911 IT provides automated daily backups with encrypted storage both locally and in the cloud, ensuring your financial records are recoverable within 4 to 8 hours. Our disaster recovery solution includes continuous monitoring, version control for up to 30 days, and tested restoration procedures specifically designed for CPA firms during tax season when downtime costs thousands per hour.
How Often Are Our Client Files and Tax Data Backed Up?
Your engagement files, workpapers, and client data receive automated backups every 24 hours at minimum, with critical systems backed up continuously throughout the day. This frequency ensures that even if a ransomware attack or hardware failure occurs at 4 PM during tax season, you lose at most a few hours of work rather than an entire day's billable time.
The backup schedule runs during off-peak hours to avoid impacting your team's productivity during busy season. For firms running time-sensitive processes like batch e-filing or payroll processing, we configure incremental backups every four to six hours to capture changes without system slowdowns.
Version control maintains 30 days of backup snapshots, which proves essential when a client discovers an error in their return weeks after filing. You can restore the exact version of workpapers from any point in the past month, not just the most recent save. This granular recovery capability has saved accounting firms from recreating weeks of work after accidental deletions or file corruption.
Dianna from an accounting firm we serve experienced this firsthand: "We have worked with 911 IT for many years, and I can tell you they are not just another IT company. They are proactive and always looking towards the future to solve potential problems before they become actual problems. I was very impressed before quarantine was implemented: 911 IT reached out to us to develop a plan to be able to move all of our employees home if the need arose."
Automated backups run whether your team remembers to save files or not, eliminating the risk of human error.
Where Are Our Backed-Up Financial Records Stored?
Your data resides in three distinct locations following the 3-2-1 backup rule:
- One copy on local backup appliances in your office for rapid recovery
- One copy in a geographically separate data center for regional disaster protection
- One encrypted copy in a secure cloud environment for ultimate redundancy
This redundancy ensures that a localized disaster like a fire at your Salt Lake City office, a regional event affecting Utah data centers, or even a cloud provider outage cannot destroy all copies simultaneously.
The local backup appliance provides the fastest recovery option for individual file restorations or when a staff member accidentally deletes a client folder. Recovery from local storage typically takes minutes rather than hours, keeping your team productive during busy season when every minute counts toward realization rates.
Cloud storage locations comply with IRS Publication 4557 requirements for safeguarding taxpayer data, with encryption both in transit and at rest using AES 256-bit standards. The data centers maintain SOC 2 Type II certifications and undergo annual audits, documentation your firm can reference during client due diligence questions or professional liability insurance reviews.
Geographic separation matters particularly in the Mountain West region where natural disasters like wildfires and earthquakes pose real risks. A Wyoming CPA firm serving the energy sector cannot afford to lose drilling partnership tax records because a single data center failed. The multi-location approach ensures business continuity regardless of regional events.
All storage locations remain within the United States to address concerns about international data sovereignty and compliance with state-specific breach notification laws Utah firms must follow.
How Quickly Can You Restore Our Systems After a Disaster?
Full system restoration typically completes within 4 to 8 hours for a complete server failure, and individual file recovery happens within 15 to 30 minutes. The recovery time objective varies based on your firm's size and complexity, but our disaster recovery plan prioritizes getting your tax preparation software, client portal, and email systems operational first so staff can continue serving clients.
During tax season between January and April 15, response times accelerate further. We maintain dedicated recovery resources during this period because we understand that a CPA firm losing access to systems for even half a day during March means missed deadlines, extension filings, and potential malpractice exposure. One day of downtime during busy season can cost a mid-sized firm $15,000 to $25,000 in lost billable hours and rush fees.
The recovery process begins with our monitoring systems detecting the failure and automatically alerting our team. You do not need to discover the problem and call us - we typically know about server issues before your first staff member arrives at the office. This proactive monitoring shaved hours off recovery time for multiple clients during recent ransomware incidents.
For catastrophic scenarios where your physical office becomes unusable, we can spin up virtual desktops in the cloud within hours, allowing your team to work remotely while you arrange temporary office space. This capability proved essential during the COVID-19 transition, and it remains relevant for fires, floods, or other events that make your building inaccessible.
Recovery time objectives for CPA firms: critical systems operational in 4 to 8 hours, individual files restored in 15 to 30 minutes.
Tested recovery procedures run quarterly to verify that backups actually work and restoration times meet your business requirements.
What Protection Do You Offer Against Ransomware and Cyberattacks?
Our backup solution includes immutable storage that prevents ransomware from encrypting your backup files, air-gapped copies that remain disconnected from your network, and continuous monitoring for suspicious file changes that indicate an active attack. These layers work together because modern ransomware specifically targets backup systems to eliminate your recovery options before demanding payment.
Immutable backups use write-once-read-many technology, meaning once the backup completes, neither your staff nor an attacker with admin credentials can delete or encrypt those files. This protection proved critical for a legal client whose entire network was encrypted by ransomware, but whose backups remained intact because the malware could not modify the immutable copies.
