QuickBooks is one of the most renowned accounting solutions for businesses of all sizes. It offers an all-in-one package for accountants, CPAs, and tax professionals to accomplish day-to-day tasks like managing payrolls, bills, invoicing, and generating reports for further processes.
The desktop version of QuickBooks comes in three variants: Pro, Premier, and Enterprise, that deliver features depending upon the requirement and size of any business.
However, it lacks certain mobility and flexibility options that can improve its users’ productivity and efficiency.
QuickBooks hosting helps cover up this limitation with the help of cloud technology.
Here are some points explaining why QuickBooks hosting is better than QuickBooks desktop.
1. Anytime, Anywhere Access
Every business professional needs all-time access to the data in order to meet the deadlines and provide better services.
Desktop-based QuickBooks can only be accessed from a single office device. It further restricts the movement of accountants until the allotted work is completed. Hence, their productivity to accomplish urgent tasks on time is decreased.
QuickBooks hosting offers remote access to the accounting software from any internet-connected device at any given time. One doesn’t need to commute up and down from the office to access the required data. Moreover, this mobility benefit enables users to serve their clients even from the comfort of their homes without worrying about travel time.
2. Team Collaboration
Accountants, tax professionals, CPAs, and other stakeholders in the business need to work together to accomplish each task seamlessly.
With QuickBooks on desktop, the workforce needs to send information back and forth via emails that can get inconvenient, causing multiple versions of the same document or file. It further increases the chances of errors while completing financial tasks.
However, in the case of QuickBooks Hosting, information is synced and hosted on a common platform. Professionals can easily collaborate and work on a single project simultaneously. All the changes are updated in real-time, which further improves the accuracy rate.
Additionally, QuickBooks hosting eliminates any geographical barriers. Hence, even the global team can collaborate at a single platform and communicate with one another seamlessly. For larger companies, QuickBooks Cloud Hosting is the ideal choice due to its remote accessibility. Learn more about it from DaaS Providers.
3. Enhanced Security
As per the reports by the University of Maryland, the rate at which hackers attack computers with internet access is calculated to be every 39 seconds, i.e., 2244 times a day on average.
It is crucial to implement proper security standards to avoid the loss of data due to various malware attacks.
QuickBooks, when hosted on the local desktop, doesn’t have the capability and necessary solutions that can mitigate the data loss caused due to various accidents or malicious users. It can further compromise with the availability of information.
However, in the case of QuickBooks hosting, most of the cloud service providers take care of the security protocols and implement methods to prevent any malicious attacks. Some of these security methods include:
- End-to-end data encryption
- Anti-virus and anti-malware attacks
- Multiple firewalls
- Multi-level authentication
- Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDPS)
Most of the reliable cloud hosting providers offer regular backups to prevent data loss due to any accidents or natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, fires, and more.
4. Resource Scalability
Every business needs resources to grow and work efficiently. However, modifying hardware and software resources as per the business needs can be a tedious task. For example, during the tax season, accounting firms might need to upgrade their number of users. But once the season is over, they have to downscale the same.
QuickBooks, installed on a local desktop,is subject to various hardware and software restrictions as there are limitations on the amount of resources one can use. Businesses have to repeatedly invest in the same to meet the work requirements.
With QuickBooks hosting, all the IT resources like storage space, number of users, and RAM can be scaled up or down as per the business demands. Additionally, it allows QuickBooks to integrate with any number of add-ons without compromising with the performance of the accounting application.
5. Cost-Effectiveness
The cost of the product might be one of the major concerns for businesses. Every accounting professional look for possible ways to cut down operational costs.
In the case of QuickBooks on the local system, one might have to invest in the infrastructure, hardware, and software to provide the required environment for working.
However, QuickBooks hosting ensures a budget-friendly solution for its users. One does not need to invest in in-house servers as data is stored and maintained by the cloud service providers at geographically isolated data centers.
It eliminates the need to hire additional IT staff for the maintenance of the on-premise infrastructure. Furthermore, many competent cloud hosting providers offer pay-as-per-usage pricing plans so companies can pay for only those resources they are using.
6. Business Continuity
Disaster, accidents, or other such mishaps can occur at any time. Therefore, it is crucial to consider a disaster recovery plan to prevent any loss of data.
As QuickBooks Desktop is hosted on the local system and all the information is backed up at in-house servers, it might not be able to prevent the loss of data in the event of an accident.
But with QuickBooks hosting, all the data is replicated at the offsite data centers.
So, it safeguards information from various accidents or natural disasters like fire, earthquakes, floods, etc. Additionally, most of the cloud hosting providers offer Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery (BCDR) solutions for retrieving any lost data.
7. Better Monitoring
Decision-makers of a company need to monitor the progress of each employee for a seamless workflow.
QuickBooks hosted on the desktop lacks the ability to offer real-time updates to the teammates, and hence, it becomes difficult to manage and accomplish each task.
QuickBooks cloud hosting enables decision-makers to track the performance of each employee from a centralized dashboard.
It also ensures the integrity of data. Furthermore, professionals can easily outsource any services without compromising the privacy of information.
To Sum It Up
Considering the points mentioned above, it is quite clear that QuickBooks cloud hosting far prevails QuickBooks desktop application in terms of the functionality it offers.
Additionally, it also provides environment-friendly benefits by reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Therefore, in order to gain a competitive edge in the market, it is essential to adopt QuickBooks hosting for business operations.
Author Bio:
Bhavleen Kaur is a content writer at Ace Cloud Hosting- a leading QuickBooks Enterprise cloud hosting provider. She specializes in writing about accounting, cloud technology, tax software, and likes to know about upcoming technology and trends. In her free time, you can find her reading novels or watching movies.