How Lacerte Cloud Hosting Can Improve Productivity and Increase Your Billable Hours

Albert Einstein said, “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”

Today, CPAs and tax professionals have made it easier for people to understand and file their tax returns. And, now there are many tax software in the market to make the work of tax professionals easier. Among all the software, Lacerte is the most used tax software to prepare tax returns as reviewed by  Journal of Accountancy survey in September 2019.

The reason why Lacerte is so popular among its users is that it offers several features to meet every need of the individual taxpayer as well as businesses of all sizes.

Some of its features are-

• Extensive form library with over 5700 forms like 1040, 1120, 706, 990, etc.
• E-organizer for the hassle-free and paperless organization of tax information
• Missing Client Data utility tool to identify fields with missing information
• Schedule D import wizard to record 1031 exchange transactions within minutes

But the performance of the desktop version of Lacerte starts degrading as the workload increases because of the shortcomings of the local device. However, when Lacerte software is hosted on cloud, it offers more flexibility, allowing more work done in less time, increasing the number of billable hours, and the productivity of the firm.

Let’s understand the main features Lacerte cloud hosting offers that help to improve the productivity and increase the billable hours of the accounting firm.

1. Easy Collaboration

During the tax season, the constant need for to-and-fro communication among tax preparers and clients to obtain the tax data makes tax filing processes hectic and lengthy. More time gets consumed in gathering all the information, which directly affects the productivity and billable hours of the firm.

This problem can be resolved by switching to Lacerte hosting. When the firm makes a switch to cloud hosting for the Lacerte tax software, all the tax data and the applications are stored on the cloud. The files and forms can be accessed and modified by tax professionals and clients at the same time, eliminating the sluggish email exchange procedure.

Thus, CPAs get more time to focus on filing returns and getting more work done in the same number of total working hours.

2. Remote Accessibility

Tax filing and return are the processes that require accountants to be present at all times for their clients. But tax preparers cannot be present at their offices 24/7. There is a possibility they are traveling, shifting office to a new place, hence do not have access to Lacerte tax software.

Accountants have a fixed number of total working hours. And, such situations where accountants are compelled to delay the tax process directly result in a decrease in the number of billable hours.

With Lacerte cloud hosting, the software is hosted on remote cloud servers. It allows tax professionals and taxpayers to have the accessibility of Lacerte via any device, from anywhere, and at any time.

3. Software Availability

In the fast-paced world and ever-developing technology in the accounting industry, firms are getting more and more dependent on software. Hence, it is necessary that the Lacerte software is accessible at every time. If due to any technical issues, Lacerte is not running, it can cause delays in client services and hence, hamper the billable hours.

Whereas on choosing Lacerte hosting, cloud service providers make sure that Lacerte software is always running smoothly. The notable hosting providers guarantee an uptime of 99.99%, ensuring that Lacerte is available throughout the year, and the tax processes are completed on time.

4. Round-the-Clock Support

When Lacerte is installed on local devices, tax professionals have to spend their time resolving IT related issues of the software that acutely affects their productivity.

During tax season, CPAs need to maintain large amounts of client data on the local device. The limited local storage and hardware specifications escalate the IT issues, like continuous error messages, applications taking too long to open, SMPS not working, system restarting on its own, command prompt pop-ups, etc. For these issues, firms need to maintain a dedicated IT department, which leads to additional time, cost, and efforts.

With Lacerte cloud hosting, the need for the IT department is taken care of by the cloud service provider. They have a dedicated team of technical professionals to look after all these issues. They keep track of whether the hosted software is properly working or not. And, if the problem arises, it is resolved before the users get to know about it.

5. Integration With Other Apps

Tax professionals need to import accounting reports and other tax data into Lacerte while filing taxes. It creates the requirement of other applications such as QuickBooks for managing bills, generating reports, tracking payrolls, etc. apart from the tax software. However, installing a number of applications on the local machine affects the speed of tax processes over time.

Lacerte cloud hosting allows easy and smooth integration of third-party add-ons with Lacerte software. Since the software and all other applications along with the accounting data are stored on cloud servers, the server resources can be scaled according to the business requirements.

Rounding up

Switching to Lacerte hosting enhances the tax software with the features of cloud computing, allowing accountants and tax professionals to focus more on tax processes in any situation. This way, they can prepare more returns and increase their number of billable hours with fixed total working hours.

Have more questions about Lacerte cloud hosting? Get in touch with a Solutions Consultant at +1-855-223-4887.