Cloud Accounting is the future of Accounting “ In UK he UK, 18% of firms have over 98% of their clients in the cloud, while worldwide, almost a third (31%) have more than 80% of their clientele online “ In the UK, it’s predicted that 78% of small businesses will rely solely on cloud accounting software by 2020

Why Cloud Accounting

In recent years, cloud technology has revolutionized our day-to-day lives. We post our family photos to Facebook, we pay our household bills through online banking and we use our smartphones to check our email on the move.

So, if we are utilizing the cloud in our everyday lives, why are we not doing the same in our business lives? Cloud-based accounting software now offers all the functionality and reliability of your tried and trusted desktop accounting system, but with the advantages of cloud accounting.

Here are some of the advantages of using cloud accounting over desktop versions.

Mobile access at any time

Access your data anywhere at any time 24/7 so long you have internet access, unlike desktop application where your data and your accounts are all sat on a local drive and that limits the access you can have to your financial information.

You can also access your data on Mobile and Tablets which help can translate into a more flexible lifestyle while running your business. You can have certainty over the financials and banking even when you are not physically present in your business.

A cost and time-effective solution

Working online reduces your IT costs and saves you time by keeping you constantly connected to the business. Desktop-based systems require an investment in IT hardware, server, and maintenance of the hardware whilst online accounting is carried out entirely from the cloud.

There is no costly IT infrastructure for you to maintain, and you can access the software whether you are in the office or out at a customer meeting.

Watertight security and no time-consuming back-ups

When you are cloud-based, your accounts and records are all saved and backed up with military levels of encryption. With desktop accounting, you have to back up data each and every day and make updates every time the provider provides new updates.

On a cloud platform, back-ups and software updates become a thing of the past. You’re always logged in to the most up-to-date version of the software, with all the latest functions which save time and money with tedious backup.

Cloud accounting is more secure than the desktop version where the file is set in Sever or laptop hard drive all information is encrypted and save in cloud servers.

Share and collaborate with ease

Working with colleagues, and sharing data with your advisers, is an extremely straightforward process when you’re based in the cloud. Using the old, desktop approach, you had limited access to your accounts – and that made collaboration with colleagues and advisers difficult.

If your accountant needed specific numbers, they would need to be emailed back and forth, or saved to a USB memory stick and couriered directly to their office.

Reduces paperwork and is more sustainable

Using cloud accounting can deliver the dream of having a paperless office. With an online accounting system, you can significantly reduce your reliance on paperwork.

Invoices can be emailed out directly to clients, removing the costs of printing and postage – and speeding up the payment process. Incoming bills and receipts can be scanned and saved directly with the associated transactions in your accounting software because your documents are all digitized and stored in the cloud also known as e filling.

Also, you banks transaction can automatically add into QuickBooks, Please note this function does not integrate with Zimbabwean banks, However, you can upload your CSV file bank statement into QuickBooks then, categorize or reconcile the transaction and then posts into QuickBooks