This article is designed to help small business owners understand critical IT risks they may not be aware of – because let’s be honest, most of us didn’t sign up to become tech experts.
Thousands of South African SMEs using Xero accounting software may be one dodgy click away from losing years of financial data – and most haven’t got a clue.
Who’s using Xero in SA? What’s actually at risk? When could your data go AWOL? Where does the buck stop? And why aren’t businesses protecting themselves? Most South African business owners reckon their financial data is sorted when using Xero – ja, it’s one of the world’s top accounting platforms used by millions. However, here’s the thing: Xero operates on a “shared responsibility” model, where they maintain the infrastructure while you’re responsible for backing up your own data.
Xero’s terms of service spell it out clearly in section 37: “Data loss: Data loss is an unavoidable risk when using any technology. You’re responsible for maintaining copies of your data entered into our services. For information on how to do that, check out how to export data out of Xero on Xero Central. We are not liable for loss of your data other than in accordance with section 55 of these terms.”
This means years of invoices, customer records, supplier details, bank reconciliations, and financial reports could disappear faster than a taxi at month-end – with no way to get them back.
Why SA businesses need Xero backups – sharpish
The risk goes way beyond tech failures. Human error is the biggest threat to Xero data for SA SMEs, and it happens more often than you’d think.
Ever accidentally delete transactions, customers, or entire accounting periods? Without proper backups, these oops moments become proper disasters. It’s the kind of mistake that keeps business owners awake at night.
James Durrant, CEO of BlueCloud Digital, puts it bluntly: “The biggest mistake we see is businesses thinking that because their data is ‘in the cloud’, it’s automatically backed up. Listen, cloud storage and cloud backup are completely different animals. Your data might be accessible from anywhere, but if someone deletes it or it gets corrupted, being in the cloud won’t help you one bit. Every business needs to take responsibility for protecting its own financial records – SARS won’t accept ‘but it was in the cloud’ as an excuse.”
Cybercriminals are also targeting SA businesses more aggressively. These skelmpies specifically go after financial systems with ransomware attacks and data breaches.
If they get into your Xero account, they can wipe or encrypt everything. Companies without backup plans face weeks of downtime and sometimes lose everything permanently.
SARS will want those records – guaranteed
SARS doesn’t mess around when it comes to keeping historical financial records. They want businesses to maintain transaction histories, tax calculations, and audit trails going back years.
Lose your Xero data and you could be in serious trouble with SARS. We’re talking compliance issues and hefty penalties – the kind that make you wish you’d sorted out backups ages ago.
What data needs protection?
Comprehensive Xero backup solutions must protect extensive business information, including financial records, business data, and system configurations.
Financial records encompass invoices with attachments and histories, credit notes, bank transactions, transfers, purchase orders, quotes, receipts, manual journals, payments, over-payments, pre-payments, and linked transactions.
Business data includes contacts with attachments and histories, contact groups, currencies, employees, expense claims, projects, project tasks, time entries, items, inventory tracking, tax rates, and tracking categories.
System configurations cover organisation settings, users, branding themes, assets (including draft, disposed, and registered assets), asset types, invoice reminders, repeating invoices, folders, files, and file associations.
Professional backup solutions are available
SA IT specialists are increasingly offering automated backup solutions designed specifically for Xero users. These run in the background, taking regular snapshots of your complete Xero database without you having to think about it.
Professional backup services can restore everything quickly when things go wrong, keeping your business running. Costs start from around R250 per month per company – basically the price of a Wimpy burger for two, but it could save your entire business.
What should you do now?
If you’re using Xero, chat to an IT professional about backing up your data. Don’t wait until something goes wrong – ask for help now.
A qualified IT support company can set up automated backups that work in the background and test them regularly. They’ll also help you strengthen your cybersecurity and train your staff to avoid costly mistakes.
Bottom line: losing years of financial data will cost you far more than R250 a month.
Have questions about protecting your Xero data or need guidance on backup solutions? Contact the experts at BlueCloud Digital who specialise in helping businesses safeguard their critical information.
Have you secured your Xero data backup? What other cloud accounting risks concern South African businesses?
