{"id":7577,"date":"2026-07-02T11:42:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/?p=7577"},"modified":"2026-07-02T11:42:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T15:42:00","slug":"disaster-recovery-and-business-continuity-for-tax-and-accounting-firms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/disaster-recovery-and-business-continuity-for-tax-and-accounting-firms\/","title":{"rendered":"Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity for Tax and Accounting Firms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><\/ul>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Quick answer:<\/strong> Disaster recovery is how you get client data and systems back after an outage, a ransomware hit, or a hardware failure. Business continuity is how your firm keeps working while that recovery happens. A tax firm needs both, with numbers attached: nightly backups, tested restores, an isolated offsite copy, redundancy so a local office outage does not stop remote work, a written incident response plan, and recovery objectives you can show an auditor. This is coverage a managed host can carry for you, documented and ready to hand over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A backup nobody has tested is a guess, and a recovery plan nobody has written is a story. For a tax firm, the difference shows up on the worst possible day, often in March or early April, when a drive fails or an office loses power and a week of client work is at stake. This guide covers what disaster recovery and business continuity mean for your firm, the controls to demand from a cloud host, how recovery objectives work in plain terms, and how it all maps to the compliance frameworks you already know. It closes with the Tax-Firm DR Readiness Checklist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Verito was built for this part. The reliability headline is a zero-downtime tax season: <strong>100% uptime since 2016, zero ransomware since 2016.<\/strong> Both numbers hold for structural reasons, and the rest of this piece is about that structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-rank-math-toc-block\" id=\"rank-math-toc\"><h2 id=\"table-of-contents\">Table of Contents<\/h2><nav><ul><li><a href=\"#h-dr-vs-bc\">What is disaster recovery vs business continuity for a tax firm?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-office-internet\">What happens to my firm if my office loses internet during tax season?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-controls-to-demand\">What DR controls should I demand from a cloud host?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-backups-restore\">How do backups and restore testing actually work?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-ftc-irs\">How does DR tie to FTC Safeguards and IRS 4557?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-checklist\">The Tax-Firm DR Readiness Checklist<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-which-firms\">Which firms is Verito built for?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-faq\">Frequently asked questions<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#what-is-the-difference-between-a-backup-and-a-disaster-recovery-plan\">What is the difference between a backup and a disaster recovery plan?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#what-is-a-good-recovery-time-objective-for-a-tax-firm-during-busy-season\">What is a good recovery time objective for a tax firm during busy season?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#can-my-firm-keep-working-if-our-office-loses-internet\">Can my firm keep working if our office loses internet?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#does-the-ftc-safeguards-rule-require-a-disaster-recovery-plan\">Does the FTC Safeguards Rule require a disaster recovery plan?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#how-often-should-a-tax-firm-test-its-restores\">How often should a tax firm test its restores?<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#what-is-the-first-thing-to-fix-if-my-firm-has-no-dr-plan-today\">What is the first thing to fix if my firm has no DR plan today?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><a href=\"#h-verdict\">The verdict<\/a><ul><li><a href=\"#sources\">Sources<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<details class=\"wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary><\/summary><\/details>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-dr-vs-bc\"><span id=\"what-is-disaster-recovery-vs-business-continuity-for-a-tax-firm\"><span id=\"dr-vs-bc\"><strong>What is disaster recovery vs business continuity for a tax firm?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Disaster recovery is the capability to restore your firm&#8217;s data and systems after a disruptive event. Business continuity is the capability to keep serving clients while that recovery is underway. Recovery is about getting it back. Continuity is about not stopping in the first place. A serious firm plans for both, because a fast restore still costs you days you do not have in filing season.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For a tax practice, the data at stake is the entire work product: returns in progress, source documents, accounting files, practice management records. A disruption can come from ransomware, a failed server or laptop, an accidental deletion, an office power or internet outage, or a physical event like a fire or flood. Disaster recovery answers how you get the data and the working environment back. Business continuity answers whether your team can still log in and prepare returns while the underlying problem is being fixed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two terms make the recovery side concrete, and they are worth knowing before you evaluate any provider:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Recovery point objective (RPO)<\/strong> is how much data you can afford to lose, measured in time. Nightly backups put your RPO at up to 24 hours. The tighter the RPO, the more often copies are taken.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Recovery time objective (RTO)<\/strong> is how long you can be down before you are working again. This is the target a disaster recovery plan is built to hit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>A firm that backs up every night but has no plan to get people working again has solved half the problem. The point of a managed platform is that both numbers are defined, documented, and tested, rather than discovered during the emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-office-internet\"><span id=\"what-happens-to-my-firm-if-my-office-loses-internet-during-tax-season\"><span id=\"office-internet\"><strong>What happens to my firm if my office loses internet during tax season?