Restoring Backups

 Having backup files can reduce your adrenaline level in a number of situations:

• You merge two customers by mistake or commit some other major faux pas that you want to undo.

• Your company file won’t open, which can happen if it’s been damaged by a power outage or power surge.

• Your hard disk crashes and takes all your data with it.

• You recently assigned a password to your administrator login and can’t remember what it is.

Here’s how to restore a QuickBooks backup when you need to recover from a mistake or damaged data:

1. If you backed up your data to removable media, put the disk containing your backup in the appropriate drive. If you backed up your data to another hard drive on your computer or on a network, make sure you have access to that drive.

 2. Choose File➝Restore Previous Local Backup, and then choose the backup you want to restore on the drop-down menu. Alternatively, to restore a local or online backup, you can also choose File➝“Open or Restore Company”. In the “Open or Restore Company” dialog box, shown in Figure 7-5, select the “Restore a backup copy” option, and then click Next. Select “Local backup”, and then click Next. In the Open Backup Copy dialog box, navigate to your backup file and double-click the name of the file you want to restore.  â•‰â•‰â•‰â•‰Restoring Backups Figure 7-5:╇ Similar to when you create backups, you have to tell Quick- Books that you want to restore a backup file and where that file is. From this dialog box, you can open a regular company file, restore a backup, restore a portable file, or convert an accountant’s copy 

3. In the “Open or Restore Company” dialog box, the “Where do you want to restore the file?” screen makes it clear that you need to choose the location carefully. Click Next and, in the “Save Company File as” dialog box, choose the folder where you want to restore the file.

 If you restore the backup to your regular company-file folder, you run the risk of overwriting your existing company file. If that’s what you want, fine. If it’s not, that file may be gone for good.

 4. In the “File name” box, type a new name, as shown in Figure 7-6.

The dialog box opens to the folder where you store your company files. QuickBooks fills in the “File name” box with the company file’s name (minus the timestamp). If you want to replace a company file that’s corrupt or has evidence of your big gaffe, you can use this filename. If that’s not what you want to do, type a new name.

Tip: If you give a restored file a different name as a precaution—Double Trouble Copy, for example—you can trick QuickBooks into renaming the file after you’re sure it’s the one you want. To do that, create a manual backup of the file. Then, immediately restore it with the company filename you want (Double Trouble in this example).

5. Click Save. If you’re restoring a backup of a company file that already exists, QuickBooks warns you that you’re about to overwrite an existing file. If the original file is corrupt or won’t open for some reason, click Yes because that’s exactly what you want to do. You’ll also have to type Yes to confirm that you want to delete the file. It’s better to take these precautions than to overwrite the wrong file and have to dig out yet another backup.  

 If the restored file has a password, you have to log in, just as you do in a regular company file. When you see a message that says your data has been restored successfully, click OK to open the company file and reenter any transactions that the backup doesn’t have.

Figure 7-6:╇ To restore the file without overwriting the existing company file, choose another folder. In the “File name” box, consider adding a unique identifier like “Try 2” or “Restore Sept 20” to the end of the name.

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