Howto - Backing up data in Moneydance.
Update:
After considerable review and a year of working with Moneydance, I've decided to make this public. Comments are welcome and appreciated.
Greetings!
Ref: The following article depicting someone who - accidentally - nuked their entire data file by mistake.
http://help.infinitekind.com/discussions/problems/11131-highlightin...
Needless to say, this poor creature was both PISSED and dejected - as well she should be.
Backing up data is one of the most important things you can do when using anything, especially important financial data.
Ref: A blog article I wrote on the importance of backups.
https://www.qatechtips.com/2013/02/oops-when-disaster-strikes-syste...
Note that I am running Moneydance from a Windows based machine so the actual steps to do this on a Mac will be different. If someone wants to update this with a reply detailing the steps to do this on a Mac, that would be incredibly useful.
OK, back to the subject of backups. . . .
Before you can start your carefully crafted backups, there are some preparatory steps that need to be done:
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Decide where you want your backups to go.
Within Windows, Moneydance saves your backups in a folder called ".moneydance" in your user folder. However, there's a preferences setting that will allow you to choose where to save your backups. This could be particularly important to Mac users because - according to the first article I mentioned - Time Machine doesn't back up everything, it only backs up certain things.
If you use Time Machine, (or an equivalent Windows program), you need to make sure that either the backup folder is somewhere that Time Machine can get to it, or you have to tell Time Machine to include the folder(s) wherever it is.
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Decide how long a backup trail to keep.
Another preference is to specify how many backups to keep, I think Moneydance defaults to five, but I'd have to check.
The good part about that is that you don't end up filling your hard drive with backup files you may not need. Your sixth backup throws away the first one; the seventh backup throws away the second one, and so on so that you only have the five most recent backups at any one time.
The bad part about that is that you only have the five most recent backups. Maybe that's enough for you, maybe not. I've been in situations - especially when doing a bulk data import - where I do something, continue working, do something else, continue working, and then a week or so later I discover that the first thing I did was stupidly wrong and I've painted myself into a corner. If you only have five backups, you can't go far enough back to recover to the point in time before you whacked-up your data.
In my case, because I am insanely paranoid about backing up data, I set the number of backups to keep to "Infinite".
When I'm doing my end-of-tax-season data entry and cleanup, I am very careful to use several different backup techniques at the same time:
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In-program automatic backups.
Moneydance for Windows automagically saves a backup on exit. You can restore this file by going to file -> Import From Backup.
Note that importing a backup file does not replace your current file with the backup. It creates another account file that you can navigate to and open if you want.
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Periodic in-program backups.
Moneydance for Windows is configured to automatically save a copy of your data on each program exit. Which is good. However, not unlike playing a role-playing game, sometimes you're going to do something potentially deadly - like fighting a three-headed Boss with dozens of minions.
Like the role-playing game, when you're going to do something potentially irreversible - like a massive file import of credit-card data - you should "save the game" by doing a manual backup just before you import the data. This way if the import goes sideways on you, you can fall back to your backup, restore yourself to a pristine point in time, then re-enter the cave and try to kill that boss again.
In Windows, you do this by going to File -> Export Backups and export the backup. One of the nice features of Moneydance is that backups are date-and-time stamped. This way you can take all the backups you want without overwriting them.
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Backing up to a different place.
Moneydance is configured, by default, to backup your data to a specific place on your local system. That's good. Backups are fast and don't keep you waiting.
That can also be bad. If your only backup copies are on your local machine then you have what the engineers call a "single point of failure". If your system goes up in smoke, the hard drive grinds to a halt with a sickening screech, or you accidentally run over your laptop with your four-or-five tone SUV. you're borked. You have to start EVERYTHING all over again. A royal pain in the tush, let me tell you!
What I do is keep a separate, networked, file-server on my network for backups and file storage. Companies like Western Digital, Seagate, and others sell stand-alone hardware devices called NAS - Network Attached Storage - devices. Nowadays they're remarkably inexpensive and simple to set up. Supposedly they work with Windows, Mac and Linux, though I can't answer about the Mac part. I can say that I've never had any problems with them using Windows. I even use them with my Android tablets and smartphones.
I create a special backup folder on my network file store, and then map a drive letter to it. When exporting a backup file, you have the choice of dumping it wherever it wants, or telling it where to put it. In my case, my network backup for Moneydance is a mapped drive letter "M". (Clever, ain't I?) I do two backups every time - one to the default location and one to the "M" drive.
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Back up to different media.
One thing I do, periodically, (but not necessarily frequently), is back up to something entirely separate and distinct - like a USB flash drive. You back up your data to the flash drive, remove it, and put it in your pocket or a desk-drawer somewhere. This way even if lightning strikes your power lines and fries all your electronic devices, you still have a copy.
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Don''t forget to backup everything.
Periodically - especially when backing up to external media like a flash drive - I also copy over the original installer file and my record of the license keys and/or activation codes. This way, if everything goes to hell in a hand-basket, you can recreate the entire work environment from scratch.
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Don't forget your "end-of-season backup".
When I'm doing my taxes, I make sure all my data is golden and then create a series of special financial reports that I send off to my accountant. Once everything is done, I take everything, program installer, license information, created PDF files of the reports and special tax documents, downloaded bank statements, downloaded QFX.QIF files, AND every single backup file - and burn it to either CD or DVD, depending on how much data is there.
I use the best, archival quality, media I can buy and I make several copies of the disks. I put them in nice soft disk sleeves, pack them and the printed copy in a manila envelope or soft packing envelope and put it in my fire-proof safe. Every single year. Once my tax returns come back - electronically as PDF's - I make all the media again with the tax returns included, and put it in the manila folder with the rest of that year's data.
I haven't needed those copies yet, and God willin' I never will. But if the IRS should ever come knocking on my door, it's all there.
Jim "JR"
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