There is, in-general, a lot of thinking involved when people or businesses need to adopt to a work module which is considered more effective than the ones they are comfortable using. But a mechanism that eases work pressures and assures for greater accuracy is always a smart option to switch to. The inception of cloud accounting has revolutionized the accounting industry and has helped businesses operate much smoothly and more efficiently in Real Time and Less Time.

What is Cloud Accounting?

Cloud accounting is pretty much an ONLINE accounting system. Like many online software, the software has security measures and requires user log in authentication.  The two major providers are Quick Books Online and Xero, both allowing for bank connections and automated bank feeds, online payment solutions, electronic invoicing and much more.  Cloud accounting solutions are partnered with the use of phone apps and are scalable to track multiple users and multiple business locations.  

Partner Apps Categories

The potential to customize an accounting software to a specific industry is quite robust with the use of a Cloud Accounting Software. Both QuickBooks Online and Xero have partnered with other CRM, Construction Project Management, Time Tracking, and many more Software Tools that can integrated to its central accounting software. Below are categories of apps which can be integrated: 

Some of Our Favorite Apps & Partners

SmartVault 

Smartvault is an online document management system which integrates with QuickBooks online. It allows for the organization and filing of virtual documents and helps businesses adopt a paperless system.  Each Vault is secured and can be designed to allow for access by only specified individuals within an organization.  Project and retail managers are then able to locate past vendor invoices in a few clicks without inquiring with the accounting department and  without digging through paper file folders. Software comes with a phone app allowing for documents to be loaded with a snap of a photo. 

HubDoc

Hubdoc also serves as an online document management with added abilities to retrieve and centralize all online statements including banking, check images, and vendor bills automatically every month. Hubdoc also reads documents and can push accounting entries through to the cloud accounting software while attaching a copy of the document for source reference. 

ADP

ADP is a cloud based, user friendly payroll platform with many added features to grow an organization's human resources department including an online employee self-service portal to retrieve pay stubs, and T4s. 

Knowify

Knowify is an online CRM, Job Planning, and Invoicing software which integrates with Quickbooks Online specifically designed for the construction industry. With Knowify’s estimating tool, you can plan jobs, itemize material budgets, and schedule staff to create comprehensive cost estimates. These estimates can be translated into bid line items with a single click, create bids and contracts business letterhead and send them through Knowify for electronic signature. System also is able to create service tickets and schedule technicians on work orders.

MindBody Online  

MBO's cloud POS and CRM software is tailored to businesses with recurring membership broken down into time series and class count packages. A good match for yoga, dance, and fitness studios. It has the capacity to track customers purchases, inventory, classes, visits and much more. For a full review of MBO, please refer to our blog post here:  
 

At Bloom, we are always on the look out for the latest accounting apps and software to help streamline an accounting department workflow while still maintaining the internal controls necessary to run your business.

If you have any suggestions, we'd love to hear about it. 

Cheers,

Josephreen Luk, CPA, CFP