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Online cloud accounting software is helping small business owners and accountants who manage book keeping duties for their clients to work more productively and efficiently. Both accountants and small business owners can benefit from using online cloud accounting software. By managing all accounts activities in one easily accessible, secure location, business processes can be streamlined, working methods can be made more flexible, communications between departments, colleagues and clients can be improved and overheads can be reduced.

More and more Irish businesses are now working ‘in the cloud’ – collecting and managing all their data via a remote-hosted internet service – and this new way of working is helping businesses of all sizes to minimise costs and maximise productivity.

What accounting challenges are small business facing and how can online accounting software help?

For many businesses, bookkeeping is a tedious and time consuming task. Collecting and entering data, augmenting information, reconciling accounts and generating reports is onerous and prone to error.

Many small businesses start off using spreadsheet documents and files, and as their business grows they begin to realise the need for a more efficient way of working. Issues like losing track of invoices and transactions, overlooking taxation responsibilities, and accounts related communications getting lost in a To Do pile, can result in major headaches for your business and a worsening reputation amongst your clients.

The solution to this problem for many business owners is to purchase expensive proprietary accounting software, but this brings with it even more challenges. In addition to the expense of the product, you often need to hire an IT expert just to install it and you have to pay for product upgrades whenever they are introduced and go through the whole installation process again.

Another problem is that the software can only be accessed on the computer it was installed on, meaning you cannot access your accounts information from your home computer or mobile device, as many small business owners like to do.

Online accounting software in the cloud lets business owners work when they want, where they want – freeing up precious time and offering more flexibility in their daily work schedules.

Advantages of online cloud accounting software

Accessibility – log in to your account anytime, anywhere from an electronic device connected to the internet
Simplicity – simple and intuitive data capture and accounts management
Affordability – small monthly service fee, no automatic software upgrade charges, simply pay for the service you use
Automatic Upgrades – upgrades in software happen automatically with no disruption to your service or extra charges
Functionality – online accounts software provides all the functions you expect from accounting software, like adding sales invoices, transactions, reports and so on, but with added functions like integrated email, unlimited storage and unlimited user access.
Security – your data is secured in a remote server and data back-ups are performed automatically in the cloud. Cloud software providers must meet strict international standards for data security.
This new web-based way of working improves workflow, information sharing and accessibility for both small business owners and accountants alike. Take advantage of the many free trial offers online cloud accounting software companies provide to try it for yourself.

Marc O'Dwyer

After completing a Graduate program in Marketing, Marc’s impressive sales career began at Allied Irish Banks, Pitney Bowes and Panasonic where he received numerous Irish and European sales performance awards and consistently exceeded targets and expectations. In 1992, Marc’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to set up his own business, Irish International Sales (IIS). Initially, this company was a reseller for Take 5 Accounts and Payroll software. Within four years, IIS became the largest reseller of Take 5 in Ireland, acquiring four other Take 5 resellers. He also found time to set up two mobile phone shops under the Cellular World brand and a web design company offering website design services for small businesses. In 2001, he bought the majority share in a small Irish software business, Big Red Book. At that time, the company was losing money. The company became profitable within two months, and Marc then acquired a payroll company to compliment Big Red Books Accounting products. In 2003, IIS were appointed as Channel Partners with SAP for their new SME product, SAP Business One. Marc sold his Take 5 business and concentrated on developing this new market for SAP As a result, by 2007, IIS was recognised as the largest Channel Partner for SAP in EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa). In 2008, the IIS Sales Manager bought the Company from Marc in an MBO. He launched Big red cloud in June 2012, the online version of big red book, to date the company successfully converts 59% of trials into sales and the number of customers is growing rapidly. Marc continues to run both Big Red Book and Big Red Cloud which now support 75,000 businesses. He is a very keen sportsman, having played rugby for 20 years, represented Leinster at under 16 and under 20 levels, and league squash with Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club for 10 years. Marc has competed in 11 Marathons, including the London and Boston Marathons, and has completed several Triathlons and Half Ironman races. He has also completed six Ironman Races in Austria(x2), Frankfurt (Germany), Nice (France) , Mallorca (Spain) and Copenhagen (Denmark)