Good luck! After getting the platform right and ready, celebrating in pop and fan fare, the real work begins. Convincing business uptake!
I have a few issues/questions concerning the FAQs on their website:
Can I have my data returned to me should I choose to discontinue with My Business Online?No. There is currently no single export file that can be returned to you, however, you are able to print all reports and export to Excel.
Since you already have a desktop application; Pastel, does it not make sense to make users able to revert back TO YOUR desktop product should they wish to discontinue the cloud offering. So wouldnt making an export file or files tor an interface that can make a restoration of cloud data onto the traditional Pastel make sense? So it means if a business migrates from a conventional accounting package(esp. Pastel) to your cloud offering, then discontinued, they are blasted back to the stone age. Accounting by Excel. Surely you can create something that makes this less painful. It will be targetting your very own Pastel, after all.
How do I backup my data on My Business Online?There is no need for you to back up your own data. Your data is backed up daily and all backups are stored for two weeks. Your data is further stored in two different locations accommodating multiple points of failure.
You commented on this too, in the article. Putting on the shoes of an IT person, who is going to influence a decision and have some kind of backup policy especially for financial data, I strongly believe it is important to be able to backup some sort of file or format that could then also be restored. But then thats me.
The following may be perceived obvious or naive questions/comments:
Do you retain history of the previous financial years?
You also say you do not import transactional history(just masterfile info). This would mean switching between two systems if past data is needed, if a business takes on your service, say half way through the financial year
Worth mentioning that whoever decides on this has to have A RELIABLE INTERNET CONNECTION, and POWER WHEN NEEDED.