How to Add Documents in QuickBooks?

 

Introduction

  

There's more to accounting than just numbers. QuickBooks allows you to create documents and reports right inside the program.

Despite what many people predicted when computers became ubiquitous, most small businesses are still far from being "paperless offices." 

And if you're doing whatever you can to make your accounting files as digital as possible, not everybody else is. As a result, you must continue to work with paper.

And you're still always looking at paper records, saved computer files, or scanned photos that have anything to do with your accounting results. QuickBooks allows you to keep this data close at hand and easily accessible from within the program.

One of the most straightforward, cheapest, and most underutilized document management systems available to small business owners is QuickBooks' Attached Documents feature, which is available at no additional cost in recent versions.

A file may be connected to a transaction or a particular client, provider, or employee when electronic files are associated with them. Bringing up that transaction or party and retrieving it is simple.

Electronic files are located in the same place as the QuickBooks data file, making them suitable for single and multi-user environments. As a consequence, security concerns restrict local or server computing.

Attaching Documents in QuickBooks

You may connect records to various transactions in QuickBooks Online, including general journal entries, accounting records, bills, and credit card charges.

Documents may add to inventory revisions, vendor profiles, and a variety of other areas.

You must submit a document to the QuickBooks Documents Centre before you can add it. Press the paperclip, pick the desired file from the saved documents folder, and double-click it to attach it.

You can connect several documents to the same transaction if required.

You can find documents in your QuickBooks Document Centre by searching for them, or you can reach them by clicking the paperclip next to the transaction.

Documents can add to customer and supplier profiles as well as transactions in QuickBooks Online. This allows for a better record-keeping organization.

It can also assist the accountant in closing the books at the end of the year.

What transactions are allowed to have attachments?

All of the following transactions may have attachments:

• Bills

• Customers

• Cheques

• Credit Card

• Delayed Charge

• Invoices

• Credit Note

• Suppliers

• Estimates

• Refund Receipt

• Receive Payments

• Expenses

• Sales Receipt

• Supplier Credit

What are file types suitable for attachments?

The file types you can connect are limited to the following to protect the protection of your QuickBooks Online account:

• PDF

• DOC

• GIF

• PNG

• CSV

• XLSX

• JPEG

• TIFF

• XML

How to add Document?

For a supplier profile

• Select Expenses, then Suppliers from the left menu.

• Then select the desired supplier and click on Supplier Details.

• Select Attachments from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the tab.

• Pick the file you want to connect from the list, then click Open. 

For a Customer profile

• Select Sales, and then Customers.

• Then select the desired customer and click on Customer Details.

• Select Attachments from the drop-down menu at the bottom of the tab.

• Pick the file you want to connect from the list, then click Open.

For Transactions

• Open the desired transaction.

• Select Attachments from the bottom left,

• Select the Document you want to attach.

• Select Open, then Save and close.

 

Conclusion

Adding documents in QuickBooks are simple, as explained above.

You don't have to connect a file to a transaction or profile to upload it to the Attachments list.

You may view the specifics of your attachments in attachments, as well as edit, remove, and generate invoices and expenses.

5 Ways For Accountants In Dealing With Difficult Customers

Every business depends on customers to run successfully and accounting is no exception. Therefore, it becomes necessary to achieve customer satisfaction. The satisfaction of the customers not only helps you build a relationship with them, but also it goes as a partnership in the long run, which leads to many benefits, like a few listed below.

Benefits of satisfied customers:

• Satisfied customers become loyal and provide profit for businesses to survive.

• It increases the possibility of repeating service purchases.

• It reduces the cost of attracting and winning new customers that costs 25% more than retaining existing satisfied customers.

• Customer loyalty gives you the best tool for advertising – word of mouth.

Most customers are easy to handle, patient, and supportive enough to understand the efforts the accounting advisors and consultants make. Also, they understand the complexities involved in the accounting system. As a result, clients happily remunerate the accounting consultant or advisor as per the agreed terms and conditions.

On the other hand, there are times when accounting firms have to face difficult customers. These customers have a nature to trouble you with their demanding habits and keep bothering you to the extreme level, leaving you angry, frustrated, and drained out. 

Classification of difficult customers:

Commonly, there are following types of difficult customers you may find in accounting industry:

Critical Customers

These customers evaluate every detail and complain about the service. They are habitual of complaining now and then about even the pettiest things. Also, they feel that the service provider has been unfair.

Aggressive Customers

Aggressive customers are the ones who are quite strict about the deadlines and not ready to listen to any cause behind it. They often impose their understanding on accountants, keep demanding, think they are superior, and are at times verbally abusive. 

