Introduction

AuditSoft Cloud Backup is an optional backup and disaster recovery feature to help guard against data loss due to hardware failure and human error. In general data loss can have devastating financial and reputation repercussions and cannot be prevented without a data backup strategy that is central to a well formed business continuity plan. Instances that are difficult to plan for are:

  • Theft of a laptop
  • Hardware failure (specifically hard drive storage)
  • Damage (dropping a laptop or spilling liquid on a keyboard)
  • Human error (accidentally overwriting or deleting a data file)
  • Malicious software such as viruses, malware and ransomware
  • Incapacitation or fatality


AuditSoft Cloud Backup saves a backup of the current working file to the cloud on a regular basis and whenever you save your file. 


Enable Backup

AuditSoft Cloud Backup is an optional annual subscription feature that you can subscribe to either by clicking on the No Backup icon (see 1) below or by flipping the Cloud Backup toggle (see 2). The subscription does not automatically renew, but you will be prompted to renew your current subscription if it expires within 3 months.



Backup Status

Once AuditSoft Cloud Backup has been enabled the backup status of the file is displayed next to the file.



The AuditSoft Cloud Backup icons represent the following:


No Backup

  • This icon will be displayed if AuditSoft Cloud Backup subscription has not been enabled or if it has expired.
  • AuditSoft does not automatically backup all historic files. You must open and save a file at least once after enabling AuditSoft Cloud Backup before a copy of the file is stored in the cloud. 
  • This icon indicates that you should open and save the file to create a backup.


Backup Successful

  • If the latest save has successfully been backed up to cloud storage the following icon will be displayed

Backup Pending

  • It may happen that you lose your internet connection during a save or you may not have an internet connection while you are auditing in the field or at a client site. 
  • If AuditSoft has saved your file to local (hard drive) storage, but was unable to create a cloud backup the icon below will be displayed.
  • In this case AuditSoft Cloud Backup will periodically check for a internet connection and if available will then backup the most recently saved file.  

Restoring a File from Cloud Storage

To access the backed up versions of a file go to the Home page and in the Recent files list click on the Backup Successful icon next to the file name (see 3) and you will be taken to the backed up Versions of file (see below).


If your file does not appear in the Recent files list click on View Backups (see 4).


 

Online Backups

When clicking on View Backup you are taken to the Online backups page. 


If you move the mouse over any of the files you are given three options: 

  1. Download - This will download the last backed up file
  2. View Versions - This will take you to the Versions of File page for the selected file
  3. Delete - This will delete the cloud backup of this file and all versions of the file. This should not be used unless absolutely necessary. After deletion all versions will permanently be deleted from AuditSoft Cloud Backup and cannot be recovered.


Versions of File

The Versions of file page displays a list of all the versions of a file that were backed up, when the backup was created and also from which computer the backup was created.


If you move the mouse over any of the file versions you are given 2 options: 

  1. Download - This will download that version of the backed up file
  2. Delete - This will delete the cloud backup of that version of the backed up file. This should not be used unless absolutely necessary. After deletion that versions will permanently be deleted from AuditSoft Cloud Backup and cannot be recovered.