Do you use one of the popular accounting software programs such as QuickBooks? Then you may have noticed that backing up the files associated with these programs isn’t always easy. In fact, many times those files are excluded from the normal backup process or version conflicts occur. Here are some tips for getting around problems such as these.
Why Not Use the Program’s Backup?
QuickBooks, along with many other accounting programs, provides a backup option through its software. This requires that you back up the files to an external device, such as a flash drive, portable hard drive or CD media or that you upload it to the software company’s cloud storage. But this process isn’t very efficient. For one thing, it’s an extra backup you need to worry about. For another, why store your accounting files in one place and all your other company data in another?
Files in Use Cause a Problem
When it comes to backing up the data, a problem you may encounter is that the accounting program is running continually throughout the day and so the files are considered to be constantly in use. The program itself often locks files in use to protect them from being copied before all the edits are made. When that locked file is updated on a different computer it creates a conflict; the cloud backup service could create a duplicate file on the new computer or not save the proper version. So in some cases, the data isn’t backed up at all; in others, the data is duplicated or conflicted.
SugarSync is one cloud service that simply does not sync files from Quicken and QuickBooks due to problems such as this.
The Problem with Syncing
Many cloud backup services today provide a syncing service to ensure that the stored file is always the most current edition. But this creates a problem if there is more than a single user accessing the data. If two or more people are working in QuickBooks at the same time, it’s unclear as to which version of the database will be uploaded to the cloud during the syncing process.
Another issue is what happens if the data is corrupted. The original file resides on your cloud storage server; then corruption occurs. If the file is synced right away, the backed up version on the cloud will be the corrupted file – not a good thing.
Best Practices for Backing up QuickBooks Data
Is there a solution for making a backed up copy of QuickBooks company data files? Well, yes and no.
If there is only one QuickBooks user in your company, problems are unlikely to occur. When used in an environment where several people are accessing the same files simultaneously, you can still copy those files to the cloud but be sure that they are not being synced continuously. Backing them up to the cloud once at the end of each day is a good idea.
If two people do make edits to the same file and you realize the problem before too long, you can always merge the changes using a utility tool compatible with QuickBooks, such as Data Transfer Utility.
Always use the accounting software and access related files directly from your computer’s hard drive or a company server. Many cloud storage services add a drive to your computer that allows you to directly access your cloud account; do not use that drive to access/open/edit files. Instead, just store copies of your data there.
Yes, you can use a third-party cloud storage service to back up your QuickBooks and other accounting software files. But do turn off syncing for those files and only use cloud storage as a place to store copies of your data.
