QuickBooks Hosting FAQs: What Your Clients Need to Know?

QuickBooks has been around for almost four decades and is immensely popular among CPAs, bookkeepers, and business owners. While QuickBooks Desktop simplifies accounting for small and medium-sized businesses, professional accountants, and individuals, hosting the software on the cloud was a big game changer for many. However, not everyone can understand the insights into QuickBooks hosting and how they can benefit their business with a hosted QuickBooks solution. 

Here, we have answered some of the most frequently asked questions about QuickBooks hosting. Read on to explore them and prepare to bring a 360-degree transformation in how you perform day-to-day accounting tasks. 

Frequently Asked Questions on QuickBooks Hosting 

1. What is QuickBooks Hosting? 

QuickBooks hosting is the process of hosting the licensed QB Desktop version on remote servers of a cloud hosting provider. Reliable service providers house the servers across multiple data centers to ensure top-notch data security. With QuickBooks hosted on the cloud, you can access the software and QB data remotely using devices like smartphones, iPads, laptops, tablets, etc. It means you don’t need to install QuickBooks on a local machine. 

Hosting QuickBooks on the cloud also makes collaboration among team members easier. Every team member can simultaneously work on the same file and make real-time changes. As such, everyone in a team stays updated with recent changes. In addition, hosted QuickBooks has other valuable benefits such as high data security, disaster recovery, high uptime, multiple add-on integrations, easy scalability, etc.  

2. What are the advantages of QuickBooks Hosting? 

QuickBooks hosting has many advantages for businesses, enabling them to manage their accounting and financial operations effectively. With Intuit QuickBooks hosting, you don’t need to invest much in developing and maintaining costly IT infrastructure as the system is cloud-based. Besides, you don’t need to rent physical space for office purposes as you can access the application and QB data from anywhere. In addition, you get high data security and backup option, ensuring your business’s mission-critical data safety. 

Best QuickBooks cloud hosting provider offers round-the-clock customer service to fix hosted QuickBooks-related issues and ensure high SLA-backed server uptime of 99.999%. Intuit QuickBooks hosting also enables you to integrate the software with third-party applications and enhance your accounting capabilities. In a nutshell, cloud-hosted QuickBooks comes with the below-mentioned advantages: 

• Remote access 
• Data Security 
• 24×7 customer support 
• Low maintenance costs 
• Data backup 
• Disaster recovery 
• Automatic updates and upgrades 
• Multi-device compatibility 
• Multiple add-on integrations 

 3. How can I host QuickBooks on the cloud? 

Hosting QuickBooks on the cloud requires finding an ideal hosting provider. There are many cloud hosting providers, but choosing the best QuickBooks cloud hosting provider is imperative for you to have a seamless cloud-accounting experience. 

Once you sign up with a hosting provider: 

1. The hosting provider installs QuickBooks on their remote server 
2. You get access to the hosting provider’s server 
3. The service provider deploys security mechanisms to secure the connection between the data and your device 
4. The service provider establishes a connection between the server and your device via Remote Desktop Protocol 
5. You can work on QuickBooks using your preferred devices like smartphones, tablets, iPads, etc., via a web browser 

4. What are the requirements of Intuit QuickBooks hosting? 

Hosting QuickBooks on the cloud doesn’t require you much: 

1. You need to have the licensed copy of QuickBooks that you want to host. QuickBooks Pro, Premier, Accountant, POS, and Enterprise are all available on the cloud. 
2. You need to find the best QuickBooks cloud hosting provider with good experience hosting QuickBooks on the cloud. 
3. Fix a budget to migrate QuickBooks to the cloud and discuss your requirements with the hosting provider. 

5. How does QuickBooks hosting differ from traditional QuickBooks desktop? 

The traditional QuickBooks desktop has certain limitations which restrict you from using the software’s full potential. Below mentioned are some of the limitations of the QuickBooks Desktop version:  

• Data access to limited users  
• Users can’t access QB data remotely  
• Data storage on a local device – a risk of data loss  
• The inability of team members to collaborate in a real-time environment  
• Challenges in sharing and exchanging files among team members 

These are the primary challenges that make the traditional QuickBooks Desktop accounting software less accomplished than QuickBooks hosting. Here’s a look at some of the significant advantages you get when you migrate the accounting software to the cloud:  

• Anywhere, anytime access 
• Data backup and recovery options 
• Multi-user accessibility 
• Data tracking in real-time 
• Easy file sharing with multiple users 
• Cost-effective 
• Easy collaboration 

 6. How does QuickBooks Online differ from QuickBooks hosting? 

Developed by Intuit, QuickBooks Online is a cloud-based financial management application with a different interface and feature set compared to QuickBooks desktop hosting. 

QuickBooks Online is suitable for businesses with less complex invoicing requirements or that don’t require the inventory tracking option. The customizable and feasible tools of QB Online have made it an ideal choice for many small businesses. While QB Online has many benefits, you must explore all the available options to make the right decision for your business. 

On the other hand, QuickBooks hosting refers to hosting a licensed copy of the QuickBooks Desktop version on the remote servers of third-party cloud providers. Here, you can access the QB data or files via a web browser from anywhere, anytime. 

All the files and data are hosted on the cloud, and you can access them all without installing the accounting software on a local machine. Should you prefer availing the benefits of QB Desktop in a more accessible and robust environment, QuickBooks hosting is ideal for you. You can use your preferred devices to access your QB data while maintaining a work-life balance.  

7. How to set up a QuickBooks server to host multi-user access? 

Setting up a QuickBooks server to host multi-user access requires you to follow the series of steps mentioned under: 

1. Open the QuickBooks Desktop software on your device 
2. Click on “File” 
3. Select “Multi-User mode” from the drop-down and click on “Yes”. 

If you want to switch between modes, here’s what you need to do: 

1. Open QuickBooks Desktop 
2. Click on the “File” menu 
3. Select either the “Switch to Single-user Mode/Switch to Multi-user Mode” option 

8. What are the considerations when choosing the best QuickBooks cloud hosting provider? 

The presence of multiple cloud hosting providers can make it challenging to select the best fit for your business. You should go with a service provider with prolonged years of experience providing QB cloud hosting services. In addition, you should consider the below-mentioned checklist while choosing the best hosting provider:  

• Verify if the QuickBooks hosting provider is Intuit-authorized 
• Check if the service provider has a high server uptime record (minimum 99.99%) 
• Ensure that the hosting provider performs regular data backup and has an effective disaster recovery mechanism 
• Get complete information about the various hosting plans and their pricing structure 
• Go through the user reviews available online 

To Sum it Up 

While there could be many other queries related to QuickBooks hosting, the ones mentioned and answered in this post should be enough for you to have an overall understanding of hosted QB solution. Here, we tried to address some of the most commonly asked questions about QuickBooks hosting. If you still have questions about it, feel free to contact us @ +1-855-375-4955 or drop an email to [email protected]. We would be happy to help you. 

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