Top Challenges Resolved For Tax Pros By Hosting Tax Software on Cloud

Tax management is a task imperative to every individual, business, or industry. However, for a tax professional, it often poses a burden, especially during tax season. A tax professional is responsible for the management of taxes. However, his/ her work is not limited to it. It also includes:

• Calculating and preparing returns
• Gathering tax-related information and documents from clients
• Staying updated with the latest tax reforms
• Securing data from tax frauds
• Keeping regular records
• Compiling tax strategies

All of these tasks can be challenging and time-consuming.

Many professionals use different tax software applications to ease their tasks. These apps help automate most manual data entry work and simplify calculations for faster processing.

However, installing a tax application on local desktops restricts its accessibility. To overcome this challenge, tax software hosting comes into play. The flexibility and mobility benefits of the cloud simplify the tax-related tasks for the professionals.

Here are 5 of the top issues faced by tax pros that are resolved by hosting tax software on the cloud:

1. Gathering Information

Challenge: While preparing tax returns, tax pros require information and documents from their clients to accomplish their tasks. Collecting this data and working on it at the last minute often leads to hassles. Moreover, sending information back and forth over an email leads to redundancy and confusion. It further results in missed deadlines and poor customer service.

Solution: In addition to starting the process early, tax professionals need to streamline their information-gathering process. Hosting tax software on the cloud helps create a virtual platform that allows you to share, add, or modify any documents in real-time. Therefore, there is no ambiguity, and tax filing can be completed within the assigned deadline.

Also, all of the data is gathered in one place, which makes its management seamless. The tax-related tasks are taken care of in an organized manner for better customer satisfaction.

2. Availability of Software

Challenge: If all of the client’s data is stored on the local system, it becomes difficult to access the information at all times. Primarily during the tax season, urgency can occur at any time. Professionals need the availability of their accounting and tax software to process returns before it gets delayed. On-premise infrastructure restricts the movement and hence, the efficiency of its users.

Solution: Moving the tax software to the cloud allows you to access your tax software from anywhere and at any time from any internet-connected device, such as a laptop, smartphone, or tablet. There is no need to travel to and from the office. You can just log in to the user account and access the application on the cloud.

Furthermore, this mobility advantage promotes work-from-home and BYOD policy for better workflow. Hence, tax pros can deliver their tasks while working from any corner of the world.

3. Preventing Tax Frauds

Challenge: Tax scams and frauds are amongst the top concerns for any tax pro.

According to the stats provided by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), around 1.7 billion complaints were lodged in 2019 for fraud-related activities.

This activity mostly results in the loss of client’s money that can impact the reputation of tax professionals. Therefore, there is a need to implement a solution to prevent these attacks.

Solution: When the tax software is hosted on the cloud, it creates a layer that keeps the unwanted attacks at bay. A competent cloud hosting provider ensures that every security measure is implemented to prevent various cyberattacks, accidents, and thefts at different levels. Some of the crucial steps to safeguard data involve:

• End-to-end encryption
• Firewalls and authentication system
• Antivirus and anti-malware
• Intrusion Detection System/ Intrusion Protection System (IDS/IPS)
• Automated backups
• Onsite-security and 24/7 CCTV surveillance

Additionally, many tax software hosting providers also implement disaster recovery with redundant data centers. It ensures that even in case of an accident or mishap when one of the servers is down, information can be retrieved for uninterrupted operations from servers in the redundant data center.

4. Team Collaboration

Challenge: Tax professionals need to collaborate with their team of accountants, CPAs, shareholders, etc., to accomplish tax-related tasks. Most of the time, each individual might not be in the same office and have a presence in different global locations. It often leads to miscommunication and errors within the working system.

Solution: Tax software hosting enables multiple users to connect and work on a shared platform at the same time from any remote location. Therefore, there is no need to wait for other teammates to complete the task in hand to follow up with another job as the changes can be made in real-time.

Also, cloud hosting helps to host virtual meetings and sessions so as to connect with teams from around the world. It improves productivity and ensures maximum accuracy rate.

5. Integrating Add-ons

Challenge: Tax software applications are often integrated with various third-party add-ons to improve the functionality of the services. For example, tax pros prefer integrating Drake Software with QuickBooks applications to eliminate manual entry tasks to compile tax return related information. Various other add-ons are also integrated, such as SecureFilePro for document management, GruntWorx for data extraction, and more.

However, with the desktop-based solution, the performance of the software gets impacted, and services start to lag.

Solution: Hosting tax software on the cloud offers seamless integration with any number of add-ons. Cloud provides scalable resources, like storage space, the number of users, and RAM depending on user requirements. Therefore, there are no performance issues due to limited hardware resources.

Furthermore, it reduces any extra cost incurred by deploying and maintaining physical infrastructure in the office premises.

To Sum It Up

Tax pros are always under the stress of deadlines. The challenges mentioned above often reduce their productivity and efficiency.

Hosting tax software on the cloud helps overcome all these challenges and ensures one stays ahead of the game. It is a one-stop solution to streamline the tax and accounting tasks for better organization of the system.

Are you looking for a reliable tax software hosting provider? Chat with our Solutions Consultant today or call +1-855-223-4887.