Backups & Exports

Protect your data with automated daily backups. Configure retention policies, manually trigger backups, and export data for compliance and disaster recovery.

Backup Strategy

RepairOps uses a 3-2-1 backup strategy:

• 3 copies of your data (live database + 2 backups in different locations)
• 2 different storage types (local + cloud)
• 1 offsite location (geographic redundancy)

This ensures you can recover from accidental deletion, corruption, or data center outage.

Automated Daily Backups

How Backups Work

When: Every day at 2 AM (shop timezone)

What’s included:

• Full database snapshot (all tables, data, schema)
• File attachments (photos, documents, etc.)
• User settings and configurations

What’s NOT included:

• Stripe billing records (maintained separately by Stripe)
• Email delivery logs (retained for 90 days)
• Temporary files and cache

Backup Retention

Backups are retained according to your plan:

Plan	Retention
Starter	30 days
Pro	60 days
Enterprise	2 years

Older backups are automatically deleted. For long-term archival (e.g., regulatory compliance), export data instead.

Storage Location

• Starter/Pro: AWS S3 (encrypted, replicated to 3 regions)
• Enterprise: Configurable (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or on-premises)

All backups are encrypted at-rest (AES-256) and in-transit (TLS).

Restore from Backup

Restoring to Sandbox (Test Environment)

Test a backup without affecting live data:

1. Navigate to Settings → Backups → Restore to Sandbox
2. Select backup date and time
3. Click Create Sandbox
4. RepairOps creates a temporary copy (takes 5-10 minutes)
5. Use sandbox to verify data before restoring to production

Sandbox access:

• URL: https://yourshop-sandbox.repairops.io
• Same data as backup date
• Separate from your live system
• Automatically deleted after 7 days

Restoring to Production

Restore your live system from a backup:

1. Settings → Backups → Restore to Production
2. Select backup date and time
3. Confirm backup details (size, date, data summary)
4. WARNING: Current data will be replaced
5. Click Restore
6. RepairOps begins restore (typically 5-30 minutes depending on size)

During restore:

• System is read-only (staff can’t make changes)
• Repair tickets can be viewed but not edited
• Customers can still access portal but can’t submit repairs

After restore completes:

• System comes back online
• All changes since backup date are lost
• Staff can resume normal operations

When to restore:

• Accidental mass deletion (tickets, customers, etc.)
• Data corruption
• Ransomware attack
• Recovering from user error

Manual Backups

Create an on-demand backup anytime:

1. Settings → Backups → Create Manual Backup
2. Click Backup Now
3. RepairOps creates a snapshot immediately
4. Manual backups are retained until manually deleted
5. Useful before major changes (bulk imports, plugin installations, etc.)

Manual backups don’t count toward retention limits; you can keep them indefinitely.

Data Exports

Export your data in standard formats (CSV, JSON) for:

• External analysis (data science, BI tools)
• Migration to another system
• Compliance and auditing
• Backup archival

What Can Be Exported

1. All Tickets — Complete ticket history with all fields
2. All Customers — Customer contact info, repair history
3. All Invoices — Invoice records and PDF attachments
4. All Inventory — Parts catalog and stock levels
5. All Users — Team member info, roles, permissions
6. All Transactions — POS sales and payments
7. Custom Selection — Choose specific date range or filters

Exporting Data

1. Settings → Data & Compliance → Export Data
2. Select what to export:
   • Tickets (optionally filter by date range, status, shop)
   • Customers
   • Invoices
   • Inventory
   • Users
   • Transactions
3. Select format:
   • CSV — For Excel, Google Sheets, databases
   • JSON — For custom applications, APIs
   • PDF — For archival (invoices only)
4. Click Export
5. Download begins (size typically 10 MB - 1 GB)

Export files are encrypted and available for 30 days.

CSV Format Details

CSV exports include:

• All columns from the table
• Headers on first row
• UTF-8 encoding
• Standard comma separation (configurable)

Useful columns include:

• Tickets: ticket_id, customer_name, status, created_at, updated_at, technician, total_cost
• Customers: customer_id, name, phone, email, address, lifetime_spend, last_repair_date
• Invoices: invoice_id, ticket_id, amount, date, status, payment_method

JSON Format

JSON exports include:

• Array of records
• Full object structure (nested relationships)
• ISO 8601 timestamps
• All fields (including metadata)

Useful for API imports to external systems.

