Technology continues to drive most aspects of our culture. The business world is certainly no exception. With email, online banking, point-of-sales software, and customer management systems, cloud-based activity is becoming more and more widely used. The main concern with this type of setup is security. Cloud-based accounting software may be the most concerning to business owners because, of course, it is housing all of the businesses financial records and may be linked to several bank accounts and merchant services. So, what measures do products like QuickBooks Online take to ensure security of this sensitive information?
Intuit, maker of QuickBooks Online, uses the same technology as banks and brokerages to transmit your financial data over the internet. In fact, it is the same system used to submit tax returns to the IRS each year through TurboTax. Intuit also states, “In addition to always maintaining two copies of your data, we automatically back up your updated data every day. It’s stored on firewall protected, redundant servers so your data is safe from hardware and software failures, hackers and viruses.”
Businesses that provide cloud-based systems of any kind are focusing heavily on security and are constantly providing updates that the consumer has immediate access to, if the software doesn’t update automatically. This means that cloud-based accounting software may be even more secure than a version loaded on a computer that is constantly connected to the internet.
There are many reasons to switch to cloud-based software, such as remote access to your data, integration with online banking, and the availability of third party applications. Every device that runs a piece of software can now be connected to the internet, so there is never a 100% guarantee against hacking in any situation. However, security is less of a concern and more likely becoming one of the benefits to cloud-based accounting.