Online accounting systems have now advanced to a point where they can give traditional stand-alone accounting software a run for their money. In fact, we have now moved most of our clients to online accounting systems. We did this as we have found that the benefits of the online systems fix many of the shortfalls of legacy accounting systems. Here are the top 3 reasons we recommend clients switch to an online accounting system.
Collaboration
Online accounting systems can provide ease of access for team members. This includes in-house team members and others, such as outside accountants.
For example, Quickbooks Online allows businesses to add team members and assign roles that have varying level of access. Granting a bookkeeper or accountant access an easy process. You can just sent them an email invitation.
This makes it easy to add and remove users over time. It also allows the business to see exactly who has access and to what information.
The days of closing out of the accounting software, saving a backup, sending the backup file to the bookkeeper, and waiting to receive the updated file back before continuing work on the books in-house are gone.
Updates
From the end user perspective, online accounting systems are always up to date. Updates, patches and bug fixes are handled by the system. This reduces the chance that data is corrupted, lost, or compromised by out of date software or in moving from one manual software install to another.
In addition to updates to the software itself, online software can keep financial transactions up to date. This is possible as online software pulls data directly from financial institutions over the internet. There is no need to wait for manual data entry.
Productivity
Online accounting systems can be used by multiple end users at the same time. This is true even if the end users are using different computer systems. A bookkeeper working on an Apple computer can work on on the same books as the in-house accountant on a Windows computer.
The cross-platform comparability isn’t the only productivity boost. The ability to work remotely is another benefit. Thus, a bookkeeper working from home or a remote office can be just as effective as an in-house worker. This enables businesses to have expert bookkeepers work on their books in the same way as their in-house worker would.
Get Help With Your Books
We help businesses across the country with bookkeeping and taxes, but we focus on providing bookkeeping in Houston, Texas. Call us today to see how we can help, (832) 915-1040.
