A BUSY data folder holds one COMP folder for each company, such as COMP0001.
Inside it, db.bds keeps the company settings and users, and one year file such as db12022.bds holds the vouchers of one financial year. Lock files hold no data. Copy the whole company folder, never a single file.
You open the BUSY data directory and see names like COMP0001, db.bds and db12022. None of it explains itself. The sections below say what each piece is, how to read the year in a file name and how to copy the lot without losing a part.
Who Needs a Map of the BUSY Data Folder?
Choose the question closest to yours.
You opened the data folder and found names you do not know.
See the map →You need to pick the right file for a financial year.
Read the year names →You are sending the books to someone and want nothing left out.
Copy it right →BUSY stores a company as a handful of files, and the names give little away. People copy one file, rename another or delete a lock file and then wonder why the company will not open. A simple map prevents most of that. The map below comes from reading three BUSY 21 companies and from BUSY's own help.
What Is in a BUSY Data Folder?
The data folder holds one folder for each company. Inside a company folder you will see a settings file, one file for each financial year and a few lock files.
| Item | What it is | Handle with care? |
|---|---|---|
| Data folder | The parent that holds every COMP folder, for example C:\BusyWin\Data | Point BUSY at this folder, not at a company |
| COMP0001 | One company, in a numbered folder | Copy it whole |
| db.bds | Company settings, users and rights | Never copy it alone |
| db12022.bds | The vouchers and masters of one financial year | Copy every year file |
| locks.sys and .ldb | Lock files with no accounting data | No accounting data inside |
| COMPINFO.BDS | Licence and installation record, found next to the company folders | It is not the list of companies |
The vendor treats the raw folder as a valid backup. Its restore help says that copying the COMP folder can also serve as a backup and that Set Data Directory should point to the data folder name only, not to the company code. Our guide on the .bds file says more about the file type.
How Do You Tell Which Year a BUSY File Holds?
Read the year file name. The digits after db1 give the calendar year when the financial year begins. The pattern held on every BUSY 21 company we opened.
| File name | Financial year | Extension |
|---|---|---|
| db12022 | 2022-23 | .bds |
| db12023 | 2023-24 | .bds |
| db12024 | 2024-25 | .mdb in one older sample |
So a company that began in April 2022 and ran for three years should show db12022, db12023 and db12024. If one is missing, the books for that year are not in the folder. The company record may still list the year, as it did for 2021-22 in one of our samples.
What Tables Sit Inside a Year File?
Every file is a small database. You do not need the table names to run a business. They matter when you export, audit or troubleshoot, so the common ones are listed here in plain words.
- Master1
- All masters live in this table: accounts and items with their units, bill sundries and voucher series.
- Tran1
- One row for each voucher: type, date, number, party and amount.
- Tran2
- The lines inside a voucher: account entries, item lines and bill sundries.
- Tran3
- Bill by bill references for outstanding and settlement.
- Folio1
- Monthly balances for each account and item.
- EventLog
- Logins, logouts and year changes with the user and computer.
- Audit trail tables
- The edit log, present in the newer revisions we examined and absent from an older one.
Two rules help when you read the numbers. Amounts are stored with a sign, which separates debit from credit. Exports show them as Dr and Cr. Because a voucher code restarts in every year file, two years can share one code.
Which Number Means Which Voucher Type?
Each voucher carries a type number. We confirmed these by creating vouchers in a live BUSY 21 install and reading the file back.
| Number | Voucher | Number | Voucher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Purchase | 14 | Receipt |
| 3 | Sales return | 15 | Contra |
| 9 | Sales | 16 | Journal |
| 10 | Purchase return | 19 | Payment |
How to Copy a BUSY Data Folder Without Missing Anything
- Find the data folderLook for the folder that holds the COMP folders. A common place is C:\BusyWin\Data. If BUSY was set up elsewhere, ask whoever installed it.
- Close BUSY on every PCAsk each user to close the company from the menu so that pending changes reach the files.
- Copy the whole company folderTake the entire COMP folder with all of its files, and never a lone year file. Put the copy on another drive.
- Count the filesList the db1 year files in the copy. Compare their number with the financial years the company has used.
- Note names and sizesWrite down the file names and sizes. A tiny year file next to large ones deserves a question.
- Open the copy and leave the original alonePoint a reader or BUSY at the copy. Use Set Data Directory and give the path up to the data folder, not to the company code.
Work on the copy only. Do not rename a file, move a year file out of its company folder or delete a lock file from the live data.
Univik BUSY Data Viewer reads the copy and lists each company and financial year it finds. Nothing in the folder changes.
Download Free Trial Buy Now - $99Viewing is free on Windows 11 and 10, and saves stop at ten items per section until a licence is bought. Viewer page
- Every COMP folder you need is in the copy
- The number of year files matches the years the company used
- db.bds sits in the same folder as its year files
- File sizes look reasonable next to each other
Fix Common Problems With a BUSY Data Folder
Do this: Look for the year file in the folder. A missing db1 file means that year must come from a backup.
Do this: Check that you picked the data folder and not a company folder or a single file.
Do this: Ask the sender for the whole company folder. The year file alone has no settings or users with it.
Unsure what a file is? Write to our support team and list the names and sizes you see.
Questions About the BUSY Data Folder
The Univik staff helped draw up this map of the folder. The file map and table notes come from our reading of three BUSY 21 companies and a live install, and the copy and restore advice from BUSY's help, read on October 11, 2026. Older and newer BUSY releases may differ.
Pages we read: BUSY backup and restore answer · Power BI community thread