Skip to main content

Legal

Tax & Accounting

Trade & Supply

Risk & Fraud

News & Media

Books

Developers

Database

Back up the firm database

This article applies to the following CS Professional Suite products.
  • Accounting CS
  • Workpapers CS
  • Practice CS (Specific references to Practice CS in this article also apply to DT Practice and Digita Practice.)

Create a backup

You can back up the firm database when the security privileges are assigned to your staff ID. The backup run from each product includes data for all clients in the product database. In most cases you don’t need to back up data for individual clients.
  1. Select
    File
    , then
    Backup
    .
  2. In the
    Backup file
     field, the path and file name are set to the default SQL data location on the server.
    Error
    No drives available on the database server... It is possible that the backup file or directory on the server can't be accessed by this application. Verify that you have the necessary security privileges and that the backup file or directory exists.
  3. Do one of the following:
    • Select
      OK
       to create the backup, and when prompted that the backup is complete, select
      OK
      .
    • Create a scheduled backup on a specific day and time as described in the following section.
  4. Copy the backup file from the location specified in the Backup dialog. You can specify the location to store the backup files, such as an external storage device or another computer.
The resulting backup file is in a format that can be backed up by many third-party backup utilities.
Many third-party backup utilities such as Carbonite or Barracuda cannot back up SQL Server databases while the Microsoft SQL Server service is running. Because SQL Server is always running, these utilities are unable to create reliable backups of your client data. When you manually back up a firm database orcreate a scheduled backup, the resulting backup files are in a format that can be backed up by those third-party utilities.

Set up a scheduled backup

Because many backup utilities such as Carbonite or Barracuda cannot back up an SQL database, we recommend that you back up your data manually, or on a regular schedule so that your client data can be properly restored in a timely manner. These backup files can also be copied and stored by the backup utility that is used for the rest of the firm's data files.
Follow these steps to create a regular schedule of database backups for your CS Professional Suite application.
  1. Depending on the CS Professional Suite application that you are using, select one of the following methods to open the Scheduled Backup dialog.
    • Accounting CS and Workpapers CS: Select
      File
      , then
      Backup
      , and then select the
      Schedule a recurring backup
       link in the Backup dialog.
    • Practice CS: Select
      Setup
      ,
      System Configuration
      , then
      Scheduled Backup
      .
  2. Select the checkbox labeled
    Schedule backups to occur
    , select the database backup frequency, and time. (The frequency can be weekly, a specific day of the week, or daily.)
  3. For Accounting CS/Workpapers CS and Practice CS users, enter the path and folder in which you want the backup files to be stored.
  4. Enter a Windows Login and Password in the User name and Password fields for the data server.
  5. Select
    OK
    .
  6. For Practice CS users: When you receive the message:
    The scheduled backup was saved successfully. Practice CS will now create a test backup.
     select
    OK
     to create a
    Test Backup
     file that is created in the backup folder, called
    ScheduledBackupTest.bdf
    .

This article applies to:

  • Product: Practice CS