Service
Backup and disaster recovery for accountancy practices
Reliable, tested backups and a clear recovery plan, so a ransomware attack, a failed server or a simple slip of the mouse never costs you client records, or your January.
Most practices don't think about backups until the day they desperately need one, and by then it's too late to discover the copy was missing, out of date or broken. Our job is to make sure that day never becomes a crisis: that whatever goes wrong, your client records are safe and your practice is back to work quickly.
The things that can take down a practice are rarely dramatic. Ransomware that encrypts your files and demands payment. A hard drive or server that simply fails. A member of staff deleting the wrong folder. Fire, flood or theft at the office. And, the one that keeps partners awake, a server giving up during the January self-assessment peak, with deadlines days away. Any one of these can cost you days of work and weeks of trust.
What we protect you against
Ransomware
Attacks that encrypt your files and demand payment are now common. A clean, separate backup means you can recover without paying, see our cyber security service for prevention.
Hardware failure
Servers and drives don't last forever, and they rarely fail at a convenient moment. We make sure a dead disk is an annoyance, not a disaster.
Accidental deletion
The most common cause of lost data is human, a deleted folder, an overwritten file, an emptied mailbox. We can roll those back.
Fire, flood & theft
If something happens to the building, an on-site copy goes with it. That's why one copy always lives somewhere else entirely.
The January failure
A system going down at the busiest, least forgiving time of year. We design backup and recovery so your peak month isn't your riskiest.
Compliance exposure
Losing client records breaches your record-retention duties and data protection obligations. Tested backups are part of meeting them.
The 3-2-1 rule, in plain English
There's a simple principle behind any backup you can actually trust. It's called 3-2-1, and it means: keep three copies of your data, on two different types of storage, with one copy kept offsite or in the cloud.
This is why a single USB stick in a drawer isn't a backup strategy, it's one copy, on one device, in the same building that might flood or be burgled. And "it's all in the cloud" isn't enough either: if ransomware or a wrong click takes out the live data, your only copy goes with it. Three copies means a failure of any one of them is survivable.
We'll set this up so it runs quietly and automatically, then monitor it so we know the moment a backup fails, rather than finding out months later. If you'd like the full reasoning, here's our guide to backing up your practice properly.
Backup is not the same as recovery
- 1
Backup
You have a safe, independent copy of your data. Necessary, but on its own it doesn't get you working again.
- 2
Disaster recovery
How fast you can be back to client work after something fails. Recovery time is what your clients actually feel.
- 3
Tested restores
We regularly prove a backup can be restored, complete and usable. An untested backup is just a hope.
Based in Ruthin, protecting practices right across North Wales.
So the busiest month isn't the riskiest
For a practice, downtime in January isn't an inconvenience, it's missed filings, stressed staff and clients who remember it next year. The real fear isn't losing a file; it's a server failing with the self-assessment deadline days away and no quick way back. We plan backup and recovery around exactly that scenario, so the time of year when you can least afford a failure is the time you're best protected.
Backup is one layer of a resilient practice. It works best alongside hardened cyber security to stop ransomware and email fraud reaching you in the first place, day-to-day managed IT support that keeps everything monitored, and, if you're still tied to an ageing on-site server, a move to the cloud with our cloud migration service, which makes resilient, offsite backup far simpler.
Not sure how exposed your practice is today? Our free Practice IT Health Check reviews your current backups in plain English and tells you honestly where the gaps are, no jargon, no obligation.
Questions practices ask us
Isn't keeping everything in the cloud already a backup?
Not on its own. Cloud platforms like Microsoft 365, Xero or your hosted practice software keep your data available, but they don't protect you from accidental deletion, a staff member's mistake, or ransomware that encrypts files everyone can reach. A proper backup is a separate, independent copy you can restore from when the live system is the problem, so we treat cloud services as something to back up, not a backup in themselves.
What's the difference between backup and disaster recovery?
Backup means you have a copy of your data. Disaster recovery is about how quickly you can actually be working again after something goes wrong. The two are not the same: you can have a perfectly good backup and still be down for days if there's no plan to get systems running. We focus on both, keeping copies safe, and making sure your practice can get back to client work fast, which matters most during the January peak.
How do you know the backups will actually work when we need them?
We test restores regularly, rather than assuming a backup is fine because it ran without an error. An untested backup is really just a hope. Test restores are the only way to prove your data can be recovered, and that it comes back complete and usable, so the day you genuinely need it isn't the day you find out it was broken.
Don't we have a legal duty to keep client records anyway?
Yes, practices have record-retention obligations and a professional duty of care over client data. Losing records isn't just inconvenient; it's a compliance and reputational problem, and potentially a data protection breach. Resilient, tested backups are part of meeting those duties, which is also why we check this as part of every Health Check.
We're a small practice, isn't proper backup overkill for us?
Good backup should be proportionate, not heavy-handed. For a small practice that means a sensible, monitored setup that follows the 3-2-1 principle, runs quietly in the background, and gets tested, without a server room or an IT department. The point is peace of mind that fits the size of your firm.
Related services
- Managed IT support Day-to-day helpdesk and proactive care, on one predictable per-user price, so your practice just works.
- Cyber security & Cyber Essentials Protect sensitive client data, stop invoice fraud, and get Cyber Essentials certified with confidence.
- Cloud migration Move off ageing servers to Microsoft 365 and the cloud, safely, with secure remote and hybrid working.
See where your practice's IT really stands
Book a free, no-obligation Practice IT Health Check, a plain-English, 15 to 20 minute review of your backups, security, compliance gaps and cloud-readiness. No jargon, no hard sell.