One of the big advantages of web-based software solutions is that you can access them from any internet connection. If you don’t plan to file your sales and use tax from the beach, is there still a benefit to using a web-based sales tax software solution? We’ve found that virtually every business benefits from web-based sales tax filing solutions. Web-based software has nearly no setup or maintenance time, no requirement for IT involvement, increased reliability, and lower ownership cost compared to server-based sales tax software. Is a web-based sales tax filing solution right for your company? Pros of Web-based Software, Web-based software has a lower upfront cost than setting up an on-premise server-based solution.
On-premise solutions can mean having to buy a server, an expensive software package, and licenses for all your users. There’s usually a cost to have your IT department set it all up, too. Web-based software doesn’t require that up-front investment. You can set up the software yourself and don’t have to buy any special equipment or packages to be able to use web-based software. On top of an easier startup, maintaining web-based software is a breeze since the provider implements all the updates and routine maintenance tasks. Web-based software means no more IT hours fixing problems and implementing updates that might not even fix the problem you’re having. If your office has ever had to stop doing a task because your software was not updated or failed you’ve experienced the downside to having on-premise software. Instead of waiting for IT to fix it and missing a deadline, a web-based solution is dependable and places control with the department dedicated to doing taxes.
Web-based clients process as fast as your internet connection can load the information on the page–for most people this means faster than you can blink. And since most offices already have an existing internet connection that’s capable of working with web-based software, you don’t have to buy any new equipment to make your software work correctly. It’s misleading to think that server-based software is a one-time cost because there are a lot of ongoing maintenance and running costs that can be a lot more than a subscription to web-based software. For instance, you’ll have to pay IT to spend time to make sure it’s up and running consistently, you’ll need to pay for updates and new versions of your software, and you’ll likely have to make manual monthly updates to your tax rate tables.
There are a lot of uncontrolled costs you might not think to forecast with server-based systems. On top of increased cost, there’s a lot of potential for loss of reliability with a server-based solution. If your IT department is overworked and doesn’t have time to get to your problem today, it can mean filing your sales and use tax late and incurring penalties. If your IT department doesn’t implement the sales tax database rate changes consistently, you might be collecting the incorrect rate and not even know it until you’re audited. Server-based filing solutions leave a lot of room for failure and your company can suffer because of unreliable maintenance. Web-based software is faster, easier to manage, and less costly, which means you can use resources to do other things than maintain your software. All of our sales tax solutions are web-based and take full advantage of technology, redundancy, and safeguards providing a preferred option to costly and integrated server-based solutions.