‘Knowledgeable’ Customers

There is a certain category of people who love to show off their knowledge about their service provider, creating a perception that they cannot be fooled. In the process of that, they become arrogant and too difficult to handle.

Unsure Customers

This category of customers is not sure about their own selection of the service provider. They keep asking questions about the service and still cannot be sure about their own decision. 

Ways to deal with difficult customers

Despite the high scope of difficult customers in accounting business, you cannot ignore just them and move away. You must have to find a way out if you do not want to lower staff morale, lose sales, and damage your business reputation. In this section, we will discuss some of the very effective ideas to handle difficult customers. 

1- Listen

The customer connected with you could be upset about any possible reasons like delay in accounting and auditing services, unexpected quality of services, change in pricing, etc. In any of the cases, customers just want you to hear them with patience and provide immediate solutions. As an accounting advisor, it is your duty to listen to your customers without arguing or interrupting.

2- Be empathetic

Customers reach you with the hope of getting a solution or satisfying answer to their queries. You must make them understand that you value them and are concerned about them. So ask them questions about their problem, dig deep into their issues to absorb their true concern. Also, apologize if there is any short coming from your end. It will help resolve the issue quickly and build a healthy relationship.

3- Keep your emotions in control

Dealing with loud, aggressive, and arrogant customers is not easy. Anyone can easily lose their patience and backfire in return. If that happens, you will not only lose your customer, but give them a chance to tarnish your accounting firm’s image. So if you don’t keep your emotion in control, the situation will go out of control. Keep your tone low no matter what and you will see soon the customer will settle down. 

4- Provide solution

Now, when you have convinced the customer that you understand their concerns well, you have won half the battle. The next move should be providing them with immediate solutions. If you are not authorized or have the power to resolve the issue completely from your end, you can help them in other ways. For example, you can ask for help from other authorized accountants or someone who knows more than you. Otherwise, you can connect them directly to the concerned person.

5- Follow up

Even if you have provided the required solution, how will you know if the customers are happy now? It is better not to assume customers as satisfied. You need to check with them after a certain period to know whether they are actually happy with the accounting service. There is a possibility that the customer will come up with other issues, which need immediate attention. In another scenario, if the customer is happy, he will be happier to know that you care for them. 

Summary

Like any other industry, there will be difficult customers in accounting firms too. Indeed, it is not easy to handle them, but there are some effective ways by which you can convince them and turn them into happy customers. 

The key idea is to have patience and avoid any kind of argument. Also, you need to genuinely understand their concern and provide the required solution. Use the above-mentioned strategies to prosper your accounting business. 

How Manufacturers Can Benefits From Virtual Cloud Desktops?

Virtual Cloud Desktops are gaining massive popularity among both large and small manufacturing enterprises. The technology of desktop virtualization eliminates the limitations of physical infrastructure by creating virtual environments for a more effective and efficient workforce. We will discuss its benefits in the later section of the article. Let us first understand Virtual Cloud Desktop.

What is Virtual Cloud Desktop?

Virtual Cloud Desktop is the remote desktop hosted on the cloud, which allows access to any device, including mobile, desktop, and tab. It enables users to access their unique desktop environment incorporating operating systems and applications.  They can work remotely over a network through a client software, a web browser, and the endpoint device of their choice.  

How can manufacturers benefit from Virtual Cloud Desktop?

Here is the list of benefits manufacturers can get from Virtual Cloud Desktop:

1- Remote working

A manufacturer can have several units spread over different geographical locations. Through Virtual Cloud Desktop (VCD), the manufacturing company owner can enable their workforce to access their office desktop and applications from any location and on any device, provided they have an internet connection.  

The service providing VCD can sufficiently support users that are working from another country. This will also benefit the employees traveling to different locations or those facing sudden device failure while working.  

2- Maintain high-grade security

The manufacturing company handles their businesses related sensitive data on a daily basis. It includes product designs, inventory status, bill of materials, and warehouse locations. Security breaches to such information can lead to a considerable loss for the company. 

Besides information theft, there can be a possibility of hard drive crashes, user ignorance, and disruptive events, resulting in loss of data. VCD can guarantee businesses the integrity of their data by offering multi-layered security infrastructure. Some of the common security features are multi-factor authentication, end-to-end data encryption, OS hardening, antivirus management, ransomware prevention, and more.

