Small business owners know that bookkeeping tasks can quickly accumulate and take up much of their valuable time. In the worst-case scenario, errors may occur, and you may find it challenging to recover hundreds or even thousands of dollars in recurring revenue hidden in your financial statements. 

The good news is that virtual bookkeepers are available to keep you worry-free. Even though some SMEs prefer to work with a part-time bookkeeper on-site, more and more companies are choosing virtual bookkeepers due to their advantages. Therefore, you’re making the right decision if you consider outsourcing work to a virtual bookkeeper.

Owners must safeguard their assets, build a character and maintain a positive cash flow to build a successful business. Having current books is the foundation for both of these. Therefore, the logical next step for a company that wants to grow more quickly is to hire a virtual bookkeeping assistant. 

Having a clear understanding of your finances, you can avoid the following:

• Making irrational choices
• Exceeding your profit potential
• Losing the confidence of current or potential stakeholders
• Being incapable of predicting the development

See how hiring a virtual bookkeeper for your company can benefit you! Therefore, before anything else, let’s examine what a virtual bookkeeper does!

Who are Virtual Bookkeepers?

Like an on-site employee, a virtual bookkeeper can assist you in keeping up with your accounting and bookkeeping needs, even though they are independent contractors who work online or remotely.

They frequently have extensive knowledge of the best invoicing and bookkeeping programs, including InvoiceBerry, and other accounting software. They are capable of the following tasks:

• Account maintenance
• reconciling the accounts
• Accounting for balance sheets
• Credit and bank reconciliation
• Budgeting
• Cash flow forecast
• Daily money management
• Payroll management
• Report generation
• Control of revenue and expenditure
• Management of sales and purchase orders
• Upkeep the trial balance
• Year-end accounting

What is virtual bookkeeping?

It’s a method that enables bookkeepers to access and manage financial data from any location by using cloud-based software. To allow the virtual bookkeeper to carry out various tasks like bank reconciliation, financial reporting, invoicing, and bill payment, you only need to give the VAs access to your accounts.

A virtual bookkeeper and business owner will typically meet for an initial consultation to determine the project’s parameters, expectations, and cost. The bookkeeper will then collect the financial data, set up the accounting software, and handle all financial transactions. The business owner can review financial reports and statements anytime as the virtual bookkeeper manages the economic data.

Who should use Remote Bookkeeping Services?

Businesses of all sizes, from solopreneurs to those with teams of 50 to 100 professionals, can benefit significantly from virtual bookkeeping.

It is the ideal solution for small businesses that need more funding for an internal bookkeeper but still need access to top-notch bookkeeping services. Additionally, it can help any organization streamline financial management, making it simpler to manage finances effectively.

Benefits of hiring a virtual bookkeeper for your business

Cost-effective bookkeeping

Every business benefits from lower costs, and since you are not liable for the overhead costs of the online bookkeeping company, yours won’t be affected. However, you would need to invest in a larger office space and spend more on salaries and benefits for new hires if you had an in-house team. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in-house bookkeeping clerks earned a median annual salary of $45,560 in 2021. However, virtual bookkeeping services are entirely remote, so whether you’re a one-person team or have multiple members, your books are kept with incredible accuracy without adding to your business expenses.

Hiring a virtual bookkeeping assistant can help a business save up to 78% on annual operating costs. This figure does not even include the opportunities a skilled bookkeeper can bring to your company.

More flexibility

A physical bookkeeper’s hours are most likely set. They might not answer if you contact them by phone or email if you do so after business hours. Virtual bookkeepers are more likely to provide flexible scheduling. This is because they are aware that not all of their clients will be in the same time zone as they are. 

You can access them throughout your working day. Many are also accessible on weekends and outside of your regular business hours. Even if the best time to meet is after normal business hours, they will frequently cooperate with you to find it.

The services that virtual bookkeepers provide are also adaptable. For example, you can scale the size of your services as necessary. This makes it easier to protect your budget while still getting the level of bookkeeping you might need at particular times of the year.

