Category: Cloud Computing

Moving Your Accounting System to the Cloud

When your accounting system is hosted on a local server in your office building, the data is readily accessible.
There are few restrictions on importing and exporting segments of data upon need. Both access time and speed are
relatively reasonable.

When you shift your accounting system to the cloud, especially in a co-hosted environment, restrictions are set for both time and speed of accessibility. Store on the “cloud”, your data access is only as fast as the bandwith of your internet connection. Many accounting system hosts are restrictive on allowing you to front load a lot of historical data to their system, even though it is your own private installation. Co-hosting, after all, means you are sharing the server, even though a separate partition, with other businesses. This takes a toll on the pipeline to the co-hosted server.

Some cloud-based accounting systems have awkward data record layouts and don’t want to be taxed into figuring out how to convert your older, historical sales, purchases and financial information into their layouts. It’s not just their fear of scaring you about the costs to do so, but that it ties up their time in doing these conversions. They want cookie cutter operations. They want the majority of their clients to conform to their off-the-shelf programming. It’s easier to support and when updates are made available it can be deployed to many clients with less hassle.

The above is not to discourage you to consider moving your accounting system to the cloud but rather to be aware of all issues related to the move. If you need someone to help you navigate this transition, give us a call. We only have more than 35 years experience with business accounting systems.


Give us a call at 773-502-5771 or email us at info@lteren.com as a step in the right direction to overcoming concerns you have in your undertaking.

Accounting Software Pricing Options

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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Can Accounting Software Be Put on a Cloud and What is a Cloud Anyway?

The ‘cloud’ is the current darling of the high tech world. It is creating jobs for some and taking away for others. Think of the cloud as a rented web server. Instead of maintaining your own equipment, you rent an ip addressable server at a remote location.


Businesses put their computer systems on clouds for two main reasons:

1. Less maintenance cost.
2. Equal access to all.

Less Maintenance Cost

Software applications are installed and run on a computer located in a remote location rather than on your property. No need to own and maintain expensive equipment.

You will need, though, a high speed and large bandwith internet connection to satisfy the reliability of access. No need to hire a staff of expensive hardware support employees for on-site assistance. Hardware and network services are taken care of by the cloud hosting company.

Equal Access to All

Less need to be concerned what type of computer the user has. Everyone uses similar scripts to access the same software.

When the new version of Excel or Word or Access is made available, the remote cloud support personnel install it hassle free.

What are the negatives?

If your internet connection goes down, you cannot access the cloud. If your software is installed on a local computer, then whether the internet is working or not is a moot point.

You need to make sure that your application can be loaded readily onto the cloud. You should never accept a cloud service that tells you that you need to send the installation cd to their location. The cloud service must give you a way to insert the cd in a local workstation and mount it (or connect) to their server.

Do not expect the cloud support staff to have knowledge of your business applications. Their job is to support and maintain the server and network services on which it is hosted.

Accounting Software

Accounting software can be put on the cloud. Don’t expect the cloud support personnel to help you unless they also happen to be authorized support for the accounting system. The advantage of putting your accounting system on the cloud is when you have many users who are at different locations and need a simple way to access it as readily as anyone else.

For more information, call (773) 502-5771 .
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