QuickBooks, a product of Intuit, is the most preferred accounting solution of accountants and CPAs all around the globe. Being a desktop software, QuickBooks was traditionally used only on local systems that created problems for accountants in respect of its accessibility, usability, backups, and cost. However, with the technological revolution over the past few decades, a better solution has surfaced in the name of cloud technology.
QuickBooks cloud hosting means that all your files and data are stored and installed on the cloud environment of third-party providers instead of a local on-premise system, leading to a reduction in capital and operational costs.
A research study by Gartner shows that the global public cloud computing market will exceed $300 billion in the year 2020. Thus, it is now time for accountants and CPAs to move their QuickBooks to the cloud and increase their work productivity while saving money at the same time.
Here are the major benefits of using QuickBooks on cloud:
- You can access your QuickBooks files from anywhere at any time with the help of internet-connected devices.
- You can easily communicate and collaborate with people from anywhere around the world.
- You save on the huge expenses of purchasing and maintaining on-premise hardware systems, and IT support.
- You can easily recover your data in case of any loss, as cloud hosting providers take multiple backups of all your files and data.
- You can integrate your QuickBooks files with any other third-party application such as billing, CRM, expense management, etc. to carry out all your work on one platform.
- You get automatic updates of any new feature or security patches that ensures that you are always working on the latest version of the software.
Working with QuickBooks on cloud is no different from working on the local systems. You get the same desktop-like experience with a variety of other benefits.
Once you decide on migrating your QuickBooks to the cloud, the next step is to choose the right hosting provider. Here are a few things that you should consider while choosing a QuickBooks hosting provider.
1. Security Features
The hosting providers should offer advanced security features at multiple levels- network, physical, and administrative. Some of the security safeguards include access control, data encryption, multi-factor authentication, and a lot more to keep your data safe.
You must also ensure that their data centers are SSAE-certified Tier 3+ or Tier 4 data centers and are well-equipped and located away from disaster-prone areas.
Hosting your QuickBooks on the cloud with a reliable hosting provider safeguards your files and documents from any internal or external threat such as a data breach or a ransomware attack.
2. Server Performance
The cloud hosting providers should offer superfast SSD-based servers along with an uptime guarantee of at least 99.99% in order to avoid business discontinuity. They must also offer a High-Performance Computing (HPC) environment for hosting QuickBooks to avoid any unplanned downtime that can cause huge losses of business to their customers.
3. Customer Support
Keeping customers satisfied should be the main focus of any hosting provider. For this, deploying a team of highly skilled customer representatives should be their primary objective. Moreover, the hosting providers must be able to offer 24/7 customer support through phone, email, or chat, in order to resolve all your queries on time.
4. Data Backup
Data security is the priority of any business, be it a startup or enterprise. Moreover, with the increasing number of cyberattacks these days, businesses must be even more cautious. Hence, they should choose a hosting provider that offers full replication and backup of all your files and data. They must also offer disaster recovery features so that you can easily recover all your data in case of any disaster, such as earthquakes and floods.
Wrapping Up
Hosting QuickBooks on cloud enhances your work productivity by creating a flexible environment for all your accounting tasks on one common platform. Moreover, it also reduces capital and operational expenses with the ability of remote access.
Comments (7)
QuickBooks has successfully driven the revolution of cloud computing. More and more small business owners are leveling up to cloud services.
Gartner predictions about cloud computing is absolutely spot on. What I also feel is that the ratio of cloud computing acceptance will only go up in the coming years.
There is much more to cloud computing future Jesse….
To manually add Deposits: You can click on the Income tab right on your home page, and when the list of Payments Received is dipsyaled, the top row will be empty. You can fill it out just like any other form, with Category, Customer, Description, and Amount.Slow, I know, but with bank deposits (as opposed to PayPal income), maybe workable? Also, it will suggest categories, customers, etc. as you type, which simplifies things a little if you have income from the same sources.Sarita Li
The best feature or quality I have been able to experience I is the server uptime. I barely see a downtime in all my servers. The internet speeds are very constant and the data security is topnotch.
It has been 2 years since I opted for QuickBooks and my business processes are running very smooth off late. Especially the collaboration among departments has really improved and data transfers are very secure as well.
When cloud computing came into existence I was a little hesitant. But when I used it on trial basis, I was really surprised how fast and reliable it is. QuickBooks is accessible anywhere, even in remote areas this proved beneficial for me as I am always on the move for business purposes.