With the advancements in accounting technologies these days, a lot of organizations are integrating cloud technology into their business model as it brings a lot of growth opportunities to the table.
The main reason behind accounting businesses making this transition is the scalability, flexibility, cost-effectiveness, and ease of access it offers across the globe.
While these migrations are creating a lot of opportunities for accountants, many are still hesitant to face this level of change. Some business owners still have a lot of unanswered questions about business productivity and security offered by the cloud hosting providers after moving to the cloud.
Let’s find out how hosting your accounting software on cloud increases efficiency and is more secure for businesses these days.
1. Remote Access
Cloud-based accounting solutions provide anytime, anywhere access to your financial information. With real-time visibility to data, you and your team can work from different locations, and deliver the best results for your organization.
Migrating your accounting process to the cloud makes it available to you from any browser or device, which results in increased productivity and efficiency.
2. Add-On Integrations
Cloud allows you to sync various third-party applications along with your accounting software for better coordination and smooth functioning of the core accounting process.
With cloud accounting, you can add multiple functionalities like ERP, CRM, Emails, MS Office Suite, and more to your accounting software. It helps improve the utilization of server resources and enhance automation, thereby increasing efficiency.
3. Team Collaboration
Cloud accounting simplifies working with teammates and sharing data with accountants and financial advisors. It allows you to provide access to the same file to multiple users, irrespective of their geographical location, saving time and energy.
Since all your financial information is in one place, the risk of manual accounting errors is minimized. This increases the accuracy and efficiency of your accounting tasks as the team can work on the same files without having to send multiple versions over emails.
4. Security
Cloud safeguards your accounting data from hardware malfunctions, accidental data breaches, and device theft. This is because most cloud providers deploy a multi-layered security environment like two-factor authentication, firewalls, password protection, and controlled access policies to ensure the safety of your financial information.
Not only that, but some cloud service providers also offer Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plans to ensure safety against natural and human-inflicted calamities like floods, fires, and earthquakes.
5. Scalability
By hosting your accounting application on the cloud, you can get as many resources as required per your business growth. The cloud infrastructure allows businesses to upscale or downscale resources without worrying about the hardware and infrastructural cost. It not only saves you money but frees you from IT hassles.
Moreover, with flexible pay-as-you-go plans, service providers ensure that you are billed only for what you’re utilizing.
6. Backup and Updates
Cloud accounting offers automated and scheduled data backups with multiple levels of encryption. Regular data backups by cloud service providers allow you to retrieve crucial financial information as and when required and prevent data loss.
Moreover, the cloud providers also carry regular software updates for you to always use the up-to-date version of the software and the latest functionalities, optimizing productivity.
7. Paperless Accounting
Accounting on cloud significantly decreases the dependence on paperwork as invoices and returns can be accessed by CPAs and clients on a common platform. It not only speeds up the payment process and increases overall productivity, but also has a positive impact on the environment.
Moreover, by migrating your accounting application on the cloud, you can save on storage and energy costs as well.
8. Uptime
Cloud hosting providers guarantee maximum uptime percentage so that the server is operational throughout the year. More the number of ‘Nines,’ more reliable will be the service provider.
For instance, by opting for a provider that promises at least 99.999% uptime, would lead to higher business productivity and performance of the organization, as the servers will be down for only 6 minutes in a year.
Not only that, but some cloud service providers also offer Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) plans to ensure safety against natural and human-inflicted calamities like floods, fires, and earthquakes.
Wrapping Up
The cloud-based automated infrastructure enables businesses to spend more time providing value-added services to clients and less time in IT-related issues. The accountants can offer more than just the compliance and data entry work, increasing the billable hours for their firm.
With multi-layered security, the businesses can rest assured that their data is protected against all disruptive events.
However, your business growth ultimately depends on choosing the right service provider that provides maximum security and uptime to make your business thrive.