Cloud based accounting is becoming more and more popular for small business entities. Most traditional accounting platforms now offer a cloud based option and new entrants such as Xero are becoming increasingly popular.

 There are many advantages to transferring your business record keeping to a cloud based platform. Accessibility is a key advantage. Cloud based platforms can be accessed from any computer, tablet or mobile phone meaning your records never need to be far from your fingertips. There is also limited risk of data loss or interruption due to fire, theft, flood or hardware failure and there is no need to install regular upgrades etc.

 But cloud based accounting also comes with some risks. What do you do if the internet goes down? How secure is the access? Do I need to keep a physical backup?

 There is not a lot to be done if the internet is down. Other applications such as emails and point of sale also rely on internet connections so unfortunately this is just one of those things the modern business has to deal with.

 Security and accessibility is actually better for cloud based platforms than traditional IT set ups particularly if business owners were using other forms of remote access. Most cloud platforms now offer 2 factor authentication which greatly enhances data security. It is vital that you have secure and memorable passwords and accept that those passwords will be long.

 Surprisingly, it is important to backup your cloud software on a regular basis. Cloud platforms maintain very good backups and have multiple server locations so physical loss of data is very unlikely but there are a couple of instances where maintaining your own backup may be vital.

 If your subscription to a cloud based platform expires or you stop payments for any reason you will most likely be unable to access your data.

 If you need to rollback data to the previous day or month for example some cloud platforms will not provide backup data. Cloud platforms will restore your data if their servers are affected in some way but do not make backup available to individual account holders on demand.

 If you would like more information on cloud based accounting platforms or backing up files from your current cloud based system, please contact us and we will be happy to help.