Running it · 3 of 3 · 2 min read
Backups
What is backed up, how often, and how to restore.
On this page
Your data lives on the main register. Backups are what stand between a failed hard drive and starting again from nothing.
Two kinds, and you want both
Local backups run on a schedule to a folder you choose — another drive, or a network share. Fast to make and fast to restore.
Cloud backups are encrypted on your computer before they are sent. They cover the case a local backup does not: fire, flood, and theft of the machine the backup was sitting next to.
If a card is declined, backups continue. Protecting your data is not something we would use as leverage — and a shop that lost its history during a billing dispute would be our fault regardless of whose card expired.
Setting up local backups
Choose a folder, an interval, and how many to keep. A daily backup keeping the last fourteen is sensible for most shops; a busy one might prefer every few hours.
Put the folder on a different drive from the database. A backup on the same disk protects you from mistakes but not from hardware, and hardware is what actually fails.
Restoring
Restoring replaces the current database with the contents of a backup. Everything after that backup's timestamp is gone, so:
- Take a backup of the current state first, even if you think it is broken
- Restore the one you want
- Check today's sales and your stock figures before reopening
Moving to a new computer
Install on the new machine as the main register, restore your backup, and start it. During activation it will recognise the data and ask whether this computer replaces the old one, or whether it is a separate shop.
Say it replaces the old one. That transfers the shop and frees the old machine. Choosing "separate shop" would create a second outlet on your plan and leave you with two copies of the same business that then drift apart.
Testing a restore
Once, before you need it, restore a backup onto a spare machine and open it. A backup nobody has ever restored is a hope, not a backup — and the moment you discover the difference is the worst possible moment.
Something here wrong or missing? Tell us — we would rather fix it than have you work around it.