It’s no secret that cloud accounting is growing at a significant pace year after year. Not only is it more cost-effective for both accounting firms and small business owners, but it also allows people to work more collaboratively compared to traditional desktop accounting software. I have experienced some daunting situations where traditional accounting solutions have failed me, and I would like to share three real-life scenarios that show readers how cloud accounting can help you work better, smarter and faster.

Scenario One
It is two days before all your tax filings are due, so you head to the office extra early to get down to business. You unlock the door and notice that someone forgot to set the alarm the day before, as you don’t hear it going off. You look closer at the PIN pad and find out something far worse – the alarm didn’t go off because there is a power outage on your block. You call the electricity company to get a status on the situation. The company tells you that it will be back up in an hour. An hour goes by, and the power is still out. You call the company again to realize that it will actually take an extra 3 hours to get it resolved. It finally gets resolved, but you have already lost 4 to 5 hours of work time.

Scenario Two
You just got home from work, and a client calls you asking for information about a particular item on the profit and loss report you sent him right before you left the office and would like to get more detailed information. You are unable to access the office server from home because your office has not implemented this (perhaps due to safety concerns, too costly, etc.). That said, you can’t help your client because you are at home and have no way of accessing the information unless you went back to the office. Your client will have to wait until tomorrow morning.

Scenario Three
One of your clients is at a job site and would like to invoice their client at that moment after gathering all the information from their staff members on how many hours were spent on the services provided. Unfortunately, he would need to go back home and get on his computer workstation in order to produce the invoice and send it to the client.

Solution
As you can see from these scenarios, all these problems could have been mitigated if a cloud-based accounting solution was implemented. In scenario one, staff members wouldn’t have to sit at the office and wait until the power comes back on to start their day. Cloud accounting allows you to work on any computer at any time. Staff members could have all gone home that day and worked straight from their home workstations. The case is similar for scenario two; more detailed information could have been provided to the client once the accountant got home and logged into the client’s books. Even better, cloud accounting allows multiple user access, so the client could have pulled up the additional information requested using this accounting solution. In scenario three, cloud accounting allows convenient access with handheld devices. The business owner could have easily taken out his smartphone and invoiced the customer at that very moment, as opposed to remembering to get your invoices done every time you go home.
Cloud accounting is great for both accountants and business owners. It allows multiple users to access company information. All business data will be stored securely in the cloud, which will save a lot of IT cost, and it allows accountants and business owners to work more collaboratively and access company information virtually anywhere they please.

Conclusion
With that said, it is important to hire an accountant that can react to the trends in the accounting industry to serve you better. We are now in the “information age” where we want information fast and in real time! Not only should your accountant be up to date on new accounting policies, but your accountant should also keep up with the technological advances that are happening in their own industry. As a business owner, it is important to communicate and collaborate more with your accountant to help you understand the numbers behind your business better. Stay more connected with your business data and accountant by implementing a cloud-based accounting solution. If you currently using Quickbooks Desktop, I highly recommend taking a look at Quickbooks Online.