Air-gapped backups physically disconnect from your network after each backup cycle, creating an offline copy that no remote attacker can reach. For CPA firms handling sensitive taxpayer data, this offline copy provides the ultimate insurance policy against sophisticated attacks that might compromise both your production systems and online backups.
Behavioral monitoring watches for mass file encryption, unusual file modifications, or rapid deletion patterns that signal ransomware activity. When detected, automated responses can isolate affected systems, alert our security team, and preserve clean backup copies before the infection spreads. This early warning system typically contains attacks to a single workstation rather than allowing network-wide encryption.
Multi-factor authentication protects access to backup management consoles, preventing attackers who steal passwords from disabling your backup systems. We have seen ransomware groups spend days inside networks specifically hunting for backup credentials before launching their encryption attack.
These protections integrate with our broader cybersecurity services to create defense-in-depth, but the backup layer serves as your last line of defense when other controls fail.
Do You Test Disaster Recovery to Ensure It Actually Works?
We conduct quarterly recovery tests that restore a subset of your data to verify backup integrity and measure actual recovery times against your business requirements. These tests move beyond simply confirming that backup jobs completed successfully - we actually restore files and boot up system images to prove they work when you need them.
Test scenarios include common failure modes like corrupted databases, deleted file shares, failed servers, and ransomware encryption. Each test documents the time required for detection, decision-making, and restoration, identifying bottlenecks in the recovery process before a real disaster occurs. This documentation becomes part of your disaster recovery plan and provides evidence of due diligence for professional liability insurance and client audits.
Annual full-scale disaster recovery drills simulate catastrophic scenarios where your entire office becomes unavailable. These exercises test not just the technology but also communication procedures, staff training, and business continuity plans. Does your team know how to access the client portal from home? Can partners approve payroll remotely? Do you have current contact information for all staff members?
The testing process has uncovered issues for multiple clients: backup jobs that appeared successful but contained corrupted files, recovery procedures that took twice as long as expected, or dependencies on systems nobody realized were critical until they failed. Finding these problems during a controlled test rather than during a real emergency makes the difference between minor inconvenience and business-threatening crisis.
Test results feed into continuous improvement of your disaster recovery plan, adjusting backup frequencies, updating recovery priorities, or adding redundancy for newly critical systems. Your firm's needs change as you add cloud applications, remote staff, or new service lines, and testing ensures your backup strategy evolves accordingly.
Documentation from these tests satisfies due diligence requirements when clients ask about your business continuity capabilities during engagement letters.
How Does Your Backup Solution Handle Our Specific Accounting Software?
We provide application-aware backups for major tax and accounting platforms including CCH Axcess, Thomson Reuters UltraTax, Intuit ProConnect, Drake, and practice management systems like XCM and Canopy. Application-aware backups understand the database structure and file dependencies of these programs, ensuring consistent backups that restore properly rather than capturing files mid-write or missing linked components.
Database-driven applications like CCH Axcess require special handling because simply copying files while the database is active can create corrupted backups that fail during restoration. Our backup agents coordinate with the application to create consistent snapshots, similar to how the software's own backup features work but with additional redundancy and off-site protection.
For cloud-hosted applications like QuickBooks Online or Bill.com, we backup the data exports and integration points with your local systems. While the vendor maintains the primary application, your firm still needs copies of reports, client lists, and configuration settings that might not be easily recoverable if your vendor account is compromised or data is accidentally deleted.
Custom integrations between your tax software, document management system, and client portal receive special attention because these connections often break during restoration if not properly documented and backed up. We maintain configuration documentation alongside your data backups so that restored systems reconnect properly without hours of troubleshooting.
The backup solution also captures your email system completely, including Exchange or Microsoft 365 mailboxes with all folders, rules, and calendar data. For CPA firms, email serves as a critical engagement record and client communication archive that must be preserved for professional standards and potential litigation.
Our team's experience with CPA firm IT support means we understand which files and databases are critical for your specific software stack and busy season workflow.
What Does Backup and Disaster Recovery Cost for a CPA Firm?
Backup and disaster recovery services typically cost $10 to $30 per user per month in the industry, though comprehensive solutions for CPA firms often fall at the higher end of that range due to data volume, compliance requirements, and the need for rapid recovery during tax season. The investment protects against losses that dwarf the monthly cost - a single day of downtime during March can cost more than a year of backup services.
Pricing factors include the amount of data being backed up, retention period requirements, recovery speed expectations, and whether you need local appliances in addition to cloud storage. A five-person CPA firm with 500 GB of client data has different needs than a 30-person firm with 5 TB of historical records and multiple office locations across Utah and Wyoming.
