Bookkeeping is the process of accurately recording a company’s financial transactions. It cannot be skipped or compromised in any manner because it is a crucial part of accounting. The two functions of accounting and bookkeeping are complementary. Without a strong basis in the former, the later cannot be executed correctly. Poor bookkeeping will result in erroneous financial statistics. The business’s operations and adherence to legal obligations like the filing of taxes could both be severely harmed by this. That is the reason why in this article, we will discuss about the advantages of hiring a bookkeeping virtual assistant.

Recording every daily transaction can take a lot of time, which is one of the difficulties with maintaining accurate records. Although it can be costly to engage a full-time accountant to handle the minute aspects of bookkeeping, performing the work yourself takes up a lot of time that could be better spent on the growth of your business. You have the option of assigning your general administrative assistant to the task of maintaining the books. The problem is that because they weren’t hired specifically for bookkeeping, it’s probable that they just have a basic understanding of the activities involved, which they learnt in high school. 

What is a bookkeeping assistant?

A bookkeeping assistant is someone who can handle all of your administrative bookkeeping duties so that you may concentrate on other, more important aspects of your business. He will keep an eye on all of your company’s transactions and spot any issues or inconsistencies that might develop.

However, hiring a full-time physical staff might be an unneeded added expenditure, particularly for organizations that operate online. Additionally, this may restrict the candidates that a business can find to those who are conducting bookkeeping job searches just in a specific region. For these reasons, hiring a virtual accounting assistant might be the most sensible, economical, and time-efficient course of action.

Outsourcing tasks to a bookkeeping virtual assistant

The bookkeeping virtual assistant is a professional with extensive industry experience who also possesses the education and training required to help and support small businesses and entrepreneurs with their accounting needs.

The same activities that traditional bookkeeping personnel can complete, but at a far lower cost, can be completed by virtual bookkeeping assistants. They don’t need a physical office space, any equipment or supplies for it, transportation, or insurance. They come from a larger applicant pool that crosses international boundaries to ensure that your firm is able to obtain the candidate that is the best fit for your needs. They are also typically more adaptable in terms of hours and degrees of education.

Having an on-site bookkeeper as opposed to one who works remotely will cost you more money. You can spend less than half of what you would typically spend when you hire virtually. Clients of reputable businesses that offer virtual assistant services are billed hourly. This guarantees that you will only be charged for time that is actually used.

Bookkeeping virtual assistant tasks

Keeping your books organized is a multi-step procedure. All levels of bookkeepers, from entry-level to expert, must be able to multitask well in order to do their duties effectively. A bookkeeping virtual assistant can help you with a wide range of activities, some of which are listed below:

Keep track of income and expenses

All financial transactions involving money entering and leaving your business should be quickly and accurately recorded by bookkeepers.

Pay bills

The procedure of paying bills can be made as simple as possible by using an accounting virtual assistant. They have the training and knowledge required to do all accounting duties, including bill payment and payment collection.

You are in charge of making sure that the invoices from your suppliers and any other payables are paid on schedule. Otherwise, not paying invoices on time may cause vendors to lose interest, which could ultimately result in the collapse of the company. Reminders can be set and payments can be made directly through a virtual assistant, with no involvement on your part.

Prepare and send invoices

Your virtual bookkeeping assistant will be able to keep track of all of your accounts receivable and produce the necessary invoices to guarantee that your business’s cash flow remains in great shape.

Some companies also need bulk invoice preparation. But many business owners, creating large invoices is out of the question because it would take up all of their time. This issue can be resolved by an online bookkeeper by managing bulk or routine invoice preparation. To make the work simple for business owners, they employ a variety of invoice solutions.

Follow-up on payments

Many clients frequently overlook making their payments on time. Business owners risk ruining their venture if they start keeping track of who pays them on time and who doesn’t. A bookkeeping assistant, however, is capable of doing it, even more than once if necessary. It is not enough for them to merely distribute invoices passively; bookkeeping virtual assistants should also keep track of the receivables deadlines and get in touch with your business whenever a client fails to make a payment on time.

Balance books

Those who run their own businesses are fully aware of the significance of financial statements including balance sheets, trial balances, and profit-and-loss statements. These are essential records that must be maintained to keep your business running well. A virtual bookkeeper may develop and maintain these records for you, making them available for review and use whenever necessary.

Your annual financial reports are crucial for the tax credit, but they also play a bigger role in helping you get financing.

Monitor sales tax and tax management

A bookkeeping assistant can create your financial reports for completing sales tax returns and submit the required paperwork for your yearly taxes.

Virtual accountants that have received training in tax preparation can organize your financial documents on a quarterly or annual basis in order to keep you informed about the taxes that you will be required to pay.

Create and interpret financial statements

Bookkeepers can generate reports such as profit and loss statements or balance sheets for your company, allowing you to analyze the financial flow of your company.

Some business owners find it difficult to understand their company’s financial statements, especially if they lack accounting or finance training. Additionally, it gets harder and harder to understand as more and more data is gathered.

A capable bookkeeper can help you understand the financial department’s own vocabulary, which is similar to that used by other departments.

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Qualities and Skills of Bookkeeping Virtual Assistant

Keeping accurate books requires a lot of work and attention to detail. When searching to hire a competent bookkeeping VA, you should look for a candidate who possesses the majority of the talents or attributes listed below:

Good with numbers

Bookkeeping requires virtual assistants to regularly interact with numerical data. If they have difficulty with mathematics, there is a greater chance that they will make more mistakes while encoding or be slower when keeping records.

Integrity

Bookkeepers have access to confidential financial information of an organization. They should, as a result, have a level of reliability that allows them to keep this information discreet.

Knowledge in accounting software

Although most bookkeeping virtual assistants are familiar with basic accounting programs, it’s ideal to work with someone who is knowledgeable with recent technology developments in the industry.

A bookkeeping virtual assistant must be able to use the appropriate digital tools when it comes to keeping track of a company’s cash flow. It is not enough for employees to be able to handle bookkeeping tasks manually; they also need to be able to enter their data into the company’s selected digital repository.

Availability

A virtual bookkeeping assistant may have clients in the same manner that you may have more than one customer in your business. Therefore, you need to be certain that the individual you wish to employ maintains a schedule that is flexible enough to fit the requirements of your company.

In addition to this, you need to check to see that your schedules do not conflict with one another. Because of this, you will be required to give them advance notice and schedule a time slot whenever you use their virtual bookkeeping service.

Conclusion

Many people who launch businesses believe that working with an in-house bookkeeper is better to working with a remote bookkeeper. However, anyone with a business interest might comprehend the advantages of using online bookkeeping services and would probably agree that it’s a great way for small businesses to get started.

You always have the option of outsourcing if you are not prepared to include the employee’s salary and benefits in your payroll. When you pay a professional on demand to handle your accounting job, you are only paying for the amount of their expert time that you require, which might be as little as a few hours each week.

You can have additional piece of mind knowing that a professional accounting or bookkeeping virtual assistant is there to handle that taxing task for you. Virtual office assistants can help your business expand and generate more profit rather than loss. Your business can save a lot of time and money by hiring an accounting assistant in addition to receiving accurate financial records.

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