IMPORTANT NOTICE: Reckon Accounts Hosted QBB backups

Thank you @Zappy

Much appreciated

😀

Hi Rav,

When saving your file you can back up to the Q Drive and B Drive which are both on the Cloud. If Users want to save a copy to their PC or External Storage, how do they do it?

When you click on the red floating toolbar and select the down arrow, you are given 3 options to find the last file you saved;

Look In Q Drive

Look in B Drive

Look in this PC which contains Q Drive and B Drive

Once you have located the file, what next?

You can call me if you have a problem. 0415940843

Yes that works, thanks.

As a result of Reckons new policy I asked Reckon if there was a way to download multiple files at once, as like me, I expect a lot of people have a lot of backups. A zip file process would have been a good idea if Reckon implemented it but Reckons reply was "No. You have to download one file at a time". So after a little testing I would like to let people know there is a way to download multiple files at once, or even a whole folder full of files as a zip file. This is for windows PC's. May work on a Mac, but it would be a slightly different process.

1. on your pc, right mouse click any folder and select new text document. create a new text document. I called mine zipped.txt
2. upload this file to your reckon accounts hosted system. It should automatically be placed in Q:\Upload
3. using the red briefcase select download a file and then browse to the Q:\Upload folder.
4. right mouse click the zipped.txt document which will highlight the file (if this doesnt work, click any white space and then use the up and down arrows to highlight the file.)
5. once highlighted press ctrl+c. This copies the file to the clipboard
6. In the download select dialog box which you still have open, browse to either the folder which contains your backup files (if you want to download selected files, or 1 folder above that if you want to download the whole folder. eg: my backups are in B:\QBBackups which contains 50 backup files. if i want to backup the individual files I would go to the B:\QBBackups folder. If I want to backup the whole QBBackups folder and everything it contains I would go to the Q:\ folder
7. once there press ctrl+v which will paste the .txt file into the folder.
8. elect the .txt file like you did in 4 above.
9. press F2 and rename the suffix of the file to .zip You will now have a file called zipped.zip and it will look like a zip file, because it is.........
10. If you are downloading the whole folder simply drag backup folder to the zip file and drop it on the zip file. If selecting individual files drag and drop the individual files on the zip file. A dialog box will appear to say 'compressing'
11. When it is done you will see that the size of the .zip file will have changed. Please note that there is a download limit which appears to be around 2.5gb If the zip file exceeds this size it will corrupt on download.
12. Once you have dragged your files or the folder to the zip, simply select the zip file as your download file and click OK. Your .zip file will be downloaded to your pc where you can unzip it (right mouse click the file and select extract files)
13. All of the above actions can be done in the download dialog box.
14. You dont need to upload a new txt file every time as you simply go to Q:\Upload and copy the original .txt file and paste it where you want it ready to go again. Dont forget to delete the files you download in the zip. Unzip on your pc first to make sure the zip worked though before deleting them from the online folder,
15. You cant copy and paste the file after you rename it. You MUST copy and paste it into the folder that you want it in before you rename it.

That is actually incorrect. a qbm or portable file does not contain letters, logos, images or templates. Its a cut down version of a backup. If you want to backup your company data correctly you should use the backup process which creates a QBB file. It would be good if you gave correct information. People who dont understand the technicalities rely on this info put here by people like me and you. They are not 'better'. And anyone who wants a full backup so they can restore their data fully would use the correct process which is a QBB. And before you argue, which you have a tendency to do, ask Reckon.

no worries. you can save as many backups as you like using the backup process. under options you can choose how many copies it will keep before it prompts you to delete one, and even then, you can choose to not delete and keep them all if you want. there is no limit on the number of backups online, they have introduced a time limit, not a number limit. my xip process is useful for those who have save lots of backups and not deleted them ( read my previous post as to why you should do this) and you want to download them all at once. I will continue to keep backups online and probably once every 6 months download the lot to a local store and then delete the online copies.

can anyone answer my question above please?

Backing up monthly is fine if you only enter data monthly, but if you are working weekly that’s how often you should back up, and if you enter significant data daily you should backup after this too. And download the backup to your computer every time. As Shaz stated, every backup includes ALL data, but the more copies you have the better as sometimes backups fail.

Liz, a .qbb backup file, which is created by clicking the backup option in QB creates a complete copy of your existing files, including all records, transactions, templates, logos, etc as they exist on line at that time. You could take that file, install QB on your own pc, and restore the backup file onto your pc and it would be identical to the copy online. it is a snapshot in time. if you take a backup today, but you deleted (accidently or deliberately) a whole bunch of invoices from your system yesterday, then the backup taken today does not contain those invoices. If you wanted to a access those deleted records you would need to restore the backup which contained them. This is why it is alwasy a good idea to take a backup every time after working on your file (end of day). backups do not contain a copy of all files ever created. they contain a copy of all files present at the time the backup was created. there is a difference which you need to be aware of, which is why I never delete any backups especially any backups done before my accountant accesses my file.

Well I am a bit confused I back up on B:\QBB every time I use Reckon and then maybe once a month I backup to a USB is there anything else I should be doing in regards to this new policy. I would have thought only the current file is needed...am I wrong??

"I would have thought only the current file is needed"......so imagine that your accountant looks at your books and says you are missing a whole lot of entries from 2 months ago. You go into QB and sure enough there are a whole lot of invoices and cheque entries missing. what are you going to do? If you had a backup from just after the last missing entry date, you could restore that backup to your pc, and find out all the info on the missing entries. if you only have your last backup you are in trouble. In IT, a standard backup process uses what is called a GFS routine. this uses daily, weekly and monthly backups. It enables you to go back a day at a time for the last week, a week at a time for the last month and a month at a time for the last year. standard backup routine. I simply backup every time I use QB and I dont delete any backups. I leave them online and then copy them off to a local store on a regular basis. Not sure what you mean by a usb back? you cant backup to a usb using hosted. You can download a backup to a usb though.

If you are using Reckon Hosted you can only back up online, you are unable to select USB drive, you have to download the backup to your usb drive from the BDrive. You are correct only the current qbw file is necessary, the backups are just in case something goes wrong - the file can become corrupt. Then the backup comes into its own, but it’s better to keep more than one as sometimes they can also be corrupt. Chances are you’ll not need it, but it’s like insurance