The fundamental ideas that underlie cloud computing have been around as long as digital computers. The concept of a mainframe computer, which provides all the computing resources to satellite machines or terminals, has been in use since the late 40s. But with the advent of the personal computer, which, starting in the 1980s, began getting powerful enough to perform a wide variety of computing tasks, including running large-scale applications, the mainframe and terminal model of computing began losing favor, eventually becoming a specialty model used only by the largest companies.
But with the rise of the internet and the extremely fast networking speeds that began appearing in the early 2000s, the idea of central computing came roaring back with a vengeance. Today, the cloud, the use of centralized computing resources for gains in efficiency, speed and cost savings, is quickly overtaking all other computing models, due to its many unique benefits.
Nowhere has this been truer than in the realm of accounting. Companies, such as Swizznet, are proving that cloud accounting is likely to be the way forward, from today onward. You can visit them at https://www.swizznet.com/hosting-solutions/quickbooks.
Why the cloud is taking over accounting
Buying computing resources, especially for business-level applications, can be extremely expensive, requiring large capital outlays on rapidly depreciating assets. This type of cost is every businessperson’s worst nightmare. It drains operating capital while being invested in something that, while crucial, is all but guaranteed to lose nearly all its market value in the next five years.
Cloud computing entirely avoids this problem. With cloud accounting, businesses don’t need to purchase large computers, hire IT specialists and set up internal networking so that departments and managers can access the company’s accounting function. But the most important reason why cloud accounting is the solution that many business owners have been dreaming of is the payment structure. With cloud accounting, you pay as you go, only buying precisely the level of speed, capacity and application level that you need now. This not only makes cloud accounting 100 percent scalable, through any level of demand, it means that business owners save massive amounts of operating capital that would have otherwise gone to expensive computing resources. This is money that can be immediately sunk back into the business for growth, dividends or other investment in the company.
But cloud accounting isn’t just a hugely effective tool for small to medium business owners who don’t want to deal with all the hassles of establishing their own accounting infrastructure. Cloud accounting is increasingly being used by professional accounting firms themselves. The ability of cloud accounting to allow instant scalability and unparalleled responsiveness in cost to services needed makes it the ideal solution for a small and growing accounting firm.
There are full-scale, cloud-based client interface solutions that mean the a firm’s clients can log in at anytime from anywhere and have immediate access to their financials, with a rich suite of printing, sharing and data-presentation features.