3- Reduce Costs

For the manufacturing industry, expenses on core manufacturing are high. Spending any further on setting up the infrastructure is an additional expense. Using VCD, an organization can reduce costs by hosting their services on the cloud. It will eliminate the need for a physical setup, office space, and additional labor needed as a helping hand. Moreover, it will also reduce the infrastructure costs required to maintain the store's legacy servers.  

4- Uses of multiple applications 

With increasing market competition, manufacturers need advanced software tools to simplify their daily work like data processing, accounting, human resources, and inventory management. However, installing all the apps on the local desktop may cause performance issues.

Virtual Cloud Desktops enables you to work with any number of apps without any disk space restrictions since the applications are located on the cloud. Also, there is no performance lagging, irrespective of the type of end device. 

5- Increased productivity

Centralization workstation means the workforce is capable of working from anywhere and anytime. Virtual Cloud Desktops ensures that end users are not slowed down by system failures, software upgrades, or security issues such as a virus attack. These sorts of events or anomalies are instantly identified and resolved immediately. As a result, it increases productivity.

6- User Experience

Another benefit that manufacturers can get from VDI is the enhanced user experience. Employees can work from any platform or device of their choice, including thin clients, PC, Apple, Linux, etc. While working remotely, the user gets to see an image of the core desktop. It gives staff the impression of working from a local desktop.  

Summary

In this era, when the trend of remote working is increasing, the Virtual Cloud Desktop has come up as an instant and cost-effective solution to both large and small-scale businesses. The workforce now has the flexibility to work from anywhere and any device. With the benefits mentioned above, indeed, VCD is an excellent solution for manufacturers.

 

Online Workplace Innovation - The Use of Wi-Fi 6

What started about 20 years ago seems like an absolute necessity now. The technology of the hour, Wifi 6 is here. The concept of Wi-Fi was first propagated in the late 1990s, and here we are two decades since the advent.

The first consumer release of Wi-Fi provided the speeds of 11 Mbit/s, which is 1,300 times slower than cutting-edge technology today. However, with the latest version, Wifi6 comes with several lucrative and top of the line features.

What is Wi-Fi 6 or 802.11ax?

To mark this occasion, let us rewind for a minute to the introduction of Wi-Fi. Although Matrix and pop culture dominated back in 1999, back then, many relied on painfully slow internet dial-ups to work and socialize. Wi-Fi has changed everything, and the norm continues to grow and develop to this day.

WiFi 6 is also known as 802.11ax WiFi or AX WiFi, which stands to be the upgrade of the 802.11ac WiFi standard. Where 802.11ac offered 256-QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) that produced the maximum speed of 6.9 Gbps. AX WiFi (6) works with 160 MHz channels and 1024-QAM to produce ultra-smooth streaming with 9.6 Gbps.

This technology works in sync with a higher level of MU-MIMO. It ensures uninterrupted VR/AR experience, torrenting, downloading and video streaming even when multiple people are using its service at the same time.

YAY Factor

• Users aren't required to blow out the existing infrastructure to plan for Wi-Fi 6. Nonetheless, replacing the older Wi-Fi 4-era routers with Wi-Fi 6 router is a smart bet as companies using this current technology are planning for next-generation connectivity.
• Wi-Fi 6 is the first orthogonal frequency-division multi-access (ODFMA) interface that links more devices to a single access point. This provides a more secure path between the system and the Wi-Fi signal for better traffic flow. It is like adding a lane to the highway instead of raising the speed limit.
• This breakthrough has a potential bandwidth capacity of 14 Gbps and enhanced Wi-Fi security due to the WPA3 requirement.
• Wi-Fi 6 also offers a groundbreaking feature called Target Wake Time (TWT). This provides brief periods of communication between connected devices and access control to conserve the bandwidth and battery of the system. 
  Access points can receive data from connected devices at scheduled intervals and a greater number of Wi-Fi-enabled IoT (Internet of things) devices can be connected to a single energy-efficient network.

NAY Factor

Even though high-efficiency Wi-Fi 6 mesh routers have started to reach the market, they are not the automatic key to the new standard. The computers must either be 6-enabled or fitted with an aftermarket adapter to access Wi-Fi 6.

To obtain Wi-Fi Alliance Certification for 802.11ax, devices must be able to handle a range of different features and stronger WPA3 encryption.

What Wi-Fi 6 means for Businesses?

The Wi-Fi 6 specification may not have achieved its final form, but it is robust enough to be implemented today. It could hit the mainstream by mid or end of 2020. But how much better is it than the new de-facto standard, Wi-Fi 5 or 802.11ac? Here is an answer.

