Backing up your IRIS Keytime data
Article ID
kas-0003
Article Name
Backing up your IRIS Keytime data
Created Date
31st December 2020
Product
IRIS Keytime, IRIS Keytime Practice Manager
Problem
Backing up your data
Resolution
Backing up your Keytime data
updated for Accountants Suite 2020. Last updated: 8th June 2020
Why should backups be made?
It is vital to have regular backups of your data, for multiple reasons. Such as data loss, resulting from circumstances such as a hard drive failure, fire or theft. But also, to protect against human error where a user may have mistakenly altered or deleted some information.
How often should backups be made?
A good yardstick for the frequency of backups, is how much work would need to be redone in the worse case scenario? You should backup at least this often.
It is also worth considering making additional backups during the time where multiple tasks are being completed. For example, submitting tax returns to HMRC during January, or running period ends within payroll.
It is also recommended that backups are made immediately prior to running any Keytime software installations or updates.
Where should backups be stored?
Ideally, backups should be kept off-site in a secure location and stored on a reliable hardware device. This minimises the risk that your backups are damaged or corrupted at the same time as your live data. Again, in the event of a hard drive failure, you have a backup made that is saved externally.
However, please be aware that it is not always appropriate to keep all backups off site. It is worth keeping a backup on the local machine as well as externally. You may need to access them quickly to restore any data. It may be worth creating a folder called Keytime Backups on your local machine to store your onsite backups.
How long should I keep my backups?
There is not really a set answer for how long you should keep a backup for. This will mainly be dictated by the size of your backup storage system, the amount of data that you are backing up and the frequency of which you make backups. For obvious reasons, the longer you keep backups the better. With some problems, for example human error, this may not materialise for months or even years. Keeping your old backups gives you more options should such an unfortunate situation arise.
One example of keeping backups, could be to make a backup every night and keep those backups for at least a week. You could then, at the end of the week permanently archive one of the backups and store this safely.
This way, you will always have a backup from the past 5 working days along with a point of reference for every previous week.
How do I backup my data?
Each module has its own way of backing up. You should run separate backups for each Keytime product that you have a licence for.
Below are steps for backing up within each Keytime Module:
Accounts Production
Accounts Production has two forms of backing up. Both are straightforward and follow a similar path. You can either make a backup of an individual company, which will include any previous years. Alternatively, you can back a backup of your whole database.
Backing up one set of accounts
1. Open Accounts Production
2. Open the set of accounts you are looking to backup
3. Go to File > Backup > Company
4. This will then ask where you want to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Press Save
Backing up the whole database
1. Open Accounts Production
2. Close the list of available accounts
3. Go to File > Backup > All
4. This will then ask where you want to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Press Save
Corporation Tax
The Corporation Tax software has three methods of backing up date. Two of them are for your own personal backup use and include backing up the whole database or backing up an individual return. The third is a method of backing up a return in a scrambled format (for data protection purposes) in order to send into the support team if requested.
Backing up one or more returns
1. Open Corporation Tax
2. If you go directly into a return, press the Start button at the top
3. Choose the tab marked Utilities
4. Press Backup/Restore Tax Forms
5. Find the return(s) you wish to backup and tick the box(es)
6. Click Backup
7. You will then be asked where to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Click Save
Backing up the whole database
1. Make sure all Keytime Products are closed on all machines accessing the data
2. Press the Windows Start button
3. Choose Keytime from the list
4. Choose Backup Corporation Tax
5. Click OK to confirm the software has been closed down
6. Press Backup
7. You will then be asked where to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Click Save
Backing up a scrambled tax return for support
1. Open Corporation Tax
2. If you go directly into a return, press the start button at the top
3. Choose the tab marked Utilities
4. Press the Scrambled Tax Forms button
5. Press OK to confirm you are happy to scramble the personal information on the return
6. Press the Backup button
7. Find the return(s) you wish to backup and tick the box(es)
8. Click Backup
9. You will then be asked where to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Click Save
P11D
For P11D, there is only one backup routine, this backs up the entire P11D database
1. Make sure all Keytime products are closed down
2. Press the Windows Start button
3. Choose Keytime from the list
4. Choose Backup P11D 2020
5. Press OK to confirm the software is closed down
6. Choose Backup
7. You will then be asked where to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Click Save
Payroll
Payroll backups are made separately for each company. When processing payroll, before period ending the software will advise you to make a backup. You should make backups before ending the period, as there is no way of rolling back to previous periods without a backup.
