Cloud accounting myths often deter businesses from embracing this efficient financial solution. We understand that hesitation can stem from misconceptions surrounding cloud accounting. However, we are here to clarify these myths and demonstrate how cloud accounting can significantly benefit businesses of all sizes.

Myth 1: Only Large Businesses Can Use Cloud Accounting

Many believe that cloud accounting is exclusively for large corporations. This misconception couldn't be further from the truth. Cloud accounting caters to various businesses, including freelancers, charities, and small startups. Accordingly, its scalability allows businesses to choose plans that fit their needs and budgets. Therefore, businesses of any size can leverage cloud accounting to streamline their financial processes.

Myth 2: It's Too Complex for Non-Tech Users

Another common myth is that cloud accounting is overly complicated. While some initial training is beneficial, using cloud accounting platforms does not require extensive tech knowledge. If you can send an email or use a smartphone, you can easily manage your finances in the cloud. Additionally, most providers offer user-friendly interfaces and ongoing support to help users navigate the system with ease.

Myth 3: Cloud Accounting Is Unsecure

Many businesses worry about the security of their data in the cloud. Nevertheless, reputable cloud accounting platforms implement advanced security measures like data encryption and two-factor authentication. Consequently, cloud accounting can be even more secure than traditional systems, which are often vulnerable to local hardware failures and breaches.

Conclusion

Overall, cloud accounting myths can prevent businesses from realising the full potential of this powerful tool. Cloud accounting is accessible, affordable, and beneficial for all business types. We encourage you to reconsider any misconceptions you may have about this transformative approach to managing finances.

Thus, listen to the I Hate Numbers podcast for more insights on how cloud accounting can revolutionise your business and help you thrive in a competitive environment.

It's not unusual for businesses to be hesitant about changing. It's a perfectly natural reaction. And in the context of cloud accounting, I've come across lots of businesses of different shapes and sizes that are a bit hesitant to adopt cloud accounting. That hesitation normally stems from a combination of myths, misconceptions that surround the area of cloud accounting or digital accounting, if you prefer.

The actual reality, however, is that cloud accounting will benefit your business, offering simplicity, security, and efficiency. Now that business could be a freelancer business, it could be a small microbusiness, it could be a not-for-profit, a charity, an arts organisation, it could be a much larger organisation.

Cloud accounting crosses the spectrum and in this week's podcast, I'm going to explore and debunk some of the more common myths that surround cloud accounting.

Let's deal with the first one. Myth, misconception number one is that cloud accounting is only suitable for large businesses. A common misconception is that cloud accounting is exclusively there for large corporations, and that simply isn't true. That truth is based on my own personal experience of helping hundreds and thousands of businesses embrace the idea of cloud accounting.

All of different shapes, all of different sizes across the spectrum from profit to not-for-profit. Cloud accounting platforms out there cater to businesses of all sizes, from sole traders or freelancers, small startups, to medium-sized enterprises. One of the key benefits about cloud accounting is the ability to scale up.

So whether your business is of a small size or a large organisation, you can choose a plan, a subscription plan, that fits your needs and your budget at this moment and what they will be like in the future. No major investment in heavy IT infrastructure. No hardware outlay. Cloud accounting, by its very name, runs online in the cloud,

perverse though it may seem. This eliminates the need for costly servers or maintenance. All that responsibility and cost is taken on by the provider. For smaller businesses, cloud accounting is a more cost-effective option. Those fees are catered to your needs and wants and include those regular updates, the customer support, and the security features that go with that as well. Myth number two: If you're a non-tech user, cloud accounting is a little bit on the complex side and head scratching. Now, another common myth is that cloud accounting is far too difficult for those who aren't tech-savvy.

People may perceive they need to be experts in technology to use a cloud platform, but that is not true. Now, let me be up front here, if you're going to be using a cloud accounting system, do as we do with all our clients who we bring on board for cloud accounting, get some degree of training and familiarity of how to use the system.

