Intro: You may have done a great job of entering and storing your company's financial records in QuickBooks, but it won't do you any good if your computer crashes and you lose all your data. Prevent such a catastrophe by backing up your data frequently. If you use a tape back up system that backs up your entire computer, you won't need this tutorial. If you want to back up your data on disks, these instructions will show you how it's done.

Step 1: Open Back Up Window
Open the File menu and choose Save Copy or Back Up. The Save Copy or Back Up window will appear.

Step 2: Select Type of Backup
Choose Backup copy to create a backup copy of your entire company file.

Step 3: Choose Between Online and Local
Select Online backup to back up your file online. You will be led to the QuickBooks Online Backup service if you choose this option. This is a fee service. Choose Local Backup to backup your company file to a specific location.

Step 4: Choose Backup Location
Click the Options button. In the Backup Options screen that appears, enter the drive and folder location where you want to back up your QuickBooks file. Choose other options such as adding a date and time to the backup file, limiting the number of backup files in one folder, and setting up a reminder system for regular backups. Click OK when all selections have been made.

Step 5: Choose the time for your backup
Select Save It Now to start the backup process immediately, Save It Now and Schedule Future Backups lets you set up a backup schedule as well as performing the backup immediately, or you can choose to schedule backups for the future and not do the backup now. Click Next when you have made your choice.

Step 6: Enter File Name
Verify the drive and folder location that you selected earlier, then verify the name of the backup file. QuickBooks will enter a default name; you can accept this or enter your own choice of a name.

Step 7: Execute the Back Up
Click the Save button and the file will be backed up to the name and location you indicated. A window will appear telling you that your file has been successfully backed up. Click OK to close this window.