Cloud accounting and finance education and advocacy are the goals behind the newly formed Cloud Accounting Institute, a group launched by Microsoft Dynamics GP and Intacct reseller and CPA Lindy Antonelli.

Lindy Antonelli

The group’s chairman and executive director, Antonelli is also chief executive of Naperville, Ill.-based VAR AccessTek, which was recently voted into cloud financial management and accounting software developer Intacct’s President’s Club.

Just days into its existence, the group already has members including Intacct and Naperville, Ill.-based CPA firm and Intacct BPO partner DiGiovine Hnilo Jordan + Johnson Ltd. 

Antonelli started the organization as she was sensing increased interest in cloud financial and accounting products and processes, but a dearth of knowledge about them among accounting professionals. She would like her group to educate members of the accounting community in practice and industry, as well as have them join her group, along with primary and auxiliary cloud financial and accounting product developers.

“Every CPA I’ve spoken to over the past year or so has been fascinated by cloud accounting and cloud financials, and there are very pointed question,” she said. “Even more is that their clients are coming to them about it, and anxiously awaiting their own firms to adopt cloud solutions. Even my own business has shifted since coming into the Intacct channel late last year. The past six to eight months, I’ve noticed people wanting this level of information and decided I needed to do more than just speak in front of the Illinois CPA Society.”

The Cloud Accounting Institute currently has a Web site and social media presence with a goal of establishing more national recognition by the end of next year. Antonelli said she plans to do so by utilizing these channels, as well as a series of YouTube videos about the organization and public speaking.

In the coming year, the group also plans an awards presentation, where the goal is to have companies around the country nominate cloud accounting projects they have implemented.

For more information, visit www.cloudaccountinginstitute.org.