Backing Up Your Business

Guidance, not advice. General information on backing up business data. As at May 2026.‍‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‌‍

Losing your phone, laptop or the van to theft is more than a hardware bill — without backups you can lose customer records, job photos, signed contracts and accounting data you can't recreate from memory. Business continuity comes down to having copies of the critical stuff stored safely so you recover quickly instead of starting from scratch.

What to actually back up

Focus on what you can't easily replace:

Customer contacts, quotes and job histories
Job-site photos (progress, defects, completed work)
Signed contracts, terms and approval forms
Accounting records (invoices, expenses, receipts, tax documents)
Key files — pricing templates, supplier lists, insurance certificates

The test: if you'd struggle to rebuild it in a day, or it's required by law (like accounting records the ATO needs — see Record-Keeping), it belongs in the backup routine.

Cloud vs local — and why you want both

Cloud backup (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox or a dedicated platform — described, not recommended) is accessible anywhere, syncs automatically, and crucially gives you an off-site copy safe from theft, fire or flood at your premises; the trade-off is internet speed for big restores and a subscription. Local backup (an external drive, USB stick or NAS) restores fast and has no monthly fee — but a drive in the office or van shares the same physical risk as the originals, so if the van's stolen you lose both.

The answer is both, via the 3-2-1 rule (promoted by cyber bodies including the ACSC): three copies of your data, on two types of media, with one off-site. That balances speed, cost and disaster protection.

A simple routine for tradies

Daily, automated — set your phone and laptop to sync job photos, documents and app data to a cloud service (most trade apps, email and accounting software have built-in sync).
Weekly, manual — every Friday copy key files to an external drive, then unplug it and store it away from your main workspace.
Monthly review — check the cloud backups are actually completing, test that you can open and restore a file from both cloud and local, and update the list if you've started using new tools.

Put "Friday = backup day" on the calendar and give the job to a specific person, even if that's you.

Cloud accounting and apps aren't a backup

Don't assume Xero, QuickBooks or MYOB are backing you up just because they're cloud-based — they store your live data but aren't a full backup service, so export and save copies of key reports, transaction histories and year-end data separately. Same for trade apps (job management, invoicing, photo tools): check what happens if you lose device access or the service changes, and export important records periodically.

Test it, and write it down

A backup is worthless if you can't restore it. Quarterly, pick a random file and restore it from each location to confirm the process works and you remember the steps. And keep a one-page recovery plan: where the backups live, the (securely stored) logins, who's responsible, and what gets restored first if disaster strikes. This is the other half of Cyber Security for Tradies — backups protected from ransomware — and of Documenting Your Work, since job photos and records only help if they survive a lost device.