The tech industry is all about buzzwords; one of the most popular of these is “the cloud”. The cloud is pretty much everything that isn’t run locally on your computer. Those of you who don’t have cloud accounting yet should get it right away. By all means, shop around, look at the products that are available, talk with your CPA – just make sure you do it. Cloud accounting is so worth it, for more reasons than we’re going to be able to fit into this one short blog post. Here are just a few reasons you should make the switch:
Accessibility
This is probably the best feature of cloud accounting. Out of town on a business trip? Take pictures of all of your receipts and log them in your accounting software – even though you’re thousands of kilometers away! Need to access records while you’re at a conference? Pull out your phone and pull up the relevant data! Cloud accounting software is pretty comprehensive, and you’ll be able to do all kinds of calculations on the go. Ultimately, this ability to manage your accounts on the go by moving to a modern cloud accounting system will save you time and help you avoid missing deductibles which could cost you thousands in the long run.
Cloud accounting also makes data more easily accessible to various stakeholders. Want an employee to have access to all of your accounting data? Just give them a username and password. The level of access any individual has is also customizable – you can, for example, limit someone’s access to data pertinent to their department or team, without giving access to another department’s data.
Security
There’s a bit of a misconception with the cloud – it’s often seen as insecure because hackers can supposedly gain access to your records. While this is, admittedly, a vulnerability, it’s easily mitigated by keeping physical copies of all of your records. What’s more, cloud accounting actually adds a great deal of security to your operation. When your data is all stored on one hard drive, damage to that hard drive can cause irreparable damage to your business. Cloud accounting means your data is backed up, often in several places – redundancy is one of the cornerstones of security.
Scalability/Customizability
Most cloud accounting software comes in tiers. You may find yourself needing more features and employee access as your company grows – simply go a tier up, and you’ll unlock what you need. That means you never have to spend money on features you aren’t using, and your data is easily exported to the premium version should you elect to upgrade.
Sophistication
Accounting softwares are, at their best, feature-dense programs that allow you to derive useful predictions from raw numbers. The charts and calculations contained within these programs give you information about your earnings, whether or not money is being spent poorly, and what the future might hold. Charts and algorithms are constantly being tweaked, and cloud accounting allows you to access useful software updates almost instantly.
Cloud accounting software can help you with professional bookkeeping services, accounting services, and more. It’s very worth checking out the various softwares! Give us a call if you want some recommendations or some help setting things up.