Cloud Backup
Cloud Backup is Solid Accounting's end-to-end encrypted backup for your company file. Backups are deduplicated, compressed and encrypted on your computer before they leave it, so the destination — ours or yours — only ever stores encrypted blocks.
Everything about backups lives in Settings → Backup & Restore. Company → Back Up Company File... opens the same screen. This page is the reference for how it works.
Turn it on
If backup isn't set up, the screen says Your books aren't backed up. Click Turn on backup and follow the steps:
- Where should your backups go? Pick one (table below).
- Confirm your password.
- Write down your recovery phrase — 12 words (24 for backups set up before version 26.10), on paper.
- Confirm you wrote it down by typing three of the words.
- Review and enable. The first backup runs right away.
| Destination | When to choose it | Storage |
|---|---|---|
| Managed by Solid Accounting (recommended) | The simplest setup | Included with Updates & Cloud Services: 3 GB (Standard), 5 GB (Professional), 10 GB (Accountant) |
| Pick a folder on this computer | A local folder, external drive, NAS, or cloud-synced folder | Yours |
| Use my own S3 credentials (advanced) | Your own S3-compatible bucket — AWS, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, Wasabi, MinIO | Yours |
The encryption is the same whichever you pick. If you choose a folder inside Dropbox, iCloud Drive, OneDrive, Google Drive or Box, the app points it out: the sync client may copy half-written blocks during a backup run. That's a note, not a block.
Once it's on
The screen shows Backup is on (with a switch to turn it off), where copies go, and when the last backup ran. Hover over the last-backup time to see the schedule and what's kept. From there:
- Back up now runs a backup immediately.
- Restore… goes back to an earlier point (below).
- Backup settings… lists the Places backups go. A copy is always kept on This computer. + Add a place adds another: Your cloud folder (a folder Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive or iCloud syncs), S3-compatible storage, or A folder or USB drive. Remove a place and its existing backups are left where they are.
Under More in Backup settings you'll find Verify integrity (checks the company file for damage), Encrypt attachments, Show recovery phrase… and Change backup password….
Schedule and what's kept
There are two kinds of copies, and each has its own rule for what's kept. Old copies are removed automatically.
| When it runs | What's kept | |
|---|---|---|
| Cloud Backup — the encrypted backup you turned on, at the destination you chose | Automatically | 7 daily, 4 weekly, 12 monthly and 5 yearly backups |
| Places — the copy always kept on This computer, plus any place you add in Backup settings… | Every hour while the app is open, and once when you close it | Every backup for 7 days, one a week for 30 days, and one a month for 180 days |
Each backup holds the whole company file — transactions, lists, settings, users, attachments and the Audit Trail. Restoring it is enough to rebuild your books on another computer.
Encryption and your recovery phrase
- Chunking and dedup. The company file is split into content-defined chunks (FastCDC: 1 MiB minimum, 4 MiB average, 8 MiB maximum), so recording one transaction re-uploads only the chunks that changed.
- Compression. Each chunk is compressed with zstd (level 3) before encryption.
- Encryption. A 256-bit backup key encrypts every chunk with AES-256-GCM and a fresh random nonce. From version 26.10 the key is derived (BLAKE3) from your 12-word recovery phrase; backups set up earlier use a random key. Either way it is also wrapped by a key derived from your password with Argon2id (256 MB memory, 3 iterations), and stored wrapped in each backup's manifest. The key never leaves your computer unwrapped, so the destination cannot decrypt your data.
- Recovery phrase. During setup you get a 12-word recovery phrase (128 bits). Backups set up before version 26.10 keep their 24-word (BIP39) phrase, and both restore. Write it on paper and keep it offline; don't screenshot or email it. Show recovery phrase… shows it again (password required). Your password or the phrase can each unlock your backups on its own; the phrase is your way back in if you forget the password.
- Password changes. Use Change backup password… after you change your sign-in password. Only the wrapping of the key changes; your existing backups stay readable and aren't re-uploaded.
What it protects against. A compromised or snooping destination (data is encrypted before upload), eavesdropping in transit, a lost or stolen laptop, and silent corruption (per-block hashes and authentication tags).
What it can't protect against. It can't help if you lose both your password and your recovery phrase — there is no back door — or if malware on your computer captures your password while you work. If the managed service is unreachable, managed restores wait until it's back; your local company file keeps working.
Restoring
From Settings → Backup & Restore, click Restore…:
- Choose the place to restore From, and pick a point (grouped into Today, This week and Earlier).
- Enter your password if asked, and click Restore.
The restored books open. Your books as they were before the restore are saved, so you can undo it. Restore from a file instead… restores a backup folder you pick (for example a copy saved by an older version); it replaces the open company file after you confirm.
On a new computer, choose Restore from cloud backup on the Welcome screen and enter your password or recovery phrase.
Only the blocks that backup needs are downloaded, so the time a restore takes depends on the size of your company file, not on everything stored at the destination.
Status and problems
The status bar shows whether backup is set up, up to date, running, or failed. A backup the storage service refuses is reported as failed, never as finished. A place with a problem shows Problem next to it in Backup settings.
Every backup action — setup, runs, restores, recovery-phrase displays, password changes — is written to a local backup log kept outside the company file, so it survives restoring an older backup.
Without Updates & Cloud Services
The managed destination is part of Updates & Cloud Services. If Updates & Cloud Services ends:
- New managed backups stop.
- Existing managed backups stay restorable, read-only.
- Backups on this computer, folders and your own S3 storage keep working exactly as before — the storage is yours.
- Solid Accounting and your company file keep working either way.