“I will NOT put my clients information in the cloud!” wrote a bookkeeper, on the cloud, in a forum where we all have our information stored. I still occasionally hear comments like that. But it was surprising coming from a bookkeeper.
The bookkeeper went on to say that she had to run her accounting business even if the internet is down. It is possible to do bookkeeping without the internet, with older software, paper ledgers or even an abacus. I know business owners who are able to keep all of their accounts in their head. I am trained to “meet the client were they are” and develop support systems around whatever method is working best for them. But when it comes to dealing with the government, banks, the courts, insurance companies, accountants and attorneys, and so on, all of the information exchange will be conducted online through cloud-based servers that store our information.
Back in 1995 when I build my first online business we often heard “I will not give my credit card information online!”. Times have changed. Now, whenever we talk about doing business without the internet, that conversation falls under the topic “disaster preparedness” and is not part of business strategy or planning. I’m not saying that disaster preparedness is not valuable. I’m just saying that this is no way to run a business day to day.
So here we are in 2022: the hot topics in bookkeeping now tend to be escalating prices, lack of skilled personnel, using mobile platforms and integration with other business systems. Seldom do we hear from someone who intends to avoid all of this. We are ready with alternatives if it happens. But most of our contribution will be helping clients to gain efficiency and dealing with fears as they arise.