Guide

Backing up MYOB AccountRight and Reckon company files

If your books are in a company file on your own PC, they're only as safe as that PC. Here's where the files are, and how to back them up so a dead drive or ransomware doesn't take them with it.

Updated October 2026

If your company file is online – stored by MYOB or Reckon in the cloud – they keep it for you. This guide is for files kept on the PC itself.

Where the files are

MYOB AccountRight

Company files kept on the PC are in the AccountRight Library. For the single-PC edition that's usually:

C:\Users\your name\Documents\MYOB\My AccountRight Files

The server edition keeps them in Public Documents instead. AccountRight's own backups are made with File › Back Up, to a folder you choose.

Reckon Accounts (desktop)

Reckon's help says the company file (ending in .QBW) is usually in:

C:\Users\Public\Documents\Intuit\QuickBooks\Company Files

Some of those folders are hidden by default. To check where yours is, open the company file and press F2: the Location line shows the folder. Reckon's own backups end in .QBB.

Two layers of backup

Accounting software writes to its company file constantly, so the most reliable copy is the one the software makes itself:

Let the accounting software make its backup – AccountRight's File › Back Up, or Reckon's backup – at the end of each day or week, into a folder on the PC such as Documents\Accounts backups.
Copy those backups, and the company file, off the PC – to a USB drive or a NAS – so they survive the PC failing, being stolen, or being hit by ransomware.

The first layer protects you from a damaged company file; the second from losing the PC. A backup that only lives on the PC's own drive is the most common way small businesses lose their books.

Keep more than one copy

Ransomware scrambles every drive it can reach, including a backup drive that's plugged in. Keep at least one drive unplugged and away from the office – swapping two drives each week is the simplest way. And keep older backups: a mistake you notice a month later needs a copy from before it.