“Cloud computing” is a frequently heard business buzzword recently Your Accounting Firm and The Coming Cloud and referrs to a transformation in the way software is delivered to your practice. Instead of being made available by disc or download and getting stored and run on your office computers, cloud software is stored and run somewhere else and accessed with a web browser over the net.A number of accountants are stating to commit to cloud computing. Are you one of them? If the answer is “yes”, buy yourself a beer! Cloud computing is definitely about to become the customary technique for delivering computer programs in the near future.
This is, generally, an avantageous trend. It will improve efficiency and shrink costs but be warned that there are possible risks with this change.
We regularly take our business software for granted, but it’s taken lots of us a number of years to incorporate our firm’s systems. Have you ever actually considered how many computer programs you use each day to conduct your practice? From spread sheet programs to file transfer software to your messaging – your time is probably scattered across a range of different systems. If our office was really optimized all of these can “talk” with one another.
This scenario illustrates what I mean:
Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to do this without using your mobile minutes?
You’re out to dinner with a friend. Twenty minutes in to an engaging discussion, your friend says, “Keep going! I’m just going to run out and feed the meter.” And so the conversation continues while your friend is three blocks away.
Of course this is a nice little story, but not many of us have the good fortune of making our fortunes dining out with friends. But this kind of communication is also vital professionally.
Now in a conventional software environment it’s unlikely that two people will have compatable messaging software, but in the cloud it’s easy.
Respect the Value of Efficiency
Although cloud computing will ultimately be a weighty resource and a geniunine time saver, that potential suffers if apps in the cloud can’t interact with the programs on your computer.
The majority of applications accountants use in their practice are adept at transmitting information. They are carefully built with an intrinsic ability to communicate with each other. It makes them all more efficient. For example:
- Client records are updated when Tax talks to Engagement and Practice.
- Work papers are linked when Engagement talks to Microsoft Office.
- All applications to Document Management – and so on.
But imagine if Tax and Practice weren’t able to talk, or the link between Engagement and Excel was broken. Can you imagine the data entry you’d be stuck doing?
Mix and Match Causes Problems
Old school office apps like Word, Excel, and Quickbooks don’t usually play nice with web based ones like Google Docks and Quickbooks Online. The coding glitches are enough to cripple interactivity between them. You’re going to have real problems using a cloud service for tax software and trying to link it to a locally hosted tax manager.
Be careful to test compatability with your office systems before adopting new cloud services. A slow transition may not be the best way to adopt the cloud. It may be best to make a more dramatic transition.
Mind Your Data
As a rule cloud services are better equippped to handle obvious security concerns than an accounting firm without a full time IT propfessional. Any decent cloud service will be protecting your data from hackers, viruses, fires, theft, and natural disasters by using redundant systems and keeping IT security experts on staff. Accidental loss is a virtual impossibility.
Unfortunately this doesn’t protect you from some man-made disasters. Storing your important data off site can be problematic. Many cloud applications will let you store client data online. This is highly efficient. Uploading and downloading individual client files each time you work on them wastes a lot of time. This leaves vital client data stored off-site. Can you imagine restructuring your business to rely on a cloud service only to find out it’s been bought out or closed? Likewise if a cloud service finds itself with a need to raise some quick capital what’s stopping them from changing the rules on you? Never allow your vital business files to be stored exclusively off site. Always backup your files to a local machine daily.
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