Benefits of Cloud Accounting Software

The modern day trends in accounting software generally belong to different kinds of cloud based systems. This kind of cloud based systems paves the way for a better efficiency in the business organization. The online buying of the different kinds of IT infrastructure and the online maintenance and support system has been the new style that is slowly being accepted by most of the business firms(Alismaili et al. 2016). According to, Gupta et al. (2018) the management of the business organizations are gradually accepting such a system in order to ensure the ease of maintaining the systems and ensuring smooth organizational efficiency of the business organization. The implementation of cloud base software helps the management of the company to focus more on the organization and effectively maintain its financial activities. The support of these software systems at any given point of time increases the flexibility and the productivity of the workforce, which in turn helps to improve the sustainability and performance of the business organization. The following research has concentrated mostly on Cloud Accounting Software and their implementation and performance in different kinds of Companies especially the small and medium sized Companies of Australia. 

Cloud computing services can help to boost the competitiveness of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises and can also help leverage economies. The Australian Busi8ness houses comprising almost 30% of SME has started implementation of Cloud Based Software Services in their traditional business activities. The implementation of cloud based software is being carried out mainly to ensure the success of the business in the modern times. According to, Cleary and Quinn (2016) the cloud computing software can help the organizations be effective as well as productive enough to ensure the success and the sustainability of the business organization in the trying and testing times. On the other hand according to, Gupta et al. (2018) the protocol analysis indicates that various factors are important to the adoption of cloud computing services for Australian SMEs, such as security concerns, cost savings, and privacy due to geo-restrictions. Furthermore, this study confirms the insignificance of complexity and competitive pressure factors in the adoption of cloud computing among Australian SMEs (Cleary and Quinn 2016). These findings have imperative implications to scholars and practitioners alike in the cloud computing research and applications areas.

According to, Brunswicker and Vanhaverbeke (2015) the difference in between the traditional and the cloud systems is that they are both accounting software that are used and run on one single server. This is a kind of software that is quite similar to that of the Software as a service (SAAS) business model that is capable of providing accounting capabilities to the business. All of the different functions can be performed or made off site or online and not on the desktop of the users of the software. Like the positive uses of the cloud accounting software there is also some criticism of the software as because some of the experts in such software services have argued that cloud accounting is less secure than that of the traditional and self hosted systems. Therefore it is not preferable to use in different kinds of health care facilities and financial transaction processing facilities (Khan and Al-Yasiri 2016). There are also some other kind of challenges in the cloud accounting system where a number of challenges faced by the softwares have been identified by some of the researchers. Automated cloud based web trades have a negative impact on the accounting and the auditing professions (Ross and Blumenstein 2015). Additionally, because of the appraisal of control, building of audit platform of cloud computing, collection of audit proof, cloud computing auditing procedure and audit of data security this research makes a selected analysis of such issues. 

Challenges of Cloud Accounting Software

There are a large number of different benefits on the use of cloud computing by the management of SME’s. The benefits of cloud accounting remain as strong as over. The use of cloud computing enables total flexibility to access and then works on the data in real time at all the time when people wants. It generates accurate and effective reporting data and actually helps to back up the data on secure servers of the organization (Alismaili et al. 2016). As seen in the study of, Brunswicker and Vanhaverbeke (2015) Cloud use is slowly gaining importance in the country and experts believe that the use of the technology will slowly gain more ground in the near future. The management of the SME’s has been trying to adapt cloud based technology in the near future. However there have been problems in the implementation of the new technology in the near future. More than 53% of Australian SME’s believe that the management will be consider looking for a new accountant if their current accountant fails to embrace the cloud in the next two to three years. Some of the major benefits of the cloud computing software are as follows;

1. Ability to access different kinds of information from a large number of different sources as well as locations
2. The advantage of performing all tasks without buying any  kinds of hardware or accounting software
3. A low upfront investment that is required for the subscription plans
4. The capability to increase the scale of production in the expansion of the industry
5. the capability to receive effective, improved and accurate reporting
6. Security and safety features is better and improved than that of the physical software
7. Requires no more than manual updates. This includes tax table updates or version updates
8. The presence of cloud computing software automatically eliminates the need to buy other accounting software.

