Peace Of Mind: QuickBooks Backup Files

Posted on by by Todd A Long

You can save backup copies of your QuickBooks files to protect them against accidental data loss. Backup copies are important insurance—if you lose data for any reason, you can restore the data from your backup copy.

If you are not regularly backing up your QuickBooks company files using the built-in backup feature, now might be a good time to consider doing so. Merely backing up (copying) the folder which contains your company file(s) isn’t good enough. Here’s why:

  1. A QuickBooks backup file contains everything you need to re-create your company file and QuickBooks environment, including all of the QuickBooks files related to your company file.
  2. The built-in backup can optionally be configured to check the integrity of the company file. I strongly recommend enabling this step as QuickBooks files can become corrupt, especially when you work in a multi-user environment. A corrupt company file can appear to work correctly, and you may never know it… until it is too late.

So do yourself a favor; get everyone out of QuickBooks, run through the Backup Wizard, select your backup settings and create a backup file to a network drive; external hard drive; removable storage device such as a CD, USB flash drive, or Zip disk; or to a remote site over the Internet.

You do backup your data, right? If you don’t, consider contacting me so we can create a plan to protect your valuable data.

Do You Know Your Data Is Safe?

Posted on by by Todd A Long

I just heard about a local business that might lose the ability to accept credit cards because cardholder data had been stolen from their Point Of Sale (POS) System.

According to an associate close to the situation; the business had granted the vendor of their POS System remote access to the System via an insecure protocol… AT THE VENDOR’S GUIDANCE!

Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance is a difficult undertaking for a small business, but just by following PCI Data Security Standard (DSS) Requirement #1 “Install and maintain a firewall configuration to protect cardholder data“, this business could possibly have avoided a security breach and the predicament in which the business owners now find themselves.

Perhaps your business does not need to be PCI compliant, but do you know your data is safe? Do you have a Secure Network?

If you don’t know, please consider Contacting Me.

I Was Wrong About the iPad

Posted on by by Todd A Long

Who would have thought?! Instead of just being another console for the kids to play games on, the Apple iPad is a useful tool!

It’s fast; no waiting for it to boot or wake up. Press the button and it’s on.

It supports the Microsoft ActiveSync Protocol so you can sync email, calendar and contacts if you have access to a corporate email server, like mine.

You can natively view Microsoft Office file attachments and PDFs.

Access a remote computer using apps from programs like; LogMeIn, GoToMyPC or Splashtop.

All you need is Wi-Fi, or you can fork over about $130 more for 3G (and a data plan from your wireless provider) and use it anywhere you get a signal.

“There’s an app for that”; need I say more?? Did I mention it’s also an iPod? You can store your music, movies and podcasts on it.

You’ll want to plug it into iTunes regularly to keep things up to date and your data backed up. I don’t particularly like that, but there’s no alternative.

There’s a lot to like about the iPad. You can even play games on it, but no Evan*, mine does not have Angwy Burds.

*Evan is my 6 year-old nephew that asks anybody with a smartphone if they have Angry Birds on it.