Backing up QuickBooks Enterprise with DPM

Traditionally QuickBooks backup has been done manually using the backup utility that is built inside of QuickBooks itself or using the paid online backup service from Intuit. My company runs QuickBooks Enterprise and I needed a way to automatically back this up using DPM. Well you can automate the backup of QuickBooks using DPM but you have to be sure you are getting the right stuff.

You will need to set DPM to backup the QBW file along with some other folders and files. Here are the details:

QBW stands for QuickBooks Working file. This file is your QuickBooks data file and contains all of your QuickBooks data it is typically in the following folder %systemdrive%:\Quickbooks\ or %systemsrive%:\Program Files\Intuit\QuickBooks version\. You may have changed this default folder during the installation of QuickBooks.
Transaction log – The Transaction log logs all changes to the company file before they are actually committed to the .qbw folder. This will be in the same folder as the QuickBooks company file the .qbw file. This file will be in this format: [company file name].qbw.tlg. This will need to be restored along with the .qbw file and placed in the same folder.

NOTE: The Transaction log is only cleared out when a complete backup of QuickBooks is run using the backup utility directly in QuickBooks. Backing up the files automatically with DPM will not clear this and the same is true if you were using Inuit Online Backups or another backup program. It is a good idea to go into QuickBooks periodically and run a backup using the backup utility so that your transaction log does not get to big.

Image files – These will be in the same folder as your QBW file.
Cash Flow Projector – This will be in the same folder as your QBW file and will have an extension of .cfp
Business Planner – This will be in the same folder as your QBW file and will have an extension of .bpw
Loan Manager – This will be in the same folder as your QBW file and will have an extension of .lmr
Spell Checker Dictionary – Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks [version]\ protect spell.ini and UserDictionary.tlx files.
Word Letters and Templates – Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks [version]\QuickBooks Letter Templates\ these will be word .doc files.
Printer Settings – Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks [version]\ protect PrintEng.ini, wpr.ini, and QBPrint.qbp files.

All above file and folder locations are the default locations. These may be different depending on what you set when you installed QuickBooks. So after you restore this data from DPM be sure it goes back into the correct directories. You may or may not need all of the above data to get your QuickBooks backup and running this depends on your QuickBooks install. The files that are critical are the .QBW file and the transaction log file. Without these files you will not be able to access your company data. These are critical files that you need to backup and will be absolutely needed in a restore. For example if you do not have custom invoices in QuickBooks you may not need to restore the word and template documents or if you do not use Loan Manager then you wont need to restore the .lmr files. For example in my environment all I needed to protect is the QuickBooks folder because it contains the .QBW file, the transaction log, the word templates and my images and the Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Intuit\QuickBooks Version folder for everything else.