 Wi-Fi 6 is a giant leap forward because of:

• 4x improvement in data streaming especially in crowded areas
• Improved network capacity by more than 4x.
• Significantly lower power usage but with longer battery life in industry tests
• Smooth convergence of 5G and Wi-Fi 6 on IoT networks
• Improved WIFI protection due to WPA3 and 256-bit encryption criteria

Speed: The Most Salient Feature

If you are wondering why Wi-Fi 6 exists, here is the statement from one of the contributors to Network World. The statement states, "The fervor is justified. It is the first Wi-Fi protocol that is built with the speculation that Wi-Fi is the primary interface for devices rather than the conventional network."

Individual users and complete networks are gradually connecting to Wi-Fi rather than plugging in. The architecture of Wi-Fi is acting as a primary network instead of working as a secondary or complementary one. 

The greatest boost that Wi-Fi 6 provides is faster speeds. The next generation of Wi-Fi is four to ten times faster than the existing models and has more available channels to tackle additional problems such as congestion. From the point of view of the customer, this would be a huge change regarding experience.

In real terms, where Wi-Fi 6 can achieve speeds of up to 9.6 Gbps, its transfer speed is nearly 40% higher than the current one, with 1,320 Mbps. It isn’t something theoretical. When tested, its speed was nearly 1000% than the US's average download speed (119 Mbps).

Wi-Fi 6 provides the basis for what devices and software will need for optimal performance in the future.

Wi-Fi 6 - A New Start

If you're looking to upgrade the wireless network of your business, it might be time to consider Wi-Fi 6. The first step is the implementation of access points built to help Wi-Fi 6. These are already on the market; now with more access points and accessories rolling out in the coming year.

Most individual users are curious about how to make the most of this. It is important to note that the ability to access Wi-Fi 6 allows individual devices, such as a smartphone, to have the right hardware. As users update their devices over time, these features will start aligning with the new standard.

For public organizations that rely on wireless networking, Wi-Fi 6 is a new phenomenon that has set its foothold to take more and more in the future. It is a piece of fantastic news for the present generations as it promises to provide higher speeds, congestion fixes, and improved service delivery for a range of apps.

When you consider potential network plans, be sure to determine whether a move to Wi-Fi 6 will help you achieve your broader technology goals or not.

“QuickBooks Online Down, Users Can’t Login” | Switch To QuickBooks Cloud Hosting

A few days back, the Intuit product, QuickBooks Online, went down. Surprisingly, it was facing an outage at many locations. Many of the QuickBook Online users were facing the same issue. The users took it to different forums to express their concerns regarding the issue. At last, QuickBooks posted “Some customers are currently unable to log in to their QuickBooks Online account. We are aware of this issue and are working to fix it. We will share updates as soon as we learn more. We apologize for the inconvenience and hope to get everything up and running soon.”

This kind of issue does come up with QuickBooks Online occasionally, and that is one of the prime reasons for people switching to QuickBooks Cloud Hosting. QuickBooks Online has been developed by Intuit itself, which runs inside the web browser. While QuickBooks Hosting is provided by third-party cloud hosting companies, accessible through an application-based platform. Numerous QuickBooks Hosting providers give 99.99% uptime guarantee and one of the most popular of the lot is Sagenext. That means the server would be running and can be accessed by the user for 99.99% of the time.

Uptime ∝ Productivity ∝ ROI (Return on Investment).

Therefore, the productivity of QuickBooks must have dropped down with the downtime of QBO (QuickBook Online), and hence the ROI. Uptime is one of the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of a majority of hosting services as the entire working of the business depends upon it. There comes a lot of additional features as the desktop version is hosted on the cloud, so all advanced features come with it. The switching between the desktop and the hosted version is also really facile.

Pros of QuickBooks Cloud Hosting:

• No effect due to system crash, as data remains stored on the cloud.
• Advanced security is provided by the hosting provider with security measures such as the two-factor authentication, strong password policy, and data encryption.
• There is a cluster of connected servers because of which the failure of a server does not affect the working of the software.
• Saves a lot of your time and effort as most of the things are handled by the cloud hosting team.
• Saves the investment of building a dedicated team for security purposes, the hardware, and the troubleshooting of the failures.

Cons of QuickBooks Online:

• No full-fledged accuracy.
• Issues do come up while importing or exporting from the desktop version.
• The workflow gets hampered with the internet down as it runs inside the browser.
• A significant amount of manual input is required while making changes from the desktop version to the online version and vice-versa.
• Maximum of 5 users allowed at a time.
• Limited tech support.