1. Open Payroll
2. Open the company you wish the backup
3. Go to File>Backup Company
4. You will then be asked where to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired (please note, payroll’s restore functionality automatically looks for the default filename, so it is advisable to add any changes onto the end of the file name)
c. Click Save
Personal Tax
The Personal Tax software has three methods of backing up date. Two of them are for your own personal backup use and include backing up the whole database or backing up an individual return. The third is a method of backing up a return in a scrambled format in order to send into the support team if requested.
Backing up one or more returns
1. Open Personal Tax
2. If you go directly into a return, press the Start button at the top
3. Choose the tab marked Utils
4. Press Backup/Restore Tax Forms
5. Find the return(s) you wish to backup and tick the box(es)
6. Click Backup
7. You will then be asked where to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Click Save
Backing up the whole database
1. Make sure all Keytime Products are closed on all machines accessing the data
2. Press the Windows Start button
3. Choose Keytime from the list
4. Choose Backup Tax 2020
5. Click OK to confirm the software has been closed down
6. Press Backup
7. You will then be asked where to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Click Save
Backing up a scrambled tax return for support
1. Open Personal Tax
2. If you go directly into a return, press the start button at the top
3. Choose the tab marked Utils
4. Press the Scrambled Tax Forms button
5. Press OK to confirm you are happy to scramble the personal information on the return
6. Press the Backup button
7. Find the return(s) you wish to backup and tick the box(es)
8. Click Backup
9. You will then be asked where to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Click Save
Trust Tax
The Trust Tax software has three methods of backing up date. Two of them are for your own personal backup use and include backing up the whole database or backing up an individual return. The third is a method of backing up a return in a scrambled format in order to send into the support team if requested.
Backing up one or more returns
1. Open Trust Tax
2. If you go directly into a return, press the Start button at the top
3. Choose the tab marked Utils
4. Press Backup/Restore Tax Forms
5. Find the return(s) you wish to backup and tick the box(es)
6. Click Backup
7. You will then be asked where to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Click Save
Backing up the whole database
1. Make sure all Keytime Products are closed on all machines accessing the data
2. Press the Windows Start button
3. Choose Keytime from the list
4. Choose Backup Trust 2020
5. Click OK to confirm the software has been closed down
6. Press Backup
7. You will then be asked where to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Click Save
Backing up a scrambled tax return for support
1. Open Trust Tax
2. If you go directly into a return, press the start button at the top
3. Choose the tab marked Utils
4. Press the Scrambled Tax Forms button
5. Press OK to confirm you are happy to scramble the personal information on the return
6. Press the Backup button
7. Find the return(s) you wish to backup and tick the box(es)
8. Click Backup
9. You will then be asked where to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Click Save
Practice Manager
Please note a backup of the Practice Manager database does not contain all the data from the individual modules
Practice Manager holds your product registration details as well as the linking between the modules of the Accountants Suite. However, it does not contain the data stored on the tax returns, sets of accounts, payrolls etc.
If you actively use Practice Manager, then you should take a backup of the data in addition to the backups you have made from the other Keytime modules
Backing up Practice Manager database
1. Open Practice Manager
2. Go to File > Backup/Restore
3. Choose the Backup option
4. You will then be asked where to save the file
a. Browse to your preferred backup location
b. Change file name if desired
c. Click Save
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