Every industry has its moments of great transformation and modernisation, when ‘the way we’ve always done it’ becomes redundant.

With the arrival of cloud-based accounting, our working world is going through a great sea-change and this is something SME owners should be delighted about.

Thanks to the functionality, the transparency and the instant nature of cloud-based accounting, it has never been simpler to see the inner workings of your business, to spot any potential weak points, to take advantage of untapped areas of opportunity, to react nimbly and to plan wisely.

As a practice we are proud to be certified in all three of the big-hitters in cloud-based accounting software – Xero, Sage One and QuickBooks. We recommend to all new clients that they take advantage of cloud-based systems and many of our established clients are moving over onto one of these three systems – with real ease.

We are all used to running our lives at the swipe of a screen – managing our bank transactions, running our central heating, logging our fitness regimes, operating our personal and social lives, all via our mobile phones and laptops. It makes little sense to operate our livelihoods via outmoded tools.

It is a simple switch to make. We sign you up to the system, train you in its operation and, of course, since it is not desktop-based you then have access to the inner workings of your business wherever and whenever you want it, via your mobile devices. Crucially, we can have similar levels of access.

This is an invaluable feature if and when any anomalies arise. If you notice any errors on a transaction or in your data we can log on, take a look, and give you real-time and precise advice. We can also access relevant information long before any tax or assessment deadlines loom large, making life far less stressful for you. We can give you valuable quarterly reports and, since the information we are accessing is real-time and forensic, it has never been easier to create tailored business plans that tap into the unique moods and temperatures of your business.

All three systems offer add-ons which allow vital business tools to work together in a fully integrated away – and to save you oodles of time. For example, Receipt Bank allows you to keep track of transactions, receipts, invoices and bills in a speedy hassle free way, Go Cardless does exactly what it says on the tin, Float, helps you to get to grips with easy cash flow forecasting, Quotient allows you to track quotes all the way through to the invoicing stage.

In short – cloud-based software takes care of those aspects of running a business that are the most time consuming, the most prone to costly errors, and the most important to master if you are running tight margins.

If you would rather be spending your precious time planning, creating, delivering and selling, rather than chasing tax deadlines, inputting data and leafing through paperwork – head for the cloud. It’s lovely up here.