Access to a global talent pool

You are frequently limited to hiring bookkeepers who live nearby when hiring them to work in the office. As a result, you are limiting your hiring options and often choose the best candidate currently available over the candidate with the highest level of qualifications.

With virtual assistance, there are no restrictions. Since they will be working remotely, you can hire someone from another city, state, or country. Therefore, the only factors you should consider when hiring a virtual bookkeeper are skill and credentials, nothing else.

Up-to-date payments and invoicing

Your virtual bookkeeper can check, update, and follow up on payments if you grant them access to your accounts, create invoices using InvoiceBerry, and make records of creditors and suppliers. In addition, they can balance your budgets, keep track of accounts payable and receivable, track receipts, and provide a precise picture of your cash flow.

Do you have any deadlines or rules to follow regarding taxes? 

Do you find it challenging to draft financial statements for lenders or investors? 

If so, you might want to invest in online bookkeeping services.

Accurate financial records

If you handle everything yourself, maintaining accurate books as your business expands will become problematic. It will not only take up a lot of your time and energy, distracting you from concentrating fully on growth, but it might also lead you to incorrectly record your income and expenses. 

Come tax time, you’ll have a significant headache due to having to pay a costly accountant to go back and clean up your books.

This stress can be eliminated by working with an online bookkeeping firm. Your digital or physical transactions will be accurately recorded through their accounting software. Additionally, expenses can be smoothly tracked so you are always aware of your company’s finances. 

More time for yourself

Using a remote service has the most significant benefit of allowing you to focus on running your business while letting someone else handle the bookkeeping.

You’ll have the necessary peace of mind knowing that your bookkeeping is handled by a reputable service, allowing you to concentrate entirely on your business. Additionally, you will always have access to the most recent financial reports. As a result, you can make critical business decisions with accurate and up-to-date financial statements.

Specialized expertise

A bookkeeping assistant possesses abilities that you may not. Thanks to their proficiency with specific databases and accounting software, they can spot bookkeeping errors and avoid problems. In addition, having someone on staff who is knowledgeable about recording financial data will be beneficial.

Reputable platforms like Wishup that offer virtual bookkeeping services recruit outstanding candidates who can handle even the most challenging online bookkeeping tasks. Additionally, most remote bookkeepers serve clients and are exposed to accounting in multiple sectors and industries.

Easily accessible information

Vendors are reducing the number of paper receipts they give to customers. Instead, they send the paperwork via email or make it accessible through a customer portal platform. This paperwork is available for download and printing, but you are not required to.

Email these digital receipts to a virtual bookkeeper or upload them to a network drive like Dropbox, Google Docs, or Microsoft OneDrive. Even better, you can grant your virtual bookkeeper access to your online accounts so they can obtain these records directly from the provider.

Your bookkeeper will always be current if you send them these documents as you receive them. They get significant time savings from this, especially during tax season. There is nothing you need to bring to them. If you have physical receipts, you can take pictures of them or scan them. If you enter your transactions into a shared accounting program, you might not even need to do that.

Updated cash flow

Although necessary, keeping track of your earnings and expenses can take up a lot of your time. A virtual bookkeeper can assist you in compiling and maintaining an accurate record of all your financial transactions so that you can assess your income, expenses, and profit margins. They can also assist you in managing your receivables and following up on late payments. 

If you have an effective bookkeeping system, you can quickly examine your finances to see if your company is profitable enough. Also, having a proper bookkeeping system helps avoid accruing fees and a negative account balance.

Hire a virtual bookkeeper today to gain a wealth of benefits!

Virtual bookkeeping brings tons of benefits with it. However, the question here is how one should hire a bookkeeper virtually. Platforms like Wishup have made it much easier to tap into a world of talented virtual bookkeeping assistants at a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house bookkeepers. You can mail them or book a free consultation to hire a virtual bookkeeper on their platform.