Compliance Exports

For regulatory requirements (GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA), export all data on a customer:

GDPR Data Export (Right to be Forgotten)

1. Settings → Compliance → Data Subject Request
2. Enter customer’s email address
3. Click Export Customer Data
4. Generates JSON with all data tied to that customer:
   • Profile
   • Repair tickets
   • Communications
   • Invoices
   • Payment info (non-sensitive)

Customer can download or you can provide to them.

CCPA Compliance

California residents can request:

• All data collected
• Deletion of all data

1. Settings → Compliance → Requests
2. Handle requests:
   • Export request — Generate CCPA-format export
   • Deletion request — Permanently delete customer record and all associated data

Audit Exports

Export security and compliance logs:

1. Settings → Security → Audit Log
2. Filter by:
   • Date range
   • Event type (login, data change, deletion, etc.)
   • User
3. Click Export Audit Log
4. CSV with:
   • Timestamp
   • User
   • Action performed
   • Resource affected
   • IP address
   • Result (success/failure)

Useful for:

• Security reviews
• Compliance audits
• Investigating suspicious activity
• Tax/accounting records

Backup Encryption

At-Rest Encryption

All backups stored on disk are encrypted with:

• Algorithm: AES-256-GCM
• Key Management: AWS KMS (cloud) or Hardware Security Module (Enterprise)
• Automatic: No configuration needed

In-Transit Encryption

Backups transferred over the network use:

• Protocol: HTTPS/TLS 1.3
• Certificate: Automatically managed (Let’s Encrypt)

Customer-Managed Keys (Enterprise)

Enterprise customers can:

• Bring their own KMS (AWS KMS, Google Cloud KMS, Azure Key Vault)
• Manage encryption keys independently
• Rotate keys on your schedule

Contact support for setup.

Disaster Recovery Plan

Testing Your Backups

RepairOps recommends testing backups quarterly:

1. Settings → Backups → Restore to Sandbox
2. Select a backup from 1-2 weeks ago
3. Verify data looks correct
4. Test a few workflows (create ticket, approve estimate, etc.)
5. Confirm data integrity

If backups fail, you’ll discover it before you need them.

Recovery Time Objective (RTO)

How quickly can you recover?

• Automated restore: 5-30 minutes (depends on database size)
• Manual intervention: Add 1-2 hours for verification
• Critical fixes: Emergency restores available for Enterprise

Recovery Point Objective (RPO)

How much data could you lose?

• Daily backups: Up to 24 hours of data (everything since midnight)
• Manual backups: Can trigger before major changes
• Replication: Real-time replication to standby (Enterprise only)

Disaster Recovery Checklist

• Know how to access backups (Settings → Backups)
• Test restore to sandbox monthly
• Verify email address on file (restore notifications sent there)
• Document critical data (customer list, current jobs, in-progress repairs)
• Have offline copies of important documents (vendor agreements, service bulletins)
• Brief all managers on backup/restore procedures

Backup Monitoring

Backup Status

1. Settings → Backups → Backup Status
2. View:
   • Last backup completed (time and size)
   • Next scheduled backup (time)
   • Backup history (last 30 backups)
   • Any backup errors or warnings

Alerts

Enable backup notifications:

1. Settings → Backups → Notifications
2. Check:
   • Notify if backup fails
   • Notify if backup is delayed (> 2 hours)
   • Notify if backup is large (> 500 MB)
3. Notifications sent to admin email

Troubleshooting

Q: How long does a backup take? A: 5-30 minutes depending on database size. Large shops (500 MB+) take longer.

Q: Can I restore just one ticket or customer? A: Not automatically. You can:

1. Restore to sandbox
2. Manually copy the ticket/customer data
3. Import into production

Or contact support for targeted recovery.

Q: What if backup storage is full? A: Automatic backups continue; oldest backups are deleted per retention policy. Contact support if you need to increase storage.

Q: Can I export to an external drive for off-site storage? A: Exports are available for download to your computer/drive. For automated off-site backup, contact support (Enterprise feature).

Related Documentation

• Security — Encryption and access control
• Billing — Backup storage costs
• Self-Hosted — Custom backup configuration