If you’re like many SMBs, you probably depend on QuickBooks software to process payments, print cheques and even check your clients’ credit card information. You’re not alone. Recent statistics show that QuickBooks is the favored accounting software for more than 29 million small businesses in the US alone. You’ve probably installed QuickBooks on an on-premises server or computer and in your office. You might have even heard about QuickBooks Online, but you’re wondering if it’s worth all the trouble. Did you know that it’s probably more convenient and easier to Host your QuickBooks with a cloud provider?
Why choose a cloud server to host QuickBooks ?
That’s a good question. Why go to all the trouble of looking for a cloud provider when you can just use QuickBooks Online? The answer is simple. Hosting QuickBooks in the cloud gives you a lot more advantages than QuickBooks Online. Here’s what we mean.
Pricing
When you buy QuickBooks Online for Small Business, you’ll have to pay a monthly fee that can range anywhere from $13-$40 a month depending on the plan you choose. When you host QuickBooks in the cloud, you pay for your Quickbooks license and then the resources required to host it. In other words, you pay only for what you need, when you need it. This means you pay only for the amount of RAM, disk space and bandwidth your cloud server uses to run your QuickBooks application plus the required configurations. Compare it to an electricity bill. If you use more electricity one month, your bill goes up. If you use less the next month, your bill is lower. Your cloud server will also bill you once a month, based on your consumption per hour, but you can save more money because you control the way you use your resources.
User experience
If you’ve been working with QuickBooks for a while, you’ve grown accustomed to using the same features to manage and pay your bills, generate your invoices, create purchase orders or even track your inventory. Moving to a hosted QuickBooks solution won’t change that. You won’t have to learn how to use different features or find new ways to deal with services that aren’t offered on QuickBooks Online. You won’t have to import your files from your current account to a new interface either. Nothing changes. The features you use today in your desktop version will be exactly the same in your QuickBooks hosting solution available on your remote desktop!
Support
When you purchase a new software, you want to be sure you can get technical support any time you need it, even if that means outside regular office hours. QuickBooks Online will help you with your technical problems, but only from Monday to Friday between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. However, QuickBooks does offer an online FAQ that you can access at any time. When you host your solution in the cloud, you get technical support for your infrastructure 24/7/365 by phone, email or chat. Some Hosted QuickBooks Providers also offer Managed Services, which means you don’t have to lift a finger. Issues like technical support and security updates are handled by the hosting provider.
Access
One of the advantages of using a hosted solution for QuickBooks is that you can Access QuickBooks Desktop Remotely from anywhere at any time and on any device. This means your accountant can print cheques or financial statements on a Saturday morning without setting foot in the office. It also means that up to 30 people can access the application and work on the same document all at once! That’s not quite the case with QuickBooks Online. The basic plan gives access to only one person at a time. If you want to provide access to more people, you’ll have to upgrade to a more advanced plan. And more features means a higher monthly payment. Hosting QuickBooks in the cloud will allow you to control who can view sensitive documents or files. The basic plan for QuickBooks Online doesn’t offer this kind of feature. Again, you’d have to upgrade to a more advanced version.
Basic accounting functions
As we mentioned earlier, you probably depend on QuickBooks for standard accounting functions, such as managing and paying bills, processing your payroll and creating and sending purchase orders. You might be surprised to learn that there’s a big difference between QuickBooks Online vs. the Enterprise edition. Does your business have to track and manage inventory or track international sales and expenses in several currencies? None of these features are included with the basic plan offered by QuickBooks Online. However, if you opt for Hosted QuickBooks, all of these features are included.
Remote Desktop for QuickBooks
We’ve talked a lot about hosting QuickBooks with a cloud provider. To run QuickBooks in the cloud, you’ll have to set up a Remote Desktop solution. Remote Desktop Services (RDS) can help your small business save a lot of time and money. It’s easier to set up and manage because your IT staff just has to install and configure it once on an RDS server. All the application processing occurs in the remote desktop server which guarantees high performance.
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