What is Cloud Accounting?

These days it seems like you just can’t scroll through Facebook or read an article in The Economist without coming across references to something called ‘the cloud’. To those of us in the financial sector, ‘cloud accounting’ seems to be one of the hottest buzzwords around – so what is it exactly and how can it help you keep your money matters in order?

 

The Basics: What Cloud? Where is it?

The ‘cloud’ is basically a broad term used to describe services and software stored online, hosted on servers located elsewhere in the world as opposed to locally on your computer, where ‘traditional’ software usually lives. You probably already use the cloud in your day to day life – Google Drive, iCloud, Netflix, OneDrive, and DropBox are all cloud services! One of the best things about the cloud is that it allows users to access files or services anytime, anywhere, from any kind of device – as long as you’ve got a good WiFi connection to back you up. These days, you can forget about USBs (how many of those have we misplaced?) because access to cloud services means you can store your precious information safely online.

 

A Closer Look at the Perks

Cloud accounting has the same functional capabilities as your traditional on-site accounting software, but with far more flexibility, the ability to update and back up financial information easily, and the facility to create accurate financial reports in real-time. This means that your account balances are always spot-on, and you’ll experience far fewer errors overall; cloud accounting software also allows for better handling of multi-currency and multi-company transactions across the board.

Now we’ve already mentioned a fair few perks of cloud accounting, but here are a few more benefits that we just can’t help but get excited about:

• Time-saving automation: generate invoices and reminders to save time and stay on top of it all
• Scalable: that means that the software grows or adapts to the size of your company or intensity of your requirements
• Increased security: having everything backed up on a remote server means you’ll never be caught off guard, even if your device is compromised or crashes
• Collaboration: it’s easier to work with colleagues across multiple user profiles; you can even tailor permissions according to each user’s job role
• Improved clarity: get a clearer overview of your finances
• Flexibility: work from anywhere in the world without worrying about updating spreadsheets or installing the latest programmes on one machine
• Reduced upfront business costs: upgrades, maintenance, system administration, troubleshooting, and beyond are all managed by the cloud provider; monthly payment plans instead of paying a considerable one-off fee

 

At NM Group, we use Xero, a cloud accounting software that enables us to securely manage invoicing, bank reconciliation, bookkeeping and more for our clients. Not only is our team fully Xero certified, but we are always thinking of new ways to help our clients achieve better results faster with the help of cloud accounting.

Want to know more about the wonderful world of cloud accounting and how it could make your financial life easier?
Get in touch with us today!