What do a construction project manager, a creative design director, and a pastry chef have in common? Evidently, as small-business owners, each one of them opened up an outlet to serve clients and do what they love rather than spend hours on bookkeeping or accounting.
Being a small business owner, you might have an inborn entrepreneurial attitude, but you are less adept at accounting. Often, owners will find bookkeeping a tedious activity even more so when your focus lies on building your brand and boosting your business.
Modern-day artistic entrepreneurs can leverage an ever-growing suite of business tools and bookkeeping technology. They can help lower the stress of managing invoices, receipts, and bills while spending more time on grabbing new business opportunities. How businesses record their expenses and revenues has radically changed over recent years. More and more businesses are switching to cloud computing to enjoy online accounting and bookkeeping tools and to help streamline their core functional processes. Thus, it would help if you also considered migrating your present accounting data and workflows to the cloud. The tools securely host all the relevant and necessary databases and servers, helping you access your data anytime and anywhere via an internet connection.
Here are the top five logical reasons to incorporate cloud accounting into your business to ensure improved efficiency and increased profits:
Have easy access to your data anywhere, at any time
The main reason that cloud-based invoicing and accounting tools are so popular is that they allow easy access to your financial data from anywhere, at any time. Since they host remotely, you do not have to worry about any time-consuming downloads and updates. Busy professionals like you can keep up with their business information on the go and even access their invoices by using the mobile app of the online accounting software. This renders added flexibility and peace of mind as you do not have to be sitting in your shop or office to access your accounts or check your cash flow. Also, you will be making important financial decisions quickly instead of having to go through endless piles of paper containing old and outdated information.
Enable smart business for a distributed workforce
As accounting information and financial data stored in the cloud can be accessed or added anywhere, your team members can easily and quickly finish their work, irrespective of their physical location. Whether a project manager has to verify an invoice for a supplier or a sales representative has to add expense receipts, having cloud-based invoicing and accounting tools in place makes accessing any organizational information as simple as taking a picture of a document or searching by date, vendor, or amount.
Verify discrepancies
The vendor-customer relationship is a top priority for almost every business. However, we have all seen situations where accounting discrepancies put vital relationships at stake. Cloud-based accounting and bookkeeping tools make it easier to verify and locate precisely where error or omission took place through advanced yet easy-to-use searching capabilities. Hence, small-business owners no longer need to spend hours and hours searching through old invoices as smart tools are waiting to benefit them.
Maintain vendor relationships
When an accounting omission or invoice discrepancy is located through online accounting software, it can promptly be brought to the vendor’s attention. This easy and smart process ensures that it is easier for you to maintain relationships with suppliers because, instead of being frustrated with how long it took to identify the discrepancy, they will appreciate you for quickly finding it and thereby resolving it.
Reduce overhead
It can cost you a lot to maintain your business server, local storage devices, and networks for your small business. However, you will no longer be required to bear the costs of maintaining a server system, upgrading to new software versions, or hiring an IT professional to keep up with your system when you migrate from traditional ways of record-keeping to smart tools of cloud-based accounting technology.
Leverage a broader suite of secure apps
Cloud-based accounting and bookkeeping applications such as QuickBooks Online and XERO not only provide easy and secure access to information and data from any remote device with an internet connection. They also integrate with many other cloud-based tools. Hence, as soon as you begin using cloud-based record-keeping technology, it is fast and easy to extract and leverage accounting data across a number of different online platforms and save time spent on manual data entry.
Final Note
One thing is certain: the evolution of accounting technology has taken place. The desktop-based system software is dead, while cloud-based applications are ruling everywhere. If you want to spend more time doing what you love and be smart and more efficient with your record-keeping, then cloud accounting is an unbeatable choice for staying on top of your business finances.
About Complete Controller® – America’s Bookkeeping Experts Complete Controller is the Nation’s Leader in virtual bookkeeping, providing service to businesses and households alike. Utilizing Complete Controller’s technology, clients gain access to a cloud-hosted desktop where their entire team and tax accountant may access the QuickBooks™️ file, critical financial documents, and back-office tools in an efficient and secure environment. Complete Controller’s team of certified US-based accounting professionals provide bookkeeping, record storage, performance reporting, and controller services including training, cash-flow management, budgeting and forecasting, process and controls advisement, and bill-pay. With flat-rate service plans, Complete Controller is the most cost-effective expert accounting solution for business, family-office, trusts, and households of any size or complexity.
