Overview of Fiscal Year Backups

To protect against the loss of year-end information on your computers and servers, a backup of the hard disk is required. 

This memo will explain why, when and how the procedure should be done.  It will also answer the frequently asked questions people have concerning backups.

Why do you need a year-end backup? Primarily for tax purposes. Just in case you're faced with the dreaded audit, you need to have all your financial information readily available.

Best practices now dictates that firms of all sizes employ an offsite facility for backup and archiving purposes. This practice, once an expensive proposition, can now be more economical than the alternative - less secure onsite backup solutions.

Offsite backup providers and their services now use the efficiencies of the internet and sophisticated encryption to send your data to high-end data center facilities. It works by installing the offsite backup software on your computer or server and then selecting which files you want to back up and how often.

Your files are then sent over the internet to the service provider's data centers that are located in geologically sound areas of the country. The more reputable backup companies duplicate your backup files and data to several such facilities as an added measure. This type of arrangement is known as a "software as a service" solution so no additional hardware is necessary.

If you can't afford to lose your files and data, back it up offsite!

When planning a fiscal year backup, you should always include your accounting files. It is recommended that a backup be done before performing the following:  file purges, end of day/month/year process, reorganizing files and automating processes (i.e. update).  Reasons for making a backup for these functions, is that a mistake may be made in selecting parameters and/or some information may be lost.  The original data can easily be restored from your offsite backup to your hard disk.  When in doubt, do a backup. 

Backup Plus Archive

The offsite backup service providers listed to the right offer backup plus archiving to CD-ROM or DVD-ROM or to an external hard drive as an additional service. This is important (and in fact required) in many industries including the legal and medical fields.