Setting defaults for manual backups

1. Go to the File menu and click Back Up. file handling, backups, manual, . Make sure the Back Up Company File tab is selected.

2. Click Set Defaults to open the Set Defaults window.

3. (Optional) Click "Remind me to backup up when closing the data file every—" and enter a number in the field provided to tell QuickBooks how often to remind you to back up.

4. Specify a default location for your backups.

5. Click "Append date and timestamp to the name of this backup file" if you want to save each backup as a separate file. file handling, backups, manual, . This ensures that you can go back to a clean data file if you don't catch an error immediately, but may use more disk space.

6. Click OK.

If you need more than one disk: QuickBooks asks you to insert an additional disk as each disk fills up. file handling, backups, manual, . Be sure to label the disks so that you'll know which one was first, which was second, and so on. file handling, backups, manual, . This will help you if you ever need to restore the data from the disks.

What the Backup command does

The QuickBooks Backup command doesn't simply copy the data for your QuickBooks company. file handling, backups, manual, . Instead, it compresses the data into a compact file that is smaller than your company file. file handling, backups, manual, . To open a backup file, go to the File menu and click Restore.

Related topics

• Recommended backup routine