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>On the dedicated private server cloud, your software and data do not live in your office. They live on your own dedicated private server in a secure data center, and your team reaches that environment from any location with a connection. A local office internet or power outage takes out the office, not the work. People keep preparing returns from home, a second location, or a phone hotspot, because the practice runs in the data center, not on the machine under someone&#8217;s desk.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This is the redundancy that matters most for a tax firm, and it is the difference between a <a href=\"https:\/\/verito.com\/hosting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"dofollow\">dedicated private server cloud<\/a> and a server sitting in your office closet. When the practice lives on a dedicated private server you control, no single office location is a point of failure. That is the dedicated private server standard: every firm on its own dedicated private server, no noisy neighbors, and no dependence on one building staying online. It is also why &#8220;work from anywhere&#8221; stops being a perk and becomes a continuity control. A storm that closes the office is a workday, not a lost week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Verito has allowed my firm to maintain security and support remote work, featuring aspects such as a backup server and a central sign-in location for employees. This central sign-in feature is crucial as it facilitates my team&#8217;s ability to work collaboratively in tandem, especially during tax return preparations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<cite>&#8212; April W., Owner, AAA Business Services LLC (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.g2.com\/products\/verito\/reviews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">G2<\/a>)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>The data center itself adds the redundancy you cannot build in an office: backup power, redundant network paths, and physical security, audited under SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001. The result is the same desktop your team already uses, reachable when the office is not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-controls-to-demand\"><span id=\"what-dr-controls-should-i-demand-from-a-cloud-host\"><span id=\"controls-to-demand\"><strong>What DR controls should I demand from a cloud host?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Demand seven things in writing: nightly backups that run automatically, restores tested on a cadence, at least one offsite copy isolated from your live environment, redundancy so a single location cannot halt the firm, documented recovery objectives, a written incident response plan with named roles, and a fast path to a real person when you declare an incident. If a host cannot speak to all seven, that is your answer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These controls are compliance-grade by default at Verito, which means they are part of the platform rather than a separate purchase. Every tier carries IRS Publication 4557 and FTC Safeguards Rule coverage, SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, 256-bit encryption, and MFA, not as an add-on, with the <a href=\"https:\/\/verito.com\/buy-wisp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"dofollow\">VeritShield WISP<\/a> available for the written plan itself. Here is what each control buys you and the answer to listen for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>Control to demand<\/th><th>What it protects<\/th><th>A good answer sounds like<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Nightly backups, automatic<\/td><td>Against data loss between copies<\/td><td>Runs every night, no one has to remember<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Tested restores<\/td><td>Against a backup that does not work<\/td><td>Restores validated on a documented cadence<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Offsite, isolated copy<\/td><td>Against ransomware reaching the backup<\/td><td>A copy ransomware on your network cannot touch<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Redundancy across location<\/td><td>Against a single office or device failing<\/td><td>The firm runs from the data center, not one building<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Documented RTO and RPO<\/td><td>Against open-ended downtime<\/td><td>Numbers you can show an auditor<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Written incident response plan<\/td><td>Against a chaotic, slow response<\/td><td>Named roles, defined steps, a known first call<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Fast human contact<\/td><td>Against waiting in a queue mid-crisis<\/td><td>A real person answers fast, no phone tree<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"893\" src=\"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-redundancy.jpg\" alt=\"Redundant data center infrastructure for tax firms cinematic visual | Verito\" class=\"wp-image-7599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-redundancy.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-redundancy-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-redundancy-1024x572.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-redundancy-768x429.jpg 768w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-redundancy-1536x857.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-redundancy-380x212.jpg 380w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-redundancy-800x447.jpg 800w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-redundancy-1160x647.jpg 1160w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-redundancy-150x84.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>On that last point, a Verito restore is a conversation rather than a ticket that ages. A real person answers in under 60 seconds and 92% of issues resolve on the first touch, which is exactly what you want when the clock is running. More than 1,000 firms run on this today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-backups-restore\"><span id=\"how-do-backups-and-restore-testing-actually-work\"><span id=\"backups-restore\"><strong>How do backups and restore testing actually work?