The Saving Settings
Regardless of which MoneyWorks solution you are using, MoneyWorks provides you with the ability to save, backup and in the case of a crash restore your work, including unsaved changes.
It is all controlled via the settings in your MoneyWorks preferences. Go to MoneyWorks Preferences under the Edit menu when the application is open. Click the Savings Tab.
If checked as above:
Saving
MoneyWorks will automatically prompt you to save the company file every 60 minutes in this case. You can set this for whatever period of time you desire and a window will open prompting to you to save. Click save and keep working.
Backups
MoneyWorks will automatically prompt you to Save as a Backup based on the frequency you select. If weekly, it will prompt you every seven days from when you set up the file. If you select daily, it will prompt you every time you close the company file, since MoneyWorks does not know whether you are going to reopen during that day. If there any are unsaved changes at the time of backup, MoneyWorks will ask you whether you want to save those changes. Click save if you want to include those changes in the backup.
Note: on Backups, the default location is your Documents folder. However the purpose of backups is to save a copy in the event, your computer crashes, i.e, hard drive failure. So you save to your desktop and move the file off to an external drive (thumb drive/memory stick). Then if there is a hardware failure your backup copy can be accessed.
Other customers use system backups such as Time Machine on the Mac, in which case based on their settings the whole hard drive is backed up at whatever desired intervals. In those cases you do not need to create a backup, although you may still want to do that in the case of a Time Machine failure. In other words the safest location for a backup copy might be in multiple locations and one that is not susceptible to hardware failure and definitely not sitting in the Documents folder of your computer.
Rollback and Crash Recovery
By selecting this option MoneyWorks will automatically create a session file when you open the company file. The Session File will record all the changes (transactions and actions) that you make to the file from the time you open the file to the first save. Then everything you do to the file from the last save to the next save and so forth.
Since all the unsaved changes are being recorded in this session file, you can use Rollback, a feature located under the File menu. Rollback allows you to move back in time to a previous state. In other words if you entered and posted a transaction (i.e. an invoice) and immediately realized that you selected the wrong customer, product, amount or date etc., you could go to the RollBack option and move back in time prior to the creation or posting of the invoice.
In this example I opened the Express file and added a Debtor Invoice and then posted the Debtor Invoice. The RollBack Changes window lists those three actions.
In this case I want to move back to the unposted state of the invoice so I highlight the two actions I want to keep and click Rollback.
The Debtor Invoice is now changed back to an unposted state, where I can open it and make my corrections. Since the session file only shows unsaved changes, the Rollback option will not work if I have already saved the file or if I have not done anything since the last save.
Crash Recovery
Crash Recovery is the more important reason for the creating a session file. If your system crashes (power failure, operating system crash, or inadvertent force quit), MoneyWorks will be improperly closed meaning that the Session file still exists and that it contains unsaved changes.
When the power comes back or you reopen MoneyWorks, the Session Restore window will open...
Listing the unsaved changes that are still listed in the session file. If you click “Restore Work” the file will open to the state before the crash, with the data in tack.
Your other choices are to discard the session file, in other words don’t restore the data and move the file back to it’s last saved status or don’t open until I figure out what happened. In which case when you reopen the file you will again have the three choices.
The important point to remember is not to panic when there is a crash as the unsaved data can be restored if you push the correct button and if the Session Restore window does not open, all your changes were saved before the crash.
In Conclusion:
MoneyWorks is designed to protect you data if you set the settings under MoneyWorks Preferences to do so. Practice using the Rollback feature before it becomes vital to using it. Do not store your Backups on your computer as it won’t help you if the computer hard drive crashes.
Cheers
MoneyWorks Support