Quick answer
Ideally daily and automatic — the right frequency matches how much data you're willing to lose if something goes wrong today.
The right question isn’t “how often should I” but “how much of a day’s or a week’s data would hurt to lose” — the answer determines the frequency.
Why daily is the standard
For most businesses generating new data daily (invoices, emails, client documents), daily backups mean that in the worst case you lose one day of work — not a week or a month.
Automatic, not manual
Backup that depends on someone “remembering” to do it eventually fails. A properly configured system runs automatically, with no human step required.
- Daily data → daily backups
- Always automatic, never manual “when we remember”
- Periodically verify the backup actually works