Cloud Based Bookkeeping Is Secure

Many businesses across the country are making the switch to cloud based accounting. In fact, in the e-book, The Appification of Small Business, Intuit forecasts that close to 80 percent of small businesses will be “fully cloud operational by 2020.”

Despite this outlook, as a small business owner, you might still have concerns about security when it comes to storing and accessing your confidential business information in the cloud. The good news? The cloud is one of the most secure ways to store data. In addition, cloud-based outsourced bookkeepers take great care to ensure that the privacy, reliability and security of your data is airtight.

Before we take a closer look at the ins and outs of cloud security, let’s explore some of the benefits of making the switch to outsourced cloud bookkeeping:

Real Time Data = Real Time Decisions

Have you ever wanted to know the exact financial status of your business without having to call in your administrator, shuffle through a bunch of paperwork or leave a voicemail for your part‐time bookkeeper? The first thing to know about the cloud is that you will have 24/7 access to financial data wherever you are, and on whatever device you may be using. Therefore, you no longer have to worry about making decisions based on out-of-date information.

In addition, by hiring an outsourced bookkeeper, a team of professionals can quickly address any issues or questions you have through remote sessions. For example, if one of our clients in California calls us with a specific question about an item they see in QuickBooks, in a matter of seconds, a Remote Quality Bookkeeping staff member can remotely access their connection. Once this happens, we can take control of the mouse and keyboard allowing us to walk the client through any questions that may arise. Our clients often feel as if we are in the next room, giving them the feeling that they have an in-house bookkeeper. But, at a fraction of the cost.

Reduced Costs and Greater Efficiency

Hiring an in-house bookkeeper can be very costly because you have to think about about paying for travel time, benefits, insurance and payroll taxes. On the other hand, if you are currently doing the books yourself, think of all the time you will save by outsourcing this function and focusing on your core business. Furthermore, you will reduce the probability of errors when you leave the books to the experts. Remember, errors may lead to fines or IRS audits.

In addition, it’s also important to know that in the cloud, there’s no need to install and run applications on your desktop computer. You also no longer have to worry about version upgrades, maintenance, system administration costs and server failures. These are all handled by your outsourced provider.

Professional bookkeeping companies invest in state-of-the art technology in order to become as efficient as possible. They can do this because of the scale of their operation and the availability of advanced technology the average business owner simply does not have access to. For example, a cloud‐based outsourced bookkeeping company like Remote Quality bookkeeping, will usually have a document management system or software that offers a seamless solution to easily access critical documents for daily bookkeeping tasks and day‐to‐day operations.

Now that you understand the benefits of outsourced cloud bookkeeping, let’s take a look at cloud security and the ways in which your data is protected.

Compliance and regulations

Outsourced bookkeepers know which data privacy regulations apply to them based on the state(s) where they are located. For example, RQB is in compliance with 201 CMR 17.00, the most stringent data regulations in the country. Once your outsourced bookkeeping provider is compliant by keeping all data safe and secure; you will have peace of mind when it comes to your business information and corporate finances.

Data centers ensure business continuity

Cloud bookkeeping companies have multiple layers of data protection, security cameras to monitor access to files and the ability to do constant testing for disaster recovery and connectivity. For example, Remote Quality Bookkeeping hosts our client data in a state-of-the-art tier 4 data center locating in Dallas, Texas. Tier 4 facilities have no single points of failure. It has redundancy in every aspect of the network which safeguards your information. Our dedicated servers are always backed up to multiple locations across the country. There are also as multiple generators to keep the servers running.

Simply put, with cloud bookkeeping you can leverage the same type of technology and   security that companies like Google, Amazon, Bank of America and Walmart use daily. From a cost standpoint, it would be very difficult for a small business to build, implement and maintain their own data centers to protect their accounting data.

More safety than a local hard drive

The cloud is a much safer method of storage compared to a local hard drive. For example, if your desktop or laptop is stolen, the loss of traditional accounting software and data could be catastrophic. Similarly, in the event of a natural disaster, there would be no down time if your data is in the cloud. Lastly, there is no need to worry about data backups, software bugs, operating systems crashing or user errors. In the cloud, this is all done seamlessly.

Final Thoughts

With outsourced cloud bookkeeping, you can access your information when you need it to make informed business decisions. In addition, you will gain access to a team of professionals at a fraction of the cost of hiring someone in-house. Furthermore, outsourced bookkeepers invest in robust infrastructure to ensure that your data is safe and secure, giving you peace of mind when it comes to the privacy and reliability of your business information.

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to the team at Remote Quality Bookkeeping. We are happy to answer any questions you might have about outsourced bookkeeping and the security of your data in the cloud.