Skip to main content

Mobile accounting - Is it the future

(Image credit: Image source: Shutterstock/ESB Professional)

Digitalization has changed the face of the accounting industry. It has offered more flexibility and mobility to the tasks, which in turn has increased the productivity of accounting professionals.

One of the most effective processes to drive this change in the industry is Mobile Accounting.

What is mobile accounting?

Mobile Accounting is the ability to access financial and other business-related information through any mobile device like smartphones, laptops, or tablets to accomplish accounting tasks from anywhere and at any time.

It constitutes software and services that can be accessed through mobile apps or directly through internet browsers. The trend of mobile accounting is only growing with time. Here are a few points that explain why it is the future of the accounting industry:

Anytime, anywhere access

Accounting professionals need constant access to their files, applications, and other business data to keep the books updated. However, being limited to the physical desktops can slow down the work processes, which can further lead to missed deadlines.

Mobile accounting helps overcome this restriction as it enables remote access to the data at any time. Even if there is an urgent task that needs immediate attention, one doesn’t need to travel to the office to complete it.

Accountants can work on the go from any internet-connected devices like smartphones, laptops, and desktops to serve their customers better. It helps improve productivity and save a lot of traveling time.

Better monitoring

Keeping track of the day-to-day tasks is a crucial part of running an accounting business. However, it becomes difficult to manage everyday tasks and keep a tab of the workflow along with it.

With the help of mobile accounting, one can monitor all the activities, cash flow, and balance. Moreover, the client’s transaction history can also be accessed directly for better bank reconciliation. There’s no need to contact financial institutes each time when working with invoices or transactions.

It will further save a lot of time and increase transparency between clients and accountants.

Team collaboration

Accountants, tax professionals, CPAs, and other stakeholders need to come together to accomplish various financial tasks. Collaborating on the accounting process becomes challenging when the team is working from remote locations.

Mobile accounting provides a platform where the accounting team can share, access, and edit any file at the same time. It supports various devices so that everyone can connect on the same file and documents without worrying about system configurations. This setup helps save the cost of massive infrastructure.

Streamlined process

Managing key activities, such as budgeting, bookkeeping, creating reports, business data analysis, and financial advisory are some of the significant tasks that accounting professionals have to accomplish daily.

Working with mobile apps and devices helps to streamline everyday jobs and improve efficiency.

According to a survey by Software Advice, there are multiple features for professionals to adopt mobile accounting in which time tracking tops the list. Some of the most significant reasons to adopt mobile accounting include:

Most of the mobile accounting software enables daily reminders to prevent missing crucial deadlines.

It is much more convenient to use a smartphone to keep the record of bills and invoices by clicking photographs that can further be stored in accounting software.

It helps to automate tax calculations, recurring billings, and more.

File sharing is more convenient with the mobile accounting process. The same file is shared and modified on the cloud that reduces ambiguity. It helps to further organize the data seamlessly.


The cost of deploying and maintaining infrastructure to achieve work smoothly can cost a fortune to the firms. Moreover, hiring an additional team to manage different resources is a challenge in itself.

Adopting mobile technology reduces the capital and operational expenses of running an accounting business. As there is no need to set-up hardware resources, the maintenance cost is cut off.

Hence, the requirement of hiring the IT team to do the task is also eliminated. Moreover, the ability to store information on the mobile device also reduces the demand for keeping physical cabinets. It further helps decrease paper usage and the need to buy other stationery items.

Enhanced security

Accounting firms often hold some of the most sensitive information of clients. Hence, it comes as no surprise that they are often victims of financial frauds, cyber-attacks, identity theft, etc.

Mobile accounting helps to regulate business data in order to mitigate the chances of loss due to the threats. Most of the mobile accounting software are cloud-based technology. They provide regular backups, data encryption, authorization system, and more to safeguard any information. Therefore, even if the device is lost, information can be retrieved from anywhere and at any time.

Integrated environment

In order to run an accounting business smoothly, one requires easy access to software and information at all times. Booting laptops or desktops to check details every minute can take up a lot of time.

Making a switch to mobile accounting allows accountants to incorporate tech-savvy methods into the system. It improves functionality and makes the financial tasks simpler. It also helps to integrate different applications so that professionals can work to maintain accurate and up-to-date data at all times.

Moreover, if the software is browser-based or managed on the cloud, it takes up minimum mobile storage space. It ensures that the application doesn’t lag, and there are no performance issues.

Instant updates

Accounting software providers roll out updates regularly to improve functionality and fix any possible bugs. Therefore, it is crucial to update the application regularly for uninterrupted workflow.

Mobile accounting automates this process so that downloading and updating new fixes without any hassles. Additionally, there is no need to store local backup for any update.

In conclusion

Mobile accounting is a one-stop solution to all the business needs in today’s digital era. The flexibility and mobility benefits offered in the process helps streamline the workflow. It also provides environment-friendly solutions by minimizing the use of papers and the emission of carbon-footprints.

Mobile accounting’s popularity is only growing with time. Hence, it is here to stay, and accounting professionals need to adopt this practice to gain a competitive edge.

Sharad Acharya, technical content writer, Ace Cloud Hosting

Sharad Acharya is a technical content writer at Ace Cloud Hosting, a renowned accounting and business application hosting provider. When not writing about the latest developments in cloud, VDI, and cybersecurity, he loves to watch movies and ride bikes. You can follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.