As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly create a backup plan for your small business.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   Someone with a licence or accountable authority has to sign this before it counts.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Open an inventory document and list every laptop, desktop, server, phone, network device, cloud service and website that the business relies on.
   2. Gather the names and locations of important files and records, the current backup settings, retention periods, encryption details and the person or supplier responsible for each system.
   3. Record which business activities must resume first, how long each can be unavailable, and what data loss would be unacceptable.
   4. Paste the inventory, data list, current backup details and business priorities into the prompt, leaving unknown fields marked as unknown rather than guessing.
   5. Ask the model to produce the plan, then compare each proposed backup method and retention rule with the actual options and settings available in your systems.
   6. Send the draft to your IT provider or technically competent colleague to confirm the design, implement it without sharing credentials with the chatbot, and document every change.
   7. Run controlled restore tests for representative files, accounts and systems, record whether the recovered data opens and is current, and update the plan with the test results.

   Prompt

   Create a practical backup and recovery plan for this UK small business. Do not invent any systems, settings, suppliers, costs, legal requirements or recovery targets. Clearly label assumptions and list questions where information is missing.
   
   Business context:
   - Business type: [describe the business]
   - Number of people and locations: [details]
   - Critical business activities: [details]
   - Maximum acceptable disruption: [describe for each critical activity]
   
   Systems and data:
   - Devices: [computers, phones, servers and network equipment]
   - Cloud services: [Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, accounting, CRM, website, file storage and other services]
   - On-premises systems: [details]
   - Important data: [data types and where they are stored]
   - Current backups: [service, destination, frequency, retention and encryption if known]
   - Internet and power dependencies: [details]
   
   Produce:
   1. A table of systems and data, their business importance, owner, backup method, retention and recovery priority.
   2. A proposed backup design that separates production systems from backup copies and addresses accidental deletion, device failure, service outage, ransomware and loss of access.
   3. Recovery objectives stated as questions or proposed values for me to approve, rather than guesses.
   4. A step-by-step implementation checklist using generic terms where the supplier is unknown.
   5. A restore-testing schedule with specific test cases and evidence to record.
   6. A short incident recovery procedure, including who should be contacted and what access should be revoked or preserved.
   7. A list of risks, assumptions and decisions that need an IT professional to confirm.
   
   Do not ask me to paste passwords, recovery codes, private keys or other secrets. Keep the plan understandable to a non-specialist and distinguish clearly between advice, assumptions and actions.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.