How offline methods of accounting kill your productivity?

Accounting in India has truly come of age. From the dusty rooms storing those ‘bahi khaate’ to computerized entries followed by an entire offline software called Tally. Good that the evolution didn’t stop there. Indian businesses witnessed online accounting software and now there’s cloud-based accounting making their lives easier.

Not to say we don’t need our good old accountants but that these talented professionals can now put to better use, thanks to the omnipresence of the cloud-based accounts. But as it happens with all change, there are several Indian small and medium businesses that refuse to embrace the evolution. It’s for them that we were compelled to write this blog.

Offline accounting straight up kills your productivity. Believe it only after you read this.

Huge learning curve wastes your precious time

You will either hire an accountant and be dependent on him for all your accounting and taxation need or you would hire a Tally professional. Eventually, you will want to learn a bit of accounting yourself since you hate this dependence. Learning accounting is not difficult but it takes time and regular practice. Learning Tally itself takes three months. A small business like yourself can use this precious time in conducting in-house training for staff, brainstorming new ideas, execution of old ideas and so on.

Offline system may get corrupted

If your business is still using Tally — the wonderful but offline software — you are most likely storing all of your data on a system or a hard drive. This may get corrupted due to system failure, weather conditions or simply a human error. Worse, your system can be hacked. All your data can be wiped out in seconds and data backups would occupy several hard drives and system space. This is not exactly a very productive exercise for your business.

Software versions, multiple entries can be an everyday headache

In an offline accounting system, say, an accountant has made changes in his system. Now you will need that version to see changes. Anyone else making changes in the system will have his/her own version. This may result in duplication of entries, multiple versions of the same accounting and so on. In addition, version updates would be a problem since every user will need the latest upgrade to be able to work.

Lack of remote access delays tasks

There’s no scope in an offline accounting software to have access of accounts on your device, say mobile phone. You cannot access your finances while on the go and must carry offline or printed copies of the same. You can use this time to prepare your presentation before investors, or making changes in your pitch deck and so on.

It’s never too late to start off fresh. If you wish to know why everyone else around you has switched to cloud-based online accounting, do check this out. Still in doubt? Talk to us.