Does Even the Best Online Accounting Software Deliver Results?

It seems that every business function you need to run your company can easily be accessed online now. While this appears to be a viable option that can streamline your operations and minimize costs, does it make sense for your organization? This is an important question to ask when examining the best online accounting software. Can these solutions truly deliver results, or will you lose any benefit by trying to make up for lost capability?

Best Online Accounting Software Options

One of the advancements evident today is that the leading accounting software platforms that once required complete on-premise deployments and support are now available as the best online accounting software. QuickBooks users can find this proven platform through a managed service, NolaPro and Xero are targeted specifically to the online user, and AccountEdge will enable online accounting optimization for the Mac environment. When examining these market players, you have to determine if these best online accounting software options truly deliver the solid functionality and benefits as hosted solutions that they do when deployed in-house.

Extended Capabilities of Best Online Accounting Software

The aforementioned best online accounting software providers do offer the same capabilities as their on-premise solutions, while some even extend functionality due to increased accessibility to online capabilities. For instance, all of these platforms will enable automatic or manual banking transactions directly from the platform, managing the information captured in the transaction, while also completing the draft or deposit in one command. On-premise solutions offer this capability as long as the user is connected operates or operations in an always-on environment.

Updates Extended in Real-Time for Best Online Accounting Software

One of the perks of any online application is the ability to leverage updates in real-time. On-premise deployments have access to the same updates, but they generally need to be pushed out by the IT department, or individual users must launch the updates to ensure access to the latest application versions. This can cause collaboration and integration issues with your data if different users are operating on different versions. When you leverage the best online accounting software within your environment, the managed services provider pushes out the updates, keeping everyone on the same page and in the same version at all times.

Increased Security Risks with Best Online Accounting Software?

Companies leery of making the migration to the best online accounting software are often concerned about the security of their financial information as it moves outside of the corporate firewall and is managed in a data center located somewhere else in the world. Tight encryption capabilities are extended to this data, making it impossible to decipher the information if it should happen to be intercepted during transmission, which is highly unlikely. Managed services providers extending the best online accounting software must meet stringent security standards to protect your information – standards you may not have in place internally. In this case, the best online accounting software may be a safer solution.

Capabilities Can Vary Among Best Online Accounting Software

The best online accounting software solutions will extend the same capabilities as on-premise solutions, as long as the platform is compatible. One area where you will find discrepancies is among so-called free online accounting system. Many providers will offer a free platform, but many of these offerings are truly “trial size” versions of the for-fee platforms that deliver full-featured functionality. Be sure to read the fine print before you launch.

The key is to compare apples to apples, beware of free versus fee trials and demand standards-based security and encryption of your data. Once you have the right tools in place, you’ll be ready to effectively manage your financial data.