{"id":46,"date":"2013-01-15T14:52:00","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T14:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/?p=46"},"modified":"2014-08-27T07:44:53","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T12:44:53","slug":"5-places-youre-forgetting-to-backup-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/2013\/01\/5-places-youre-forgetting-to-backup-data.html","title":{"rendered":"5 places you&#8217;re forgetting to backup data"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The beginning of the year is a good time to protect all your important business data before something changes and you lose it. Here are five places you&#8217;ve probably forgotten to look to backup that data.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 293px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 0px;\" alt=\"Portable hard drives\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-PrSgYztR0f4\/UPMQToHjUvI\/AAAAAAAAEyo\/B1gKjdj6GJk\/s320\/external+hard+drives.jpg\" width=\"283\" height=\"320\" border=\"0\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">I backup files to my portable hard drives, in addition to cloud storage. Photo by Becky McCray.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><b>1. Save PDF versions of year-end accounting reports<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Accounting systems change, and data can be lost. In over 20 years with computers, I can&#8217;t even count how many different accounting systems I&#8217;ve used. To keep from losing key data permanently, you need data you can read no matter what system you use. That can be a paper print out that you store in a secure location or it can be a PDF\u00a0readable even after you change software systems. Now most programs can print to PDF, making this easier than ever. Here are the reports to save:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Profit and Loss, Jan 1 &#8211; Dec 31<\/li>\n<li>Balance Sheet, dated Dec 31<\/li>\n<li>Detail of every transaction, Jan 1 &#8211; Dec 31<\/li>\n<li>Payroll tax details for each employee, Jan 1 &#8211; Dec 31<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>2. Download online banking statements<\/b><br \/>\nIf you use PayPal or online banking for business, make sure you have downloaded a PDF copy of all transactions for the year. Many online banking systems only keep records for a limited amount of time. For one of my banks, it&#8217;s just one year. After that, you can&#8217;t access older records online. PayPal also limits the amount of time you can access detailed records. Protect yourself now by downloading those statements.<\/p>\n<p><b>3. Backup online documents<\/b><br \/>\nUsing Google Docs is convenient. Evernote is terrific at remembering everything I can&#8217;t remember. Cloud services are wonderful, until they don&#8217;t work. Take time right now to export and save a copy of all important documents in your cloud services.<\/p>\n<p><b>4. Search USB drives<\/b><br \/>\nThumb drives are ubiquitous now. Chances are, you&#8217;ve used one to save important files or photos you&#8217;ve forgotten about. Take time now to search for those lost gems and get them backed up.<\/p>\n<p><b>5. Backup your computer<\/b><br \/>\nSurely no one would overlook backing up their computer, would they? Well, yes. How long has it been since you backed up your key documents from your desktop or laptop?\u00a0With online backup solutions and portable hard drives under $100, you&#8217;re running out of excuses.<\/p>\n<p><em>New to SmallBizSurvival.com? Take the <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/guided-tour.html\"> Guided Tour<\/a>. Like what you see? <a href=\"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/get-updates.html\">Subscribe<\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The beginning of the year is a good time to protect all your important business data before something changes and you lose it. Here are five places you&#8217;ve probably forgotten to look to backup that data. 1. Save PDF versions of year-end accounting reports Accounting systems change, and data can be lost. In over 20 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,17],"tags":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5625,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/5625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smallbizsurvival.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}