Sage Practice Solution has a number of utilities comprising of Backup, Restore and Maintenance tools, that enable you to protect your data and simplify routine maintenance tasks. Sage recommends that you back up your SPS data regularly as a precaution.

Traditional tape backups may fail to successfully backup live open SQL databases, we highly recommend using the scheduled task procedure outlined below.

Before you begin

• Make sure that all other users are logged out. To see which users are logged in, choose File, Backup, Usage
• Make sure that all users of Sage 50 Accounts have logged out

To back up your database

1. From the File menu, choose Backup. The Maintenance window appears with the Backup tab selected.
2. Click Back up Now.
3. Enter a filename for the backup. This should be a name that will help you identify the backup should you need to restore it.
4. Click OK and the backup is created. Details of the backup will show in the box at the bottom of the window. If any errors are encountered, they will be detailed here, otherwise you should see the message: 'Sage Practice Solution database was backed up successfully.'.
5. Click OK. The Practice Solution Backup file will be placed in the location specified on the Settings & Tasks tab.

This should be a folder on the database server. Your Sage 50 Accounts data will also have been backed up and stored as part of the Sage Practice Solution Backup file

To choose your backup location

When you backup your SPS database, the file is stored at the default location as specified within SPS. The default location is:-

• C:\Program Files\Sage\Sage Practice Solution\Server\SQLBackups (when running on 32Bit versions of Windows)
• C:\Program Files (x86)\Sage\Sage Practice Solution\Server\SQLBackups (when running on 64Bit versions of Windows)

This will be the location on the server computer. You can change this location if you wish, but the backup location can only be on the server computer.

If your SQL database is stored on a different computer to where Sage Practice Solution Server is installed, read 'Setting the remote SQL backup' path for instructions on changing the backup location.

1. From the Tools menu, choose System Maintenance and click the Settings & Tasks tab.
2. Click Change and navigate to the location you want to use as the default storage location for your backup files.
3. When you have chosen a folder, click OK.
   • You can create a folder by selecting Make New Folder whilst browsing.
4. You will be asked if you want to copy previous backups to this location. Select Yes or No as required.
   • If you select Yes, then all backup files present in the previously selected location will be copied to the new location.
5. A message confirming the Backup path has been changed will appear. Click OK to continue.

All future backups will be saved to the new location.

To schedule the backup to run automatically

You can schedule housekeeping tasks such as creating or deleting backups using the Sage Practice Solution system maintenance section.

1. Go to Tools, System Maintenance, Scheduled Tasks.
2. Highlight the Backup database Task and click on the Configuration tab.
3. Tick the Enabled option, and select the days of the week the backups should occur and the time that the backup should be taken. Click Apply to save the new settings.
4. Right click on Backup database and choose the option for queue.

Your scheduled Backup has now been successfully created.

To schedule old backups to be deleted

Over a period of time the scheduled backups may need to be deleted to save disk space.

1. Go to Tools, System Maintenance, Scheduled Tasks.
2. Highlight the Delete Old Backups task and select Configuration.
3. Select Enabled and highlight the days and times that the backups should be deleted.
    NOTE: The filter is set to delete files of a certain name and type and defaults to '*.bak' (.bak files are the SQL backup files).
4. Set the Maximum Age that SPS should retain the backups for (eg. 14 would keep backups dating back a maximum of 14 days).
5. Once you have entered the relevant information, click Apply to save.
6. Right click Delete Old Backups task and choose option for queue.

The scheduled task has now been successfully created

Common Questions

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