Administration · Reports & controls · 9 min read

Back up the system and clear test data

Choose where backups go, schedule them and check them; and remove test transactions from a company safely.

Before you begin

• Backup is for the workspace owner only: a superuser, or an administrator of every company. A backup holds every company.
• Clear transaction data is for an administrator of each company being cleared.
• Clearing cannot be undone. Take a backup first.

Choose where backups are stored

1. Go to Administration > Settings > Storage and backup. The page shows Protection, your Storage locations and the Backup history.
2. Click New local folder or New S3 bucket. Until you add one the page says 'Add a storage location below before the first backup.'
3. For a Local folder, enter a full path. It is created if missing. Choose a different disk from the database.
4. For an S3 bucket, choose the Service (Amazon S3 or any S3-compatible service), the endpoint and region, the bucket, an optional prefix, the access key and the secret. The secret is stored encrypted and never shown again. For the UAE, the Amazon region is me-central-1.
5. Click Save and test. You see 'Saved, and the connection works.' or the reason it failed.
6. Click Make default on the location to use.

A location cannot be deleted while backups are stored there.

Take and schedule backups

1. Click Back up now. It runs in the background. When finished you see the size.
2. Under Schedule and retention, switch on Take backups automatically, choose How often, the time, the Time zone and the location (Store in).
3. Set Always keep the newest (1 to 365) and Beyond those, remove after (1 to 3650 days). Defaults are 14 and 30. Retention never goes below the "newest" floor, and failed runs do not count toward it.
4. Click Save schedule.

Check a backup

Each row in Backup history shows status, size, time taken and Verification. Click Verify to read the file back and compare its checksum and table count with the manifest. Download saves the file. Remove the file deletes the file but keeps the record.

The tiles show when the last successful backup was and whether protection is protected, manual, overdue or failing.

Restore

Restoring from this screen is not available yet. Each backup shows a restore command ('To restore'). An emergency console outside the normal sign-in can restore into a new database; ask your system provider.

Clear transaction data

Use this on a test or training company to start again, never on a live one.

1. Go to Administration > Settings > Danger zone and open Clear transaction data. Members do not see this.
2. Under Companies to clear, tick the companies. You see only those you administer.
3. Read What will be removed. It lists each kind of record and the row count, and the total.
4. Read what is kept: customers and suppliers, products, the chart of accounts, employees and contracts, warehouses, taxes, price lists, dimensions, print layouts, roles and every setting.
5. Type the company's legal name exactly (case does not matter).
6. Click Clear N records. The button stays disabled until the name matches and the total is above zero.

What happens next

The records are removed, document numbering starts again at 1, and closed periods are reopened. Other companies are untouched. Reload the page to see empty lists.

Good to know

• An administrator of every selected company is required; otherwise the system refuses.
• Without pg_dump on the server a backup fails with a message to install the PostgreSQL client tools.
• Backups protect the database. They are not a substitute for a tested restore.