Best practices for safeguarding your firm and client data

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Whether Workpapers CS is installed locally or in a terminal server environment, it is important to consider scheduling recurring backups of your firm data and, in specific circumstances, backing up or restoring data for a single client. The following best practices and examples illustrate why and under what conditions you would choose one type of backup/restore method over another.

Backing up your firm data via the application

Workpapers CS utilizes an SQL database that provides excellent stability. This database structure is designed for firm-level processing that connects data for all of your clients in a single database.

We strongly recommend that you use the File > Backup command in the application for routine back up of your data. (However, you can also use the Client Data Management Utility to back up and restore data for individual clients when necessary; some examples are listed below.)

Workpapers CS enables you to schedule automatic backups and save them to a selected location on a data server. These files include data for all clients in the database and can be restored by a database administrator via the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio application. If you use a third-party backup utility such as Carbonite or Barracuda to back up your firm's files, you can include the scheduled backup files with the other files you are backing up.

To create a backup of the complete firm database that includes data for all clients, choose File > Backup.

Notes

  • The File > Backup command is available only for locally installed versions of Workpapers CS. If your firm runs the application in the Virtual Office CS or the Software as a Service (SaaS) environment, your firm data is backed up automatically on secure servers at the Thomson Reuters data centers.
  • You can change the location of the backup path in CS Professional Suite tab of the Setup > File locations dialog.

Restoring your firm data via Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express

A database administrator or certified IT professional can use Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express to restore firm data from outside of the application. In most cases you would not need to restore a database in this manner. However, if you want to move your Workpapers CS application and data to another server or if certain catastrophic situations arise (for example, flood or fire damage to your hardware or corruption in the database), that would require you to use this type of restore.

Restoring the firm database via the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio Express application restores data for all clients included within the database.

Using the Client Data Management Utility to back up and restore data for one or more selected clients

The Client Data Management Utility in Workpapers CS enables you to back up a client's data and then restore that data either into the original firm database or to a different firm's database - for example, as in the following scenarios:

CDMU calls can be handled by non-System reps. Remember, System reps are not trained on CDMU.

  • Example 1: Your firm merges with another firm that also uses Workpapers CS. The Client Data Management Utility enables you to take the backup data files for individual clients and restore that data into your firm's primary database.
  • Example 2: IRS review. The Client Data Management Utility enables you to back up client data to create an archive for IRS audits or other legal proceedings.

Due to the complexity of cross-client connections in the application, the Client Data Management Utility is subject to the following limitations.

  • The utility is currently not available for the Firm client or for consolidation master clients.
  • For any client with billing transactions or impound payments, only the Backup for another firm and Restore from another firm options are available from the drop-down list in the Action field of the Client Data Management Utility screen.

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