QuickBooks Online or Desktop: Which offers real-time data safeguards, accessibility, and collaboration for your small business?

As a small business owner, keeping your financial data protected is a top priority. Many small business owners store their data on local hard drives without regular backups, which can potentially lead to loss of important data and interruption in business operations.

If you’re a small business owner concerned with the security of your financial data you should consider a cloud-based software like QuickBooks Online which offers security measures such as data encryption, regular backups, and secure servers.*

With QuickBooks Online, customers have the ability to access financial data from anywhere and role-based permissions allow access to  team members in real-time letting small businesses streamline their financial management processes and help improve overall productivity.

However, you may not yet be convinced, and feeling apprehensive about making the move from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online because you’re hesitant to move your data online. If that's the case, you're not alone, many small business owners share these concerns.

Let’s consider some real-life examples, to help explore the top ways QuickBooks Online can help you focus on optimizing your business while removing the stress of data management and provide greater security, accessibility, and collaboration opportunities.

1. Boosting Your Peace of Mind with QuickBooks Online's Security Measures

One of the most common concerns when it comes to cloud storage is security. How can you ensure your financial data is safe from hackers, malware, or other external threats? The truth is, data stored on your desktop computer may be at heightened risk of theft, damage, or loss, compared to being stored on a well-equipped cloud server. Let’s discuss how moving to the cloud may improve the protection of your data. 

For Desktop users, conducting manual backups and security updates can be time-consuming and costly. Data backups are prone to human error. To ensure that the security of data is paramount, small business owners may need to monitor the security of their software manually or invest in additional security measures such as firewalls, antivirus software, and regular software updates, which can become costly and time-consuming. Moreover, accidental damage to a hard drive or computer theft may result in the loss of crucial financial information. 

By moving to QuickBooks Online, you'll benefit from built-in security features that can help protect your financial information, including automatic data backups to provide you with peace of mind in case of accidental loss or damage to your computer. QuickBooks Online also uses 128-bit SSL encryption, which can help protect your data from hackers and other intruders. 

Every small business is always focused on saving time and money to maximize profit. One of the primary benefits of QuickBooks Online is its automatic, off-site storage for your financial data included in your software package. This means you don’t need to worry about maintaining physical backup copies or investing in costly infrastructure to store your data: every time there's an update to the software, it's automatically implemented -- saving you time and money on both software upgrades, data storage or additional third party IT expenditures. 

When it comes to handling unforeseen events such as a sudden computer crash or other uncontrollable incidents, it can be difficult for you to access your financial data if you are working on QuickBooks Desktop. For instance, let's say you work in a small accounting office using QuickBooks Desktop to manage your accounting information. Unfortunately, an unexpected fire breaks out in the building after hours, and all the computers are destroyed, including yours. The financial situation is urgent, and you need access to your data or documents immediately. With the business data stored locally, it may take considerable time and cost to recover or recovery may not be possible at all.

With QuickBooks Online, your data is stored in the cloud, which may help with removing dependency on a specific device or location. You can access your financial data from anywhere, at any time, on any other computer right away with a supported browser and an internet connection (high-speed recommended)*. Unforeseen events can happen at any time -- QuickBooks Online's flexibility and reliability provide you with peace of mind in these unexpected times, allowing you to maintain control over your business' financial information.

2. Empowering Your Remote Team with QuickBooks Online's Data Accessibility

Another large challenge for small businesses on QuickBooks Desktop is access to data whenever and wherever to keep business running smoothly. Small business owners who use QuickBooks Desktop may face difficulties working remotely or collaborating with team members as access to data is limited to the desktop computer or local network where the file is saved. This often requires team members to be in the same location physically which isn’t always possible for small business owners who travel often or have employees working remotely. Not being able to access data from anywhere also prevents team members from remotely working and collaborating with the rest of the team without physically going to the office.

QuickBooks Online allows you to control who accesses your data, what data can see and what they can do with it.  Specifically, you can grant unique user log-ins and permissions for different roles in the company empowering your remote workforce. This means you can limit employee access to specific areas of the system based on their job function. QuickBooks Online also offers additional security features, such as two-factor authentication, ensuring that there is no unauthorized access to your data.  For example, your part-time contractor can access the system to enter their working hours, but they won't have access to the company's financial reports. This helps ensure that designated information is only accessible to those who need it, and sensitive data is protected from unauthorized access. 

As a small business you want to also be able to hold employees accountable for their actions.  The Always-On Activity Log and Audit Trail features of QuickBooks Online help ensure the security and accountability of your financial transactions. With these features, you'll have a reliable paper trail of every action taken by your employees within the system. This means you can trace any transaction back to its source and hold employees accountable for their actions. Imagine having a record of every login and change made to your QuickBooks Online account. For example, if your sales team makes changes to customer information, you can now track those changes with ease.  With these features, you can be confident in the security of your data and the accountability of your employees anytime, anywhere.

3. Boosting Team Productivity and Collaboration

With QuickBooks Online your team can work together allowing multiple users to access their QuickBooks data simultaneously, helping enable collaboration and teamwork in real-time from anywhere, at any time.**

Imagine that you have two employees working on a project, each with different responsibilities. With QuickBooks Online, they can access financial data and work together on the same project with ease. One employee can work on invoicing while the other manages payment processing, without needing to communicate constantly about where they are up to. This can help with efficient and continuous collaboration between team members, which can help save your business time and money.

Let's say that one of your employees is out in the field and needs to send an invoice to a client right away. They can open QuickBooks Online and create the invoice, then send it to the customer straight from their phone. The customer can pay the invoice onsite instantly by using QuickBooks Online's GoPayment app**.  The invoice is also immediately sent to your finance team, who can see it in real-time for tracking and follow-up. This efficient way of invoicing and payment processing not only lets you get paid fast but it also helps save your business time and money.

Empower each team member by giving them access to the information they need from their device, whether it is a phone or laptop, without compromising security. QuickBooks Online removes barriers to collaboration, streamlining teamwork and productivity. Make the switch to QuickBooks Online and see why this platform helps teams be more efficient and collaborative. 

If you're still hesitant about moving your financial data online, just remember that QuickBooks Online offers many benefits that are hard to ignore. Greater data protection than desktop, accessibility, ease of collaboration, time and cost savings are not just buzzwords, but real-life advantages that can help you focus on running your business. If you have specific questions, call our sales team at (844) 847-8609 to help get the answers you need.

By implementing real-life solutions for your small business's accounting needs, you can be in a better position to stay ahead of the competition and make data-driven decisions. So why wait? Give QuickBooks Online a try today and see how it can help take your business to the next level. To learn more about making the move to QuickBooks Online, visit our dedicated website.

*However, no system is completely foolproof, and it's still possible for unauthorized access or other security threats to occur.

**QuickBooks Online mobile app works with iPhone, iPad, and Android phones and tablets. Devices sold separately; data plan required. Not all features are available on the mobile apps and mobile browser. QuickBooks Online mobile access is included with your QuickBooks Online subscription at no additional cost. Data access is subject to cellular/internet provider network availability and occasional downtime due to system and server maintenance and events beyond your control. Product registration required.

**Money movement services are provided by Intuit Payments Inc., licensed as a Money Transmitter by the New York State Department of Financial Services.  For more information about Intuit Payments' money transmission licenses, please visit https://www.intuit.com/legal/licenses/payment-licenses/.