Why are virtual bookkeeping services best for your business?

According to a study by Owl Labs, 16% of companies operate remotely, and even more, are operating in hybrid models - a mix of both in-office and virtual employees.

Despite remote work gaining more popularity, business owners are still on the fence about hiring Virtual Assistants and employees, especially in departments like accounting and bookkeeping, where a lot of financial data is involved.

In this article, we will break the myths around remote work and discuss in detail the benefits of virtual bookkeeping services for your business.

What are Virtual Bookkeeping Services?

Virtual bookkeeping services enable a professional bookkeeper to offer accounting services to a customer from a remote location. Virtual roles are becoming more popular as organizations turn to cloud-based services to address their demands. With regard to flexibility and affordability, virtual bookkeeping services may benefit both the company and the bookkeeper.

Companies hiring an online bookkeeper give them access to their server, tools, and financial documents to allow them to manage their books remotely. The virtual bookkeeper connects to the firm's secure server from their home or system (they use their own equipment) and receives documents the same way they would if they were connected to the office network. Nowadays, it's common for virtual bookkeepers to use cloud-based accounting software like Quickbooks Online.

Difference between a Virtual Bookkeeping Assistant and On-Site Accountant

Rather than working at a client's office, virtual bookkeeping services allow a bookkeeper to operate from the comfort of their own homes. Aside from the job location, there is no difference between traditional bookkeeping services and virtual services.

A virtual bookkeeping assistant may use cloud-based accounting software to make financial transactions, manage payments, track cash flow, review and revise statements, and reconcile accounts. Because of many factors like affordability and flexibility, virtual bookkeeping services are becoming preferred by small businesses in the US.

Benefits of Hiring Virtual Bookkeeping Services

It’s an economical working model.

A virtual bookkeeping assistant's cost-effectiveness makes hiring them so popular in this digital age. Virtual assistants help save money since they do not require additional expenses on office space and equipment.

Hiring virtual employees also allows you to save money on things like paid leaves, bonuses, and other employee costs. Consequently, the organization may concentrate its resources on more critical parts of its operations: investing in promising sectors and generating strong profits.

Additionally, when working with Virtual Assistants from Wishup, you only pay them hourly, so there is no need to get into long-term contracts and commitments. This also saves help money in the long run.

Similarly, being a Virtual Assistant allows employees to save money commuting and free time for their personal lives.

It increases productivity

Remote employees can work as if they were in the same office using virtual collaboration technologies. For example, employees can combine video conferencing, email, instant chats, and the phone in the office, among other types of virtual communication. As a result, employees working from home are more likely to work more hours per week than on-site employees and use fewer sick days.

Employees who can work from home can also facilitate working in different time zones without losing productivity, as they can choose their own work timings. This freedom leads to longer business hours, depending on the number of virtual bookkeeping assistants you hire. Furthermore, business will go as usual despite weather circumstances, as is commonly the problem with people working in the office.

Access to global talent

We often don't realize how hiring to work on-site restricts the recruitment process. A remote working model is required for an organization to gain the benefits of tapping global talent, especially if you are working with international clients.

When you hire a bookkeeper for your office, you increase your company's worldwide appeal. In addition, clients are more likely to work with businesses with diverse talent on their teams. In this regard, virtual bookkeeping services from Wishup will provide you access to1% top worldwide talent.

Switching to virtual bookkeeping services would benefit you if your company is expanding but cannot accommodate them in your current physical location. This will prevent you from having to relocate to a larger office.

Scale up and down easily with virtual bookkeepers

If there’s one thing we learned in recent years, it is that we can’t control or predict business conditions. So instead, we must simply find new ways to adapt to these changes in working environments.

With the unpredictable state the world is in right now, signing bookkeepers on long-term contracts while not knowing how business is going to be next month can be risky. It’s also unfair to hire a bookkeeper, only to later lay them off when it becomes challenging to meet revenue goals.

The solution?

Virtual bookkeeping services. Since they work monthly/project basis, it’s easy to scale up and down based on your requirements. When business is busy, you can quickly build your team with more virtual bookkeepers, and when things get slow, you can reduce the size of your team with ease as well.

Faster hiring process

Do you know how much time goes into hiring an employee - right from posting a job listing to the date of joining? According to SHRM, the average time to hire a new employee can take up to 36 days.

Do you have that time to lose, especially running a business with a small team? Add to that, accounting is an integral part of the business, and your business cannot afford to function without a bookkeeper for that much time.

However, you also can't compromise on the quality of talent. So to solve both these problems, virtual bookkeeping services come to the rescue for small businesses. Wishup’s bookkeeping assistants are ready to onboard within 24 hours, so if you hire a virtual bookkeeper today, they will be ready to start the job tomorrow.

Additionally, since we recruit only the top 1% of talent, you are guaranteed to get only the best quality of talent when you hire from us.

The training process becomes easier with virtual bookkeepers.

Recruitment is just the first part of the onboarding process. Then comes the training. Every company is different and uses its own tools and software. It takes time for newly joined employees to adapt to a new working environment.

You are significantly advantaged when you outsource your virtual bookkeeping services to Wishup. We have a rigorous training program for all our Virtual Assistants. We train them to be fluent in over 70 commonly used tools before they start working. This helps to significantly reduce the onboarding time as they will already be familiar with all the tools you use in your business.

