Online Bookkeeping and Web Accounting

The Difference | Overview | Features

With ever increasing demands on businesses to reduce their overheads and the constant requirement to upgrade computer systems, the notion of web based application software has strong appeal to many SME business owners. This is being driven largely by growing demands for new information and better tools for presenting that information and general management.

The Internet is becoming an increasingly useful business tool--not just for acquiring information but also for providing real business solutions. A handful of web accounting and online bookkeeping products have emerged from companies demonstrating the now-proven web-based systems are every bit as powerful as many of the more expensive server-based systems, and at a fraction of the cost.

If cost savings are not enough? If you need more reasons to switch to a bookkeeping online system, here are just some.

Real-time information.

• Web-based systems offer real-time information that is simply not available through server-based systems. Most mature web accounting solutions are hosted as HTML-based applications, meaning the application runs within a standard Internet browser. Therefore, no software needs to be loaded onto the local computer, and there are no hardware requirements.
• The online bookkeeping and accounting system can be accessed from any Internet connection on any computer. Management can be at an annual meeting on the other side of the world and still have access to a current statement of financial position. The treasurer in one part of the country and the chief financial officer at the other end of the country both can be looking at the same general ledger detail or aging report. The barriers of geography are eliminated and everyone has real-time access to the decision-making information.

Reliable access and security. 

• Because online bookkeeping and accounting systems do not rely on your in-house technology, they are not subject to periodic network failures. Although Internet access can never be guaranteed, by implementing redundant Internet service providers, an organization can hedge its bet against Internet disruption. Furthermore, as the accounting information is accessible from any Internet connection, employees are able to work off-site in the unlikely event of redundant ISP failure, with absolutely no disruption to the financial processes.
• Not only is system access reliable, most of these web accounting systems grant you the ability to customize user profiles and permissions, allowing management to dictate who has access to each part of the system. As a result, your treasurer can be granted read-only access to financial information, while your accounts payable clerk can have permission to enter invoices but not to approve checks for payment.
• One concern many businesses have when considering conversion to an accounting and bookkeeping online system is that of sacrificing a level of security they have come to expect from their server-based systems. Actually, the opposite is true. Most Web-based system providers use data centers with physical and network (including firewalls, user-specific IDs, and 128-bit data encryption) security that far exceed the security of in-house systems. In addition, most Web systems offer dual-drive transaction redundancy and nightly backups to off-site storage facilities to ensure information security.

Robust functionality. 

• These are not your father’s accounting systems. Today’s businesses demand accounting systems that can do way more than just debits and credits. They must be able to automatically process payroll, be fully integrated with the stock, debtor and creditor databases, and be able to perform automatic overhead allocations and produce functional financial statements. Online accounting systems offer these options and more.

Scalability.

• As your business grows expanding your accounting or bookkeeping system does not require additional capital expenditure. So long as you have the PC's to access the system, you just pay for that space and processing capacity as you need it.

Share    Tweet