For the second time in as many months my desktop PC has had a senior moment.  To be fair to the poor old thing, it’s had a long and eventful life and at its age should probably sitting with its casing up and resting on some PC doctors slab.  Luckily, despite my microscopic size in business terms, I’m not too worried.  A few years ago an apparently infected and terminally grumpy PC would have been a nightmare in business terms.  Unlike a large firm (any company with more than one employee in my case) I don’t have ready access to an IT team, or even an admin assistant.  That’s the problem for small firms; yes, small is beautiful but it can be a real headache when things go wrong.  However, cloud computing rocks and if you’re not already using it then what’s stopping you? 

Hard to Fix Drives

My favourite cloud tool, probably of all time, is my cloud drive; this backs up, in real time, all of my data.  In my case that involves work in progress, document templates and the like.  Basically any document I might need to hand at any time, in any place is just a click or two away.  This has been a life saver on at least two occasions, the worst being a couple of months ago when the geriatric PC got a really nasty infection while I was merrily working my way through a set of articles.  By virtue of the beloved cloud drive only the article I was working on sustained any damage – and even then I only lost a paragraph or two.  My business continuity plan may not be complex, but it works.  One spare mobile broadband Wi-Fi, a laptop and smart phone and despite the potential major business failure, all was calmly (ish) dealt with. 

Money managers

Next up comes cloud accounting.  Accounting and invoicing are not, strangely, my favourite tasks.  Until recently I’ve been using the spreadsheet/word document formula that many businesses have had in place since the dawn of time.  I’ve friends who use this system too and it seems to be the default state for most small start-up firms.  Accounting software seems a big investment when you’re starting out, as does an accountant.  However, both are worth it.  I didn’t start out with an accountant when I first set up but since employing the services of one I’ve found that I can make back what I spend in tax allowances, which is always nice.  In terms of cloud accounting I’m using a basic package, which being hosted remotely is maintained without any hassle for me.  Invoice production and expenses logging are straightforward and I don’t have to spend time messing about with my spreadsheet formulas and wondering why things don’t appear to add up anymore!   Obviously the invoices are stored online, which means no loss of data in the event of the PC failing.

Gathering Clouds

Although my computing needs are basic there are a whole range of cloud tools available to firms of any size, which allows even the smallest to access the benefits of complex software that would normally be the preserve of big firms.  Depending on the type of firm you run, and the industry you work in, most software can now be provided via the cloud online.  In addition to the obvious advantages in terms of accessibility and back up, cloud computing offers particularly useful tools for those who need to be on the move for work.  Access to both cloud accounting software and document drives makes completing small tasks simple and feasible when you have the time, rather than having to make time back at the office or home. 

Author Bio

 Carlo Pandian is a freelance writer and blogs about small business, accountancy and technology covering everything from cloud accounting to social media management software. From cloud accounting to data back up the advances in cloud technology make staying in business a real possibility, whatever your IT equipment has in store for you!