Backing up your books

Your company file holds every transaction, list, attachment, and Audit Trail entry. Losing it would be serious, so back it up in more than one place. The short version: 3 copies, 2 kinds of storage, 1 somewhere else.

The 3-2-1 rule

Copy	Where	Protects against
1	The company file on your computer	— (it's the one you use)
2	A folder on another drive or a NAS	A damaged company file, a failed disk
3	Encrypted cloud backup	Theft, fire, flood — losing the computer

Solid Accounting's backup can write to several places at once, so you can cover copies 2 and 3 from the same screen.

Set up Cloud Backup

Open the company file.
Choose Company → Back Up Company File…. It opens Settings → Backup & Restore.
Click Turn on backup and pick where backups go:
- Managed by Solid Accounting — the simplest option. Encrypted cloud backup included with Updates & Cloud Services: 3 GB (Standard), 5 GB (Professional), or 10 GB (Accountant).
- Pick a folder on this computer — a local, external, or network drive. You manage the storage.
- Use my own S3 credentials — your own AWS S3, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, or MinIO bucket.
Confirm your password.
Write down your recovery phrase. The app shows 12 words (24 for backups set up before version 26.10). Write them on paper and store them somewhere safe. Your password or the phrase can each open these backups on another computer. Lose both and there is no back door.
Confirm a few of the words, review, and turn it on. The first backup runs right away.

Cloud Backup then runs automatically and keeps 7 daily, 4 weekly, 12 monthly and 5 yearly backups. Separately, a copy is always kept on this computer and in any other place you add: those copies update every hour while the app is open and once when you close it, and keep every backup for 7 days, one a week for 30 days, and one a month for 180 days. The first backup takes longest; after that only the changed parts upload. Backups are encrypted on your computer before they leave it.

Keep a local copy too

A second place. In Backup settings…, click + Add a place and choose A folder or USB drive (an external drive or NAS) for fast restores.
Your operating system's backup (Windows File History, macOS Time Machine) works on a company file. It restores the whole file, not single transactions.
Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive. Fine as a backup destination folder. Don't keep the company file you work in inside a sync folder: the sync client can upload half-saved files and create conflicted copies.

What the company file includes

Everything: transactions, lists (accounts, contacts, Items & Services, classes), attachments, the Audit Trail, settings, and users. Back up the company file and you've backed up your books.

Not in the company file: your license activation (activate again with your key or account), and your recovery phrase (on paper, where you left it).

Restore

The company file looks wrong or damaged. Stop working in it. Open Settings → Backup & Restore, click Restore…, pick the point you want, and click Restore. The restored books open, and your books as they were are saved, so you can undo the restore. Then re-enter any work done since that backup — the Audit Trail shows what changed. If the company file won't open at all, choose Restore from cloud backup on the Welcome screen.

Your computer is lost or broken. On the new computer, install Solid Accounting and activate your license. On the Welcome screen choose Restore from cloud backup, point it at your backups, and enter your recovery phrase.

An import or an accountant's changes went wrong. Restore the point from before the change.

Updates & Cloud Services has lapsed. New backups to Managed by Solid Accounting stop. Your existing managed backups stay restorable (read-only), and backups on this computer, folders and S3 keep running. Your company file is unaffected. See Renewing Updates & Cloud Services.

Check that backups work

A backup only counts if you can restore it.

How often	What to do
Always	Let backups run. The status bar shows their state; fix a warning the day it appears.
Quarterly	Restore a recent backup on a spare computer, or with Restore… (you can undo it), and look for a recent transaction.
Quarterly	Run Verify integrity in Backup settings… and check that each place shows a recent backup.
Yearly	Find your written recovery phrase and make sure you can read it.

Common mistakes

"My company file is in Dropbox, so it's backed up." That's one copy in one place, and a risky place to work from. Add Cloud Backup.
"I have a USB drive in my desk." That's local, not offsite. A fire takes both.
"My disk is encrypted." Encryption protects against theft, not against disk failure, ransomware, or deleting the wrong thing.
Lost recovery phrase. If you also forget your password, the backups can't be opened. Print the phrase and store it somewhere you trust.
Managed storage full. Large attachment libraries can fill your tier's allowance. Add a folder or S3 place, or trim old attachments.
Backups stopped after moving to a new computer. Open Settings → Backup & Restore on the new computer and follow the prompt to reconnect. See Migrating between machines.