Several prominent reasons are already mentioned highlighting the reasons to switch from QuickBooks Online to QuickBooks Cloud Hosting. But while choosing the cloud service you should not consider the incompetent service providers as that will only hamper your work.

With cloud hosting, you get the advantage of multi-tier data centers, high-performance computing (HPC) servers that allow multiple users to work simultaneously and overloading does not lead to server crash, advanced security, and monitoring of the traffic for suspicious activity.

Most of the features of hosting maximize the uptime and that boosts up the Return on Investment for the business company with the increase in productivity. The service providers that can be considered should have these basic advantages:

• Advanced cloud infrastructure
• Proper customer support
• 99.99% uptime

Uptime is the most significant factor when it comes to business productivity, and with proper QuickBooks Cloud Hosting you can level up the ROI. When choosing between the different hosting service providers, do read the terms and conditions and the features that it provides carefully.

Do not choose a low-cost service for the sake of saving money. This can result in excessive downtime, which will cost you more than the investment. Make the smart choice and you will never have to go to the forums for the downtime issues. 

Common Errors that Taxpayers Should Avoid: TAX 101

It seems like only yesterday that the IRS had opened the filing portal for tax season 2020. Here we are today, where the tax deadline, April 15th seems just around the corner. The tax authorities strongly recommend practicing the electronic filing of taxes. When one chooses to file taxes electronically, software such as QuickBooks and Drake help reduce errors because the tax software does:

• The actual math
• Figures out the calculations
• Flags common errors
• Alerts the taxpayers for missing information or empty fields

The IRS is getting stringent by the day when it comes to tax rules and posing penalties. In order to avoid coming under the IRS radar and penalty lists, it’s best to hire a reputable tax preparer.

Taking the help of an expert such as a certified public accountant, an enrolled agent or someone who has extensive knowledge of tax and is fluently familiar with tax filing can also help in avoiding errors. Mistakes in filing taxes can result in a processing delay, which can ultimately delay getting tax refunds or even worse, put you on the IRS’ letter list.

Here are some of the common errors that should be avoided when preparing a tax return:

1. Fumbled Social Security numbers. Each Social Security Number on a tax return form should be the replica of what’s printed on the Social Security card.

2. Misspelled names. It is one of the most common mistakes to be made on the tax form. The name listed on the tax return form should be the exact match to the name mentioned on the person’s Social Security card.

3. Incorrect filing status. This is an error that can really be avoided by using tax software. Such software helps in flagging out such errors and recommend corrective measures. Some taxpayers get fumbled up and choose the wrong filing status.

Apart from a tax preparation software, the Interactive Tax Assistant (ITA) on the IRS website can also help taxpayers in choosing the correct status, especially when a person falls under more than one filing status.

4. Calculation mistakes. A calculation error is another one of the most common mistakes made by the tax filers. These mistakes range from simple numerical errors or addition subtraction to more complex term calculations. Taxpayers should make it a practice to always double-check their calculations. Or an even better option is to go for software like QuickBooks, Drake or Sage that would actually do the math for you.

5. Figuring credits or deductions. Another one of the common errors made by taxpayers is tax deductions and credits. Factors such as earned income tax credit, standard deduction, child care, and dependent care credit add up as mistakes when filing taxes. All the pressure and deadlines, aside from the several norms to be followed, aren’t of much help either.

Taxpayers should be vigilant when browsing these criteria and should always follow the instructions carefully. Again, a taxpayer can use The Interactive Tax Assistant on the IRS website to get help in determining if they are eligible for tax credits or deductions. Attach any required forms and schedules supporting the claim.

6. Incorrect bank account numbers. The fastest way for a taxpayer to get their money is to choose direct deposit when filing for a due tax refund.

However, for this to happen in a glitch-free manner, taxpayers have to make sure that the bank account number entered should be correct. One must make sure to re-check and match their bank account number before submitting the tax form.

7. Unsigned forms. An unsigned tax return is not a valid tax return, it is as simple as that. In the majority of joint filing cases, both spouses have to sign the joint return, even if the signature of one counterpart is missing, it makes the return form invalid.

It should be noted that some exceptions regarding the same do apply for members of the armed forces or for other taxpayers who successfully demonstrate having a valid power of attorney. This error is majorly involuntary and can be avoided by filing return electronically, as there is a provision to digitally sign the document before sending it to the IRS.

Making an effort to avoid errors is for the own good of the taxpayer. As it helps in faster processing of tax returns and an even faster tax refund if applicable. It is a known fact that the tax season can be daunting and demanding.

