The cloud enables accountants to work any time, any place, any where

The summer holiday season is upon us, but how many accountants completely cut off from work when they go away? Not many, if the results of a recent survey of financial professionals are indicative of the sector as a whole.

E-conomic questioned just under 500 finance professionals and discovered that 43% of accountants stay in touch with work even when they’re on holiday so that they don’t face a major backlog when they go back. And of course the advent of cloud computing has made it very easy to check e-mails and access financial documents remotely. Interestingly, some accountants said work was less stressful than spending time with their family!

56% of the survey’s respondents admitted to taking their Smartphone on holiday, whilst only 4% said they took no form of mobile communication device. A massive 91% said they did call the office at least once while they were away and 30% made it a weekly occurrence. Furthermore, 65% made themselves available to accept work related calls.

When it comes to taking work away with them, 31% said they did exactly that and 29% of all respondents admitted accessing cloud based applications on holiday.

The government is keen to promote a healthy work/life balance but the results of the survey suggest that accountants find it difficult to cut off completely from the work environment. One respondent said that “Spending a few minutes a day checking my e-mails gives me the peace of mind to enjoy the rest of the day.” And that’s a good point. There’s nothing to be gained from going on holiday and spending the entire time worrying about work.

But is it healthy to keep on working while the rest of your family is lazing around on the beach? Are you able to completely cut off from the pressures of work when you’re on holiday? If not, how often do you keep in touch and how?