Caesar's Brook November 2008 Newsletter

QuickBooks Backup and the TLG File

They say there are only two kinds of computer users - those who have lost data and those who haven't lost it yet. Speaking as one of the former, I can not stress strongly enough the importance of backing up your QuickBooks data. You may be thinking, "Oh, I've got this covered; we back up all our data files nightly." An excellent start, but there are good reasons to do manual backups from inside of QuickBooks in addition to any remote or file copy backups that you do.

First, beginning with QuickBooks 2007 the backup file (.QBB) contains everything you need to re-create your company file and QuickBooks environment, including all of the QuickBooks files (templates, letters, logos, and images) related to your company file. It also backs up Financial Statement Designer, Cash Flow Projector, Business Planner, and Loan Manager files. If you are copying files rather than using the QuickBooks backup or if you are running a version of QuickBooks prior to 2007, be sure you are capturing all the necessary files. Not sure which ones you need? Here's a pointer to an article that explains what all those different QuickBooks files do.

Second, QuickBooks backup includes several data verification options. The Complete Verification Option checks both the data in your database and the accuracy of your company file. Intuit recommends running this verification at least once a week as part of your regular backup routine. Quicker Verification checks the data in your database, but does not verify the accuracy of your company file.

Third, running a manual backup with complete verification resets the .QBW.TLG file. Stored in the same folder as the company file, the .QBW.TLG or Transaction Log file records all changes to the company file before they are written to the file by the database manager. If QuickBooks suddenly loses connection to the company file for any reason, the .TLG file will ensure that any in process transactions are recorded correctly. If the .TLG file is not periodically reset, it can grow very large and have adverse effects on QuickBooks performance. QuickBooks Scheduled and Online Backups do not verify the data or reset the .TLG file as these are performed outside of QuickBooks.

In summary, your QuickBooks backup routine should contain the following elements:

QuickBooks backups or file copies of all QuickBooks related files after each session or at the end of the day
Weekly manual QuickBooks backups with complete verification

And finally, remember that a backup is only as good as your ability to recover the data. Store media off site or use an online backup service and periodically test all backup and restore procedures.

Tech Tip: 2009 Online Banking

QuickBooks 2009 Online Banking Update

In last month's review of QuickBooks 2009 Features, I mentioned that there was a complete rewrite of the Online Banking feature. As is often the case with new software, a number of issues have emerged. If you depend on the online banking feature, I do not recommend that you upgrade to 2009 at this time.

Product Review: Time to Time (Special Edition for QuickBooks Users)

Tracking Time on Your Handheld

When I recently upgraded to a new smart phone, I went shopping for a new time tracking application. Although the time tracking application I ran on my old PDA was feature-rich, it didn't provide any simple way to move the data from the PDA to QuickBooks for billing. This resulted in time consuming and error prone duplicate data entry.

Time to Time (Special Edition for QuickBooks Users) from Tom Thumb Software solved that problem handily. It has both a desktop and a handheld component. You link the desktop component to your QuickBooks file and transfer customers, items, and classes to the handheld. On the handheld, you track time by customer, item, and class either by entering a start and stop time or by running a timer. You can add notes, modify entries, and quickly see the total time worked by day and customer.

When you synch your handheld with your desktop the time entries transfer to a Time to Time Report module where you can review and edit your time before transferring it to QuickBooks with a single mouse click. The feature set is pretty basic, but it gets the job done and I've been more than happy to trade off the rarely used bells and whistles in my old program for the seamless integration with QuickBooks.

Available in both Windows Mobile and Palm OS versions for $49.95.

I hope you found these babblings useful. Your feedback is important to me. Please drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Sincerely,

Susan Dugdale

Caesar's Brook Business Solutions, LLC

www.caesarsbrook.com