Five Basics For Backing Up Client Data

From the April/May 2010 Issue

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Ever since the computerization of America in the early 1980s, technology experts have been preaching the gospels of data safety, especially the use of virus protection systems and data backup.

You know why data backup is important, of course, but how vigilant are you in practicing what you know is a mission-critical issue? If your computer or server crashed right now, how much of your work would you lose? A day? A week? More?

If your computing systems were damaged by weather, fire or theft on April 1 of next year, would you survive tax season? Would your professional reputation, your client relationships and you’re your practice survive to see the next year? Backing up your computer files and having a way to retrieve them quickly is that important.

WHY LOCAL BACKUP IS NOT SAFE
There have been many variations on data backup over the years, most essentially being what’s referred to as local backup, meaning that the data is kept totally within the walls of the practice, or at least with them.

As an example of the most basic level of local backup, many professional tax and accounting systems have included for years what they called backup functions. But most of these simply keep a duplicate copy of some data on the same computer. This may be better than nothing, since at least if the original file gets damaged, the copy is available, but when the problem is a crashed hard drive or permanently damaged computer or server, this kind of backup offers no protection.

Other examples of local backup have included tape drives and CD-based systems, with users performing a manual backup routine at the end of the day. There would usually be at least a few different tapes or CDs, sometimes one for each day of the week, which the users would copy information to and then take home with them or store someplace within the firm. External hard drives also fit into the local backup category. Essentially, these systems perform backup to an external device that is usually located alongside the computer, with data transferred via USB cable. External systems at least protected against computer failures, but the information was usually still in the same office and, therefore, still vulnerable to the other issues of weather, fire, theft or sabotage by a disgruntled staff member.

WHY WEB-BASED BACKUP IS BETTER
Tax and accounting professionals have long been leery of relinquishing “control” of their client data to anybody, anywhere. At some level, this is a matter of self-preservation, but the skepticism regarding web-based remote backup is also due to the wrongly believed notion that the data is safer in the professional’s office.

After all, we see and read news of identity theft all the time, and no professional wants to be at fault for exposing his or her clients’ information. The truth, however, is that there are far more potential risks to your data at your office, including crashes, fire, sabotage, theft or employee negligence (like leaving the program open and exposed to other staff, maintenance or other persons).

The point is, whether or not a firm uses web-based backup, any of these things can happen to their client data. But for practices with their data securely stored at a remote location, it can be easily retrieved and staff can get back to work. With many web-based remote backup systems on the market, the data is even stored at more than one location, meaning that even regional disasters won’t result in lost data.