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Backups copy your data to secure offsite storage on a schedule. Restore testing proves that copy can actually be brought back. The two are separate jobs, and most firms that lose data had backups running but never confirmed a restore. A managed platform runs nightly backups, keeps an encrypted copy in a separate data center, monitors that each run succeeds, and validates restores on a cadence so the recovery is rehearsed before you need it.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The detail that protects a tax firm is isolation. A backup an attacker can reach is a backup an attacker can encrypt, which is why a clean copy lives separate from your live environment. That isolation is the reason for the zero-ransomware-since-2016 record: when the clean copy is out of reach, you restore instead of negotiate, and there is nothing to pay for. Backup is one component of the larger continuity story, so this piece keeps it brief. For the full mechanics, the types of backup, the 3-2-1 model, and a backup-specific compliance checklist, see the companion guide on <a href=\"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/backup-as-a-service\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"dofollow\">backup as a service for accounting firms<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"893\" src=\"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-backup.jpg\" alt=\"Nightly offsite backups for tax firms cinematic visual | Verito\" class=\"wp-image-7598\" srcset=\"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-backup.jpg 1600w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-backup-300x167.jpg 300w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-backup-1024x572.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-backup-768x429.jpg 768w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-backup-1536x857.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-backup-380x212.jpg 380w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-backup-800x447.jpg 800w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-backup-1160x647.jpg 1160w, https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/disaster-recovery-business-continuity-tax-firms-backup-150x84.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>&#8220;Verito has consistently addressed every issue I&#8217;ve faced in a timely manner, making my operations smoother.&#8221;<\/p>\n<cite>&#8212; David W., Owner, Whittington CPAs, PLLC (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.g2.com\/products\/verito\/features\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">G2<\/a>)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>When something does go wrong, the recovery is only as good as the people running it and the testing behind it. That is the part you cannot buy off a spec sheet, and the part to ask about hardest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-ftc-irs\"><span id=\"how-does-dr-tie-to-ftc-safeguards-and-irs-4557\"><span id=\"ftc-irs\"><strong>How does DR tie to FTC Safeguards and IRS 4557?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Tax firms operate under the FTC Safeguards Rule and IRS Publication 4557, and both are met by the same thing disaster recovery delivers: the ability to recover client data and respond to a security event, with the work documented. A tested recovery posture is the coverage that satisfies them, and it is what a managed host should carry on your behalf.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/business-guidance\/resources\/ftc-safeguards-rule-what-your-business-needs-know\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">FTC Safeguards Rule<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/pub\/irs-pdf\/p4557.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">IRS Publication 4557<\/a> expect a documented ability to recover client data and respond to a security event. The practical version is simpler than the rule names suggest. If the IRS, the FTC, or your cyber-insurance carrier asks how you recover after an incident, you want a written answer with backups, restore testing, recovery objectives, and an incident response plan already named in your <a class=\"wpil_keyword_link\" href=\"http:\/\/verito.com\/written-information-security-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"dofollow noopener\" title=\"WISP\" data-wpil-keyword-link=\"linked\" data-wpil-monitor-id=\"1331\">WISP<\/a>. That is coverage you can hand over, not a regulation you have to recite. Verito carries this baseline on every plan, and VeritShield WISP puts it in the written information security plan auditors and underwriters ask to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-checklist\"><span id=\"the-tax-firm-dr-readiness-checklist\"><span id=\"checklist\"><strong>The Tax-Firm DR Readiness Checklist<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Work through these eight items. Each one you cannot check is a gap to close before the next filing season, not after the next incident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-fixed-layout\"><thead><tr><th>#<\/th><th>Check<\/th><th>Why it matters<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>1<\/td><td>Backups run <strong>automatically every night<\/strong> and are monitored<\/td><td>A skipped backup is the most common hidden failure<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>2<\/td><td>Restores are <strong>tested on a cadence<\/strong>, not assumed<\/td><td>An untested backup is a guess, not a safety net<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>3<\/td><td>At least one copy is <strong>offsite and isolated<\/strong> from your live system<\/td><td>Ransomware that reaches your network should not reach the backup<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>4<\/td><td>The practice runs from a <strong>dedicated private server cloud<\/strong>, not one office<\/td><td>A local outage should not stop remote work<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>5<\/td><td>You have a <strong>documented RTO and RPO<\/strong><\/td><td>Defines how much data and time you can afford to lose<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>6<\/td><td>A <strong>written incident response plan<\/strong> names roles and first steps<\/td><td>A plan beats improvising during a crisis<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>7<\/td><td>You can <strong>reach a real person fast<\/strong> when you declare an incident<\/td><td>Recovery should not wait in a queue<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>8<\/td><td>The whole capability is <strong>named in your WISP<\/strong><\/td><td>Your security plan should list these controls<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>A firm that checks all eight is in a defensible position with a client, an auditor, and an insurance underwriter. A firm missing three or four is one bad day away from a real problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-which-firms\"><span id=\"which-firms-is-verito-built-for\"><span id=\"which-firms\"><strong>Which firms is Verito built for?