The Pros and Cons of Online vs. Offline Accounting For Your Ad Agency

Online or Offline – There are some companies and creative agency owners who think that online accounting systems are inferior and are not as efficient as traditional software in terms of their features. That is why they only use and trust an accounting application that is installed and run in their own local server at their offices. While it is true that traditional accounting software applications installed in local servers are very efficient and rich in features, we should also look into the fact that web accounting systems are as much capable. And in some cases, they are even more efficient.

Accessing the Data/Security – While online versions are generally hosted with big companies that have at least 128bit encryption, the data is still on someone else’s server and can crash and be accessed. When you are offline you have everything local on your computer and can secure it anyway you like without depending on someone. You can also take the files with you and keep it where ever you want and with the online you can access it only if you have an internet connection. As an Ad agency, you will not always have a connection to the Net to access the web but you can have an accounting on more than one computer that can be accessed on the go.

Importing Data into your Accounting Software – If You have an online version you do not have an actual file to import into thus making importing data from your ad agency more likely to cause errors or misinterpret the file structure and not import at all.

Jeremy