@Richard We’ve had this request quite a bit actually. You can currently export quite a lot of your data from Xero for you to backup how you see fit (see http://help.xero.com/#ImportExport for further details on what you can currently get).

However if you wanted it in one package (and including absolutely EVERYTHING) then the problem becomes format. We run a multi-tenanted data store – that means that we store everyone’s data in (conceptually) one database (with lots of controls in place to segment the data by customer to completely secure it). So we can’t give you a database backup as we would back it up. We would have to give you some kind of export file specific to your organisation. And then the problem becomes how useful that file is if it only imports into Xero? (And we would have to build that import in the first place)

Those problems aside it is something we’re adding too over time. Hopefully one day soon we’ll have enough CSV based exports available that means you can get everything for you to backup yourself. One idea we were toying with at one stage was to do these backups on your behalf to an independent cloud provider (maybe using Azure Storage or something). Even though we would give you access to these backups it means that you’d need to trust more than just one cloud provider.

Craig

From the very beginning Xero have been a safe pair of hands with my data and With them being a local company I’ve not worried too much. However I would still like to be able to download a backup of my accounts and I imagine international customers would feel this even moreso.

Recently I have been experimenting with cloud based team management solutions and would love to implement Manymoon’s social productivity app as we already use google apps and it integrates well with those. However they only allow downloading of data on their enterprise level (expensive) accounts with a 24hr turnaround and their support has been awful (many days to respond, even on a paid for account). So they have a great product but not one I can trust when they are across the world and it’s hard to know how reliable they are. Unlike accounting we cannot afford to be without access to our management systems for even a day so even if Manymoon are indestructible our internet connection is not.

Might want to think about how someone across the world views the trustworthyness of a company that is going to hold their critical financial data but offers no way of letting it off their servers…

-RichardFM

FWIW Andrew did an awesome job on his panel, I was well impressed, but I’m pretty sure that he’d concur hat it’s very difficult for him to be objective about MYOB’s moves in the space….

Vend works with the majority of scanners and receipt printers without much fuss. Cash drawers can be connected to your receipt printer to automatically open when you print receipts. We are looking at more advanced integrations at the moment but so far we work with most hardware.

Vend supports more than 4 lanes/registers and we are updating our site soon to better communicate this. You will be able to simply add extra lanes for around NZ$29 per extra lane. We have a 15 lane retailer already and they love having the ability to roll out an extra lanes with a couple of clicks, and firing up a new PC.

Feel free to sign up for a trial and I am more than happy to answer any other questions you have. We are planning a lot more innovation in the coming months!

Vaughan – CEO, Vend

Rod