verify option, which you should make sure is set as a default. This checks that your backup is successful and that the disk you have backed up to is working as it should be. If you are using Profax 3000, you need to select the Verify option after each backup. It can be a bit of a nuisance if your backup takes several disks - but it is worth doing, otherwise your backup could be completely useless.

Since the release of QuickBooks 2004 there has been an option to verify your backups. If you have turned this off, you can easily turn it back on by going to Preferences, General, My Preferences, and re-tick ‘Bring back all one-time messages’. The message will then come up every time you are backing up your QuickBooks data to removable media. It will check your backup by doing a test restore and will tell you if your backup has been successful. Older QuickBooks software unfortunately has no back-up verification routine. The only way to check that your QuickBooks backup is OK is to restore it to another company file. Set up a new company file called Test Backups, and restore your backup to it. If it restores successfully then you know your backup is OK. But a word of warning, make sure you don't carry on processing in the Test Backup company file instead of the proper company file! It is important to change the company name in the Test Backup file after restoring your data to it - go to the Company Tab (older versions of QuickBooks) or the Company drop down menu (QuickBooks 2002), and change the name in the Company Info to 'Test Backup', so that this appears at the top of the screen when you are in the Test Backup company file. Then close that company file and re-open your normal company file before you close out of QuickBooks. This avoids the Test Backup file being opened automatically next time you open up QuickBooks.

Another word of warning when restoring your data into QuickBooks:

The QuickBooks Restore option completely deletes the existing company data file before restoring the data from your backup. So you should always restore to a new company file and check that your data is OK, and then delete your old company file and rename the new company file. If your old company file is deleted during a Restore and then you discover an fault in your backup media, it is too late!

Check your computer settings

In all versions of the Windows Operating System, there is a setting that needs to be checked in order to avoid data corruption. It is called 'Write Behind Caching', and if it is enabled, your data can end up in strange places and get partially lost and corrupted. To get to this setting in Win 95 or 98, double click on My Computer, Control Panel, then System, then single click on Performance, File System then Troubleshooting. Make sure there is a tick in the box next to 'Disable write behind caching for all drives', and click OK.

In Win 2000, NT or XP, go to My Computer, right click on the local drive, click Properties, click the Hardware tab, click the Disk Properties tab, if the 'Write Cache Enabled' check box is ticked, untick it.

Computer Crashes

If your computer crashes or locks up halfway through entering data, you may end up with corrupt data files. It is a good idea to check for this immediately rather than discover weeks later that you have a problem. If you suspect that your files may have been damaged, use your accounting software's self checking procedure to check your data.

If you are using Accredo or Profax do a backup first (back up onto new disks or into a new file, rather than over-writing a previous backup), then run File Recovery on all modules. This will check your data and correct any errors it finds, or if the error is not fixable you will be advised to restore to a previous backup.

QuickBooks has a Verify Data option available through Utilities, on the File drop down menu. This checks your data and then tells you whether it is OK or not. If there is a problem you will be advised to run the Rebuild Data option, which is also on the same Utilities menu. It does a backup as part of this process, then rebuilds your data if it is rebuildable. If this fails you may need to restore to a previous backup.

You don't need to be a rocket scientist to realise that the sooner a potential problem is addressed, the less data you will lose if you have to restore to a previous uncorrupted data backup.