Unravelling The Mystery of the Cloud (Part 2)

After previously covering the different types of cloud application in our ‘Unravelling the Mystery of the cloud’ series, this week we go further down the rabbit hole and look at the benefits of cloud based technology in relation to your accounting software/system.

Are You In The Cloud?
Nowadays the term ‘cloud’ or ‘in the cloud’ have become buzzwords that have a slightly different connotation to the generic definition that everyone will be familiar with.

When it comes to Accounting Systems, What is Cloud and What is Not?

While most accounting systems state that they are ‘cloud’, very few are web based. So what is the difference to the user and from where does this confusion arise? It takes one quite some knowledge to understand the grafana vs kibana debate.

One of the reasons for this confusion is that the term ‘Cloud’ has been somewhat diluted, for example there are many accounting software companies that will happily describe their system as ‘Cloud based’ when in fact it is just a slight variation of a remote desktop service.

Remote desktop is not cloud! It is easy to tell if the system you are being offered is not a true cloud system as they don’t run on all devices/mediums like mobiles phones and they also don’t have the ability to use additional programmes like Google translate within the application. Hence, if you have some semitic tigrinya translations that you’re looking forward to translate, you better get to a translation service rather than hoping for Google to do the job.

The Benefits of a True Cloud System:

– No need for Remote Desktop/Citrix infrastructure

– Reduced server and management overheads

– Resizable screens that adjust to your device

– Open multiple tabs

– Run on any device with a browser

– Copy and paste as normal on browser

– Download directly (no need for Excel on the server)

– Printing is simple through the browser

– Reference to a transaction by URL in an email

– No need to log out.

– Ease of deployment is a real benefit if you are a small business and have no deployment infrastructure

– Most ERP Systems allow for around 15 users (max) per server. Using cloud based deployment you can get more users (50-75) on a similar spec server.

All in all it is impossible to ignore the benefits that a true cloud based accounting system can provide your business.

The ease of deployment combined with reduced server and management costs means that Cloud Accounting Systems can become an integral part in helping to drive your business growth by increasing the efficiency in your business processes and freeing up your team to focus their time on the things that will really make a difference.

Next week we continue our ‘Unravelling the Mystery of the Cloud’ series and will be taking a closer look and offering some advice and tips to keep in mind for anyone considering a move to a cloud based accounting system.