Copyright © 2026 Everyday Backups · everydaybackups.com · Secure cloud backup for small business & personal files
Small business owners across the rural South sell, retire, hand the business to a son or daughter, merge with another firm, or wind down and close. In every one of those, the computers are often the last thing anyone thinks about. Many owners have run the business for years on the same one or two Windows PCs, with the owner, the bookkeeper and the office manager each keeping files in different places. The only copy of the books, the customer list, the contracts and the email can leave with a buyer, a recycler, a donation center or a relative cleaning out the office. A deliberate copy, made before anything changes hands, is what keeps those records yours.
Two different things, and you pick either one. The 2-minute self-check is a short set of questions you answer yourself, covering how your business records are currently protected. The free 15-minute Backup Risk Check is a review our team runs with you, by phone or screen share, going through which computers actually hold your books, customer files and email today, and what would happen to them if one of those machines left the building before a copy existed.
Everyday Backups provides automatic, encrypted, off-site backup for Windows computers, with version history and restore support. It runs on Windows, iPhone, iPad, and Android, and paid plans start from $5.99/mo.
Everyday Backups backs up files on Windows computers, plus phones and tablets: the books, customer files, contracts, email archives and photos that a small business keeps. It is not an accounting, point-of-sale or practice-management product, and this page makes no claim to integrate with any of them. This page also gives no legal, tax, accounting, sale-agreement, business-valuation or data-privacy advice, no advice about any recordkeeping or retention obligation, and no regulatory advice of any kind. For those questions, talk to your accountant or your attorney. What follows is about one practical thing, the files your business has already created and saved, and how to keep a recoverable copy of them while the business changes hands or winds down.
When a business changes hands, attention goes to the things that feel important: the price, the inventory, the lease, the customers, the people. The old office PC in the back room does not make the list. It has simply always been there.
Then a closing date arrives. A buyer takes the desktop along with the fixtures. A recycler is called to clear out the equipment. A relative offers to donate the old machines so the space can be emptied. Many owners tell the same story afterward: the only copy of years of books, tax-year files and customer history was on that PC, and nobody thought to ask until it was gone.
None of this takes carelessness. It takes a busy few weeks, a lot of other decisions, and a computer that never gave anyone a reason to worry. The fix is plain and does not need to be complicated: know where the files live, make a full copy before any machine changes hands, test a restore, keep the copy somewhere you control, and only wipe or hand over old machines after the copy is verified. The questions about which files go with a buyer and which stay with you are a separate matter, and they belong with your attorney and your accountant.
Before you copy anything, find out where the files actually are. In a small business they are rarely in one place, and the main office PC is often not the only one that matters. Walk the building, and check the pockets and the drawers too.
Write the list down. It becomes your backup scope, and it also becomes the document you can walk through with your attorney and your accountant when you decide what goes where.
The record set below is what many owners want to be able to put a hand on after the doors close, for a question from an accountant, a lender, a family member or a buyer. We give no advice on any of it. These are simply the kinds of files that tend to exist.
Two of these deserve extra care: the books and the customer history. They are the hardest to rebuild, and they are the first things a successor or an accountant asks for.
The copy comes first. Not after the sale closes, not after the equipment is cleared out. Before any machine, drive, phone or account leaves your control, there should be a complete copy of what is on it, held by you.
What kind of copy? One that runs on its own, so it does not depend on someone remembering. One that goes off-site, so a flood, a fire or a break-in at the shop does not take it along with the originals. One that is encrypted, so the files are protected while they travel and while they sit in storage. And one that keeps version history, so a file damaged or overwritten during the cleanup can be pulled back from an earlier point. That is what Everyday Backups does on Windows computers, and on iPhone, iPad and Android as well.
An external drive on the desk is not the same thing. It sits in the same room as the PC, and it can leave with the PC. See why an external drive is not a backup for the longer explanation. Sync is not the answer either. A folder that mirrors itself to the cloud will mirror a wipe just as faithfully. See cloud sync vs. backup.
CISA promotes the 3-2-1 rule as a simple standard for small-business backup. It fits a sale or a closing well, because the hazard is that every copy lives in one place that is about to be emptied. For the full rule, see the 3-2-1 backup rule.
Your working copy is whatever sits on the office PC today. A second copy on a separate drive protects against one device failing. A third copy, off-site in encrypted cloud storage, protects the records from a single event, such as a closing day, taking out the first two together.
