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What are you waiting for?

July 9, 2015
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What are you waiting for?


I have two sons aged 7 and 9. They have never known a world without touchscreen computers and tablets – born into the touchscreen generation! Apple released the iPad into the UK in 2010 and the use of these and fellow competitor tablets are now common place in the average family’s day to day life.

My kids love their tablets, although a little too much sometimes! My eldest son plays an online game called Minecraft on his. This is a virtual “Lego block” world, where the user can build stone castles, mine for iron to construct swords and then defend himself against a host of monsters, including something called a creeper! This game is huge at present with tens of millions of players, mainly aged 7 to 15.

My 9 year old will even use YouTube to watch videos of other people playing Minecraft. He says it helps him learn new ideas on how to construct new buildings, visit new worlds in the game and how to defend himself against the game’s monsters.

He is learning how to link the game to other devices, play online with friends, through multiplayer servers. Everything is mobile, instant access. Everything is connected in my son’s world.

Even my sons’ schools are realising the potential of the use of tablets within the family life – providing access to online sites for reading and maths revision resources. The schools monitor what each child has completed and direct further targets.

I’ve read that the average mobile phone user touches their phone on average 150 times a day using it for calls, texting, Twitter, Facebook, internet access, emails and accessing apps. It is interesting to note that taking calls on your mobile has been found now only to be the sixth most regular use of it!

Wearable tech is the next big thing. Smart watches such as the Apple Watch, are now accessing the data on your smartphones. Sony and Google are now developing glasses for the mass market next. All this allows further instant access to data.

So it begs the question as to why is your accounting system still only accessible from your office desktop computer at work? Why can’t you access it through cloud accounting, 24-7 through your tablet or smart phone?

Cloud accounting uptake is growing apace, allowing multiple users to access the same up to date accounting information instantaneously to collaborate and make informed business decisions quicker.

Cloud accounting is developing in much the same way as your mobile phone has.  Allowing you to purchase business apps which sync with your cloud system. These apps can range from simply payroll processing systems, OCR systems helping to scan and capture your expense claims through your phone to process directly into your accounts system, to data analytics and reporting systems that notify you instantly of KPIs.

Cloud accounting can integrate directly with your external bank to seamlessly download your daily bank transactions into your accounts system. Thus allowing you to interrogate your company cashflow position and make timely purchasing and capital expenditure decisions quicker.

Cloud accounting will allow you to invoice, receive and accept payments online. Your sales ledger will be updated up to the moment with the automatic bank feeds. This automation of sales invoicing will ultimately allow you to get paid faster, save you time and allow you to devote more time chasing overdue invoices.

Cloud accounting is here to stay, so if you need advice on getting your accounts system into the cloud then please contact Barnes Roffe LLP. As Gwen Stefani would say, “what you waiting, what you waiting, what you waiting for?”

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