Backup retention is how long your backup holds on to older versions of your files, and so how far back a restore can reach. Having a backup isn’t enough on its own. The right version has to still be in it on the day someone notices the problem.
For the bigger picture, see our guide to data backup for contractors.
Mistakes are often found late
Someone deletes the estimate you already sent, saves over the invoice spreadsheet your bookkeeper still uses, or clears out a folder of walkthrough photos. Often the person who notices isn’t the one who made the change. They open the folder and find the wrong file, or nothing at all.
What you need back is the version from before that change, and it has to still be in the backup when someone notices. A copy that was taken and then dropped before anyone looked won’t give you the file back.
One file, from the good version to discovery
Earlier good version
The file before the bad changeDate
Bad change
Deleted or overwrittenDate
Discovery
When someone noticesDate
- ?
Still recoverable?
Does the backup still hold the good version on the discovery date?
As a floor, CISA (the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency) says to test your backups to make sure you can roll data back at least seven days. Beyond that, no single period fits every company. How far back you need depends on how late a bad change might be noticed in your office.
That varies by file. An estimator might catch a bad total the same afternoon, while a project manager might not open a photo folder until a customer asks about the job. Note the likely timing next to each kind of file, because the slow discoveries are the ones your retention has to cover.
A backup isn’t an archive or a records file
A backup is a copy you restore when a file is deleted or overwritten, so your office can get back to work on it. An archive is a separate place for older files you no longer open every day, like a closed job’s photos or a finished bid. Both hold older material, which is why people mix them up. But moving a folder into an archive tells you nothing about whether the estimate from before an overwrite can still be restored.
Keeping business records is a third job. How long you have to keep contracts and tax papers, and whether a legal hold (a request to preserve files) applies, are questions for your accountant or counsel. Your backup’s retention doesn’t settle them. Ask in writing, and keep the answer with the job file.
Get your plan’s answer in writing
Say an estimate is deleted or overwritten and your office notices later. For the account or folder it lived in, ask your provider:
- How far back can a deleted or overwritten file be restored?
- Is that history the file’s own version list, kept with it in the same folder, or a separate backup kept apart from it?
- Where is the answer written: the quote, the service plan or the settings for this account?
The reply should say which of the two still holds the earlier estimate, and where that’s written down. Your office fills in the details of the file. The provider’s answer fills in what the plan keeps and where it’s written. Keep the finished sheet with the quote for that account.
Retention worksheet for one file
- FileThe estimate, invoice sheet or photo folder
- Blank, to fill in
- Account or folderWhere the file lived
- Blank, to fill in
- What happenedDeleted or overwritten
- Blank, to fill in
- When someone noticesSame day, weeks later, or at a later review
- Blank, to fill in
- Version neededThe copy from before the bad change
- Blank, to fill in
- What the plan keepsYour provider’s answer for this account
- Blank, to fill in
- Where that answer is writtenQuote, service plan or account setting
- Blank, to fill in
- Separate questionHow long to keep the record, or a legal hold. Ask your accountant or counsel.
- Blank, to fill in
Two related choices are separate from retention. How often you back up a work computer is a different decision from how long versions are kept. And backup testing is how you check, later, that a restored file actually opens.
If Ghostworx handles your backup
Ghostworx backs up the business email and cloud files your coverage plan lists, kept separately from Microsoft or Google, and checks and test-restores the backups. How long versions are kept is written in your quote. Copy that line onto the worksheet, and leave the field blank until the quote names it. The full list of what’s covered is on our security and backup page.