Restore Company loads a backup made with Back Up Company into the company you are signed in to. It brings the company back as it stood on the date you choose: the chart of accounts, customers, vendors and items; every invoice and bill still owed on that date; the stock on hand; and every other account's balance. Documents that were already settled stay in the backup's files for reference; they are not recreated.
A restore works in three steps. First SeroBooks reads the backup into a holding area, where nothing touches your books. Then you review exactly what it would create. Only when you confirm does it write anything, and even then you can undo it, as long as nothing new has been entered against what it brought back.
Before you start
- Restore into a new, empty company whenever you can (see Open Company and working with several companies). Restoring into a company that already has transactions adds the backup's open documents and balances on top of what is there.
- You need the backup's ZIP file on this computer.
- Your role needs access to Move from QuickBooks (the import screen) to read a backup, and permission to commit and undo imports to restore and undo.
Restoring, step by step
- Choose File ▸ Restore Company…; the page opens over the Home Page, and Esc takes you back to the Home Page. Or press Restore Company… on the Back Up Company page: the page opens on top of Back Up Company, and Esc goes back to it.
- Step 1 — Choose the backup. Press Choose backup file (.zip)… and pick the backup. The button then shows the file's name.
- Check Restore as of. SeroBooks sets it to the end date in the backup's file name (a backup named …-to-2026-09-25.zip restores as of 25 September 2026). Change it if you want the company as it stood on an earlier date.
- Press Read the backup. The button shows Reading… while SeroBooks reads the file.
- Step 2 — Review what the restore would do. Nothing has happened yet. Read the review (below). If there are problems, fix them before you continue.
- Step 3 — Restore. Press Restore now. In the Restore into this company? window, type RESTORE in Type RESTORE to confirm and press Restore.
- The step shows Restoring… and "This can take a few minutes." When it finishes you see "Restored. Open the Trial Balance to check the figures."
- Open the Trial Balance as of the restore date and compare it with the one in the backup (trial_balance.csv).
The review, explained
| Part | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Balance line | "The backup's balances agree: debits $…, credits $…" (green) when the backup's balances add up; "The balances do not agree — out by $…" (amber) when they do not. |
| Will create | Each kind of record the restore would create (accounts, customers, vendors, items, open invoices, open bills, stock, balances). |
| Count | How many of that kind it would create. |
| Skipped | How many it read but will not create. A dash means none. |
| Problems | How many could not be read or placed. A dash means none. |
| Warnings (amber bullets) | Things the reader noticed in the backup that you should know about. |
| NEEDS A LOOK (n) | Up to 30 individual records that need attention, each with the kind of record, its reference and why. |
Restore now is available only when the review is ready. Until then the step says "Resolve the problems above first — the review is not ready."
What the restore writes
- Lists (accounts, customers, vendors, items) that already exist in this company by the same name are kept and used, not duplicated.
- Every invoice and bill with money still owing on the restore date comes back as an open document for the amount still owed (its total less the payments against it). Open credit memos and vendor credits are set against the same customer's or vendor's oldest documents first, as QuickBooks applies credits.
- Stock on hand comes back as opening stock.
- Every other account's balance comes back from the backup's trial balance as one opening journal entry. Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable and Inventory are not in that entry: their balances come from the open documents and the stock.
Undoing a restore
After a restore, Undo the restore appears in step 3. Press it:
- If nothing has been entered against the restored records, Undo the restore? says "Everything this restore wrote is taken back out of the books." Press Undo, and you see "The restore was undone."
- If something has, the window is titled It cannot be undone and lists the reasons, for example payments recorded against restored invoices or bills, new documents entered for restored customers or vendors, or sales of restored items. Reverse those first if the restore really has to come out.
Messages you may see
| Message | What to do |
|---|---|
| "Choose the backup file first." | Press Choose backup file (.zip)… before Read the backup. |
| "Resolve the problems above first — the review is not ready." | Read the Problems column and NEEDS A LOOK. Often the backup file is incomplete; make a fresh backup and read it again. |
| "The restore stopped before it finished. Undo it before trying again." | Part of the backup was written. Press Undo the restore, then start again. |
| "The restore has not reported back for thirteen minutes. Leave the books alone and contact support before doing anything else." | Do not enter anything and do not restore again; contact SeroBooks support. |
Tips
- Only restore backups made by SeroBooks' Back Up Company. To bring books in from QuickBooks Desktop, use Import from QuickBooks.
- Choose a Restore as of date that is the end of a month or year, so the opening balances line up with statements you already have.
Common problems
Settled invoices from the backup are missing. That is by design: a restore brings back what was open on the restore date and the account balances. The settled documents stay in the backup's CSV files.
Balances are out after the restore. Compare the SeroBooks Trial Balance with trial_balance.csv in the backup for the same date. If the company already had transactions before the restore, those are included too.