Should I be saving my trial balance each year?

[Karimbo]

Just occured to me, if I lose access to my cloud accounting software say for whatever reason - they have a hack and lose your data and backups. Or some other reason they kick you off the platform and dont give you backups. I would be pretty shafted and would need to re-post all the entries into another accounting software.

But then... how far would I need to go back, if I dont have a trial balance saved from last years year end date, would the accountant be able to rebuild the accounts accurate with the aid of previous years accounts?

I just save the full accounts, ct returns and ofcourse the abbreviated one that goes to companies house. But should I be saving the trial balances as well?

 

[David Griffiths]

You should be saving the trial balance and the detailed nominal ledger. If you don't save the detaled ledger and get a query about an accounts heading from a few years ago, how else would you be able to answer it? I''d add detailed transaction reports for sales and purchases, plus copies of the VAT working to that. If they are saved as pdfs or excel files, there is no storage issue.

I download all of those as a matter of course, mostly when the annual accounts are finalised but the VAT papers as soon as the return is filed.

 

[WaveJumper]

Blimey I would be having sleepless nights if I was not backing up all my records

 

[MyAccountantOnline]

Just occured to me, if I lose access to my cloud accounting software say for whatever reason - they have a hack and lose your data and backups. Or some other reason they kick you off the platform and dont give you backups. I would be pretty shafted and would need to re-post all the entries into another accounting software.

But then... how far would I need to go back, if I dont have a trial balance saved from last years year end date, would the accountant be able to rebuild the accounts accurate with the aid of previous years accounts?

I just save the full accounts, ct returns and ofcourse the abbreviated one that goes to companies house. But should I be saving the trial balances as well?

I would save a trial balance and nominal/general ledger each year as part of your accounting records.

I'm assuming if you are VAT registered you already keep a copy of each VAT return you submit to HMRC and a detailed report showing how the figures on the VAT return are comprised.

 

[Karimbo]

Thanks all, this is really useful. I thought I replied back. But it looks like I haven't.

 

[Karimbo]

Blimey I would be having sleepless nights if I was not backing up all my records

I was just relying on the cloud accounts to do the backup. But you're right I should download them.

 

[Daybooks]

I was just relying on the cloud accounts to do the backup. But you're right I should download them.

Remember backups are useless unless you know how to access and restore them and can prove that they themselves are not corrupted.

 

[DontAsk]

Remember backups are useless unless you know how to access and restore them and can prove that they themselves are not corrupted.

Also useful if the cloud service has a Total Inability To Support Usual Performance (TITSUP) or goes bust or suddenly hikes their fees.

Always save in a format you can easily read, interpret and import into some other package.