How to restore clients in Lacerte

Restoring clients returns backed-up data files to the Clients list so you can continue preparing or filing returns. You can restore a single client, a group of clients, or troubleshoot restoration errors.

To restore a group of clients:

1. Open Lacerte to the Clients list.
2. From the Client menu select Restore.
3. In the Restore From line, select Browse to locate where your clients are stored.
4. Select Group.
5. Choose one of the Client Group Selection options:
   • All Clients
   • Client Name
   • Client Number
   • Client Status
   • No REP Access
   • State Tax Return
   • Preparer
   • Staff Preparer
   • Other
6. Select OK to start the restore.

To restore specific client files:

1. Open Lacerte to the Clients list.
2. From the Client menu select Restore.
3. In the Restore From line, select Browse to locate where your clients are stored.
4. Select the client you want to restore. If you need to restore more than one client, hold down the CTRL key to select each file.
5. Select OK to restore the selected clients.

If the client already exists in the destination directory, Lacerte will prompt you to replace the existing client with the one being restored.

• To replace the existing client file, select either Yes or Yes to All.
• To avoid replacing the existing client file, select No, or select Cancel.

If you regularly back up clients, store your backups in multiple secure locations, such as your network drive and an external device. This reduces data loss risk if one backup becomes unreadable.

If your backup does not successfully restore:

• Verify that the Windows user account has full permissions to the destination data path folder.
• Backups stored on removable drives can become damaged or unreadable. If you're restoring a backup to a new computer and the old computer is still available, try using a USB flash drive to make another backup.
• If your backup is on different media, such as a USB flash (thumb) drive or external hard drive, try copying the backup file from that media to your desktop. Then try to restore by browsing to the file location on your hard drive.
• If the backup media is damaged and the file won't copy, or if you continue to experience other problems restoring the file, don't run SCAN DISK or any other disk-repair utility.