How to Schedule Backups in Quickbooks
As the saying goes, hope for the best but prepare for the worst, holds true when running a business. Hopefully, nothing will happen to your data, but if it does, you should have a backup copy ready just in case. The good news is that Quickbooks has a built-in backup tool that allows business owners and accountants to schedule backups at specific times. To learn more about this tool and how to use it, keep reading.
To schedule a backup in Quickbooks, open the Schedule Backup window and enter a description into the box. You can include any description that you would like, although it’s recommended that you make it somewhat relevant to the backup (e.g. October backup). This will allow you to find it more easily at a later time, should you ever need it.
Click the Browse button and choose the destination where you would like to store the backup. Keep in mind that the “save to” destination doesn’t have to be on your hard drive. It can also be on a USB flash drive, zip disk, or network drive.
There’s also an option to limit the number of backups to keep. If you have limited storage space available on your computer and don’t have access to another drive, for instance, you may want to limit your backups to four or five. When it reaches this amount, new backups will still be saved but they will replace the older ones.
After following the steps mentioned above, click the Store Password button at the top of the page and enter your Windows login information. Keep in mind that you need to enter your actual Windows password and not your Quickbooks password. This is necessary because Quickbooks will be accessing your files and folders; therefore, Windows requires the correct username and password.
Choose the time, frequency and days for your backup in the next field. This can be daily, weekly, monthly, etc. If you choose daily backups, you may find your available storage space dwindling down, as backup files can be fairly large. But if you limit the number of backups it saves, this shouldn’t be a problem.
When you are finished, click OK to return to the previous window and complete the backup. Lastly, click Finish to exit the setup wizard. Congratulations, you’ve just scheduled a backup!
Did this tutorial work for you? Let us know in the comments section below!