Cloud-based Lacerte vs. Locally-Installed Lacerte – Which One is Better?

Software

Written by:

Spread the love

It is often difficult to get through tax returns in the peak tax season, considering the errors that we may make or already have made in the documents. The only support that accounting firms receive at this time is through professional tax software, such as Lacerte.

This professional tax preparation software is utilized across the globe by multiple businesses to support their tax functions, including complicated returns, e-signatures, and electronic estimates.

However, this functionality soon turns to drawbacks when you can’t access Lacerte remotely. While locally-installed Lacerte has multiple features that can be used for filing taxes, remote access helps in keeping pace with the timelines.

Source: www.shutterstock.com

If the Lacerte tool is your go-to option when it comes to taxes, then you can definitely benefit a lot from the following features of the cloud-based Lacerte. Let’s see how Lacerte cloud hosting can improve your working efficiency and enhance your operational performance.

Below we have explained why cloud-based Lacerte is better than locally-installed tax software:

1.    Every Desktop Feature

When you host your Lacerte software, it installs on the cloud server instead of your local device. It gives you access to your Lacerte software through the internet. So, your employees and other stakeholders can access this tool via computer, mobile phone, or laptop.

The installation that we just talked about doesn’t take away any feature of the desktop version. It only gives you additional features while still retaining features of the desktop application.

Therefore, you can get a similar output with internet connectivity. It improves your operational efficiency, reduces your workload, and enhances the features of your Lacerte software.

2.    Improved Interaction

When you are filing taxes, you need to share these files with a lot of people, including accountants, customers, and other tax professionals. Sharing data and interacting with stakeholders can be extremely difficult without online sharing. Depending upon the sensitivity and size of the document, you can’t always share data via email.

With cloud-based Lacerte, you can access data and share it with clients and team members without any hassle. Even when you are working remotely or sitting continents away, your clients would be able to access information, which is imperative for their business.

The user admin can handle access requests and hierarchy, where they can define which user can access what data file. It means no user can access data he or she is not meant to evaluate or use.

3.    Easier Integration

Usually, businesses need to integrate their tax software with their accounting software, such as QuickBooks, for hassle-free working. Fortunately, this integration is supported by both Lacerte and QuickBooks.

However, think about it, if you locally-install both QuickBooks and Lacerte on one computer or laptop, the storage of the system would suffer. That would slow down the working due to the heavy load.

Contrary to this, the cloud-based Lacerte can handle this load easily. This task becomes easier due to the uptime, bandwidth, and storage offered by the cloud hosting provider.

4.    Improved Reliability

The data stored by the accounting team is essential, and it is needed after multiple years of return as well. It means that in 2020, you may require tax return details of 2017 as well. For these reasons, the Lacerte tax software’s data storage keeps increasing, which a desktop-based solution can’t handle.

Apart from the storage requirements, securing this data from theft and attack in one system is difficult. Something as simple as accidental delete can make you lose your important files.

Your cloud hosting provider offers you the feasibility of storing data on the cloud safely. As your data is regularly backed up, you don’t need to worry about losing your data because of any mistake. Even if you delete your data accidentally, you can use the backup to restore files.

5.    Data Security

The data in the Lacerte solution can’t be compromised at any cost. It is obvious that the data and sensitive information stored through these tools are crucial for the business. In locally-hosted software, anyone can penetrate this data and gain access to the information in various ways. For instance, cracking the password and accessing information manually.

In cloud-hosted software, the provider relies on high-security measures for firewalls, encryption, intrusion prevention, and backups. Through automated tools, the cloud provider keeps your data safer than your in-house team.

  • Regular backups of the data are taken to various servers to keep your data safe. Therefore, in case of an issue, disaster recovery is an easy affair. You can quickly connect to a server placed in a different location to access your backed-up files.
  • There are automated controls that keep track of intrusions in your data. Any disturbance is quickly caught and mitigated.
  • You can utilize multi-factor authentication to access your data at any time. These controls help in securing from hacker’s access to your data and information.

6.    Remote Access

The whole point of hosting your Lacerte software on the cloud is to get remote access to your data. It means that wherever you go, you can access your Lacerte tools securely through encrypted keys.

You always have the feasibility to access your data on demand. There’s no need to ask someone in the office to give you access to the software remotely so that you can check details and make reports.

Overall, this function helps in serving customers betters and improving interaction and engagement abilities.

7.    High Uptime

Locally, you need to manage the uptime of your Lacerte software yourself. Your team needs to get on top of the issue and solve it at earliest. It means that when a server fails, you can face a considerable amount of downtime.

However, in the cloud-based Lacerte, you can get 99.999% uptime. It means that even when one server fails to offer you access, you get access to another server immediately, which gives you amazing uptime.

Conclusion

Of course, you can utilize every in-built feature of Lacerte with a locally-installed version as well. However, what would you do when you need remote access to your Lacerte software? Would you call someone in the office to offer your remote access through TeamViewer every time? That’s not possible.

Hence, check the above features of cloud-based Lacerte and think about hosting your professional tax software to the cloud.

Leave a Reply