QuickBooks accounting software is the best accounting software to handle your financial needs for your small business. It is very essential to save your company files and data to run the business smoothly. It has now become very easy and important to have a backup of your QuickBooks Online company files and data. Quickbooks online backup will be there for you in critical situations. You can rewind and restore all you need. Quickbooks Online is a great option for your business but all of us are concerned about our backup. Do QuickBooks online take online backup? How to restore? What to do? All of your questions by the end will have answers. Keep reading the article to get all the information.

Restore Data And Files In Case Of:

Careless Mistakes:

While working we can perform an innocent mistake that leads to data loss including deleting a journal entry or important block of transactions, causing you to have to recreate items and take on mountains of manual work. So, it is in the recommendation to have a backup and recover as soon as possible.

Bad CSV Files:

If you are creating a backup using CSV files manually there are chances that CSV imports can go wrong and make large, unwanted changes to your file. As the import cannot be undone, you will be forced to take time to go back and manually resolve the issue. Backup can really save you at this time.

3rd Party Apps:

Integrations with the 3rd party app can cause a serious headache. As QuickBooks integrates with several other applications. Sometimes it leads to horrible results that affect your data in a bad way.

Virus And Malicious Attacks:

You need to restore when the other parties are trying to steal your data or holding your clients files in an illegal way. This might corrupt your data and backup can really help you out.

Loss Due To Any Other Reasons:

Backup can really be helpful in case you need a duplicate file or need to restore something which you have deleted accidentally or because of any other reason.

QuickBooks Online Automatic Backup

QuickBooks Online automatically backups your data with the same level of security used by banks and financial institutions. There is no need to worry about saving your QuickBooks data on other devices because we ensure that your data is safe.

  • Whenever there are changes to your company file, your data is saved to two hard drives.
  • We periodically copy all data to a third-party hard drive to protect your data in case something happens to the first two hard drives.
  • Automatic backups are performed every night.

Note: As Quickbooks update your records with every change, it cannot restore your file to a previous point in time.

Set Up QuickBooks Online Automatic Backup

Step 1: Turn On The Online Backup And Restore Feature

The Online Backup and Restore feature is now available within your QB Advanced company.

  1. Sign in to the QuickBooks Online Advanced company you want to backup. You must have admin rights to connect and back up a company
  2. Go to Settings, then select Backup company.
  3. Choose Companies from the menu.
  4. Tap on Add a Company or Connect to QuickBooks.
  5. Select the company you want to connect to.
  6. Follow the onscreen steps and select Authorize to connect.

Step 2: Back Up Your Accounting Data

There are three backup options available for you: continuous online backups, a one-time manual online backup, and save a local backup to DropBox or Google. Set up continuous backups. The Online Backup and Restore feature automatically backups the changes made by you in 5-10 minutes. It also runs daily scheduled backups. So, to set up continuous backups:

  1. Sign in to the Online Backup and Restore app.
  2. Select Companies from the menu.
  3. Now Enable Backup.

To Turn Off Backups:

Sign in to the Online Backup and Restore app.

  1. Select Companies from the menu.
  2. Select the settings icon for the company you want to stop backing up.
  3. Now Disable backup.

Do a one-time manual backup

Save a backup to DropBox or Google

Step 3: Restore Your Accounting Data

Learn what gets restored

When you restore data, the Online Backup and Restore app uses your last backup to overwrite your company data. You can restore your data from a specific time or date.

Note: If you made customers, vendors, or items inactive since your last backup, the restore won’t reactivate them. They’ll stay inactive.

  1. Sign in to the Online Backup and Restore app.
  2. Click on Restore from the menu.
  3. Choose New Restore.
  4. In the Company dropdown, select the company you want to overwrite and restore your accounting data to.
  5. In the Restore to dropdown, select the specific time and date you want to restore to. You can restore as far back as your first backup.
  6. When you’re ready, select Create Restore. Then select Restore to confirm.

It takes about 5-10 minutes to restore your data. But depending on the amount of data you have, it can take about an hour.

Quickbooks Online Backup for QB Desktop

Intuit now offers the Online backup for Quickbooks Desktop too. No need to store your company files and data in a flash drive from now onwards. You can save your data in many versions which include Pro Plus, Premier Plus, and Enterprise Plans. Follow the instructions shown below to activate your data protection plan or purchase Intuit Data Protect through the QuickBooks app store. QuickBooks Online Backup is only available for QuickBooks Desktop accounts. You can also choose other 3rd party apps like rewind, Chronobooks, SafetyNet, etc. to take your Quickbooks Desktop backup. But it is most recommended to use the Intuit data protection program for Quickbooks products.

How Much Does Intuit Data Protect Cost?

Quickbooks online backup from Intuit Data Protect starts at $4.95/month for one company plan. This plan is included with some Desktop plans at no additional cost. This program mainly offers two kinds of plans which are-

  • Company Data Plan: If you only need to backup only one QuickBooks Company file, Intuit Data Protect costs $4.95 monthly or $49.95 annually.
  • Entire PC Plan: If you are going to use Intuit Data Protect to back up your entire PC (Intuit’s preference), you are charged $9.95 monthly or $99.95 annually. This plan provides you 100 GB of storage and 45 days of stored backups.

You have to make a separate purchase if you work on QuickBooks Pro or Premier. But if you have opted for the “Plus Add-on” on any of the Desktop plans, Intuit Data Protect is included in your yearly subscription (Pro Plus, Premier Plus, and any Enterprise plan).

Set Up Intuit Data Protect:

First, Activate Intuit Data Protect

  1. Click on File, then “Back Up Company”
  2. Then choose  “Set Up/Activate Online Backup”
  3. Select “Intuit Data Protect” and right-click the green padlock icon
  4. Now, select “Open Intuit Data Protect” and “Activate Now”
  5. Sign in to your Intuit Account.
  6. Select your preferences and click “Continue”

Then, Backup Desktop Files Using Intuit Data Protect

  1. Open Intuit Data Protect
  2. Click on “Back up now”
  3. Choose which files to back up, then “Continue”
  4. Select “Back up now”
  5. When the backup is finished, select “OK”

Final Note

QuickBooks Online Backup is the system offered by Intuit to allow QuickBooks Desktop users to backup their data through an online server. Some companies still prefer using QuickBooks Online Backup to secure and restore their data. You can choose other applications to take backup.

We hope all your questions related to Quickbooks online backup are now answered and you have all the required information with you. Now you know how to back up your company files in QB online and QB desktop and what is the procedure to do so. But if you have any other queries or questions we are always here to help you.

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