Two drives of the same kind in the same office just means both can age, fail, or be carried out the door together. CISA guidance calls for two genuinely different storage types, for example a local drive for quick access and a separate cloud destination.
Off-site matters most for files that cannot be recreated, like years of books and customer history. A cloud copy lives in a separate data center, so it does not depend on the building, the equipment or the buyer.
CISA recommends keeping at least one backup copy that is not continuously connected to the network. A copy kept off-site, and not mounted as a drive on the local network, is kept apart from the files it protects.
A copy nobody has ever restored from is an assumption. Before any old PC is wiped, sold, donated or recycled, prove that the copy works.
Pick a few files that matter, a recent QuickBooks backup, a folder of customer records, a handful of photos, and restore them to a different location. Open them. Check that they are what you expected and that they are complete. Do this while the old machine is still in the building, so that if something is missing you can still go back and get it.
CISA and the FTC both stress testing restores as part of a sound backup plan, and Microsoft publishes its own restore documentation for OneDrive, which is worth reading if your business uses it. Restoring is a skill, and it is far easier to learn on a quiet day than on the day a buyer is waiting. See how to test your backup restore for a plain way to do it.
This is the question a backup cannot answer, and we will not try to. What a sale or a closing should say about records, customer lists, books and employee files is a matter for you, your attorney and your accountant.
What we can say is when to ask. Agree it in advance, before closing week, while there is still time to think. And hold a full copy before you agree anything, because it is much easier to decide what to hand over when you already hold a complete set. A seller who has already copied everything is choosing. A seller who has not may be negotiating from memory.
When a son or daughter takes over, or a new owner steps in, the question is continuity. Who can reach the files next month, and next year, and where does the copy live?
The problem of files leaving with a person is a familiar one. For that side of it, see when an employee leaves and the files are gone. The difference here is that the person leaving is the owner.
Many businesses run part of their work in a vendor's online system, a point-of-sale system at the counter, practice-management software in an office, or online accounting. Knowing what that system holds, and what happens to it when the subscription ends, matters in a sale or a closing.
That data is theirs to run. Everyday Backups makes no claim to integrate with any point-of-sale, practice-management or online accounting system. If you cancel the subscription, your access may end with it, and the history inside may not be reachable afterward.
So download the exports and reports you may need before you cancel. Save them to a folder on a Windows computer that is covered by your backup, so they become files you control rather than a login you used to have.
Intuit's own documentation recommends keeping a backup copy of a company file in a location separate from the original, and notes that a backup stored only on the same machine is not adequate protection. Before the machine that holds the company file changes hands, make sure a copy exists elsewhere and that you have tested restoring it.
For specifics, see QuickBooks backup for small businesses. Nothing here says what you must keep or for how long. That is for your accountant.
At some point the old machine has to go somewhere. That moment is the end of the process, not the start of it.
Wipe or hand over an old computer only after the copy is complete and you have verified it with a restore. Wiping and disposal are a separate step to handle carefully once the copy is confirmed. We give no detailed data-destruction or privacy advice, and we make no claim about any disposal standard. If the machine holds customer or employee information, ask your advisers how to handle it.
If the old PC is simply being swapped for a new one that you will keep using, the situation is more ordinary, and our page on backing up before you switch to a new Windows PC walks through it.
We do not say. Ask your accountant or your attorney.
Everyday Backups makes no claim about any recordkeeping or retention obligation, how long any record must be kept, or whether any requirement applies to you. A backup helps you hold a copy of your own files. It does not tell you which ones to keep or for how long.
Two other pages on this site sit close to this one, and it is worth being explicit about the boundary so you land on the right one.
If your situation touches more than one, more than one page may apply. The thread running through this one is the owner, the sale or closing, and the full set of business records.
The items below are specific to a once-only event. They are a starting point, not a complete plan. For a broader review of your current setup, see the small-business backup checklist.
It is worth saying plainly. Backup is a recovery tool, not a security, privacy or compliance control.
Backing up your records protects your ability to get your own files back if a machine is wiped, lost, stolen, recycled or hit by ransomware. It does not make those files secure, it does not make them private, and it does not make them compliant with any rule. It gives no legal, tax, accounting, sale-agreement, business-valuation or data-privacy advice, and no regulatory advice of any kind. It makes no claim about any recordkeeping or retention obligation, and does not say whether any requirement applies to you.
