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Your accounting and tax software applications are essential to ensure efficient tax planning and filing. These tools integrate to ensure accurate calculations and real-time data flow.
One of the most popular pairings of accounting and tax tools is QuickBooks Desktop and Lacerte. Being Intuit products, they integrate seamlessly, enabling accounting and tax professionals to automate workflows and collaborate easily during the hectic tax season. However, both are desktop applications that need to be installed on a host, such as a local or cloud desktop.
Due to the IT strategies of some firms, they install Lacerte on local desktops and QuickBooks on cloud desktops, or vice versa, which leads to issues such as integration complications and security vulnerabilities.
In this blog, we will discuss why installing Lacerte and QuickBooks on one cloud desktop is the right approach for accountants and tax professionals.
1. Create an Integrated Security Posture
Having QuickBooks and Lacerte on different hosts (a local desktop and a cloud desktop) complicates the implementation and management of the security infrastructure. You must deploy in-house security protocols for one application, while leaving the responsibility of another application to the cloud service provider.
It causes integration issues between the in-house security tools and cloud security, leaving vulnerabilities in the security posture.
Hosting QuickBooks and Lacerte together on a dedicated cloud server from an Intuit-authorized hosting provider helps create a unified security posture. The provider can apply consistent security protocols across both applications and protect the environment at multiple levels, including physical infrastructure, network, endpoint, and admin access.
With both applications running in the same secure cloud environment, firms can reduce security complexity, avoid disconnected controls, and strengthen overall data protection.
2. Faster Tax Preparation During Peak Season
Tax season is hectic for all tax preparers and accountants, as they need efficient workflows to meet deadlines. Having Lacerte and QuickBooks on different hosts affects their productivity as they need to constantly log in to different portals – the physical desktop app and the cloud. Moreover, data and files are stored in different locations, which makes filing arduous.
By hosting both tools on the cloud desktop, you get a unified platform to accomplish tax tasks. Moreover, it enables centralized data management, making it easy for accountants and tax preparers to collaborate during the busy tax season. You can also share documents and request client approvals on the same platform.
3. Prevent Integration Issues
Lacerte integrates with QuickBooks to enable two-way data sync for billing information, invoices, and trial balances. However, when both applications are installed in different environments, integration errors may occur due to network latency, connectivity gaps, and bandwidth limitations.
Hosting Lacerte and QuickBooks on the same cloud desktop helps ensure smoother integration. Since both applications run in one centralized environment, data sync becomes faster, more stable, and less dependent on separate local or remote network conditions.
Eliminate integration issues, improve collaboration, and access both applications from a single secure cloud environment.
4. Unified IT Management
Lacerte and QuickBooks integrate seamlessly to ensure a hassle-free tax season. Any issue with one application can cause service disruptions and hamper your tax process. However, when one of these applications is installed in a local system, you require a skilled IT team to manage and upgrade hardware.
On the other hand, the cloud provider’s IT team handles IT tasks on their end. This distributed approach can cause miscommunication and asymmetrical protocols, hampering response and resolution time.
On the other hand, when Lacerte and QuickBooks are hosted on a single cloud desktop, you get consistent and effective IT support. Cloud desktop providers offer 247/365 support with easy accessibility via phone, chat, or email. It means that your in-house IT team only needs to coordinate with cloud experts. Moreover, having a unified IT management team simplifies OS license management, patching, and upgrades.
5. Managing Compliance
Regulatory compliance is a non-negotiable aspect for any business. They must comply with multiple regulations, such as GDPR, CCPA, or the FTC Safeguards Rule, depending on their location, data, and industry. However, when hosting applications both on-premises and in the cloud, or on two different cloud desktop providers, managing compliance can become messy and complicated.
You must implement protocols and procedures to ensure compliance in your office, and also verify that the cloud desktop provider is doing the same. Any slip-up from you or the provider can lead to heavy fines and legal troubles.
By hosting both Lacerte and QuickBooks on one cloud desktop, you can outsource compliance to the provider. It makes it easy for both you and the provider, as they can now deploy common protocols and monitor data for both applications.
6. Minimize In-house IT Expenses
Hosting one application on-premise and one in the cloud does not make any sense financially. You have to incur in-house IT costs as well as the cloud usage charges. For instance, let’s assume that you have installed Lacerte on the local workstation while QuickBooks is hosted on the cloud.
Firstly, you must invest in in-house hardware procurement, upgrade, and management to host Lacerte. Secondly, you must pay the DaaS provider for QuickBooks hosting according to the pricing tier. Having QuickBooks and Lacerte on different hosts completely negates the cost benefits of cloud services.
On the other hand, if you choose to host both software tools on a cloud desktop, it substantially minimizes in-house IT capital and operational costs. Now, you can opt for a virtual desktop with a slightly higher configuration for both applications. It adds slightly to your billing, but not as significantly as on-premise IT costs.
Host QuickBooks, Lacerte, and accounting apps on a secure, high-performance cloud desktop built for accounting professionals.
Choose Cloud Desktop for an Optimized App Ecosystem
Cloud desktops give Lacerte and QuickBooks a flexible environment to work together seamlessly and maintain uninterrupted data sync. They also make it easier to run supporting tools for reporting, document management, data management, and other accounting workflows from the same centralized setup.
As your firm grows, on-demand scalability helps you add more users, applications, and resources without affecting performance. That is why choosing the right cloud desktop provider becomes essential for building a secure, high-performance application ecosystem.
With Ace Cloud Hosting’s Unlimited Hosting Plan, accounting and tax firms can run QuickBooks, Lacerte, and other business-critical applications on cloud desktops built for performance, security, and remote accessibility. You also get 99.99% uptime, 24/7/365 support, and multi-level security to keep your workflows running smoothly. Learn more about QuickBooks cloud hosting and Lacerte hosting solutions.
