“Cloud Bookkeeping” – can you still do it on a sunny day?

Cloud Bookkeeping

Are you a one-person business owner who still keeps manual records or uses a spreadsheet to record business transactions? You are certainly not alone! Perhaps it’s time to consider cloud bookkeeping?

With the ever-impending Making Tax Digital government initiative rapidly catching up with us this becomes an ever more pertinent subject as soon many more business owners and Landlords will be forced to do their accounting and bookkeeping online.

Or perhaps you are using an accounts software package that you have loaded onto your PC?

In either situation if and when you need your accountant to prepare your annual accounts you’ll need to email or take your records over to him or her or take a backup of your accounts data and get that to him or her instead.

But really, both these are outdated methods to manage your financial affairs. Nowadays, there are much more intelligent and time-saving ways to keep your financial records up to date and in good order.

And in a nutshell, that’s what this new-fangled “bookkeeping in the cloud” concept is all about.

So what exactly is “bookkeeping in the cloud” then? And how can it help you?

Well, you’ll be pleased to hear that it’s not something that only works when it’s overcast or raining outside. It works all the time. Even on those rare sunny days.

Cloud based accounts software is software that is hosted on a remote server on the “Interweb” that you then access from your PC or tablet using your favourite internet browser such as Safari, Firefox or Chrome.

Usually, you pay a small monthly fee for the use of this type of software which has a good number of significant advantages over the two outdated methods alluded to above.

These advantages include:

• All security and backup issues are taken care of by the software providers. No more worries about losing all your data when Sheba spills her milk all over your PC.
• Similarly, all software updates are done by the provider automatically – no more software updating on your PC.
• With your permission, your accountant can login to your financial data and keep an eye on your financials at any time of the day or night. This can vastly improve the speed with which your accounts can be prepared. Additionally, when you need help or advice with bookkeeping or accounting issues then your accountant can immediately login and help you in real time.
• You can access your accounts records wherever you can access the Internet; this might be from your home PC, from an Ipad in your hotel room or even from your smartphone whilst sunbathing on the beach. No excuses for keeping those books up to date now!
• There are lots of add-on tools available too. You can do very clever things now like scan invoices and receipts with your phone and push the information directly into your accounts data without having to enter debits and credits. You can also link up to your bank account and download all your bank transactions so avoiding the laborious task of typing each one in manually. How time-saving is that?!

Cloud bookkeeping software is not for everyone but if you are really serious about growing your business, then having the ability to record and analyse information quickly will put you at a huge advantage.

Of course, the friendly team at THP can help you with all of this; it’s right up our alley.

If you would like to see a demonstration of the cloud software we recommend, please get in touch as we’d be delighted to show you what it’s all about and how easy it is to use.

Take a look at the popular Xero system here and the one developed by Freeagent here. These are just two of the solutions on offer.