The cost calculation should account for your risk exposure. Calculate your daily revenue during busy season, multiply by the probability of a disaster, and compare that to the annual backup cost. For most CPA firms, the math strongly favors comprehensive backup solutions because the downside risk is so asymmetric - small monthly cost versus potentially business-ending loss.
Our flat-rate, transparent pricing model means you know exactly what you will pay each month without surprise charges for data overages or recovery events. Some backup vendors charge premium rates when you actually need to restore data, turning a disaster into a financial crisis. We include reasonable restoration activities in the monthly fee because we believe you should not pay extra to access your own data during an emergency.
Many CPA firms bundle backup and disaster recovery with our managed IT services, which provides better integration between backup systems, security monitoring, and proactive maintenance. The comprehensive approach typically delivers better protection at lower total cost than purchasing backup as a standalone service.
Professional liability insurance carriers increasingly ask about backup and disaster recovery capabilities during underwriting, and some offer premium discounts for firms with documented business continuity plans.
Why Choose 911 IT for Your CPA Firm's Backup and Disaster Recovery?
Salt Lake City CPA firms face a critical choice when protecting their financial records: trust a national provider where you are one account among thousands, or work with a local partner who understands that your busy season cannot tolerate downtime. 911 IT brings enterprise-grade backup technology with the personalized service that makes the difference during actual disasters.
Our team knows the specific challenges CPA firms face because we have supported accounting practices through tax seasons, software migrations, and disaster recovery scenarios. We understand that restoring your tax software first matters more than restoring the breakroom printer, and that client portal access during busy season is more critical than internal file shares.
The monitoring and support means we detect backup failures, storage issues, or security threats before they compromise your data. Large national MSPs route your calls through ticket queues and junior technicians who lack context about your firm. When you call 911 IT during a disaster, you reach someone who knows your name, your software, and your business priorities.
Our 100% Satisfaction Guarantee backs up our commitment to keeping your data safe and recoverable. We have earned recognition as a 2024 MSP Titans award winner and Best of Salt Lake by delivering the proactive, reliable service that CPA firms depend on.
Matthew experienced our recovery capabilities firsthand when other providers failed: "911 IT really came to the rescue when all others failed. I mean ALL others failed. My wife and I thought we had lost years of pictures, videos and songs that were stored on our hard drive. It took them a couple of days to get every bit of info from the hard drive." While this was a personal recovery, the same expertise applies to recovering your client engagement files and tax data.
Other Salt Lake City IT providers you might consider include Executech, Wasatch I.T., Nexus IT Consultants, INTELITECHS, ProLink IT, and Qual IT. Each brings different strengths, but 911 IT's focus on proactive monitoring, transparent pricing, and deep experience with CPA firm workflows positions us as the best fit for accounting practices that cannot afford downtime during tax season.
Our service area covers Utah, Wyoming, and Arizona, with deep roots in the Salt Lake City IT support market and understanding of the multi-state compliance considerations that affect Mountain West accounting firms. We protect your data with the same rigor you apply to safeguarding taxpayer information.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long do you retain our backup data?
We maintain daily backups for 30 days, weekly backups for three months, and monthly backups for one year by default. Retention periods can be extended to meet your firm's specific compliance requirements, client engagement record retention policies, or professional liability insurance mandates. Longer retention increases storage costs but provides protection against delayed discovery of data loss or corruption.
Can we access our backups directly if we need to retrieve a file?
Yes, we provide a self-service portal where authorized staff can browse backup snapshots and restore individual files without opening a support ticket. This capability proves valuable when a staff member accidentally deletes a client folder or needs to retrieve a previous version of a workpaper. For larger restorations or system-level recovery, our team handles the process to ensure proper restoration and data integrity.
What happens if our internet connection goes down during a disaster?
Local backup appliances in your office enable restoration even without internet connectivity, ensuring you can recover critical files and systems using on-site storage. For extended outages or if the local appliance is damaged, we can ship a replacement appliance pre-loaded with your data or arrange temporary internet connectivity through cellular backup. Our disaster recovery plan includes multiple scenarios to maintain business continuity regardless of infrastructure failures.
Do you backup our cloud applications like QuickBooks Online or Microsoft 365?
Yes, we backup Microsoft 365 email, OneDrive, SharePoint, and Teams data because Microsoft's native retention does not protect against ransomware, malicious deletion, or account compromise. For other cloud applications, we backup data exports, configuration settings, and integration points to ensure you can recover if the vendor experiences data loss or your account is compromised. Cloud application backups provide an additional safety layer beyond vendor-managed storage.
How do you ensure our backup data remains confidential and secure?
All backup data is encrypted using AES 256-bit encryption both during transmission and while stored, with encryption keys managed separately from the backup data itself. Access to backup systems requires multi-factor authentication, and all access is logged for audit purposes. Storage locations maintain SOC 2 Type II certifications and comply with IRS Publication 4557 requirements for safeguarding taxpayer data, ensuring your client information remains protected throughout the backup lifecycle.
