In our last article, we introduced the concept of Cloud-based accounting to you and explored a few things about what it is and what it entails.
We promised to go deeper in terms of its benefits, and so we figured the best way to show what these benefits are is to look at some of the problems that they solve.
The interrupter of accounting
There a have been some interesting articles around what makes an interrupter in an industry. Is Uber, said to be an interrupter in the taxi industry, really an interrupter? They just really found a better way than the poor service and exorbitant fees that other taxis charged. Netflix replaced Blockbuster because of their payment system and having to buy full-length albums killed the music industry – not Apple! Cloud-based accounting, whom many are calling the interrupter of the accounting business, is so because they have found a better way to do things than traditional accounting. Because of the name of our business, Sky Financial, we like to call Cloud-based accounting’ accounting in the sky’ and so this article looks at precisely how accounting in the sky puts pay to many accounting setbacks.
Cost saving
Traditional accounting is costly to set up and complicated to keep backups if they are done at all. It’s also expensive, complicated and time-consuming to upgrade the software. With Cloud, business costs are reduced not only upfront with the setup, but with version upgrades, maintenance, system administration costs, and no server failures. These are all managed by the Cloud accounting service provider.
Poor usability and access
The data in the system and the software aren’t usually up to date with traditional accounting systems, and only one person has user access. Key people can’t access their financial and customer details. In the Cloud, there’s real-time accounting & reporting dashboards. You have a clear overview of your current financial position, in real-time and multi-user access makes it easy to collaborate online with your advisors and your people.
Customer support
Customer support is expensive and slow, with traditional accounting. Trying to connect with people having meetings etc. and organising and installing new software and systems. With Cloud-based accounting, customers are connected continuously to advisors. There are no more envelopes with invoices, receipts, and statements. Everything is run online, so there’s nothing to install, and everything is backed up automatically. Updates are free and instantly available and automatic updates also free up the customer to focus on other things, like generating new business!
Document storage
Traditional document storage is generally tedious and outdated. It also raises security concerns as documents can easily be lost or stolen. With Cloud-based accounting, this is solved, as documents are safely stored in the Cloud. We will elaborate on document storage in a future article.
Security
Following on the point of security, traditional accounting only works on one computer and data bounces from place to place. For example, on a USB drive, which is also not secure or reliable. With Cloud-based accounting, theft and natural disaster issues are solved as the Cloud is the safest way to store data as long as you use the correct password protocol. We will also look at this in more detail in a future article.
Get professional Accountants
Of course, the cloud-based system is just a better way to do what still requires the expertise of Professional Accountants. If you’re as convinced as we at Sky Financial are that accounting in the sky puts pay to many accounting setbacks, why not contact us to find out about our full range of professional accounting services. We use cutting edge cloud-based technology to solve your every financial need.