Having just got my practice licence I am keen to get my new business up and running. I was wondering how you seasoned folks deal with backups - both accounts and payroll.
Do you just take copies to keep yourself or do you pass a copy onto your client for safety. Do you use CD's or other forms ? I was also wondering about getting a "Data Fire safe" - which I have found quite cheap on Amazon for £88.
So I was really interested in getting some advice - I don't want to go into overkill but at the same time want to be careful.
I always think it's best to be over cautious with this type of thing. You need to think what would happen if your computer crashed and the information was not recoverable. What about fire or flood, a burst pipe etc. What do you need to do to ensure you can carry on with your business. If you are using CD's, can you keep copies somewhere else as well (eg at a family members etc).
An alternative to CD's is a remote back up and there are companies that can do this for you.
I would say a fire safe is a good idea for CD's and paper copies but you could also scan your documents and keep copies on your computer (as long as you have a back up).
I use two memory stick and back up on both but I keep them both separate so if anything was to happen to one then I always have the other. You can store a fair amount on them and they are only small.
Never really thought about the paper documents though, so will be scanning them and storing them on my memory sticks too.
Hi Zoe and Michelle I currently have an external hard drive to back up onto but will also go down the route of memory sticks. I have found the safe even cheaper now so will get one of those too.
answer from not bookkeeping but IT point of view. USB sticks not very safe to use even if you have two of them, external hard drives neither. just imagine your hard drive stops working the amount of data you loose. Most of the time there are ways to recover lost data even from damaged hard drive, but those methods are very expensive and there is no guarantee you will succeed. These backup methods are all right,comfortable but not safe. If you do backups on cd or floppy disk anything happens to a cd the only data you lost was a cd worth of data (well unless you managed to damage all backup cds in one go). Again this answer is only from IT point of view. Choose something what is really hard to damage, really hard to compromise data and if the worst happens the least data you loose. Just remembered, with Office Live you get free data storage i think. If you combine any of those USB etc. with remote backup you still should be all right. Should not be paying for remote backup some (well known) companies are offering it for free.
Responses are not meant as a substitute for professional advice. Answers are intended as outline only the advice of a qualified professional with access to all relevant information should be sought before acting on any response given.
