Major differences between cloud accounting vs on-premises

In the near past, cloud accounting has created hype in the technology field with its service-based architecture and everyone is assuming that cloud is the future but it doesn’t mean that everyone is true. There could be some disadvantages of the cloud so we’ve discussed few important differences between cloud and on-premises.

Cloud accounting:

• Accessed via the internet

• No need to manage or maintain servers. Everything is backup automatically

• Saves your annual costs

• Updated automatically when new release is published

• Easily scalable with minor cost differences

On-Premises:

• Installed on users’ computer

• Maintain servers and backups yourself

• Much higher annual costs

• Need to update software manually

• Need to purchase extra servers for scalability

For on-premises you need to pay large amount up front cost and annual maintenance fee. On the other hand, for cloud accounting software you pay for the services only and scaleup as you need with just minor cost difference.

Though there are some disadvantages of the cloud like downtime but it actually depends on the servers that what types of servers are used by your accounting software. So try to buy an accounting software which guarantees you the 99.99% uptime. While on-premises software could down your business if somethings happens to your software. If you get an error or any issue in the software you need to call the developers or need to wait for a new release. This wait time may end up losing your customers.

Cloud accounting has benefited many small and medium enterprises, specifically startups by reducing annual costs and by allowing them to fully concentrate on their core business development and business processes rather they messed up in the IT infrastructure problems and issues. One major benefit of the cloud accounting software is that you can transfer your crucial data any time from one accounting software to another within less amount of time and losing control of your data. It is getting competitive day by day and prices are decreasing.

If you’re using any on-premise accounting software in your organization then you should give a try to a cloud accounting software and you’ll see the difference in few weeks that how it has impacted your business processes and transformed it to a more profitable.

One of the important aspect of the accounting softwares is reporting. Cloud accounting softwares are also taking lead in this scenario because you can generate reports on the go and get notified for the statistics that you required but on-premise won’t help you here because if you’re not on your computer then you don’t know about the current statistics of the business.

Another major benefit of the cloud is that upgrades are totally free, frequent and instant but on the other hand, on-premise software development cycles are very lengthy as compared to cloud-based accounting softwares.

At the end of the day, moving your data from one on-premise software to another is a big decision that must not be taken lightly but transferring your data from on-premise to cloud is even bigger decision and you must consider any cloud accounting software because cloud is future.