Additionally, in the rare case, you are unhappy with your Virtual Assistant’s performance. Or, if they are unavailable to work due to an emergency, we provide a no-questions-asked instant replacement. As a result, you will have a new virtual bookkeeper ready to start work in a matter of hours. This way, your business will not have to suffer with a bookkeeper.

Security is guaranteed

Many consumers fear employing virtual bookkeeping services because of security and privacy concerns. It’s understandable given the sensitive nature of financial information.

At Wishup, Our primary focus is the confidentiality of our client's financial information. Therefore, we have gone to great pains to guarantee that no one other than the customer can access transactions, passwords, or financial information we use. In addition, our virtual bookkeepers use only the most secure cloud-based accounting software such as QuickBooks, FreshBooks, and Xero.

Understandably, you want to be extra careful with your information, especially finances and accounts. Therefore, you can get your virtual bookkeeping assistant to sign a non-disclosure agreement further to ensure the privacy and security of your information.

Since remote work became the norm recently, many measures have been measured to ensure the utmost cybersecurity. Therefore, the idea that trusting your accounts to a virtual bookkeeper is risky is a myth in the current digital age.

Tasks you can outsource to a Virtual Bookkeeping Assistant

Now that we know the advantages of hiring a virtual assistant let’s look at the key tasks you can delegate to them.

Timely bill payments

A virtual bookkeeper can help make your bill payment process seamless. They are skilled and trained to ensure that all your accounting operations occur without delays. When dealing with multiple clients, invoices and other accrued expenses can quickly accumulate, and you cannot afford late payments.

A virtual assistant may schedule reminders if you like to make these payments on your own or make payments on your behalf to save time.

General Ledgers

General ledger processing can save you the time and effort of going through every transaction to detect and track income. General ledgers also help keep track of your expenditure, which you may need to examine to reduce your expenses.

Since they are detail-oriented, general ledgers require time to compile. Virtual bookkeeping assistants, on the other hand, have extensive expertise in executing such tasks, even with tight deadlines.

Follow up with clients to ensure timely payments.

Clients often fail to make timely payments. But, If business owners start keeping track of who pays and does not pay on time, they will have little time to focus on core business activities. On the other hand, a bookkeeping assistant can accomplish this task for you efficiently.

If your customer base is modest, you may follow up with them individually. However, as your business grows and the number of customers rises, this activity becomes quite stressful. A virtual assistant may ensure that your business relationships are never harmed due to late payments or miscommunication.

Reconciliation of bank statements

It is a challenging process to reconcile your accounting statements and corporate bank accounts. If you have no past expertise reconciling bank statements, you are more likely to make mistakes. It is, nonetheless, an integral part of bookkeeping. A virtual bookkeeping assistant can help you prevent mistakes and maintain your finances in excellent condition.

Entrepreneurs need to understand that keeping accurate paperwork is also important from a legal standpoint. Furthermore, governments in various nations frequently devise advantageous plans for entrepreneurs who keep accurate financial records. Investors are also very interested in firms with good credit.

Ensuring all the necessary documentation is done before year-end

Annual document completion affects entrepreneurs around the world. It is a tedious and time-consuming task and may have serious repercussions is not completed correctly and on time.

A virtual bookkeeping assistant will save you time by taking care of this responsibility and guaranteeing that all the paperwork and documents are organized. With a bookkeeping assistant, you no longer need to worry about whether your financial records are in order or be concerned about future legal action.

Help you make sense of financial documents.

Entrepreneurs cannot be masters of everything, and sometimes accounting might not be their strong suit. This is why they employ the services of a bookkeeper.

A bookkeeping assistant can help you make sense of complex financial statements and simplify complicated accounting terms for you.

Making balance sheets

Financial documents like balance sheets and profit/loss reports are critical to entrepreneurs. These are critical documents for ensuring the proper operation of your company. A virtual bookkeeper may produce and maintain these documents for you, making them accessible for review and usage at any time, even after their tenure with your company.

Why do you need to maintain balance sheets?

Annual financial accounts are crucial for the tax incentive, and most significantly, they assist with funding.

How do I go about hiring an online bookkeeping assistant from Wishup?

So you've decided to improve your business and hire a virtual bookkeeper. We've broken down hiring from Wishup into a simple four-step process.

Click here to register on our website. That will help you schedule a free consultation with our team.

You can then have a detailed consultation with our team to discuss your requirements. That will help our team understand what kind of bookkeeping assistant would suit your needs.

Based on your requirements, our team will schedule a call with a few potential online bookkeeping assistants for you. During the call, you can discuss your specific requirements, work timings, and other essential details.

Once you have a virtual bookkeeping assistant assigned, brief them in more detail. In the initial days, you will need to guide and monitor them during the initial few projects. This will help them meet your expectations and perform their duties as required.

A virtual workforce can help you thrive.

So there you have it, the advantages and benefits of virtual bookkeeping services for businesses. Times are changing, and to stay on top of your competition, you must constantly develop new and effective ways to improve your operations. Wishup’s virtual bookkeeping assistants are highly skilled and trained and with years of industry experience to back them up. Their dedication to your business will help your organization reach new levels of success.