The benefits of online bookkeeping

Shelim Rahman, partner and head of innovation, communication and IT at accountants and business advisors Beever and Struthers, urges businesses not to let their judgement be clouded when considering online bookkeeping.

As a technology-aware practice embracing the digital revolution to benefit our clients we welcome ongoing developments in cloud accounting systems - or online bookkeeping as they’re also known - because such systems allow owner-managed businesses to run their finances anytime, anywhere using any electronic device.

Offering such ‘on the go’ ease of access, process automation and greater knowledge of their operations via ‘dashboards’ with real time information and tailored Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), the systems help business owners to work more closely with their accountants who can also access the financial information online to give real-time help and advice.

Another key benefit for such growing businesses of having their accounts ‘in the cloud’ is that the technology will help them to enjoy a smooth transition to HMRC’s planned Digital Tax Accounts and Quarterly Reporting regime scheduled to start from 2018.

To enhance our already well-established IT credentials, we recently announced a pioneering partnership with Xero, the UK’s leading cloud accounting platform and are in the process of migrating several clients to Xero and investing in getting members of our team Xero-certified.

Beever and Struthers is already a platinum partner with Intuit’s QuickBooks Online (QBO) and our partnership with Xero offers clients access and expertise to the two biggest UK providers of cloud accounting software.

We have an array of clients operating in the hi-tech service delivery environment from PR, design and marketing agencies to engineering design and architects to IT support and web hosting companies.

A common thread throughout these businesses is how their internal systems are integrated with third party platforms and how advanced they are in adopting cloud solutions and storage. The ability to bring the accounting function on to this cloud platform is proving invaluable to such businesses and indeed to Beever and Struthers as we continue to strive to achieve better for all of our valued clients.