Did you know businesses that use cloud-based accounting software enjoy 15% revenue growth? (Xero, 2017). That’s something you can take advantage of through virtual accounting and bookkeeping services. A virtual accountant and bookkeeper utilizes the latest cloud-based tools to manage your financial tasks.
Virtual accounting and bookkeeping allows you to outsource your accounting needs so that you can focus on the more strategic aspects of your business. If you’re unsure about outsourcing your accounting and bookkeeping needs, read on.
Bookkeeping vs. Accounting
Bookkeeping is the process of recording financial transactions and summarizing the results in a ledger. It’s one of the four essential accounting functions, including recording, reporting, and analysis.
Bookkeeping helps track your business or personal income and expenses. It covers the following.
- Daily recording of financial transactions
- Receipts from customers
- Payments to suppliers
- Invoice payments
- Loan repayments
Accounting summarizes, interprets, and communicates the financial transactions of your business. The accounting cycle starts with recording all incoming transactions, such as purchases and sales, followed by summarizing them in one place, called a balance sheet.
So, bookkeeping is part of accounting.
The final step in the accounting cycle is to project future cash flows based on these summarized results, called an income statement.
You can divide accounting into two broad categories: managerial accounting and financial accounting.
- Managerial accounting deals with management decisions like what inventory to order or how much stock to keep on hand.
- Financial accounting deals with company decisions like when to buy or sell an asset or how much debt your business should take on (or pay off).
Your business needs bookkeeping and accounting. Bookkeeping ensures you have an accurate and systematic record of financial transactions. A virtual accountant interprets and communicates financial information to help you make data-driven decisions.
Common Accounting and Bookkeeping Challenges
- Managing your payroll
- Unstable cash flow
- Managing paperwork
- Handling taxes
- Preparing and analyzing income statements
- Understanding your financial statements
- Closing your monthly books
- Accounts receivable/collections
- Using spreadsheets to prepare financial reports
- Fear of using accounting software
- Keeping up to date with regulatory changes
- Attracting and retaining your best accounting employees
Worry no more. A virtual accountant or a virtual bookkeeper can help you solve the above challenges.
What is Virtual Accounting and Bookkeeping, and How Does it Work?
Virtual bookkeeping services takes care of a business’s day-to-day financial activities using the latest cloud-based software remotely instead of hiring on-site accountants and bookkeepers. It’s also called online or virtual bookkeeping and accounting.
Once you hire a virtual bookkeeper and accountant, it implies the following things.
- You must grant the virtual bookkeeping and accounting company or its virtual accountant and bookkeeper remote access to your server. This also includes your financial records and software.
- This access enables your new bookkeeper and accountant to log into your network like an on-site staff member.
- It also allows them to retrieve any necessary documents to handle your accounting needs.
Virtual bookkeeper needed but still, wondering whether outsourcing is the way to go?
Here is what you can expect from an virtual accountant and bookkeeper if you partner with a virtual accounting and bookkeeping provider like Office Beacon.
What Does a Virtual Bookkeeper and Accountant Do?
Understand that a traditional bookkeeper and accountant’s services aren’t different from a virtual one. But there’s only one distinguishing element. You engage with the online accountant and bookkeeper via platforms such as the Flowz Meeting app, other video conferencing apps, and social media tools.
Examples of virtual accounting and bookkeeping services:
So, why outsource virtual accounting and bookkeeping services?
9 Incredible Benefits of Virtual Accounting and Bookkeeping Services
1. Access a Pool of Financial Experts Who can Steer your Ship
Let’s face it. Companies like yours face loads of accounting challenges, specifically during recovery time. The type of accounting and bookkeeping professionals you have can make or break your business.
Thanks to virtual accounting and bookkeeping, you can gain unlimited access to a team of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs). They’ve got a ton of industry experience to meet every accounting need you have.
When you outsource virtual accounting and bookkeeping, you’ll get remote staff who continuously upgrade their skills. As a result, they’re up to date with the latest trends.
Top-quality feedback or advice from am expert virtual accountant can help stabilize your business in stormy waters. Outsourcing these services gives you access to reliable and well-informed staff.
Offering CAS services can reinforce CPAs’ roles as trusted business advisers who can provide practical and effective solutions for business challenges and valuable advice on the best ways to seize opportunities.
2. Saves your Business a Substantial Amount of Money
Look, you must find ways of reducing business operating costs in these challenging times! It’s a no-brainer. You can cash in on virtual accounting and bookkeeping services to make significant savings. Here’s why?
Let’s say you opt for Office Beacon as your virtual accounting and bookkeeping service provider. You can say goodbye to hiring and onboarding costs, payroll tax, training, annual leave, sick pay, full-time salary, and other technological expenses.
To say you can avoid paying a full-time accountant a salary of nearly US$ 70,000 per annum plus benefits isn’t boasting. It’s doable. Your business can do away with incentives, huge perks, training expenses, and legal fees.
