QuickBooks in the cloud is a process of using QuickBooks cloud hosting solutions for accessing your QuickBooks; it means your QB will be installed on a cloud server. The hosting provider will use your QB license for the installation; access to the cloud server will be given to you via connectors.
We all have seen the emerge of cloud technologies, one of the major reason behind that is it provides you with on the go option where in you will have all your data at your fingertips at any time cause it is stored on the cloud. It has brought a lot of change in the way traditional business practices have been followed till now; it is a whole different game now.
Cloud hosting is a technology which is not defined by any sector or particular industry or business type, almost every industry is using cloud based techniques nowadays to achieve their maximum potential in every department. Specially, when we refer to accounting departments, this was a completely new thing for them while they were wondering about the impacts and how it is going to affect them.
Well, the results are here, if we see the last 5 years or so, accountants are not only leveraging the hosting solutions for their jobs, but it becomes an essential part of what we call day to day activities. Basically, QuickBooks in the cloud is a prime example of how one of the major and most widely used accounting software developed by Intuit “QuickBooks” is used more on the cloud rather than the prior local arrangements used by accounting industry.
In the begging of this trend, there was a clear hesitancy among the financial industry whether or not to move their software’s to the cloud as that will somehow make their profession dependent on cloud based systems; it was not completely wrong. However, the kind of output they have been able to achieve after transition to the cloud including the benefits, profits, savings that lead to create a belief among the whole industry that it is time to use technological advancements if they want to stay ahead or even compete in the race.
Majority of accountants, CPAs and Bookkeepers are aware of QuickBooks accounting software, and they are also familiar with the practice of moving their QB to the cloud called QuickBooks hosting. Let’s explore more about this as it is very important to understand the significance of having your most used software moved to the cloud.
What is different with QuickBooks in the cloud?
After many QB users decided to move to the cloud based systems, this is important to understand the difference in general QB and on the cloud.
If you are an accountant looking to explore QuickBooks cloud hosting options, you will be glad to know that there are no differences in the internal functionality of QuickBooks once moved to a hosted system. You will be getting all the same functions which you have on your local setup. QB on the cloud does not reduce any functions, basically, ALL THE QB FUNCTIONS ARE SUPPORTED ON THE CLOUD.
This is the part where we know that, you are not going to lose any functionality of your favorite accounting software, it begs the question if there are anything you are going to gain to understand the point of moving to a hosted system.
There are certain benefits that come with QuickBooks cloud hosting:
It lets you access your QB from multiple locations of your choice, basically, it eliminates the need of installation on your devices, and all you need is internet connection along with the login credentials to the cloud.
The backup for your QuickBooks Company files will be saved on the cloud, you do not have to regularly take backups on your end. In case of any data loss, restoration will be possible from the hosting servers.
QB hosting providers use advanced security tools on their platforms to ensure the safety of your confidential data, this is a highly important fact in a time where cyber-attacks are pretty common, gives you an assurance along with peace of mind.
There are few savings as well associated with cloud hosting, without the need of installing any hardware, there are certain costs which are associated with the IT that can turn out to be the savings, also, nowadays most companies prefer pay as you go model which is an added convenience for you.
QuickBooks is an example of how cloud has impacted accounting firms, but there is a lot more than that responsible for this transformation and wide acceptance for cloud.
There are several other factors that are seen as a huge advantage for any accounting firm if they are on the cloud, some of these advantages are discussed below:
Increased client satisfaction:
With QB on the cloud, there has been a significant improvement in the productivity of the accountants with faster tax filing; this makes a good impact on your clients as delivering their work timely makes them trust you more with their business. The reason behind this increased flexibility on cloud is automation in your day to day accounting tasks, not only you will be able to complete tasks faster, but will also be able to schedule them.
Ability to scale with your business:
It is just a matter of minutes to scale your resources including Ram, CPU, and Space and network bandwidth. There is no need of installing any extra hardware to achieve that, which means with your business being growing, you can always add extra resources at your disposal. The sheer ability of a cloud server to be scaled at a whole new different level is extraordinary, and the best part is, it is not even a time taking process, this is done rapidly to support your growing business needs.
More synchronization among your team with effective sharing of data:
Cloud lets you share the data more easily with your team, which makes the team feel that they are in more sync and allows to produce better result, not only that, it also let them strike a balance between their job and responsibilities with the team members can rely on each other. If we compare this to a scenario where you are working outside the cloud based system, it seems more of an individual task as compare to a team works; accounting firms will want their employees to work as a team to gain more output. This process of working together on cloud is known as multiuser collaboration.
Where is the future of the accounting industry heading with QuickBooks in the cloud?
It seems like a trend that most of the accounting firms & CPAs are following with for now and it definitely comes to the mind whether this is just going to be a trending thing for a specific period of time or going to stay?
As far as we can calculate the Pros and Cons associated with QuickBooks hosting on cloud, there are numerous benefits visible directly, not only that, but with increasing technological advancements, this is the need of the hour for small & large accounting firms to adapt to the latest tech based systems in order to stay in the competition.
Also, the future of QuickBooks hosting is bright cause with more and more accountants adapting to the technology based systems and technology is changing quite rapidly, so we expect that in five years companies will still continue on this path. After all, it makes sense to have your accounting files up-to-date easily accessible online at all times.
Conclusion:
QuickBooks in the cloud has both pros and cons. As far as we can tell, the pros of QuickBooks hosting on cloud far outweigh its cons. Essentially, if you're using Desktop versions of QuickBooks, your data will potentially be at risk for getting hacked due to data breaches that may potentially happen in the future with local servers used for hosting purposes or vulnerabilities in the software of these server programs. However, with a cloud based accounting solution, your data will no longer have to be stored exclusively on one server - which is where all the risks mentioned above would come into play! If you're an accountant or run your own small business bookkeeping agency, then it's time that you considered migrating towards QuickBooks cloud; there are a lot of benefits out there that could ultimately benefit you greatly!