CISA and the FTC both publish guidance noting that small businesses are targets of ransomware, and that an offline or off-site, encrypted copy is the main way back from it. A business in the middle of a sale or a closing is no less exposed, and it may be more distracted. A tested copy shortens a hard week. It does not replace your own diligence or your advisers.
That page is about one person leaving while the business carries on, and the files that walk out with them. This page is about the owner leaving, or the business itself being sold, handed down, merged or closed. The records at stake are the whole company's, once, rather than one departing person's folder.
That page is about swapping one computer for another, which is a routine event. This page is about a once-only event for the whole business, where every machine, drive, phone and mailbox may change hands or be cleared out. A sale or a closing involves more than a PC swap, including a decision about which files go with a buyer and which stay with you.
No. Sync keeps a folder looking the same on every device connected to it, so a deletion or an overwrite shows up everywhere just as fast. If a PC is wiped or handed over while it is still syncing, the change can follow. Backup keeps earlier versions you can reach back to, in a place you control. See our comparison of cloud sync vs. backup for the full explanation.
Everyday Backups makes no claim to integrate with any point-of-sale, practice-management or online accounting system. Whatever lives in a vendor's online system is theirs to run, and your access may end when the subscription is canceled. Download the exports and reports you may need before you cancel. Everyday Backups backs up files on Windows computers, phones and tablets, including the exports and reports you save locally. Verify your own backup scope with your own review.
No. Everyday Backups gives no legal, tax, accounting, sale-agreement, business-valuation or data-privacy advice, and no regulatory advice of any kind. What should go to a buyer and what should stay with you is a decision for you, your attorney and your accountant. Everyday Backups only helps keep a recoverable copy of the files your business already has.
No. Everyday Backups makes no claim that a backed up file is secure, private or compliant with any rule. It also makes no claim about any recordkeeping or retention obligation, how long any record must be kept, or whether any requirement applies to you. Ask your accountant or attorney. Backup is a recovery tool, not a security, privacy or compliance control.
Many owners find, late in the process, that years of books, customer lists and email live on a single machine. If that machine goes to a buyer, a recycler, a donation center or a relative cleaning out the office before a verified copy exists, the records can go with it. A full copy made first, kept somewhere you control and tested with a restore, means the files still exist after the machine is gone.
We give no opinion on that. It is something to agree in advance with your attorney and your accountant, and it belongs in your own planning, not in a backup tool. What a backup can do is make sure you hold a complete, recoverable copy of everything before any machine or account changes hands, so that whatever is agreed, you are choosing from a full set.
Only after the copy is complete and you have restored a few files from it to confirm they open. Wiping and disposal are a separate step to handle carefully once the copy is confirmed. Everyday Backups gives no data-destruction or disposal advice and makes no claim about any disposal standard.
It installs on the Windows office PC, the spare desktop or the laptop that holds the books, backs up automatically, keeps version history so a file can be pulled from an earlier point, encrypts data in transit and at rest, and sends the copy to off-site cloud storage. It also runs on iPhone, iPad and Android, so a phone full of photos or documents can be covered, and plans start from $5.99/mo. Each Windows machine that holds business files needs its own coverage.
Everyday Backups is file backup only, for Windows computers, phones, and tablets. It is not an accounting, point-of-sale or practice-management product, and no compatibility or integration with any such software is guaranteed or implied, so verify backup scope and file coverage with your own review. This page gives no legal, tax, accounting, sale-agreement, business-valuation or data-privacy advice, and no regulatory advice of any kind. Please refer those questions to your accountant or attorney. It makes no claim about any recordkeeping or retention obligation, makes no claim about how long any record must be kept, and does not say whether any such requirement applies to you or your business. It makes no claim about data-destruction or disposal standards. It makes no claim that any file is secure, private, or compliant. A backup is a data recovery tool, not a data security, privacy, or compliance product, and backing up a file does not make that file secure, private, or compliant with any rule. References to CISA, FTC, Microsoft, and Intuit documentation are for informational context only and do not constitute endorsement by those organizations. Consult qualified legal, financial, and tax advisors for requirements specific to your situation.
Everyday Backups runs on Windows, iPhone, iPad, and Android. Set it once; it backs up automatically, encrypted, off-site. Paid plans from $5.99/mo.
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Copyright © 2026 Everyday Backups · everydaybackups.com · Secure cloud backup for small business & personal files