Does your company still uses locally installed accounting software, or worse, nothing at all? If this is the case, it is high time you shift to cloud accounting software.
Why do we say so?
Well, according to research by Sage, cloud software help reduce labor cost by a whopping 50 percent! Additionally, a staggering 67 percent of accountants prefer using cloud options over local software. Data collected by Go Remotely reveals that businesses that utilize cloud accounting have five times more customers than those that don’t!
Apart from all these benefits, the best reason to get cloud accounting software is that it will immensely ease your workload in various ways. This includes the following:
1. Unparalleled accessibility
Did you know that approximately one-third of accounting companies in the UK have 98 percent of their client’s data on the cloud? The biggest reason for this is to ensure the accessibility of data across the company.
Even if you are a small business, to succeed in the highly competitive industries, the chances are that you are aiming to attract clients. When working with multiple clients, you need cloud accounting software for your small business to ensure excellent accessibility among your accounting team.
Think of it this way. Let’s say each of your accountants works on their personal computers and manually upload client data onto it. Anytime you need data about a certain client, you will need to ask the said accountant.
However, if everything is on cloud software, anyone from your team can access the financial data, regardless of where they are and what device they are using! Hence, both accountants and business owners can access client ledgers as and when required.
2. Effective collaboration
No accounting task can be solely managed by a single person. Even within the accounting department, usually different tasks are overseen by different individuals.
For starters, let’s say the company requires the services of a vendor. Now, the accountant would need data from the vendor management team to decipher how much liability the company has in vendor payments. Similarly, he will need help from the invoice processing team to know when the vendor’s payment has been disbursed.
All of these instances will help in keeping the cash flow in check. At all times, a company must know how much money is coming in versus going out. This is especially true if you are a small business. After all, according to a study by a US bank, 82 per cent of companies fail due to low cash flow.
By utilizing cloud accounting, multiple users will be feeding in the data onto the same system. This improves collaboration and ensures that the company accounts are up to date at all times.
3. Better visualization of data
Let’s face it. The world of numbers can be very confusing. This is especially true for those who don’t deal with numbers regularly – in other words, other departments in the company.
With cloud accounting, users are provided with a dashboard that at-a-glance tells you about all the essential financial data, that too in real-time. This includes information about salary disbursements, cash flow, balance sheets, and invoice payments, etc.
This helps ease the workload in two ways.
Firstly, the tedious task of reporting financial information is eliminated as the entire company can view and track financial health independently.
Secondly, from the directors’ perspective, since the dashboard is easy to understand, they are easy to keep track of without requiring the constant assistance of an accounting resource.
4. Automation of basic tasks
According to McKinsey & Company, over 50 percent of accounting tasks can be automated with the help of current technology!
While this statistic may seem like a threat to an accountant, if you see it in a positive light, you will realize that for this very reason, cloud computing helps ease the workload of accounts.
Think of it this way. Since the accounting software takes care of basic tasks like invoice processing, updating ledgers, sending statements to customers, etc., it leaves you with more time to take care of more complicated financial decisions like forecasting, financial planning, etc. For example, you can completely automate your accounts payable process and not constantly worry about your pending invoices to your supplier.
Hence, by getting rid of the need to do basic accounting tasks, cloud computing actually helps in improving your productivity and value to the company.
5. Enhanced data security
Nothing increases workload more than a data breach. And sadly, we live in a world where data breaches and cybercrimes are quite common. This is why putting your trust in local software is never a good idea.
On the other hand, only keeping a single copy of your financial data (whether it is digitally on the desktop of your accountant or a physical copy within the premise of your company) is an equally bad idea.
This is because such data is vulnerable to physical threats like theft via hacking, natural disasters, fire, or malfunctioning systems. When you select a quality cloud provider, you don’t have to worry about data security. This is owing to the fact that cloud accounting software takes multiple measures to secure data.
They also automatically back up data, further ensuring that even if one of your systems malfunctions, all information is stored on the cloud at all times. Since the hacker will not have log-in information for the account, the financial data is also digitally secure.
Ending Remarks
As the end of 2021 is fast approaching, it is high time you switch to cloud accounting software. All thanks to the pandemic, the past few years must have taught you the perks of being digitally progressive!
Do yourself a favor and use cloud accounting software to ease your workload. Conduct research and find software that is best aligned with your business needs. This way, you will be able to focus on things that are directly related to revenue generation.
For those of you who are already using such software, are there any other ways the technology has helped improve your productivity? Let us all know.
