Importance of Cloud Accounting For Accountants

Cloud-based accounting software is creating a buzz in the industry these days as they help accountants, CPAs, and business owners streamline their accounting process as well as increase the efficiency and productivity of the business.

As per a recent report published in GoRemotely, 94% of accountants have adopted cloud accounting.
Yes, that’s a pretty significant percentage!

But what exactly is cloud accounting? How is it beneficial for businesses? These are some of the questions that business owners ask when they hear about the cloud.

In simple terms, cloud accounting is installing any finance-related application in the cloud environment facilitated by third-party service providers.

Cloud accounting overcomes the limitations faced by traditional accounting techniques and improves the performance of your business.

Let’s find out how in detail:

1. Remote Accessibility

Prior to cloud technology, accountants had limited access to their data as they would have to travel up and down to their office desk to work on the files and data.

Now, cloud-based solutions allow CPAs and their team to operate their accounting application from anywhere around the globe, without any geographical limitations, provided they have access to the internet. No matter where you are, just log in through your laptop, tablet, or mobile device and access your accounting data.

2. Advanced Security

Accounting applications stored on local desktops are not always backed up with multiple layers of encryption and are vulnerable to security breaches.

Security, being a major concern for most businesses, is given utmost importance by the cloud service providers as well. With your data stored on the cloud, accountants can rest assured that their information is completely secured. The cloud service providers take several precautionary measures and use multiple tools, such as a login management system, firewalls, multi-factor authentication, IDPS system, and more to safeguard your critical financial information.

3. Team-Collaboration

Accounting processes require sending the files and reports to multiple team members back and forth via emails until they can finally be presented to the clients. Eventually, each member has multiple versions of the same file downloaded on their local desktop.

On the other hand, data on the cloud enables access to up-to-date docs that the teams can work on in real-time, thereby eliminating the need for unnecessary downloads. Moreover, you can have a clear understanding of the company’s cash flow, financial position, and reconciliation reports for better strategic decision-making.

4. Regular Backups

Losing critical financial information can be a nightmare for any business. In order to avoid it, you and your team must always keep your local desktops updated and manually back-up data at the end of the day, everyday.

On a cloud platform, service providers take regular backups and store the information at data centers located in multiple geographical locations to avoid any data loss. So, no matter when or from which device you log in, you’ll have access to up-to-date information.
Customer Support
Do you have a dedicated IT team to solve your technical issues related to the accounting software? Are they available 24×7 to fix these issues for you? Probably not!

But no worries, because if you choose to host your applications on cloud, the service provider will have a team of experts available round-the-clock to solve all your queries related to set up, installation, updates, or maintenance of your accounting application.

5. Business Continuity

The number of cybercrimes has surged worldwide. So no matter how many security measures you use, data stored on local computers is always vulnerable to cyber threats.

Contrastingly, the cloud service provider takes multiple precautionary measures to safeguard your data against cyber threats or even disasters. They deploy multiple security shelters such as firewalls, anti-virus, brute force protection, 24×7 CCTV surveillance, smoke detectors, and more to provide physical, end-point, and network security.

6. Cost-Efficient Solution

Businesses usually have to spend a lot on maintaining in-house servers, purchasing high-end hardware, hiring dedicated IT-Team and infrastructure costs.

All this can be avoided if your accounting applications are hosted on the cloud as the cloud hosting provider takes care of the installation, maintenance, updates, and other associated costs. They also offer custom plans so you only have to pay for resources that are required by your accounting firm.

Wrapping Up

The cloud computing market is expanding rapidly, and many businesses are making the most out of it. The features of cloud are endless, and businesses that are utilizing it, are getting more productive and saving more time.

So, what are you waiting for? Move to the cloud today!

Have more questions related to the cloud? Reach out to our solutions consultant by clicking the button below.