One of the most important tasks small business operators have is to safeguard their business data. All too often, data backups are ignored until the business computer crashes or some other disaster makes data recovery impossible. It is extremely important to back up transactional data frequently and to keep the backup storage media in a separate location from the original data file.

To back up a QuickBooks accounting data file, use the following steps:

 1. Open the Company file.

 2. Close any active QuickBooks windows.

 3. From the File menu at the top of the screen, choose Back Up (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: File » Back Up menu.

A QuickBooks Back Up Company File window appears (see Figure 2). Here you will select the filename for the backup and the location where the backup file will be stored. You can store the created backup file on the computer hard drive, or select the floppy disk drive and store the file on floppy disks that can easily be stored offsite.

Figure 2: Back Up Company File window.

 4. Under Filename, the default filename of the company file will appear.

You needn’t change this filename unless you want the backup file to have a different filename than the active company file.

 5. Under Location, you can select where you want to save the backup file. The window will show the default file location.

 To change this location, click on the Browse button. A Back Up Company To… window appears, and you can navigate to where you want to save the file, either on the computer hard drive or the floppy disk drive (see Figure 3). Once the filename and location are correct, click Save. You return to the Back Up Company File window.

Figure 3: Back Up Company To… window.

 6. Choose either OK or Back Up, depending on the version of QuickBooks that you are running (Figure 2).

 7. When the backup is complete, the message “Your data has been backed up successfully” will appear. Click OK to clear the message and return to QuickBooks.

Backing up your data is a crucial step to ensure data integrity in case of disaster or other system failure. If we help you with this process, please don’t hesitate to contact us.