Backup of Accounting Data

Special care must be taken with the backup of accounting files. Unlike typical word processing or spread sheet files, accounting files are extremely difficult to replace - something that is not fully understood by many computer technicians. A backup strategy that has been designed to handle general computer needs often does not serve the special needs of an accounting application.

An increasingly common backup strategy is daily backup of all computer programs and data to an external hard drive. Should your computer stop functioning, repairs are made and information on the external hard disk is reloaded. This works fine for most word processing and spreadsheet files. A full computer backup is made each night, but as each new backup is begun, the prior day's backup is erased. Unfortunately, this constant erasing of the prior day's backup is not appropriate for accounting applications.

Accounting data sometimes must be restored from a backup that is several days old. Data may have become corrupt, with the corruption not being recognized right away. When the data corruption is discovered, the best action is often to restore from the last good data backup - not the most recent backup. Another situation that occurs with accounting software is the need to reload data in preparation for an audit. Sometimes needed information has been purged. In this case the only way to retrieve the desired data may be to restore from a backup that is months or years old. It is difficult to reliably store these accounting backups of various ages if the only method of backup is a hard drive. To reliably store multiple accounting backups removable media are needed.

A common backup method that uses removable media is the tape drive. A dozen or so tapes are rotated as daily backups are completed. The advantage of using multiple tapes is that data of various ages can be retrieved as the need arises. Unfortunately there are also some disadvantages to using tapes. One disadvantage is that it can be difficult to find the needed accounting data. Suppose you want to restore last Thursday's accounting. To do this you'll have to search Thursday's tape, sifting through perhaps 1,000's of files, to find the accounting data you are looking for.

More and more, people are looking to CDR or DVDR for their backup needs. There are advantages to CDs and DVDs, but unfortunately they are not especially reliable or easy to use. For example, a backup produced on one computer will often not be able to be restored to another computer.

So what backup method is left for accountants and bookkeepers? So what backup method is left for accountants and bookkeepers? The gold standard of small business accounting data backup for the past 10 to 15 years has been and still is the Zip Disk^®, by Iomega. A Zip Disk is the same size and shape as a floppy disk, but with far greater speed and capacity. In fact each 250 Megabyte Zip Disk has the capacity of approximately 200 floppies - more than adequate for typical accounting backups. A benefit of using Zip Disk to backup is that you can backup using commands within your accounting application. This means that there is no need to learn special backup software or to use Windows commands such as copy and paste. After backup, the Zip Disk will contain nothing but your accounting data so you won't need to search for the files you need. Because Zip Disks are removable, you can rotate daily and weekly backups with a set of 6 or 12 Zip Disks. Some Zip Disks can be set aside for making backups on special occasions such as year end and prior to purging.

Since most computers do not contain an internal Zip Drive, you should consider purchasing an external USB^® Zip Drive. These drives are easy to install and operate with just one connection cable. This small cord is connected between the Zip Drive and your computer's USB port. Because the Zip Drives are so easy to install, it means you can use one Zip Drive with several computers. For example, at the end of the day, you can take your Zip Drive home and use it with your home computer. You can even use your Zip Drive to load your accounting data onto your home computer.

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