Clear Books is accounting software that defies winter’s icy grasp. If you live in the UK you will no doubt have noticed that it has been snowing; some people are saying that it is one of coldest winters since 1963. If you need proof take a look at this picture from the BBC taken on Thursday January 7th 2010. There has been wide spread disruption across the UK as a result of this with schools and businesses having to close due to hazardous conditions. So what does snow have to do with accounting software?
An article on twitter highlighted where an accountancy firm was able to continue working even with all the snow due to the fact that all of its clients were using online accounting software. This meant that the employees of the accounting firm could log in to their clients’ accounts from the comfort of their own home and continue their work. But it is not just the accountants who get to have all the fun and keep working no matter what the weather is; there are rays of sunshine for businesses across the UK.
Business owners can now also continue keeping track of and updating their business finances with online accounting software no matter how long they are snowed in for! On a serious note despite the UK’s financial outlook improving there are a lot of businesses that are keeping a very cautious eye on their bottom line, which means that being able to access their accounting software is crucial no matter what the weather is. The fact that you are no longer tied to one computer when doing your accounts means that you no longer have to be chained to your office desktop to work.
With email, accounting software that you can access online, and other cloud applications such as Google Docs in place there is no reason why many small businesses cannot still operate even if snowed in. Other services such as VOIP (think Skype) and Google Talk mean that you can communicate with clients and colleagues from anywhere regardless of the weather.
Here at Clear Books on Wednesday some of us could not get in to work due to the snow but this didn’t actually affect the business since we can all work remotely, mostly thanks to Google Apps, which will be reassuring for our users to hear. There is one downside to all of this productivity… not being able to re-create the childhood joy of a snow day as it is increasingly easy to work form home.
At the time of writing this it looks like there may well be more snow on the way for the UK and just to add to the panic which is being whisked up by the UK press the salt is running low. This means only one thing: Small business owners need to move their accounting online!
