6 Common Questions CPAs Have About the Cloud

With a shift to remote work, cloud technology has gained popularity in the last couple of years. The initiation of the work-from-home model has a direct correlation with the pandemic that has affected thousands of businesses. Due to this, an increasing number of businesses are adopting cloud technology so that they can ensure an improvement in efficiency and always stay connected, irrespective of geographical boundaries.  

Cloud Hosting for CPA firms offers multiple benefits such as easy collaboration, anytime, anywhere access, automated updates, disaster recovery, and more. If you are a CPA or running a CPA firm, you should be assured of the authenticity of the Cloud CPA solution your cloud service provider is offering. Besides, if you have any queries or doubts, you must ask the service provider and proceed towards making an informed decision for your business. 

Here, we will share a list of questions your CPA firm can ask when moving your clients or firm to the cloud. Read on! 

Questions a CPA Firm Should Ask About Cloud 

First Question: What Benefits Does Cloud Offer? 

While there’s a range of benefits for CPAs availing cloud services, the below-mentioned are the most useful ones: 

• Anytime, anywhere access: Cloud accounting solutions like QuickBooks Hosting enable you to access the software from anywhere. It means you can work on your accounts data from the comfort of your home or while on vacation. Such instances promote remote work culture and improve work efficiency. 

• High-end data security: With Cloud Accounting in place, you get top-notch security of your data. Cloud hosting providers implement some of the most effective security standards, such as:        

1. End-to-end data encryption 
2. Multi-factor authentication 
3. Multiple-level firewall protection 
4. DDoS protection 
5. Anti-virus and anti-malware 
6. Intrusion Detection and Protection System (IDPS) 

• Mobile device compatibility: Cloud Hosting for CPA firms or any other business comes with mobile device compatibility. Irrespective of the location, you can use devices like smartphones, tablets, or a laptop to access your accounting software. 

• Effective collaboration: Joint efforts from all the team members are critical for the success of your CPA firm. However, instances might occur when one or two of the team members aren’t available, resulting in issues with communication and efficiency. 

Solutions like CPA QuickBooks Hosting allow all the members of a group or team to work together on a shared virtual platform. CPAs, tax professionals, accountants, and other team members can access, share, and edit a given file simultaneously and make real-time changes. Irrespective of the team members’ physical location, you can save a lot of time and improve your business productivity through seamless collaboration – thanks to cloud technology.  

• Resource scalability: Irrespective of the size of your CPA firm, your requirements could change significantly over time. For example, your business needs might increase during tax seasons and decrease once it is over. Such instances can cause a huge wastage of resources for your CPA firm. 

By choosing a solution of Cloud Hosting for CPA firms, you can scale up or down various resources such as RAM, storage space, the number of users, etc., depending on your requirement.  

• Disaster recovery: External factors like natural calamity, fire, and theft often disrupt businesses. These pose more threats to CPA firms as they store client-sensitive data like SSN, credit card numbers, bank account details, etc. 

However, if you are availing services like CPA QuickBooks hosting from a reliable cloud hosting service provider, you get Disaster Recovery solutions. It means that your service provider stores your finance and accounts data redundantly at multiple geographically isolated data center locations. Because of this, even if one of the data centers encounters downtime or undergoes maintenance, you can retrieve your data from a different data center location and ensure business continuity. 

2nd Question: Where will my data be located? 

Before opting for Cloud Hosting for CPA firms, you should be aware of the exact location of your cloud data. Necessarily, the data and accounting applications reside on a hardware device as all your data cannot simply reside in cyberspace. 

When you opt for the services of Cloud Hosting for CPA firms, all your cloud data are stored on individual servers placed at data centers across multiple locations. Your cloud hosting provider will provide space for cloud computing and storing of all your business data. 

3rd Question: How secure is my data? 

For CPAs, both financial and reputational losses are involved in data breaches. Before choosing the services of a cloud CPA provider, ask if they can provide a Service Organization Controls (SOC) report. The report can prove the effectiveness of their data security protocol. 

4th Question: Are there any security measures I can take to ensure data security? 

Yes, of course! Although Cloud Hosting for CPA firms is secure, you must pay attention to maintaining the security of your business data. Some of the best practices to maintain data security are as follows: 

• Use strong passwords by adding alphanumeric and special characters such as: !, @, #, etc. 

• Refrain from saving your login credentials on someone else’s computers and devices 
• Set up multi-factor authentication 
• Beware of phishing attacks and take necessary actions if required 

5th Question: Does Cloud Hosting for CPA firms save money? 

According to Flexi, “67 percent of accountants prefer cloud accounting over locally installed software options as cloud software reduces labor costs by up to 50 percent”. 

Yes, using cloud-based accounting software or availing services like CPA QuickBooks hosting requires you to spend less on IT infrastructure and servers. Secondly, there’s no need to hire additional IT personnel as you get round-the-clock technical support for all your cloud accounting service-related queries and issues. Moreover, your service provider carries out all the required updates on time. 

6th Question: Does Cloud-Based Accounting Software Save time? 

The conventional way of balancing financial accounts is time-consuming. However, solutions like CPA QuickBooks Hosting compute figures quickly and automatically organizes the information. This helps you get more time to focus on the growth of your business.  

Get on the Cloud with Ace Cloud Hosting

Trusted by all businesses and sizes for over 14 years, Ace Cloud Hosting is one of the most experienced cloud hosting providers. Flexible deployment, easy customization, rich features, low maintenance, and round-the-clock customer support are some of our key offerings for our clients. We bring the latest updates, tips, and tricks to enrich the cloud journey for small, medium, and large-sized. 

Should you need assistance understanding how Ace Cloud Hosting can benefit your CPA firm, feel free to contact our Solutions Consultant @ +1-800-432-1585 or drop us an email at [email protected].