The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted both our personal and professional lives in significant ways. Working from home is no longer an option, but a mandate. While the health and safety of your team is more important than anything else, business leaders must also focus on finding ways to maintain productivity and normalcy during these times of upheaval.
For many finance and accounting professionals who rely on applications installed at their corporate offices, working remotely isn’t as simple as switching meetings to video calls. Finding a secure way to run accounting and business applications from home or other remote locations poses a significant — and unprecedented — challenge. As the premier provider of cloud-based accounting services for Sage, tax software and QuickBooks, Swizznet is in a unique position to solve this challenge and help you navigate the COVID-19 crisis and prepare your company for the future of work.
What Are Hosted Accounting Services? Are They Secure?
Cloud technology has made it possible to untether ourselves from the desktop or local server (and its expensive installation and maintenance costs). Now, business professionals and accountants have the option to securely access the same Sage and QuickBooks applications they are used to using at their corporate office from anywhere at any time and on virtually any device.
In unusually challenging times such as these, it is more important than ever to stay on top of your business’ finances. Remote access to QuickBooks and Sage ensure that your business continues to operate smoothly and efficiently without sacrificing the security of your private data. When it comes to security, Swizznet goes the extra mile to ensure your accounting and business software is secure, backed up, and always available in the cloud. Working with Swizznet means you are protected by lock-solid backups, firewalls, encryption, enterprise-grade security controls, and a 99.95% uptime guarantee.
How Difficult Is It to Stand-Up Work-from-Home Access?
Fortunately, moving to hosted accounting and business software can be done quickly and with minimal effort on your end. Unlike deploying servers, applications and technology on your own, making the switch to a cloud-based accounting service does not require in-person tech support or even lengthy phone calls. In fact, you use your same existing software licenses with QuickBooks or Sage. This simplifies the process and has the added benefit of not having to learn a new software. A hosted Don’t have a QuickBooks license? No problem, Swizznet can provide you what you need.
As part of our Rapid Deployment Services, Swizznet helps you securely move your existing data to our air-tight, cloud-based servers in a matter of minutes for QuickBooks and have you ready in under a day on Sage, giving your employees instant access to everything they need to do their jobs from home.
How Do Hosted Services Support Remote Work?
Flexibility is everything. In this new environment we’re living in, full of unknowns, it’s hard to say how long the average employee will be working from a home office. It could be weeks, months, or even longer. Part of maintaining business continuity is making sure that employees can collaborate and keep up their productivity without physically interacting with one another. With hosted services, employees have access to the applications and files they need while also enabling team members to collaborate. This has made huge contributions to the move to remote work that has already been going on over the past several years. For example, if you need to answer a question for a client after hours, it’s readily available in the cloud, so you can log in from home and have the information you need at hand. Sometimes you may want to head out on time to make it home for dinner, but then log in later to wrap up a few things at home. Cloud hosting makes that possible.
Operating as a 100% remote worker company, Swizznet knows one of the most effective ways to encourage productivity is to keep things as normal as possible. This means continuing to have set hours and breaks, ramping up interpersonal communication and check-ins, and setting ground rules that every employee can follow from home. Additionally, listening to your employees and giving them the tools they need is an essential part of transitioning to a fully at-home model. For this reason, access to software and data should be at the top of your list.
Managing your finances and day-to-day operations using cloud hosting allows your remote employees to continue their work without missing a beat and still collaborate fully with one another through access to common files. Remote access means your team can now operate at the same level of efficiency and ease as if they were in the office. Plus, Swizznet’s obsessive IT support allows you to rest easy knowing that if any challenges do pop up, we’re here for you 24/7/365.
Decision makers like you have enough on their plate right now: Keeping your business and accounting software secure and easy to access doesn’t need to be one of them. Whether it’s throughout the remainder of this public health crisis, or for garnering the benefits of enabling a remote workforce, switching to remote access for QuickBooks and Sage now will set your business up for success in the long run.
For more information on making the switch, reach out to an expert at Swizznet. We fully support your efforts to improve public health by prioritizing remote work and are happy to answer any questions that can help you navigate this uncharted territory. In the meantime, stay healthy and safe.
