How Virtual Bookkeepers Benefit Your Business

If you’ve hired the services of a bookkeeper, you’ve likely come to appreciate the value they bring to your business. From staying on top of financial paperwork in time for the tax period, bookkeepers are now applying analytical and strategic skills to elevate businesses.

Bookkeepers are also moving away from working from an office you’ve allocated to them to virtually working with different types of clients from remote locations. Hiring a virtual bookkeeper is one of the best ways to allow your business to optimise its resources while ensuring you have control over your finances.

What Are Virtual Bookkeepers? 

Virtual bookkeepers help manage your bookkeeping needs online or remotely, usually via cloud-based software. They work on flexible schedules where they choose their hours and where to work.

Thanks to technology, a virtual bookkeeper can help you meet your KPIs, as would an on-site bookkeeper. They can use QuickBooks or Xero to do the actual bookkeeping. There is also Zoom for meetings and consultations with clients and Google Docs for managing files.

You can choose to work with a virtual bookkeeping service or a freelancer, as long as they meet your bookkeeping needs. However, a bookkeeping service is far more efficient as you’ll have a team of professionals who have access to valuable software and platforms to track and update you on your finances.

Why Use Virtual Bookkeepers? 

You may already have a glimpse of what it’s like to work with a virtual bookkeeper if you’ve ever had to exchange calls and emails with your accountant or bookkeeper about daily transactions or payroll. However, if you’re still not sold on the idea of opting for a virtual bookkeeper, here are 4 reasons to help you make an informed decision.

1. Save Time and Money 

A full-time on-site bookkeeper won’t save you as much time and money as a virtual bookkeeper. When hiring a permanent employee, you have to consider the salary, insurance, paid time off as well as equipment and working space. Outsourcing a bookkeeper would be less expensive, as you pay for just the services while they sort out how they can help you. 

You also don’t have to spend so much time hiring and training a virtual bookkeeper. They already have established processes and have readily workable solutions to handle your bookkeeping needs. Since they are not limited to a physical location, it’s easy to access and communicate with them through any platform about the pressing needs of your business. In the end, you can allocate more time and resources to other value-adding functions in your firm.

2. Minimise Your Tax Liability 

Most virtual bookkeepers use cloud-based software, which enables them to quickly update and organise your receipts, payments, and bank statements before the tax deadline. This way, you can reduce your tax liability since you can claim the business deductions you’re entitled to.

3. Minimise Errors in Your Books 

Virtual bookkeepers are usually focused on delivering real-time and accurate reporting to their clients. Through the use of accounting software, they can quickly retrieve your profit and loss statement to check for misreported expense items or missing income. Overall, due to automation, you will always have a quick turnaround with your transaction management and reconciliations, leading to error-free financial reporting.

4. Improve Your Financial Reports 

Well-prepared financial reports will give you a true picture of how your business is doing. A virtual bookkeeper will objectively and competently manage your books by consistently monitoring day-to-day transactions and reconciling accounts. This means you can prepare your payroll and tax filing on time as they work hand in hand with you and regularly communicate via email or phone with ease. If you want a deeper understanding of a financial item, a virtual bookkeeper can generate customised reports as they are in sync with your accounting systems.

How a Virtual Bookkeeper Can Help Your Business 

A virtual bookkeeper elevates their key role as the lifeline of your business by being much more flexible, cost-effective, and having a more sophisticated oversight over the running of your business.

More and more companies in Australia have been outsourcing functions such as customer service and IT at a rate of 0.7% annually between the period of 2016 and 2021. It’s safe to assume the reasoning behind this is achieving cost efficiency to gain leverage. When you outsource a virtual bookkeeper, you not only avoid the costs of maintaining a full-time employee, but also access top talent in the market. You only have to assess them for factors such as their industry experience, skills, and their professional attitude. The best virtual bookkeeper will help your business scale as they come in to find quick solutions that go with the times.

Most virtual bookkeepers can work with any business, regardless of size. They can be an invaluable and affordable resource for small and medium-sized businesses, which are vulnerable to cash flow issues. While the bookkeeper handles the time-consuming but important financial and administrative tasks, the owners can dedicate their attention to other critical business deliverables.

Another upside of virtual bookkeepers is how they largely integrate technology into their work. This aligns with an increasingly technologically savvy business world and the labour force. Virtual bookkeeping services, for instance, won’t lack the technological infrastructure, which can be a huge capital undertaking for a business to handle the accounting, communication, sharing, and management of work from a remote location.

Final Thoughts 

There’s no doubt a virtual bookkeeper will bring you better value for your money as they handle paperwork and taxes with the help of automation. And with more bookkeeping services rising and offering a variety of services, you have the chance to choose the right team according to your budget. What remains is to try to strike a balance in your working relationship, so you can both work in alignment as your business keeps evolving.

At Visory, we offer personalised bookkeeping services to our clients. We’ve invested in the best software to ensure you get your financial reports in a timely and accurate manner. Get started today to learn more about Visory’s bookkeeping services.