Why You Should Try Cloud Accounting Software
By Matt Reims
For those who are not using cloud accounting software yet, managing bookkeeping means having to manually record financial transactions, whether those transactions are spending on business expenses, paying invoices, or depositing payments. When done manually, this can be a time-consuming task. Because of this, it’s not uncommon for small business owners to let their finances slide a bit. Doing so, however, can put you in line for audits and/or tax penalties.
While accounting and bookkeeping are necessary to the success of your business, the process of managing them doesn’t have to be as challenging or time-consuming as you may think. You can make the process less complex by using cloud accounting software.
Rather than manually entering every transaction into a spreadsheet or holding on to every receipt in a shoebox, cloud accounting software gives you an organized, easy-to-access online space to store all your vital financial information. And it’s accessible from the cloud.
When you start using cloud-based accounting software, you’ll immediately remove several concerns that come with managing your company’s books. For example:
1. Speed
Part of the reason manual bookkeeping can be so time-consuming is the need to input information and gather documents like receipts and invoices. Cloud accounting software automates several of these tasks. Once you link your business bank account to your accounting system, all your transactions will be entered automatically.
Think of how much time you could save when you don’t have to worry about entering transactions or manually calculating your profits and losses. Your cloud accounting software will do that for you, thus giving you more time to focus on other aspects of your business.
2. Ease of Use
As referenced above, you do not have to be a math expert if you use cloud accounting software to manage your business’s finances. The system pulls transactions from your bank accounts and business credit cards; it’s doing the math for you. When you log in, you will instantly be able to see how much cash your business has on hand, how much money has been going in and out over any period of time, and how much money is owed to you — all tallied to the last penny.
3. Security
If you’re keeping your business’s financial information on a spreadsheet on your computer or on software downloaded to a specific machine, it’s susceptible to theft or loss.
When you use the cloud, however, those risks go away. Any information you put online isn’t stored on a particular device, so if your computer or phone breaks, your information remains intact. The technology offers a backup function so your data won’t get lost. Plus, cloud accounting software systems use bank-level encryption to keep information safe from being hacked.
Key Features
Invoicing
With cloud accounting software, managing invoices becomes much easier. You can create and send invoices right from the platform. With this feature, you no longer have to worry about creating the invoice, saving it, and then going to your email to send the attachment. Plus, with traditional, manual bookkeeping, it can be hard to keep track of who owes you what and when. Cloud accounting software, however, keeps track of each invoice you send and lets you know which ones have not been paid, how much money is owed, and how many days there are until payment is due.
Financial Tracking
When you use cloud accounting software, it will be easy to determine how much money your business has on hand. Because your bank accounts and credit cards are tied to your accounting system, and that information is in the cloud, your balances are updated in real time. You can also forecast your business’s cash flow when you look at future balances based on money that will be paid to you but is still outstanding based on invoices’ due dates.
Mobility
Remember, with cloud technology, your accounting software goes where you go. If you’re working away from the office and want to check something finance related, you can log in to your system from any internet-connected device, whether it’s your laptop or mobile phone. The same is true for anyone else you work with who has access to the platform. If you and your accountant want to go over quarterly numbers before tax time, for example, you don’t have to schedule a meeting in their office. You can both log in and review the numbers remotely.
Support
If you ever have questions about how your cloud accounting software works, your provider’s professional support staff will be there with multiple avenues of support. Crunched cloud-based accounting software provides free chat and email support, a wide range of online tutorials, and live support for premium members.
Free Trial
What’s better than cloud accounting software? Free cloud accounting software. Crunched allows you to try the platform free for 30 days. This way, you don’t feel obligated or pressured to jump right into a new system. The free trial allows you to move around the platform and get comfortable with it before you sign up. Check out Crunched for free for 30 days and see for yourself how much more efficient managing your business’s books can be.
