Bob Gauvreau explains how cloud accounting lets you see live financial data instead of waiting weeks for statements. Automatic transaction imports from banks and credit cards give you daily or weekly reports, so you can make faster business decisions. He recommends trying QuickBooks Online Essentials.
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So cloud-based accounting software has been one of the evolutions over the last decade in accounting solutions that has really made a dramatic difference. And the reason is it's caused and created so much efficiency in being able to have up-to-date and live reports. Let's go back to prior to cloud accounting. This is where we had to wait for bank statements, which was typically 3 weeks after the end of the month. Yes, we could pull them from online banking, but, you know, it was— it seemed to be more of a hassle. We had to get access to online banking and then we would have to wait until we got all of the reports, the suppliers' reports. We have to wait for our credit card statements. It was much more challenging than it is today. Now move to cloud accounting. Cloud accounting allows you to plug in the transactions in your online banking, in your credit cards, and it allows you to integrate with a lot of other providers like a Hubdoc. That allows you to pull bills right into the system. Cloud accounting really allows us to have a live, up-to-date picture of what's going on in our business. If we're using it properly, it should give us an up-to-date picture, if not daily, weekly, definitely, you know, biweekly, monthly. We have access to good information, but the efficiency of how we get that information in there has been really, really beneficial. For the small business world. So if you're not on the cloud accounting system or in the cloud accounting space, now's the time to make sure you invest in that. And also, you know, my recommendation would be to look at QuickBooks Online. We're definitely a proud partner of them. They seem to be the strongest platform, the easiest to use on the market. So test that out. I know they've always got trials that are available. Get out there and give QuickBooks Online a go. At least try their QuickBooks Essentials. Which is fairly cost-effective as an introductory way for you to try all their software.
