As paperless accountants, we make no secret of being advocates for cloud accounting. We do understand however that not all business owners are as eager to join the cloud as we are.
Often clients that are tentative to join the cloud are resistant for 5 common reasons:
“I don’t trust all the Aps and plugins”
Sure, some aps seem to pop up quite literally overnight. But trust us – some are here to stay. If you are new to Cloud accounting stick to your cloud accounting software first and ad aps that have had a proven track record in the market. The old adage “if it’s too good to be true – it probably is” applies here. If you aren’t sure on the credibility of an ap its best to ask your accountant or air on the side of caution.
“Anyone can hack my account and have access to my financials”
Worst case scenario: true. However if someone wanted to hack your financials, that means they can also hack your bank account. In evaluating cloud providers, your accountant must consider: availability, integrity and confidentiality. Safeguards must be in place to provide an assurance that only authorized individuals can access the data center configurations and applications so data integrity is not affected.
“I can’t afford my system to be offline”
Every business relies on their financials and some businesses can be severely affected if downtime occurs. When choosing a cloud provider – the provider must be able to ensure almost a 100% uptime so as not to disrupt the firm’s business temporarily.
“There is too much work involved to migrate all of my old data”
Thankfully your accountant can do all of this for you! In 542’s experience we have converted up to 5 years’ worth of records over to Xero and we can even include this as a flat fee as part of the set-up to your software. If you feel handy – software such as Xero offer step-by-step guides that can guide you along the path to conversion in no time. Check it out here.
“I want to know where exactly my data is stored”
No problems! Most cloud accounting software are pretty transparent in their user agreements and give their clients the full run down on where their datacentres are located and what governance laws they, (and therefore your data) adheres to. When it comes to data privacy and governance laws – it’s best to stick to Australian hosted companies (assuming your business is located in Australia), so you abide by the same set of rules you do business by.
What we think
We hear it at least once a week – and understand the concern some of our clients have when it comes to cloud technology. Certainly the cloud accounting providers are hearing the concerns of the people as well and are implementing tough policies and security to safeguard the data of their clients. It helps to remember that the big players like Xero and MYOB have a lot more to lose if their security is breached.
What do you think?
We would love to hear your thoughts! Feel free to submit your comments below or comment on our Facebook Page or Twitter. If you think you are ready for the Cloud free to give us a shout, we can guide you in the right direction.