Right Networks & QuickBooks Online are two popular solutions to store client financial files.

Clients may choose to pay a subscription to an online “Software as a Service (SaaS)” bookkeeping manager such as QuickBooks Online or Xero. While SaaS bookkeeping tools are growing more robust each year, they are not as complete or powerful (in my opinion for certain tasks) as the classic desktop versions of the software. For this reason, many clients find it more beneficial to maintain their desktop versions and store them in secure environments, such as Right Networks, that allow for simultaneous multiple user access.

I had a client several years ago that stored his QuickBooks desktop file on his office laptop. Each month I traveled to his office and worked off of his laptop to update and reconcile his books. This practice not only tied up his work computer, but the laptop was old, not user friendly, and had no auto-backup plan. The client also had to process his payroll, customer invoicing, and other bookkeeping functions from the same laptop.

After some time, I was finally able to convince my client of the benefits of subscribing to an actual QuickBooks hosting solution, so I migrated all his bookkeeping files to Right Networks. Now he and some of his employees are able to access QuickBooks Desktop (and other files and MS functions) concurrently in a secure environment. I don’t know what ever became of that old laptop, and I never asked.

I had another client that used an old office computer with no auto-backup plan to maintain their bookkeeping files. This client had an in-house bookkeeper to maintain the books daily. For some reason, the client began making backups and duplicate copies of the master file. They would then get these copies mixed up and would enter data on different copies of their main QuickBooks Desktop file. They called me to help them find out why data would “go missing.” After months of continuously fixing these problems and pleading with them to implement a better solution, the client conceded to an actual organized hosting platform solution. Now multiple backups and mix-ups are a memory of their past and their data no longer goes missing.