Synchronisation Overview

Bookkeeping Pro includes the capability to use a Dropbox account for synchronisation of book changes between iOS devices.

This facility allows you to make changes on one device and have those changes automatically applied to other iOS devices. You can, for example, enter some information into your iPad and via the synchronisation facility those changes will be applied to your iPhone.

You can choose whether synchronisation occurs across the Cell/Mobile network (off by default) or only when the device has Wi-Fi connectivity (on by default).

Each change that you make in Bookkeeping is written to a transaction log file. These transaction log files are sent to your Dropbox account where they become available for all other devices to access. The program will attempt to send any new transaction log files to Dropbox every 10 seconds so that they are available to other devices as soon as possible. If there are no new transaction log files then nothing occurs and no network activity occurs.

Bookkeeping Pro can either fetch new transaction logs for other devices automatically every 5 minutes (on by default), or only manually when you press the "Sync Now" button on the toolbar (off by default).

If you wish to fetch any new transaction log files immediately then you can press the "Sync Now" button at any time to initiate synchronisation with Dropbox.

By using Dropbox instead of a third party proprietary server for synchronisation you remain in control of your data. Only people with access to your Dropbox folder can access the transaction logs generated by Bookkeeping Pro edition. At no time do we have access to your synchronisation data.

You can even synchronise between devices using multiple Dropbox accounts using the Dropbox shared folders capability. Just create the synchronisation folder in one Dropbox account (by default this is /Bookkeeping/Sync). Then share this folder with other Dropbox accounts that you wish to also use for synchronising Bookkeeping Pro edition. If you really want you can have a different Dropbox account for each device, however this is not usually necessary.

With the Dropbox synchronisation facility you do not pay us ongoing monthly fees for synchronisation. At the time of writing Dropbox still offers a free 2GB account that can be used for synchronisation.

Not just Synchronisation, it's also incremental backups

Even if you only have one device you can still gain the benefit of incremental backups using the synchronisation facility. Each change you make in Bookkeeping will be written to a transaction log and synchronised with your Dropbox account. If your device is lost, damaged, or wiped for some reason (or you delete the Bookkeeping program from the device), then you can replay the transaction logs from Dropbox onto your device to recover all of the information you have entered.

You should still make regular full backups using the backup facility in Bookkeeping (these can be sent to Dropbox as well). However at least you will have peace of mind knowing that all changes since your last backup are safe on Dropbox too.