Data, Backup & Sync

Where your data lives and how it moves. A business keeps one master database (business, users, settings) and one detail database per financial year. In Local DB mode that is a file on the device; on a Local Server it is on the server (SQLite or SQL Server); in cloud mode it is the SKS service. Devices sync through the server; backups are files you keep.

Where it is in the app

Settings > Data Manager, Settings > Financial Years, Server Admin from the login screen (Windows local server), Tools > Switch to Server / Switch to Local, the Sync button on the POS page, and the Local Setup / Server Admin tools.

Topology

flowchart TD
    subgraph Cloud["Internet mode"]
        A1[Device] <--> C[(SKS cloud service)]
        A2[Device] <--> C
        B[Buyer app · online store] <--> C
    end
    subgraph LAN["Local Server mode"]
        S[(Server: Windows service or SKS Server app
SQLite per year or SQL Server)]
        D1[Counter 1] <--> S
        D2[Counter 2 / phone] <--> S
        W[Waiter app · KDS] <--> S
        S -.->|optional online sync| C
    end
    subgraph Solo["Local DB mode"]
        L[(One device · SQLite file per year)]
        L -->|Switch to Server| S
    end
    S & L --> BK[Backup file · restore · export]

Pick the mode per device at first run; a solo device can graduate to a server later.

Tasks

Backup - Data Manager writes a backup of the master and the current year (and can schedule it); keep it off the device (drive, cloud folder). Restore from the same screen.
Financial years - create the next year before the old one ends (the dashboard banner reminds you); you choose what carries into it (below); switch between years to see history.
Sync - devices connected to a server sync continuously; the Sync button forces a pass and shows the last sync per table. Deleted rows are tracked so every device removes them.
Local server setup - install the Windows service or the SKS Server Android app, then point counters at it (found automatically on the LAN, or by IP / QR).
Switch to Server / Switch to Local - move a Local DB device onto a server it has been activated for, or let a server client keep working locally when the server is down.
Several connections on one device - a device can keep two or three connection modes and pick one at each start, each with its own login, PIN and business list. Set it up from the connection screen; see Getting Started.
SQL Server - Advanced mode on a Windows server keeps each year in a SQL Server database; chosen when the first business is created, and changeable from Server Admin.
Migrations - the app upgrades the database schema itself on first open after an update; a fresh year starts on the current model.

What carries into a new year

Creating a year is not a copy of the old one. The dialog asks, in three groups, what should be there on day one — everything else stays in the year it happened in and is read by switching back to it.

Carryover balances - customer, supplier and staff balances; closing cash, bank, UPI and card; product stock. Each is an opening figure in the new year, not a re-posted voucher.
Carry forward - unpaid and part-paid bills (keeping their own numbers), open orders, quotations and challans (a part-billed one netted down to what is left), and cheques still in hand or still with the bank. Bills can only carry where the balance they belong to does.
Open records - work still running when the year turned: loans and pledges, live jewellery schemes, uncollected orders and repairs, active memberships and PT packages, guests still in house with their folios, patients still admitted with their open appointments and lab orders, running projects with their items and subcontracts, and vehicles still parked with valid passes. Each is offered only to a business that runs that half.

An open record carries its identity and its outstanding position, not its history: a loan arrives without its past instalments, and the balance it carries is the residual. What was already settled stays readable in the closed year.

When something goes wrong

flowchart TD
    A[Trouble] --> B{What kind?}
    B -->|server not reachable| C[Counters keep working locally where allowed]
    C --> D[Fix the server or the network]
    D --> E[Sync catches up automatically]
    B -->|a device is behind| F[Force a sync · check last sync per table]
    B -->|year is ending| G[Create the next financial year early]
    G --> H[Balances carry forward]
    B -->|data lost or device dead| I{Recent backup?}
    I -->|yes| J[Restore it · re-enter the gap]
    I -->|no| K[Only what synced elsewhere survives]
    K --> L[Set a backup routine now]
    E & F & H & J --> M[Back to normal]

The branch that ends badly is the one with no backup — every other problem here is recoverable.

Good practice

Back up before an update and at least weekly; copy the file off the machine.
Create the next financial year a few days early.
On a LAN server, give the server PC a fixed IP and keep it on a UPS.