How To Prepare for Tax Season With Hosted QuickBooks

The tax season is already at its peak. However, with the filing deadline being extended to May 17, individuals have now got some additional time in their hands. Whether you have already paid your returns or still planning to do so, there are some technological platforms you can adopt to streamline the filing process now or in the future.

No institution in the accounting domain is oblivious to QuickBooks and its features. However, with the ongoing pandemic and challenges it has brought, using QuickBooks on traditional systems is not enough. Tax firms are looking for more agile IT solutions to cater to the present-day requirements, such as remote working, data security, and online collaboration.

Hosting QuickBooks on cloud is one such platform that couples the software with cloud benefits, resolving some major tax season challenges. Let’s see how.

1. Facilitate Error-free Operations

How many times during the tax season do you need to ask your clients for certain documents, any delay in which can cause a delay in tax filing. Collaboration with clients is one of the primary challenges that tax professionals face during the tax season. Communication and file sharing are accomplished through emails, which causes inefficiency and errors in filing.

QuickBooks hosting offers you a collaborative cloud platform, where multiple users can be given access to the tax files. The clients can share files just by logging in to the cloud with their credentials, eliminating the need for emails. Moreover, multiple professionals can be given view or edit permissions according to their role in the tax process. This ensures an error-free operation, where the users can see the changes in real-time.

2. Save Response Time

During the tax season, the tax preparers must be on their toes and serve clients any time of the day. However, working on QuickBooks installed in their local systems does not offer them such leverage. They need to commute to the office in order to be of any help to the client.

Hosted QuickBooks is the ultimate remote working solution for tax firms. It offers preparers the ability to access their tax process from any location at any time. This resultant work flexibility will improve their availability for the clients, enhancing the firm’s reputation. Moreover, it also reduces their mental stress as the preparer can work from the comfort of their home.

3. Secure Your Data

One of the primary concerns of firms during the tax season is data security. Although the IRS sends out their list of dirty dozen scams every year, data breach, theft, and fraud are regular occurrences. Keeping the data secure in the office premises calls for additional security measures by the tax firm, leading to high costs.

The QuickBooks hosting providers host your QuickBooks and data in secure data center facilities with robust physical security measures. Moreover, they also deploy advanced safeguards, such as multi-factor authentication and end-to-end encryption to keep data safe at the end-point and during transit. The providers monitor the network constantly for any unusual behavior, enabling total protection of the tax data.

4. Create a Complete Tax Solution

QuickBooks is a  complete accounting solution to keep all your data organized and streamline vital functions. However, you also need other apps to accomplish complementary tasks, such as customer management, time tracking, and task organization. Installing all these apps on the local system can cause a system breakdown.

QuickBooks hosting offers you a complete tax solution with all the desired applications on one platform. You can integrate multiple apps with QuickBooks on the cloud without any performance issues. Just contact your QuickBooks hosting provider, and they will take care of the rest.

5. Minimize Operational Downtime

Even a few hours of downtime during the tax season can cause tax firms to lose valuable billable hours. However, when working on locally installed QuickBooks, even a small IT glitch can cause the tax preparers to sit idle for a long time.

Most QuickBooks hosting providers guarantee their customers an uptime of 99.99%, which means only a few minutes of downtime in a year. Moreover, some providers also offer managed services, wherein they take care of every IT aspect, including hardware maintenance, upgrades, scaling, and monitoring. Opting for QB hosting saves time spent on the menial IT issues and maximizes billable hours during tax season.

6. Stay Away From Disruptive Events

Certain events such as natural calamities, cyberattacks, or any human-inflicted accidents can have an adverse effect on your business. However, if these events happen during the tax season, they can cause the tax firm irreparable damage. Working on the local IT infra means putting all your eggs in one basket as QuickBooks and data reside in the office location. Hence, any disruptive event in your location means complete data loss.

QuickBooks hosting offers a solution. As your hosted QuickBooks and data reside on the remote servers of the provider, any accident or natural calamity in your office location does not cause data loss. Moreover, the providers also deploy disaster recovery plans as a part of their process, wherein they replicate your tax process on multiple data center locations. This ensures complete data protection.

A Solution for Every Tax Season

Hosted QuickBooks enhances the tax process by offering you extended cloud capabilities. If you have not filed taxes this season, there is still time to contact a service provider. However, if you are done with tax filing this season, it’s the best time to adopt hosted QuickBooks and try out its benefits for the next season.

Want to try hosted QuickBooks for free? Get in touch with our Solutions Consultant a +1-855-223-4887.