As internet technology continues to evolve with the advancement of more powerful and complex internet software applications and platforms, many businesses, from small and medium businesses (SMBs), corporations to conglomerates, are now turning to online applications to handle their business accounting needs.
And, as accounting and financial reporting requirements are becoming more complex, and with the ever-increasing volume of information being generated by business and individuals, businesses are now looking to centralize their business information — not just from bookkeeping, bill payment, invoicing, payroll, bank reconciliation, etc. but as well as accounting, including business accounting, compliance reporting and taxes, financial reporting, financial analysis, auditing… — as well as be able to distribute the workload.
Nowadays, centralizing this ever-increasing business information for easy accessibility for those who need it is vitally important to supporting the business, as well as distributing the workload for easy access to information in the context of the work to be performed – is essential to establishing an efficient business.
In order to meet these ever-increasing business complexities, businesses nowadays are taking their accounting to the clouds.
What is cloud accounting?
Cloud accounting (online accounting) is a mash-up of two terms: accounting software, that is any computer application that helps you with any form of accounting procedure and cloud computing, that is an Internet-based computing technology that allows consumers and businesses to access to shared resources, software, and information at any computer and other devices with internet access on demand.
In short, Cloud Accounting is an online accounting that uses a central server accessible via the internet as storage for accounting data that allows accessing your accounting data from anywhere with an Internet connection.
Things to Consider and the Advantages of Cloud Accounting
With more and more businesses seeing the benefits of using cloud services for their business, the concept of cloud accounting and cloud computing has become the trend du jour terms in business.
However, before any business owner decides to use cloud accounting they need to consider these things:
1. Accessibility. Cloud accounting allows easy accessibility of accounting data via the internet so it saves time and ensures efficiency.
2. Security. Cloud accounting security issues have been a concern since its adoption. However, various solutions that address these cloud security issues are being employed to ensure security of data and connection. Likewise, before deciding to adopt this technology, businesses should check the security arrangements.
3. Affordability. Cloud accounting is sold on demand. Typically, a hosting fee is charged monthly, quarterly or annually. It is also cost-effective for cloud financial package pricing structures are scaled according to your needs and the amount of space you use, so these systems can also save you money. According to a recent survey conducted by Tecala, an ICT infrastructure and solutions provider, seventy per cent of Australian organizations have recorded cost-savings after utilizing cloud computing.
4. Back-ups. Data is stored on multiple virtual servers and backups are done every day and are the responsibility of a service provider.
5. Support and Maintenance. Cloud accounting applications are easily maintain for they do not need to be installed on each user’s computer and are the responsibility of a service provider. They are easier to support and to improve, as the changes reach the clients instantly.
With these kinds of considerations and advantages, business owners can now appreciate and understand that the advantages of using cloud accounting surpassed any potential risks.
Shoebooks Online Accounting
All of the advantages and characteristics of the cloud accounting software and more can also be found in Shoebooks, Australia’s leading web based bookkeeping and accounting solution for SME Businesses. Shoebooks online accounting software has the following features:
— Offers real-time information.
— Accessible from any Internet connection on any computer, and because of this, employees are able to work off-site in the unlikely event of redundant ISP failure, with absolutely no disruption to the financial processes.
— Reliable system access, for it grant you the ability to customize user profiles and permissions, allowing management to dictate who has access to each part of the system
— Secure. Use data centers with physical and network (including firewalls, user-specific IDs, and 128-bit data encryption) security that far exceed the security of in-house systems. Also, it offers dual-drive transaction redundancy and nightly backups to off-site storage facilities to ensure information security.
— Robust functionality, for it has the capability to automatically process payroll, be fully integrated with the stock, debtor and creditor databases, and be able to perform automatic overhead allocations and produce functional financial statements.
— Scalability via “on-demand” provisioning of resources on a fine-grained, self-service basis near real-time, without users having to engineer for peak loads and does not require additional capital expenditure.
Shoebooks is a provider of premium online accounting software solutions for Australian SME businesses. Shoebooks is located in Australia at Unit 12, 118 Church Street, Hawthorn, Victoria 3122. Call Shoebooks at +613-9818-1515 (toll-free for Australia: 1300-882-428) or visit Shoebooks at WWW.SHOEBOOKS.COM.AU