<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Verito is built for the 5 to 150 seat tax and accounting firm: the practice that runs Windows desktop tax and accounting software and wants disaster recovery, business continuity, and compliance handled as part of the platform rather than stitched together from separate vendors. For that firm, the <a href=\"https:\/\/verito.com\/hosting\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"dofollow\">dedicated private server<\/a> it controls is also what keeps its data and apps its own. Written export rights and fair exit terms mean you are managed, not trapped. When a firm wants hosting, security, and IT under one team, <a href=\"https:\/\/verito.com\/bundle\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"dofollow\">VeritComplete<\/a> folds all of it into a single per-user rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-faq\"><span id=\"frequently-asked-questions\"><span id=\"faq\"><strong>Frequently asked questions<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-is-the-difference-between-a-backup-and-a-disaster-recovery-plan\"><strong>What is the difference between a backup and a disaster recovery plan?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A backup is a copy of your data. A disaster recovery plan is the documented process and capability to get your firm running again using those backups, with target recovery times. You need both. Backups protect the data, the plan protects the practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-is-a-good-recovery-time-objective-for-a-tax-firm-during-busy-season\"><strong>What is a good recovery time objective for a tax firm during busy season?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>In filing season the tolerance is hours, not days, because a day down in April is a real and unrecoverable loss. Off-season, a recovery window of a business day is often acceptable. The point is to define the number in advance and test against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"can-my-firm-keep-working-if-our-office-loses-internet\"><strong>Can my firm keep working if our office loses internet?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, when your practice runs on a dedicated private server cloud. The software and data live in the data center, so your team logs in from anywhere with a connection. A local office outage affects the building, not the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"does-the-ftc-safeguards-rule-require-a-disaster-recovery-plan\"><strong>Does the FTC Safeguards Rule require a disaster recovery plan?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>A tested recovery posture, with backups and a written incident response plan, is the coverage that maps to the FTC Safeguards Rule and IRS Publication 4557. Verito carries that baseline on every plan, documented and ready to hand to an auditor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"how-often-should-a-tax-firm-test-its-restores\"><strong>How often should a tax firm test its restores?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>On a regular, documented cadence rather than only after an incident. The test confirms the backup is usable and that your team knows the steps, so recovery is rehearsed before it is needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"what-is-the-first-thing-to-fix-if-my-firm-has-no-dr-plan-today\"><strong>What is the first thing to fix if my firm has no DR plan today?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Start with backups you can prove. Confirm they run automatically, that a copy is offsite and isolated, and that a restore actually works. From there, write down your recovery objectives and an incident response plan, and name it all in your WISP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-verdict\"><span id=\"the-verdict\"><span id=\"verdict\"><strong>The verdict<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Disaster recovery and business continuity are two halves of one question for a tax firm: can you get client data back, and can you keep serving clients while you do. The controls are not exotic. Nightly backups, tested restores, an isolated offsite copy, redundancy that survives a single-office outage, documented recovery objectives, a written incident response plan, and a fast human on the other end. What is hard is having all of them in place, tested, and named in your WISP before the day you need them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Verito carries that posture as the baseline, not an upsell: a dedicated private server per firm, 100% uptime since 2016, zero ransomware since 2016, nightly backups and disaster recovery, compliance-grade by default. To map your firm against the Tax-Firm DR Readiness Checklist and see where the gaps are, <a href=\"https:\/\/verito.com\/get-started\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"dofollow\">book a VeritComplete demo<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"sources\"><strong>Sources<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irs.gov\/pub\/irs-pdf\/p4557.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">IRS Publication 4557<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/business-guidance\/resources\/ftc-safeguards-rule-what-your-business-needs-know\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">FTC Safeguards Rule (16 CFR Part 314)<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disaster recovery and business continuity for tax firms: the controls to demand, RTO and RPO explained, plus a DR readiness checklist.\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[540,14,530,340],"class_list":{"0":"post-7577","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-managed-it-services","7":"tag-backup-and-disaster-recovery","8":"tag-business-continuity","9":"tag-data-backup-and-disaster-recovery","10":"tag-disaster-recovery"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7577"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7618,"href":"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7577\/revisions\/7618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/verito.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}