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Many software today are based and work exclusively on the Cloud. This means that in order to use them, one has to create one's own user account and enter one's own login credentials, with no need for local installation. It also means, however, that everything done on the Cloud, including the user's data and documents, are saved on the service provider's servers.
Banana Accounting Plus works with your Cloud
Banana Accounting Plus does not have its own Cloud, but allows you to work with yours! The programme is installed on your computer and works locally. We opted for this choice, because we believe that accounting data is particularly sensitive. Our company has no access to user data.
Save data wherever you want
Your data and accounting files belong exclusively to you. In Banana Accounting, each accounting year usually constitutes a separate file, in .ac2 format.
With Banana Accounting Plus you can freely choose where to save your data: locally, on external devices, on Cloud systems such as Dropbox, iCloud, Onedrive, GoogleDrive, to share them with others.
In Banana Accounting, saving your files on the Cloud is therefore one possibility among many, a free choice.
Save your Banana files on the Cloud
With Banana Accounting Plus you can keep your accounting files on the Cloud using any Cloud data management system. Total freedom of choice, without any additional cost.
- You can choose the Cloud service you prefer:
- Dropbox, Apple iCloud, Microsoft OneDrive, GoogleDrive or any other public service.
- Your own private Cloud .
- If you already have an active Cloud service, you won't have additional charges in order to work.
- Your accounting data will always be accessible.
- Even if the subscription to Banana Accounting Plus expires, your data will always remain in your possession and be accessible.
- With the Free plan of Banana Accounting Plus you can always read and print the contents of the files.
- You can keep copies on any support or computer, in order to comply with the requirements of the law for keeping and archiving accounting data.
- You can store and share any type of file:
- Accounting files
- Slip files or other documents that you link to transaction rows.
- Other Excel, Word, letter, photo or other files that are related to accounting.
- You can share data with others
- Use the sharing features of your Cloud provider.
- You can have multiple people accessing the data.
- You can assign permissions, read only or write.
- Data can be accessed directly from the web.
- You can keep the accounts even if you don't have an active internet connection.
The limitation you have with Banana is that only one person at a time can modify the same accounting file. If more than one person saves the modifications there is a conflict that can result in data loss. It is therefore an ideal solution for small teams.
Set up Cloud data management service
To set up the Cloud service you have to follow the instructions given by your provider. As a rule, the procedure is as follows:
- Create the account through the cloud service.
- Install the cloud data access program on your computer.
- You will be asked for the data to access your Cloud account.
- This program will create a local folder.
- In this folder the program will synchronize the data with the Cloud system.
- When you make changes locally they will be automatically replicated to the Cloud or other devices you are connected to.
- If you don't have a Cloud connection you can still work on your files. When you reconnect, the program will re-synchronise your files.
- The Cloud system allows you to specify which folders and files to sync automatically.
- You can access the files both from your computer and from mobile devices.
- Install the Banana Accounting Plus software on your computer.
- In the local folder of the cloud service:
- Create the folder for your company or accounting.
- When you create a new accounting file, save it under the folder you have created.
- Create sub-folders to best organise your accounting data.
- Your data will then be automatically synchronized in the Cloud.
- You can create other folders for other firms or organizations.
- Create the folder for your company or accounting.
Share your data folder with others
All Cloud systems offer the ability to share data with others, a feature that can be useful for a small business or association. To share data with others, the procedure is as follows:
- Create an account with the Cloud service you use (this is usually free).
- Go to the folder you want to share.
- With the sharing functionality indicate the email of the user to whom access should be granted.
- You can share with as many people as you wish.
- You can assign access permissions (read only, write).
- All subfolders will also be shared automatically.
- With the sharing functionality indicate the email of the user to whom access should be granted.
- The user can access the data:
- Via the web interface
- By installing the data synchronization client on your computer
- The data will be synchronized between the different users.
- Attention: do not modify a file at the same time.
Manage multiple companies and share data with clients
If you manage more than one company, it is better to organize the folders to facilitate sharing with others. Here we suggest you a possible organization of data, you can obviously choose the structure that you think more suitable.
- In the local folder of your Cloud system create separate folders for each of your customers.
- For each customer create two sub-folders:
- Internal - Where you can save the data you don't want to share.
- Shared-[CompanyName]
- Save here the files that you want to share with your customer.
- Also indicate the company name, so your customer can recognize it
- Share the Shared folder with your client, using the system provided by the Cloud service.
Cloud usage by accountants
If you're an accountant and you work with your client to keep their books, Cloud systems can help you make the process very easy.
You generally have two options:
- The client has its own Cloud service and then shares the data with you.
- You have a Cloud system on which you save client data and share the folder with the client.
Important: Data backup service
Working with a data synchronization system is like working with a network system. When a user deletes a file or folder from their local computer, automatically the file or folder is also deleted from the Cloud . Similarly, if someone overwrites the data, the previous data is lost.
Therefore, it is important that you have a backup service:
- Check for how long your Cloud provider keeps copies of your deleted data. The duration may vary depending on the plan you choose.
- The system can also help you guard against hardware defects or ransomware attacks.
- It can be useful to have a local backup system, which also saves your data to disk.
- A system that prevents data deletion, with simple commands, is preferable.