You can also pay for the virtual accounting and bookkeeping services you use or want. You must pay a complete salary and other benefits if you have a full-time accountant and bookkeeper. As a result, your labor expenses could skyrocket.
In addition, you can make significant savings on office space and other infrastructure costs. Overall, you can enjoy mega savings when you opt for outsourced virtual accountant and bookkeeping.
3. Helps you Collaborate with Flexible Staff
Imagine working with readily available virtual accountant professionals worldwide. You can maintain open lines of communication 24/7. And you can get the relevant advice you need at any time.
All of the above is possible through outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping services. The remote accounting and bookkeeping staff are so flexible that you can collaborate with them as easily as ABC.
You can use the following communication tools.
- Video conferencing platforms
- Emails
- Document collaboration tools
- Productivity Software
And here’s the juiciest part of this experience. One tool that meets all of the above needs is the Flowz Meeting app. It’s Asana, Trello, and Monday in one app.
4. Reduces Accounting and Bookkeeping Errors
You know that recordkeeping mistakes can be a double-whammy of wrong decisions and cash flow problems. And this can also affect your investment drive in the long term.
But you can eliminate such errors by outsourcing your virtual accounting and bookkeeping needs to companies like Office Beacon. That’s because you’ll work with an experienced virtual accountant with zero tolerance for shoddy bookkeeping and accounting. They ensure your business records are accurate and meet high standards through automated accounting programs.
You don’t have to buy or subscribe to accounting tools or train your staff to use them. Your virtual accountants and bookkeepers will be well-versed with such platforms.
Also, popular accounting software such as Quickbooks or Sage can minimize fraudulent activities. And this stabilizes and conserves your cash flow.
5. Scales with Your Business as You Expand Operations
As your company spreads its tentacles, your in-house employees may fall behind in meeting your expansion goals. Whether growing locally, regionally, or globally, you’ll need a scalable workforce.
Virtual accounting and bookkeeping services can help you hit the ground running by giving you access to dedicated staff and reliable backup resources at zero cost. And you won’t have to worry about employment contracts or establishing new infrastructure for new employees.
A virtual accountant and bookkeeper is your ultimate solution as you expand. The service is available at your fingertips.
6. One Virtual Accountant and Bookkeeper can Handle Multiple Locations
Does your business have several locations? You must have a virtual accountant and bookkeeper who can handle the financial aspects of all your branches. They don’t have to travel to every site; they can process everything remotely using secure cloud-based software.
You can avoid having a physical bookkeeper and accountant at every business location. Thus, you end up slashing labor costs.
Your accounting data can remain safe since the virtual accountant and bookkeeper can store it away on remote servers. You won’t lose crucial information due to robust backup systems and strict data security measures.
7. Sharpens your Decisions by Leveraging Key Financial Metrics
Businesses thrive partly because of preparing and analyzing data or key performance indicators (KPIs). Data-driven decisions can enhance your performance and lead to skyrocketing revenue.
A Virtual accountant and bookkeeping professional can examine essential financial metrics like revenue. They also explain what each KPI means and what you can do to stay on course.
You’ll get accurate and easily understandable financial and accounting metrics that can improve your day-to-day decisions, like bank loans or investments.
8. Timely Financial Reports Keep You in the Know
Financial reports are also critical to your decision-making. Underqualified accountants and bookkeepers can take ages to give you monthly, quarterly, or yearly reports. It impacts your decisions.
While you can try to organize the reports, you’ll eat into your strategic planning time. To be effective in your business, you must focus on weightier tasks like strategic management.
Leave repetitive accounting activities like financial reports to virtual accounting and bookkeeping. It ensures you get top-class feedback every month or quarter to keep you in the loop.
A virtual accountant and bookkeeper will provide you with real-time financial reports and updates to enhance your strategic decisions. You can use the information to develop business plans or persuade lenders or investors.
9. Boosts Your ROI
As a business, you want to ensure your risk aversion ROI, simple ROI, and efficiency ROI are on an upward trajectory. A virtual accountant and bookkeeper can help you improve all three.
Remote teams can reduce operating costs while jumpstarting efficiency by maintaining accurate documents. Also, your productivity and profitability can increase when you hire a highly experienced virtual accountant and bookkeeper.
A CPA can perform your business’s auditing, budgeting, forecasting, and management tasks. You won’t need separate tax professionals and auditors when you hire virtual accounting and bookkeeping services like Office Beacon.
Wrapping Up: Why Outsource Accounting and Bookkeeping Services?
Virtual accounting and bookkeeping allows you to have a dedicated virtual accountant and bookkeeper who works for you and handles all your financial needs. It’s a great option if you’re looking for alternatives to traditional accounting and bookkeeping services. Or if you’re just starting your business and don’t want to worry about hiring an accountant and bookkeeper immediately.
Need help with virtual accounting and bookkeeping? Ping Office Beacon’s virtual accounting service right away.
