It’s not just about saving time and money anymore. It’s about accessibility and security too. Small business accounting software minus the cloud, at least in today’s digital world, is simply not relevant.
What’s the big deal about cloud anyway?
Simply put, cloud is an online platform that makes your software and data accessible anytime, anywhere from any device. Ever accessed your bank account from a place other than your city or country? That’s made possible through cloud platforms today. Now your hard drive is no longer the central hub of data.
Cloud offers world-class security
Small business owners around the world have graduated to cloud platforms because they now know that the security it offers is truly world-class. Cloud protects you from data theft in case your laptop, desktop or tablet gets stolen. Cloud data is accessible by a log in and password and unless someone has that, your data is safe. Even in case of natural disaster, all your information is stored offsite thus there’s no downtime for your data security. When you connect to a device and log in to your account, you can still access the data from anywhere and anytime.
Another argument in favour of cloud is the way you can give access to your data to other users and how you can control this access. Unlike offline accounting software, you can easily allot permissions to members of staff or take away the access anytime as per need. The whole job of cloud storage companies is to ensure that data about your organisation is airtight since it is stored in an encrypted format so no one, including the cloud service providers, can read your data.
Why is everyone switching to cloud accounting now?
There are a lot of limitations of traditional offline accounting software such as Tally. Here are the problems that have made people switch to cloud-based accounting software:
The offline software works on one computer, so the data goes from one computer to another through a USB drive — this is not safe at all.
Often one person, who is most likely an accountant, has access to your data. A lot of important people must depend on the accountant to access key financial details.
It’s often expensive to keep data backups.
Upgrading the software comes with its own set of problems such as cost, time consuming process and complications.
The upgrading of the data takes manual effort.
Customer support is also often subjective to the service provider.
How cloud accounting helps you work smarter, better?
– You get a bird’s eye view of your current financial position, that too in real time.
– It makes collaboration with other users possible without any threat to security.
– Cloud-based accounting software such as Giddh enables an automatic double entry that means your data gets updated automatically.
– Data is backed up automatically since it is not stored on a device but on cloud.
– A great cloud-based accounting software ensures that your upfront business costs are reduced. The cloud service provider manages issues such as server failure, maintenance, version upgrades etc so you are not cost-hassled over these.
What’s the beauty of cloud-based accounting?
This gives you not only time but also the flexibility to spend your time in running your business smartly. You are able to make better financial decisions since you have clear reports and analysis of your finances. Investors expect small businesses to have up-to-date accounts and be able to present a clear analysis of the same. You are able to make accurate growth projections before the investors.
Cloud accounting is already a step ahead as it gives you vital analytics related to your business and growth.