So therefore, when you do enter data, either manually or automate that process, at least the information is being processed in the correct manner. But you don't need to be tech-savvy. Watching TV, watching a video, we don't need to understand how the engineering works, how the technology works. We just know how to turn it on fast forward record, and in a similar way, that's the same with cloud accounting. Knowing the functionality, knowing the power that we've got at our fingertips. It's important. And a small heads up, folks, by the way, in my own business, I Hate Numbers and Numbers Knowhow,

when we onboard clients, our platform of choice is Xero. We are a Xero platinum partner and we always provide training and support to those clients that embrace that world of cloud accounting. Now, cloud accounting is always an ongoing development by many software providers and it's designed with the user in mind.

It's about ease of use. Platforms typically try and design interfaces, make the user experience as straightforward as possible, and it's designed for non-experts. It's not designed for accountants directly. It's designed for the business owner, the business user. There are going to be tutorials, support, guides, offered by either your own accounting team, either offered by the software platform providers, and we provide that same thing ourselves.

If you're used to using email, if you're used to using spreadsheets, if you're used to using anything in terms of your mobile phone, your PC, you will be able to use cloud accounting. Now, in addition, there are automation features like bank feed, so you don't have to enter bank information yourself. It will be picked up, and your system will communicate with your bank and bring in that information.

Invoicing, expense tracking, makes those everyday tasks much easier. And if you can reduce the manual time you spend on dealing with transactions, take out the heavy lifting, time saved equals money saved equals capacity increase. Myth number three, the security. Now, rightly so, we should all be concerned about security of our data, the security of our information.

And some people worry, understandably, that moving financial data to the cloud will leave them exposed, leave them vulnerable to security breaches. However, cloud accounting platforms are pretty secure. And when I say pretty secure, they're secure, they've got teams there, things like advanced security measures, data encryption, firewalls, two-factor authentication to protect your information. They’re probably more secure than you might have in your own existing business for your own internal use.

Now automatically, cloud systems will back up your data, meaning you'll never lose that important financial information due to any hardware failures, accidental deletions, or even people who might be bad-minded to want to steal it. Reputable software providers will comply with data protection legislation like GDPR to make sure your data is managed effectively, securely, and responsibly.

Myth number four, the expense. The over time, it's going to be far too expensive. Now if we think about the analogy like a gym membership, you pay a subscription to the gym. Well, if you never use that gym facility, then obviously it's going to be expensive. However, the tradeoff is if you do use that gym, you get immense benefits from it.

Now, likewise with cloud accounting, you're paying a subscription, which covers all the costs of upgrades, security, storage. If you compare that to a more traditional system where you might have desk-based software, then you've got to invest in hardware, upgrades, licences. Now cloud accounting, as I said, operates on that subscription model, which means you know what you're paying.

You can plan more securely, and becomes much more affordable, which has got to be a good thing. Myth number five, and I'll probably say it's one of the bigger things, is about the difficulty, the perception that changing to a new system is going to be far too difficult, far too time-consuming, and people are concerned that the information they've built up will not be able to go with them to a new system, and that's far from the truth.

Most cloud accounting providers will support you on terms of the data migration to make the transition as smooth as possible. In our own onboarding protocol, we can convert from existing systems to new systems, we can if it's so desired, you can take across historic data with you if you desire to keep it. There is obviously a transition in terms of familiarity and training, but if you plan it correctly and you structure it correctly, it's not as disruptive as you perceive it might be. People will take time to get used to a new system, and that's where preparation planning comes in,

and implementation plays its part. What's our overall thoughts? Well, cloud accounting is not just reserved for large companies or people who are tech-savvy. It's accessible, it's affordable, it saves time and money. It adds to the efficiency and productivity. It's secure, and in a world that is moving to where digital is more prevalent, cloud accounting is a no-brainer.

It's a smart and practical choice for any business looking to stay competitive, productive, efficient, manage those resources effectively, and grabbing those insights into what's going on in the business. Folks, I hope you got some benefit from this. If you'd like to find out more about cloud accounting and how it can help you, check out the show notes for our free guide

on this, feel free to drop me a line until then, happy cloud accounting. We hope you enjoyed this episode and appreciate you taking the time to listen to the show. We hope you got some value. If you did, then we'd love it if you shared the episode. We look forward to you joining us next week for another I Hate Numbers episode.