Opening a business can be a daunting task, and the range of responsibilities that come with it can range from finance to marketing. If you are one of those new business owners who feels overwhelmed, or if your company needs some more structure and organization, hiring a virtual bookkeeping assistant can make all the difference.
Bookkeeping is a fundamental part of any business, and you should never forget to perform it. From offline bookkeeping tasks to online ones, there are plenty of different ways to keep your books up-to-date. By hiring a virtual bookkeeper for your company, you can outsource these tasks to an expert and focus on more important matters.
Hiring Virtual Assistants
In previous posts in this blog, we have talked about the benefits of hiring a virtual assistant for your company. We have also covered the basics of bookkeeping in our article: Bookkeeping for Small Business (2022 Edition). This time, we will be talking about the different aspects and expertise a virtual bookkeeping assistant can bring to your company.
Virtual Bookkeeping Assistant
A virtual bookkeeping assistant can help you with many tasks you haven't even considered, and right now, the beginning of the year is the perfect time to hire one. If you start delegating additional work to your current employees, they will be overwhelmed and underperform in their regular tasks. Having a virtual bookkeeper in your company will eliminate all the extra work your regular employees have to handle. And, with the VA's expertise, you will have no problem with your tax declarations for this year. Here's a list of all the tasks that a virtual bookkeeper can do for your company.
Virtual Bookkeeping Assistant's Tasks
Daily Transactions
A virtual bookkeeper can easily summarise the transactions that have come into the business on a day-to-day basis. If you have accounting software and can update through daily automatic bank feeds, this can be really helpful for your virtual bookkeeper to use on a daily basis. Bookkeepers have a lot of different responsibilities in a small business, but the central pillar of their job is to organize, record, and display financial transactions.
Accounts Payable Ledger
As virtual bookkeepers take care of your business, they can also help with payments on behalf of your company. By giving them a little monetary freedom, they can also find good deals regarding suppliers, expenses and even use systems that will allow them to pay your employees regularly.
Cash Flow
One of the most important tasks for a bookkeeper is to keep an eye on how much money the company has every day. They can do this by measuring how much they're bringing in against how much the company is spending on suppliers and other general expenses. If there's not enough, your bookkeeper will take action or provide advice, so you don't go over budget.
Invoices
Preparing invoices and collecting money can be a time-consuming process. As a result, having a qualified bookkeeper around to ensure everything is done correctly, from the time someone writes an invoice to ensure that late payments from clients are chased, is essential.
Inventory
In addition to keeping track of the company's money flow, virtual bookkeepers can also register any inventory movements you have at any given time. These movements include purchases, supplies, and any extra stock you have in your warehouse. Bookkeepers will register this movement in the ledger with its monetary value and calculate your stock's worth. This method can also help you apply discounts to your products during holiday seasons without losing much revenue.
Tax Season
Virtual bookkeepers are also responsible for noting all tax dates and preparing accounting books before starting tax season. Additionally, bookkeepers should help accountants with the correct information & support during the process. Their knowledge of financial records and ability to stay on top of deadlines will be instrumental in easing the workload of accountants.
Update and Secure
Automated accounting operations are standard these days, which means you need to keep accounting software updated to prevent your files from being undermined by hackers. By following the basic principles of cybersecurity, virtual bookkeepers can ensure their company's data is well protected. They will never disclose passwords to unauthorized people, update antivirus software when necessary, and change their passwords regularly.
Payroll
By coordinating with the HR department, virtual bookkeepers can care for your employees by providing them with their respective pay. Depending on the state you live in, you might have to go through a few legal procedures for this to happen. Whether they prepare the payroll every month or every 14 days, payroll accounts need to be in check, so your employees receive their salary on time.
Hiring a Virtual Bookkeeping Assistant
Virtual bookkeeping assistants are available to work from the get-go. Most of them have to go through an in-depth screening process through virtual agencies before they can come in contact with actual clients. This process assures that a virtual bookkeeper will handle any of the tasks listed above with success. Moreover, you can take advantage of the VA's expertise to redesign your budget and get more revenue.
A virtual assistant can help you see your ROI increase and make your business run much more efficiently. This frees up more time to focus on other essential aspects of your company, like customer service and increasing sales. Loyal customers will also be happy to buy over time, which will both keep them engaged with your company and spread the word about it too.