Advancements in technology have revolutionized business operations across the globe, leading to greater convenience and productivity. Today, almost every industry is leveraging cloud capabilities, and the accounting industry is one of them. Accounting forms the backbone of every firm, and it is essential to streamline the accounting process. However, manual approaches towards managing to account forms one of the biggest hindrances in achieving the same.
By incorporating the use of cloud accounting into their processes, firms can save time considerably and utilize the same to devise strategies for growth/scalability and focus on core competencies, leading to enhanced productivity eventually.
Cloud Accounting Stats
- A Flexi survey revealed that the global cloud accounting market size was $2.62 billion, which is estimated to reach $4.25 billion by the end of 2023.
- As per a report by Accountancy Age, 78% of small firms will rely on cloud accounting solely by 2020.
- The Frost & Sullivan survey showed that firms that invested in collaboration technologies witnessed an increase in the overall productivity by 400%!
- As per Forbes, using cloud accounting, the labor cost gets shelved by 50%.
- As per a Capital Counselor resource, firms opting for cloud-based accounting solutions acquire clients five times greater than others.
Top 9 Cloud Accounting Benefits Explained
Automation
Automation is refining and redefining the way businesses process time-consuming and repetitive tasks. There are a lot of features in the cloud accounting system with which you can automate a lot of tasks. Using built-in notifications, you can set reminders, and clients will be notified automatically against unpaid invoices.
Also, you need not put the effort into tedious manual tasks since advanced invoicing features like saved credit card information, or recurring billing will take care of the same.
Effortless Expense Tracking
Accountants have to track business expenses, from the smallest ones to the biggest ones. Depending on the business’s size and the number of daily/monthly/quarterly/yearly expenses incurred, tracking the same can become overwhelming for accountants.
However, with a cloud-based accounting system, firms can link bank transactions directly with it and also receive digital receipts.
Live Success Tracking, Real-Time Reporting
Cloud accounting helps you with comprehensive reporting against managing KPIs in real-time with the help of built-in dashboards. This means there exists no need for you to send data to your stakeholders and accountants since it will be stored in one central place.
Also, this helps everyone to gain access to important documents easily and work collaboratively on the same platform.
Enhanced Security
For a business of any size, the security of data holds immense importance since it is directly linked to its market image. Cloud systems are all about the enhanced security of an organization or firm confidential information or data. With redundancy and network backups built right into the cloud accounting system, you can be assured of data security.
Apart from this, regular security updates help in keeping the transactional details, credit cards, and other sensitive information secured against any type of cyber attack.
Trouble-free Integrations
You can easily integrate with other systems using an open API structure to enhance the robust and accurate nature of the cloud accounting system. Syncing of data in real-time becomes a cakewalk with an open API, allowing developers to establish connections between various programs successfully. Even if you need to use a new process in the future, if you have an open API, you can integrate it into the cloud system easily.
Virtual Bookkeeping
With cloud accounting, you need not invest your energy and time in updating your books as it allows you to opt for cloud accounting services and reap the same benefits. Also, you will come out of the books and are able to focus on your business growth. There will be no accounting errors and last-minute rushes against the completion of books with virtual bookkeeping.
Effortless Implementation
Unlike traditional accounting software, in cloud accounting, you do not need to wait for anything but simply execute the tasks after uploading the related information. This way, you are faced with zero interruptions in your workflow, leading to greater productivity at work.
Advisory Services
This is a competitive business era, and clients demand more than just accounting services from CPA and accounting firms. However, most of the businesses fail in providing the same owing to a plethora of accounting tasks to handle either manually or using less efficient software. With cloud accounting, they get to free themselves from repetitive/time-consuming accounting tasks and focus on gaining valuable insights into the financial data of the client.
Based on this data, owners can get into the shoes of the advisory roles and guide their clients towards techniques for reducing their business expenses, managing their tax preparation in a way that gets them maximum tax exemptions, and more. This additional support and guidance can make one firm highly preferable over others in the eyes of the clients.
Unmatched Customer Support
Just like any top accounting system, your cloud accounting system can experience some reporting, tracking, and other minor issues. But, there isn’t any need for you to take stress as the expert team of cloud accounting software is available round-the-clock to address your concerns. In this way, you can make sure uninterrupted accounting operations as well as an uninterrupted client.
Wrapping Up
Undoubtedly, the information mentioned above will help you in understanding the capabilities of cloud accounting software and the benefits associated with it. Accounting firms and businesses need to realize that their clients are the ‘new-age clients’ who demand fast and personalized services from their providers. Today, a majority of clients have a lot of technical knowledge regarding different industry segments.
So, in order to win and retain such clients, it is imperative to move with the time and incorporate the use of the latest accounting systems into the processes. Owners should not forget that clients have more than one option to choose from, and if they do not leverage cloud accounting at the earliest, they might risk losing out on some existing and new clients.
