How cloud software can make your work simpler
Cloud software is a program that does not physically live on your computer but, as the name suggests, does not depend on local physical media. For example, when you log in to a social network, read an email or check your bank statement, you are using cloud software. Because it is managed entirely online, your data is always available from any device, greatly improving productivity and business communication.
Let's look at the 5 ways the cloud can help you in your business
1. Record any information quickly
You have surely made a purchase and left the receipt in the glovebox of your car, promising yourself you would record it when you got to the office. But how many of those receipts actually make it onto the tax return at the end of the year? Unless you record expenses as they happen, it is easy to lose receipts or forget to record them at the end of the month.
2. You can work wherever you want
Why did you decide to go self-employed? Most of the time the answer is to have freedom and flexibility in your work. That might mean taking a week of work by the sea or simply not being tied to going into the office every day.
With software installed locally it becomes very hard to run your business while you are out of the office. Imagine having to retrieve a quote or an invoice while you are on your way to a customer, or to set an appointment while you are in the car.
With cloud software you always have access to all your information wherever you are and at any time.
3. Software updates are on us
The old way of working meant buying expensive software licences and installing the programs on your own computer. Every time a new version was released you had to choose: carry on using the old version of the program and risk it becoming obsolete, or take the risk of upgrading and bear all the costs that came with it.
In addition, if the company had several workstations the update had to be done on all of them at the same time, sometimes bringing work to a temporary halt for all employees.
Cloud software has genuinely simplified, indeed removed, the problems around updates. You no longer have to worry about installing the software, updating to new versions or backing up data. All you have to do is open the software through a web browser. It is the software supplier's job to look after your data, guaranteeing you access, carrying out the backups and managing the security of the infrastructure as well as possible. You will no longer need an IT consultant to follow you and you will no longer have to face heavy up-front investment.
4. You can connect the programs and apps you use every day
You probably use several programs in your daily work. That is because there are excellent apps that meet your needs and complement each other. Integrating all the apps can certainly save you a lot of time, since the data is transferred automatically from one application to another.
Without an integration you would have to remember to log into each program and, where necessary, copy the data you need from one piece of software to another, risking transcription errors and, above all, losing a lot of time that could be spent differently.
For example, imagine taking appointments with Google Calendar when you are out of the office. By integrating the programs, when you get back to the office you find your new appointments already inside the BeebeeBoard diary. The same goes, for example, for online payments. By integrating a virtual card terminal, every time a client pays you, you can automate the accounting process and issue an invoice automatically.
5. You can easily work with colleagues and clients
Often, when communicating with colleagues or customers, you end up sending a large number of emails or making calls constantly. All these forms of collaboration can cause delays and complications in communication. Using cloud software you can work in real time with your colleagues or customers on the same documents, sharing changes, comments or problems instantly with everyone.
Every well-structured cloud software lets you manage roles for each person who accesses it. This lets you choose what the people who log in can see. A practical example is collaboration between colleagues on a client project. In this case you will necessarily have to limit how much information the client can see, while allowing our colleagues to edit only the parts of the project assigned to them.
Another example of the collaboration that cloud software makes possible is giving your accountant direct access to your accounts.
