Online or virtual bookkeeping services are in high demand. According to QuickBooks, nearly 75% of the nation’s small businesses use their services, with another 6% using other accounting software applications. Small businesses are challenged by doing more with less and have embraced virtual services for their companies, such as payroll, technical support, marketing, and accounting.

What is Virtual Bookkeeping?

A virtual bookkeeper manages your bookkeeping tasks remotely. Your remote bookkeeper is accessible via software applications, such as Expex. Through electronic means, the virtual bookkeeper pays your bills, prepares your monthly financial statements, and ensures your books are tax ready for your accountant.

How does virtual bookkeeping work?

Many of the bookkeeping applications available today are cloud-based. This makes it extremely easy to have bookkeeper access your records from a remote location. But virtual bookkeeping is more than just accessibility if done correctly. There are now tools that enable business owners to automate bookkeeping tasks, like paying bills and managing cash. Virtual bookkeeping should allow both the business owner and their bookkeeper to work remotely and automate tasks that will make the business more efficient and provide insights into their finances.

QuickBooks and the virtual bookkeeper.

QuickBooks Online has become the default for small business owners and their bookkeepers because it enables them to work seamlessly together from remote locations. QuickBooks also offers a wide range of applications in its app marketplace that can enhance the QuickBooks experience by delivering applications that can perform tasks that QuickBooks doesn’t provide. Some services integrate with QuickBooks and provide a suite of services that automate the work people are doing in QuickBooks and enable business owners to focus on their businesses and not managing QuickBooks and the various applications they may require. This ecosystem makes QuickBooks Online the top choice for business owners as it provides them with multiple options to meet their financial management Requirements.

Why work with a virtual bookkeeper?

The number one reason business owners look to online bookkeeping services is to generate valuable free time to work on their business. Bookkeeping best practices are built into virtual bookkeeping services. This establishes consistency and security.

Fraud is something that most small business owners don’t like to think about and often think, “That can’t happen to me.” In small businesses, fraud results from a lack or absence of controls, which can be exploited by an employee. While SMB’s often don’t have proper controls in place, this can quickly be addressed by implementing basic controls, which are easy to execute using a virtual platform.

Your business will benefit from the use of a virtual bookkeeper:

• By reducing year-end time and money spent with your accountant ensuring your books are tax ready. (They will be happier too, believe us!)
• If you do not know where you stand from a cash flow perspective.
• If you have fallen behind in the historical bookkeeping tasks needed to close out month-end financials.
• By providing safe, secure, and remote access to your financials from your home or office away from home.
• By connecting with all your bank accounts, you can monitor all your accounts’ activity from one place.

How do you hire a virtual bookkeeper?

Hiring a virtual bookkeeper begins with a simple understanding of your business and determining what services you need to be performed.

• Can you perform the bookkeeping for me?
• How much time can you help me recover?
• Can you provide better insights into my business?
• Can you help me with managing cash flow?
• What is the process for daily, weekly, and monthly tasks?
• How do you support my business when I have questions?

Automated bookkeeping applications implement bank-level security and financial controls, ensuring all aspects of the financial data and transaction processes are safe and secure.