MunshiTo back up your business records on Google Drive, open Munshi’s Settings, go to Backup & restore, tap Connect Google Drive, choose your Google account, and tap Back up to Drive now. That gives you a copy of your khata in your own Drive, in addition to the copy on your phone and the one in the cloud. For a shopkeeper, those copies are the difference between a bad day and a lost business.
Why back up your khata at all?
A phone can be dropped, stolen, drowned or simply stop working. If your khata lives only on that phone, so does your list of who owes you money. A backup turns that disaster into an inconvenience. The rule of thumb is three copies in more than one place.
The three copies Munshi keeps
- On your phone. Munshi saves a local backup automatically once a day when you open the app.
- In the cloud. Your records sync to your account and are tied to your phone number. Sign in with the same number on a new phone and they come back.
- In your own Google Drive. An extra copy you control, in your own Google account.
How to connect Google Drive backup on Android
- Open Settings, then Backup & restore.
- Tap Connect Google Drive and pick the Google account you want to use. Allow access when your phone asks.
- Tap Back up to Drive now. When it finishes you will see Last Drive backup with the time.
- Close and reopen Munshi. Drive should still show as connected. It stays connected after app updates.
Backups are linked to your phone number, so you can tell which account they belong to. If you change your Google account, Munshi tells you which one your backups go to and asks you to connect that account again to keep using it.
If Drive says it cannot confirm your account
Occasionally Google needs you to be signed in on the phone itself. Open your phone’s Settings → Google, make sure you are signed in, then try again in Munshi. If you see a message that Drive permission was not allowed, tap Disconnect, connect again and allow access.
What to do if you lose your phone
Install Munshi on the new phone and sign in with the same phone number. Your ledger, Cash Book, Bank Book and expenses sync back from the cloud. Because you also have a Drive copy, you are covered even if something goes wrong with the first route. Restoring a backup file as a new business is being tested and will arrive in an update.
Protect business data on your phone
Backups protect against loss. These protect against prying eyes:
- Turn on App Lock. In Settings, set a 4-digit PIN. It is needed to open Munshi and to turn the lock off. The app is also hidden in the app switcher while the lock is on.
- Add fingerprint or Face ID as an optional shortcut.
- Keep the phone’s own screen lock on.
- Keep the app updated. Updates carry security and reliability fixes. Munshi now offers updates inside the app on Android.
If you forget the PIN, tap Forgot PIN? on the lock screen. Munshi signs you out and removes the lock; sign in again with your number and your data is there.
Khata backup on Android: what to do and what to avoid
For a khata backup on Android in Pakistan, the safest approach is simple and boring: let the daily phone copy run, add a Drive copy every week, and never rely on a single device. A few things to avoid:
- Do not keep your only backup on the same phone. If the phone is lost, so is the copy.
- Do not skip updates. They carry reliability fixes, including fixes for Drive connection.
- Do not share your PIN with anyone you would not trust with the cash drawer.
- Do not uninstall to “fix” a problem before checking that your latest records have synced. Look for the offline notice at the top of the screen.
A simple backup routine
- Daily: nothing to do. The phone copy runs by itself.
- Weekly: tap Back up to Drive now after you have recorded the week.
- Before changing phones: back up to Drive, then sign in on the new phone.
Backups pair well with the habit of recording on the spot. See seven small habits of a khata that always balances, and if you are still on paper, how to move your bahi khata to an app.