Chances are you’ve heard of cloud technology and you use it in your personal life. (Have you ever used a Google doc? That’s the cloud!) But cloud technology for businesses has grown massively over the last 10 years—accelerating even faster as a result of the pandemic. The cloud supports a hybrid workforce, enables scalability as your business evolves, and can help cut costs—among other benefits—and the accounting department is one business area that benefits greatly from these capabilities.
If you’re using legacy systems like spreadsheets to manage your accounting, they will serve you quite well until real business growth kicks in. That’s why modern businesses focused on expansion and long-term growth are moving accounting operations to the cloud. Read on to learn why embracing cloud accounting is one of the smartest decisions you can make today for your business.
1.Improve Your Budgeting and Reporting
Manual accounting methods don’t allow for real-time visibility into your financial data. In order to produce a meaningful report, a human has to collect the relevant data and manually create the report—a time-consuming task that leaves room for potential errors. In such a scenario, by the time leadership receives the report, the financial data is already out of date.
Cloud accounting technology gives you real-time business intelligence and reporting capabilities to near-instantly issue a report with the most up-to-date financial data available. You can access your data at any time from any devices and location so you can accurately budget and forecast with the most relevant information.
2. Enjoy Superior Security
One of the biggest obstacles businesses have moving to the cloud is worry about the security of their data. And in accounting, we’re talking about some of the most sensitive data in your business. You are right to be concerned about data security—especially in today’s era where cyber threats abound—but cloud accounting technology providers have spent significant money and time shoring up their solutions with the most advanced security protocols and tools.
Additionally, moving accounting to the cloud means your IT team no longer has to worry about performing manual updates. Your solution will always be the latest version, so you’ll never have the security risks that come with running outdated technology.
3. Encourage Faster, Easier Collaboration
In a manual accounting setting, your team typically has to make copies of files in either paper forms or to send over email, and accounting documents may live in local drives, devices, or folders. This can contribute to siloed information in your accounting department—fragmenting your data and preventing your team from having that important visibility mentioned earlier. You’ll also have to manage multiple copies of the same file, impacting your team’s efficiency.
The cloud provides a centralized hub for collaboration—eliminating the need for employees to keep track of their own files in their own organizational methods. By being able to collaborate within the software, employees can speed up workflows, get approvals faster, and complete projects in a more efficient way. You’ll also have a clear audit trail as the cloud provides version tracking and traceability.
Curious About the Cloud?
These are just three of many reasons modern businesses are moving accounting operations cloud-ward. Doing so helps them improve planning for the future, achieve better profitability, and ensure they can scale to accommodate any changes to their business.
Accountnet has been helping businesses of all sizes in the New York region make the move since 1996. Our experts are skilled in implementation, support, and training so you can get the most out of your cloud investment. We’re happy to answer any questions you have—reach out anytime.
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