In today’s ever-changing business climate, a new pricing option has emerged for the purchase of accounting software:
This new rental or monthly subscription concept has emerged due to the utilization of the “cloud” as the storage device of preference. The “cloud” is not a special place. It is just another name for web-based servers. Rather than maintain one’s sensitive business data on a local computer or server, space is rented on a remote server addressable via Internet protocol addressing. The benefit is that the cloud host is responsible for making sure access is available twenty-four hours a day. The cloud people maintain your data backup as well.
Try to purchase Microsoft Office® or Intuit’s QuickBooksTM today. You are steered to an online, cloud hosted solution. For Office 365, the pricing goes from $5 to $15 a month. Extended to a full year, it can be a $60 to $180 expenditure. This may not seem like much but until a short time ago, you could buy an Office product for no more than $150 and use it forever until your computer crashed and needed a new one. With the subscription model, the moment you give it up, you lose access to the program. Microsoft has you locked in. They save money on distribution costs such as dvd’s and retail outlet stores sharing the profits.
Quick Books on-line cloud model is priced from $10 to $40 a month subscription depending on how many features you need and whether it has to be multiuser capable.
The limitation of QuickBooks is that it is not customizable. Well, maybe it is but the source code is made available only to those software consulting firms that are producing add-ons for a large base of users and not just one user’s enhancement need.
The jump in pricing from QuickBooks to a more robust accounting software product can be quite dramatic. With QuickBooks you are spending less than $500 a year. Getting a more involved accounting product may cost a business from $10,000 on the low end to $200,000 on the upper reaches.
The vast majority of small businesses can get away with using QuickBooks. At such a relatively low expense, they can better afford to pay for someone to help them set up their in-house accounting system and seek this outside advice when needed. The outside help more likely will not be the regular cpa as his or her hourly rate may be more expensive compared to an experienced business computer consultant.
Those businesses that need the customized solution have usually already sold themselves on the emotional aspect of spending more than they would like to. This is akin to buying a new car. You know when you need one and you bite the bullet as best as possible.
You are looking for someone who understands your business and will help you navigate your needs. It’s your money and business on the line. Give us a call at (773)502-5771 to get you on the right track.
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