Easy Accounting With Hosted Quickbooks Solutions
Thousands of business owners send their books to accountants every year. Some mail a portable hard drive, CD, or memory stick. More advanced businesses might have ways to electronically transmit files. Even though reconciling books with a CPA is one of the most important transactions a business can make, it is also a transaction fraught with risks. Transferring data is tedious, error prone, and inefficient. Prior to cloud services online, business owners did not have a good option. Fortunately, new technologies known as cloud services have changed the landscape. Using the cloud, business owners can seamlessly update their books, post changes, and backup data without ever interrupting the flow of business.
Cloud Accounting
The beauty of cloud accounting lies in its simplicity. You never have to install new software updates, license an upgrade, or worry about your computer crashing. With cloud accounting software, you can access your QuickBooks from any computer with an Internet connection. Since the software is in a data center, an accountant can seamlessly access the same file at the exact same time that you are in it.
Cloud accounting waves the old days of sending a CD in the mail or e-mailing an attachment goodbye. You don’t have to wait 3 weeks for an excel sheet from your accountant or post the changes from an excel sheet into QuickBooks. Instead, your accountant can make updates directly in your QuickBooks file.
Less Risk
When QuickBooks is married to your network or desktop, you have to back the data up often and you cannot access the data from anywhere else. Cloud accounting means accessing your books anywhere, anytime and not having to worry about backing it up. That is because your data is stored in a secure data center that creates copies in real-time. The chances of data loss are almost zero.
Since you have to use QuickBooks on your desktop, for year-end reconciliations, a snapshot must be sent to your accountant. Your CPA reviews the QuickBooks file, records errors, and documents changes that need to be made in an excel document. A few weeks after you send the QuickBooks snapshot, you receive a document that requires the changes to be posted into your current QuickBooks. This tedious, manual process has 3 major drawbacks compared to a QuickBooks cloud solution: the transfer of the file – twice, the increased risk of manual entry error, the time investment sending, receiving, and posting changes.
Backing up QuickBooks data, reconciling accounting changes, and keeping your software up to date is a tough way of maintaining your books. Cloud solutions decrease the risks associated with interfacing with your CPA and improve your accounting workflow.