All these numbers, calculations, and data might seem to press against you with the deadline fast approaching. Being calm and vigilant is the key and to ease your task you can always use accounting software or tax software. Switching to E-filing always helps in mitigating errors and processing faster. Reading Suggestion: Tax Preparers’ Boon: 5 In-Vogue Features of Drake Software

QuickBooks Cloud Hosting: The Exterminator of Local IT Setup

QuickBooks is one of the highly recommended and sought software in the accounting industry. Where QuickBooks Desktops have become a favored accounting tool, Quickbooks Cloud Hosting has also emerged as a potent platform. Preferred primarily by accounting professionals like us, cloud Quickbooks hosting platform is quickly turning out to be the ‘apple’ of their eyes.

Looking at the provisions, an extensive IT set up stands on the expensive ground. This not only curbs the chance of business expansion but also offers a partial assurance of better solutions and fewer hassles on its way. On the contrary, if we look at the Quickbooks cloud hosting, it gives a free pass to users like us and takes care of every IT related hassles.

Now, before you think it to be a rumor and cast this information sideways, take a look at a few on-premise IT hassles and how QuickBooks cloud hosting takes care of it.

1. Hardware Deployment

While looking into expanding your business horizon, it is also important to manage and set up the local IT infrastructure in your accounting firm. Larger the IT setup, more space would be required for setup completion. This simply means a big chunk cut out from your wallet.

With QuickBooks Cloud Hosting, one can shrug the stress related to underlying hardware costs. As QuickBooks is hosted on the cloud, the entire data remains stored on the cloud server. This eliminates the need for a local set up. All you need is the basic hardware requirement such as a computer or a laptop.

2. Hardware Maintenance

Buying a piece of hardware is one aspect, but maintaining it on a regular basis is another ball game. You need to maintain and service the hardware setup regularly to increase its longevity. Being an accounting professional, you already have enough on your plate.  Being concerned with the maintenance part would be the last thing you need as an added responsibility.

With QuickBooks on the cloud, all this effort is made by the hosting provider on their end. As all the extensive hardware setup lies with them, you don’t require lifting a finger.

3. IT Infrastructure

In order to run QuickBooks on your hardware setup in an efficient manner, you would need a supporting IT infrastructure. This would include the required power supply to run your system server, cooling equipment, and cables. In addition to that, network equipment like routers and switches also add up to the IT expense.

Contrary to that, when you opt for cloud-hosted QuickBooks, extra IT expense and infrastructure set up is borne by the hosting provider. The data center where the accounting data resides has an industry-grade infrastructure maintained by the cloud service provider.

4. Security

The accounting data is a vital and vulnerable part of an organization, mirroring the image of its finances. Any data breach can lead to compromising some exceptionally sensitive and catastrophe creating information. In the local IT setup, your data is more vulnerable to a breach; even due to a hardware crash. Moreover, implementing the latest security methods to your local setup would turn out to be a challenging task altogether.

Whereas, QuickBooks on the cloud provides a secure environment for all your data. As most of the reputed cloud hosting providers deploy the latest security safeguards such as multi-factor authentication, data encryption, Intrusion Detection and Prevention System (IDPS), access controls to name a few. All of this ensures that your data is under multiple folds of security and is safe even in case of local device malfunction.

5. Backup

Having to deploy a local hardware setup is surely a painstaking process. Taking into account the critical and vulnerable nature of QuickBooks files, you would require putting additional efforts for proper data backup and installing backup servers.  Moreover, if an unfortunate event takes place at the local office location, the major toll would be on the backup servers, causing a threat of data loss. This risk can be abated by opting for QuickBooks hosting. With cloud QuickBooks, you get an added benefit of multi-tier and multi-location data backup. Most of the hosting providers have their data centers installed in different geographic locations. This ensures that if any physical disaster were to take place in any one location, your data would remain unaffected. The cloud hosting providers also deliver prompt ‘Disaster Recovery’ solutions.

Where a few accountants are churning out their energy and saying goodbye to their sanity by fostering local IT setup, smarter ones are using Quickbooks and achieving more. Contrary to the array of problems and restrictions from local setup, cloud Quickbooks allows accountants to focus on their clients instead of wasting time around IT-related issues.

On the whole, hosting QuickBooks on the cloud helps to increase your billable hours and productivity. But before you gear up and move your accounting operations to the cloud, make sure you choose the right hosting provider by asking the right questions and make an informed decision.