What Do Business Owners Want From A Cloud Accounting Firm

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Cloud accounting has been hailed as the biggest technological disruption trend in the history of accounting. It has pretty much changed the way accountants and firms deliver their services and how businesses are availing such services. Although cloud adoption rates within the accounting industry have been quite promising in the last couple of years, there are still a few businesses and business owners who are still reluctant about adopting cloud technology and revamping their entire accounting processes. 

Business owners have been long asking the same question, whether they’d be a good match for a cloud accounting firm or service. This article intends to delve deeper into a few pointers which might help business owners discern if their business can properly integrate and operate with cloud accounting solutions and services.

In reality, it’s true that not every business out there is capable of truly and properly integrating with cloud accounting solutions and services. But if the following points make sense to you, or are associable with your business operations and ethics, then there is a very good chance that cloud accounting solutions and services can work wonders for you and your business.

Quicker and more accountable communication

It goes without saying, that accountants or firms which use cloud technology solutions and services are innately more technologically oriented. But this was not the case, they have had to adapt their work profiles and practices to keep up with the numerous apps and technologies to stay relevant in today’s competitive accounting industry. They have now become extremely tech savvy and are always connected thanks to cloud technology industry disruption. Every email is now answered instantaneously, rather than later. This ‘always connected’ trend has given birth to the effect of speedy responses for accountants and firms subscribing to cloud accounting tools and services allowing for quicker and more accountable communication between accountants and their clients.

In cases where your business relies on quick and clear-cut communication, cloud accounting firms provide the maximum operational value and efficiency to such business operations. In fact, cloud accounting firms usually pass off on candidates with weak communication and composure skills, as they are looking for professionals who can deliver to their clients not only the obligated services and data but also do it while building rapport.

Transparent and comprehensible data

Most business owners out there expect to receive the full picture of finance and accounts before making any business decision. Cloud accounting tools and software work very well indeed in such cases. They allow such business owners the ability to access all accounting and financial data from anywhere in the world and at any time of the day. Cloud accounting software also allows the business owners to monitor audit logs to discern who and how their books are managed.

Cloud accounting firms usually also have a slightly different way of connecting with their clients. This is because both the clients and the accountants have access to the same data quite literally. Due to this effect and the ongoing invasion of multiple technologies within the accounting industry has led cloud accounting firms to conjure up numerous ways to deliver real-time data for both of their benefits.

The access to transparent and comprehensible actionable business data is what businesses usually look for when subscribing to the services of any cloud accounting firm. And business owners with an insatiable thirst for real-time accounting and financial data will find cloud accounting firms to mesh very well with the way they work.

Better data security

The last but not the least, important element of an accounting firm of the future which entices business owners is its ability to provide better data security. Ensuring high levels of data security however involves both the accounting firm and its cloud hosting service provider to work in tandem. For cloud accounting firms offering its clients with a highly secure data environment develops credibility and trust amongst its existing and potential client base.

To ensure that both their personal as well as their client databases are protected on the cloud, accounting firms usually employ the services of trusted and reliable cloud hosting service providers who use numerous top-of-the-line data security measures. Better data security offering alone can make or break an accounting firm’s credibility and reliability and the same is also true for cloud hosting service providers as well.

Apart from these three factors, a similar article on AccountingWeb conducted a survey with the intent to find what SMBs (Small & Medium Businesses) want from their accounting partners, and the survey findings are as follows,

Cloud Accounting

Another similar article by Accountex Network of The Sleeter Group finds that Expertise, Responsiveness, and Proactive strategic advice are the top three priorities or factors for business when they look for an accounting partner.

Cloud Accounting cloud accounting firms

It is apparent from these two survey tables that most businesses seem to be looking for accounting partners who can provide them with Business planning, Strategy, and technology adoption advice and suggestions. They also believe that firms or accountant with specific industry/vertical expertise, greater communicative responsiveness, and the ability to proactively provide business enhancing strategic advice, sets itself apart from the rest of the competitors.

For accountants and accounting firms still suing the archaic and traditional methods of bookkeeping, the rapid and dramatic impactions that technology is responsible for makes them seem primitive in terms of operational capabilities and practices. This effect is solely because of the fact that modern technologies like automation and AI, along with the ongoing chaos of cloud accounting, which has advanced the entire accounting practice and taken the industry to greater heights of efficiency and with technology changing the way we do things, business owners are also becoming more and more technologically astute. They subscribe to cloud accounting firms to procure quick and reliable accounting and financial data in a highly secure manner. Business owner when deciding which cloud accounting firm to partner with, they usually start with these three basic services.

Article by Akash Deb

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