Reply to: How do I backup FreeAgent

[SimonMac]

FreeAgent is owned by RBS group, not your accountant, the data security of banks are better than Parasol/SJD

[ladymuck]

If OneDrive for Business simply set a retention policy. That way they will never be deleted completely. Even by ransomware.

Good point. I should do that - I'll take a look

[Lance]

I scan in all my receipts then chuck them. They are attached to transactions in Xero and they are stored in OneDrive with periodic back up to my NAS.

Would be interesting to know what HMRC would do about data loss with cloud accounting.

If OneDrive for Business simply set a retention policy. That way they will never be deleted completely. Even by ransomware.

after that...
Microsoft have 3 copies of backups in every data centre, and at least one copy in the other DC in the same region. That's on top of the highly available redundant storage with cross-site replication.
So safe as houses. There's a reason they are certified for government classified data.

[ladymuck]

'may still' have all receipts.
Keeping them on FreeAgent only is perfectly valid. But how HMRC would see a lack of receipts in the event of data loss I don't know.

I have all my big receipts stored in alternative cloud storage, but the odd meal and sundry expenses may well be just FA. Worst case for that would involve having to pay back some reclaimed VAT that cannot be proven.

This thread should be in technical really
Or a BC/DR sub forum...

I scan in all my receipts then chuck them. They are attached to transactions in Xero and they are stored in OneDrive with periodic back up to my NAS.

Would be interesting to know what HMRC would do about data loss with cloud accounting.

[Lance]

To get the bare bones of the state of your accounts, all you need is the Trial Balance. Any accountant or decent book-keeper can start from that as a basis for recovery in event of data loss.

Whilst having a record of every individual transaction is preferable, you don't need anything more than a TB to quickly get up and running again. You should still have all your receipts so you will still have the evidence behind the account totals if there ever was an enquiry.

A habit I got into many years ago was to save a copy of the P&L statement, TB and Balance Sheet at the end of every month. They are saved alongside electronic copies of all my receipts, invoices, etc.

'may still' have all receipts.
Keeping them on FreeAgent only is perfectly valid. But how HMRC would see a lack of receipts in the event of data loss I don't know.

I have all my big receipts stored in alternative cloud storage, but the odd meal and sundry expenses may well be just FA. Worst case for that would involve having to pay back some reclaimed VAT that cannot be proven.

This thread should be in technical really
Or a BC/DR sub forum...

[ladymuck]

To get the bare bones of the state of your accounts, all you need is the Trial Balance. Any accountant or decent book-keeper can start from that as a basis for recovery in event of data loss.

Whilst having a record of every individual transaction is preferable, you don't need anything more than a TB to quickly get up and running again. You should still have all your receipts so you will still have the evidence behind the account totals if there ever was an enquiry.

A habit I got into many years ago was to save a copy of the P&L statement, TB and Balance Sheet at the end of every month. They are saved alongside electronic copies of all my receipts, invoices, etc.

[Lance]

It's called courtesy.

it's called trolling if the OP knows that feature is broken

[d000hg]

From experience, accountants tend to provide their clients locked-down access to FA, presumably because it reduces their workload when you decide to start hacking about without knowing what you're doing. Shared access raises its own problems
How much they restrict it and how hard you have to push to get things unlocked will depend on your accountant, and you demonstrating you understand what you want to do.

FYI, I think you have the answer but FA had pretty good tech support by email when I had queries. An actual human taking the time to explain rather than just an RTFM. If you have specific questions you could ask them directly.

I love it when posters tell admins/mods if posts aren't allowed to move them. It's kinda what they do and don't generally need your permission

It's called courtesy. Unlike trolling the pro forums.

[northernladuk]

A reasonable question here I think dave.

I love it when posters tell admins/mods if posts aren't allowed to move them. It's kinda what they do and don't generally need your permission

[Maslins]

I understand that but don't know how to get level 8 access. Is this something that my accountancy firm can do fairly easily or is it more complicated as my access is through the accountant firm rather than direct?

Yeah your accountant should easily be able to upgrade your permission to the highest level. Some don't like to as it also means users can do things like post journals or file their own figures. ie if a client is a little..."overconfident", they can wreak more havoc on their own books with the highest permission setting!

As Alchemy Accountancy says, the export isn't very nice. It's an enormous Excel file, not particularly user friendly. However, all the key data should be there, and could be unpicked if required.

This would just be the data as it was at that point. Ie if you're really concerned, potentially you may want to take a full export on a semi regular basis.

[pr1]

I understand that but don't know how to get level 8 access. Is this something that my accountancy firm can do fairly easily or is it more complicated as my access is through the accountant firm rather than direct?

Hi, just to confirm, I get my freeagent through my accountant (Gorilla) and am able to use the 'export all' functionality - hopefully your accountancy can grant you the required access to do it if you ask them

[Alchemy Accountancy]

I understand that but don't know how to get level 8 access. Is this something that my accountancy firm can do fairly easily or is it more complicated as my access is through the accountant firm rather than direct?

Yes, if the accountancy firm are the subscriber to FreeAgent then they will be able to change the access level quite easily.

[davetza]

You need to have user access level 8, but when you do, under settings there is an 'Export all data' option, which will export your data to an excel file. It is by no means perfect, but would allow someone to pull together a set of accounts from it if you did ever need to use it.

I understand that but don't know how to get level 8 access. Is this something that my accountancy firm can do fairly easily or is it more complicated as my access is through the accountant firm rather than direct?

[Alchemy Accountancy]

You need to have user access level 8, but when you do, under settings there is an 'Export all data' option, which will export your data to an excel file. It is by no means perfect, but would allow someone to pull together a set of accounts from it if you did ever need to use it.

[cojak]

**For mods I think this is the best forum for this question but please move if not**

A reasonable question here I think dave.