How Is The Cloud Transforming Accounting?

GCE Cloud Company writes: The cloud is an enabler that allows companies to outsource technology and processes — such as transaction processing in the financial accounting function — in order to focus more energy and resources on their core mission.
 
Outsourcing using cloud technology frees up a company to better grow the business, make more money, and better handle the financial accounting function. The cloud allows companies to implement, program and enforce best practices into their workflow.
Does all this competitive advantage sound too good to be true? It’s not!

To understand how the cloud helps companies make money, consider the recent barrage of banking commercials from companies such as Allied Bank. These 30-second advertising spots show how banks take cash management out of the hands of customers, which allows their customers to focus on what they do best. More than offering ATMs around the world — this infrastructure is expected from all banks — these banks are offering services that companies can’t effectively perform by themselves.

Remember, you hire an expert to fix your car; it should be the same with your accounting processes. Don’t opt to do something yourself when you’re not the expert. The cloud allows companies to outsource financial management processes to the very best experts in the world without having to worry about maintaining training, credentials or staffing levels.

Cloud services allow companies to ensure that their financial data is managed, calculated and stored using best-of-breed products and technologies, some of which might otherwise not be affordable. The cloud also gives companies access to the most up-to-date software without the hassles of managing each new version. Furthermore, the cloud allows companies to store their data using the latest security configurations and storage algorithms, which they likely couldn’t afford in their own data center.
Here are six ways that the cloud is transforming the ability for companies to handle their financial accounting function:

1. Increased agility: As the business world progresses at breakneck speed, companies need to be increasingly agile. This means having ready access to financial data to make decisions is critical; businesses can’t wait three days or a week for someone to build something in Excel that allows company officials see what’s going on. Company decision-makers need the data available in an appropriate format as soon as possible. Thanks to the cloud, the speed of access to actionable data will become an expectation.
2. Predictive costs: With the cloud, companies can make better predictions for costs per user or per company. Rather than suddenly having to buy new servers, the cloud gives companies the ability to maintain predictable future costs, which is critical, especially when money is tight.
3. The cloud is more than SaaS: Cloud technology has become so reliable that it just works without having to worry about the details. Companies can now safely outsource their entire transaction processing efforts, allowing them to completely focus on the core mission of their business, rather than mundane details such as accounts payable, billing and other accounting functions. Technologies such as Workforce as a Service (WaaS) make the cloud more than a data storage provider with an application to access data.
4. Reduced implementation times: It’s common to hear horror stories about two-year implementations of financial accounting software, and people are rightfully scared. But some vendors discuss implementation in terms of weeks, not years. Thanks to improved technology, vendors can help companies take things off their plate faster than ever.
5. Big Data services: Depending on the service you choose, reporting and data analytics is included. Remember, you get what you pay for — a lot of services are including Big Data analytics into their product suite.

Take advantage of the cloud to improve your financial accounting efforts and grow your business.