The benefits of the cloud computing software will be further proved by the increasing use of the software in different government offices, government departments and other large-scale offices. In recent times there has been an increase in the use of the software in other kinds of the sectors like the telecommunication sector, network based providers and many more as such. 

According to, Ross and Blumenstein (2015) the cloud accounting software suppliers reckons that their software can reduce the repetitive tasks like that of data entry. Freeing up accountants from the task of data entry helps the organizations to ensure the easy and smooth operations of business activities. Apart from this it also helps to speed up activities like financial audits as well as financial reporting. The presence of good and effective accounting software can thus help to ensure success for the organizations (Khan and Al-Yasiri 2016). Another major characteristic of the following software is that it is able to ensure the cost effective business model of these kinds of SME’s. The implementation of the cloud accounting software in the business systems of the Australian SME’s can thus act as a new renaissance in Australian SME sector (Alismaili et al. 2016). The inclusion of automated payment and payroll system can help to develop the SME’s into a developed, effective and sustainable company in the near future. 

Factors Affecting Adoption of Cloud Accounting Software

Cloud Computing has provided different types of sizeable benefits to businesses of all kinds of shapes and sizes in more ways than one. The future of the cloud computing is very bright and the organizations need to entail the different types of the benefits that can be beneficial for the business organization. One of the major areas of growth for the cloud’s future is the use of the big data. Some of the cloud services already offer big data analytics, however, they are in minority in Australia. Most of the people engaged in the management of the SME’s however has the belief that the cloud providers will fully embrace upon the use of the big data. Recent researches on the following shows the use of the big data as well as well as its importance Gupta et al. (2018). The use of the big data can thus have a large impact on the increase in the productivity of the business organizations. Recent research studies have shown that approximately a slight more than 20% of the SME’s in Australia has been using the big data whereas the others are still considering its use depending on the impact of the data on the Companies that currently uses them. The number will slowly double up in the coming years and will make a huge impact on the business accordingly.

According to, the research of Alismaili et al. (2016) multiple numbers of services that the cloud based software provides to small businesses makes cloud one of the most appealing to the business units. Companies in Australia can at the present find out services like that of Software-as-a-service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). The diversification of the cloud services will help in the increase of multiple service offers by the management of the business units accordingly. Apart from this the research of Brunswicker and Vanhaverbeke (2015) shows that the big data analytics mentioned here the growth in the services like that of desktops, security, storage, and others will also become popular, and will provide small businesses a number of different options to select from during the choice of a cloud service that best suits their needs of the SME’s. This will help them operate at maximum efficiency. 

References

Alismaili, S., Li, M., Shen, J. and He, Q., 2016. A multi perspective approach for understanding the determinants of cloud computing adoption among Australian SMEs. arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.00745.  

Brunswicker, S. and Vanhaverbeke, W., 2015. Open innovation in small and medium?sized enterprises (SMEs): External knowledge sourcing strategies and internal organizational facilitators. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(4), pp.1241-1263.

Cleary, P. and Quinn, M., 2016. Intellectual capital and business performance: An exploratory study of the impact of cloud-based accounting and finance infrastructure. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 17(2), pp.255-278.

Gupta, S., Misra, S.C., Kock, N. and Roubaud, D., 2018. Organizational, technological and extrinsic factors in the implementation of cloud ERP in SMEs. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 31(1), pp.83-102.  

Karunagaran, S., Mathew, S. and Lehner, F., 2016. Differential adoption of cloud technology: A multiple case study of large firms and smes. (Karunagaran Mathew and Lehner 2016)

Khan, N. and Al-Yasiri, A., 2016. Framework for cloud computing adoption: A road map for Smes to cloud migration. arXiv preprint arXiv:1601.01608.

Ross, P.K. and Blumenstein, M., 2015. Cloud computing as a facilitator of SME entrepreneurship. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 27(1), pp.87-101