JAQ can now be configured to use Google's Drive or Microsofts OneDrive instead of JAQ's default drive. This means you can access your JAQ files and folders using a browser or your mobile phone, plus all the extra features these drives offer, such as better search functions, file version roll back, etc. On the PC workstation the JAQ drive is either mapped as a J: drive, or becomes a shortcut on the desktop. The folder structure remains the same.

There is a small speed hit, a page in JAQ may take one or two extra seconds to load if it needs to read from the drive.

This new feature is in testing at the moment, and we are looking for anyone willing to try it out. You can roll back to the JAQ default drive if desired. We still do the backups of the data. We are finding Google Drive is easier to set up, and faster. Like with most cloud file services, there's the possibility of the parent company ( Google, Microsoft ) snooping on your data.

Note, this is only available for JAQ cloud users. If you are running JAQ on your own server we cant offer this OneDrive / Google Drive feature sorry.

The latest version of JAQ ( release late June 2023 ) will let you create your own templates for use within JAQ.

These templates can be used as alternatives to JAQ's default PDF and print pages for sending quotes or invoices, printing job sheets etc. JAQ will perform a word swap on the template before saving it, so you can create a template with keywords like [[JobNo]], [[Contact]], [[Price]], etc, and JAQ will fill this in for you automatically.

You can also use these templates as forms for your employees to fill in. JAQ will present the template as a web page and provide fields for the employee to fill in, then save the data into a copy of the template. This would be useful if you wanted to create forms like QA sheets, checklists, etc.

The templates can be created in MS Word, or Libra Office Write.

It's very possible there will be a increase in foreign government sponsored attacks on our internet infrastructure in the near future. Please take the time as soon as possible to ensure your data is backed up. Contact your IT provider and ask them the following:-

• How often is our data backed up?
• Are there off line backups?
• What exactly is backed up? Does this include our JAQ folders and our JAQ data file ( the data file is usually on the C: drive ).
• How quickly can the data be restored if needed?
• Has a test restore been run?
• If we get hit with ransomware, how many days of data could we expect to loose? Could the hacker encrypt our backups?

JAQ Cloud clients data ( folder and data ) is backed up every night for 7 days, then once a month for 3 months. These backups are stored on two cloud servers at different server farms and only accessible by us if and when a restore is required. Typically this would take less than 2 hours to retrieve.

If you have JAQ installed locally on your own server, it is your responsibility to make sure it is backed up. Please contact us if you want any advise on backups.

We will be upgrading the cloud servers this weekend, 10am Sunday the 8th November. During the upgrade, the servers will be off line for approximately 1 hour. This only affects JAQ clients using the hosted servers, and not clients with their own server.

Just a quick reassurance to JAQ users. As a sole trader I've taken precautions in the event I become incapacitated or ( gulp ) deceased. Should this happen, I ( if able ) or a colleague of mine will contact all JAQ clients to reassure them their JAQ install will continue to work and be supported into the future.

Please take care over this testing time.