Accounting is an essential part of a business at any stage. Maintaining accounting records is a task that starts even before you launch your business. But most small businesses don’t have access to accounting services.
Hiring an in-house accountant or third-party firm is expensive. Virtual accountants or accounting freelancers are much cheaper alternatives. But even then, employing these part-time virtual accountants is not cost-effective if you pay their steep professional fees for basic accounting tasks.
For these reasons, hiring virtual assistants who can do basic accounting jobs is becoming a much better alternative. Virtual assistants can perform remote accounting jobs at a fraction of an accountant’s salary. On top of that, these VAs can also help you in other areas of running your company.
In this article, we look into the job description of virtual assistants for accounting, how they differ from virtual accountants, and the remote accounting jobs they can do for you.
Virtual Accountant vs. Virtual Assistant
A virtual accountant is simply an accountant who works online. Instead of working in the office, virtual accountants work remotely through accounting software, project management applications, and other online tools.
A virtual assistant is someone you can assign accounting tasks as well as other remote work. Similar to virtual accountants, accounting VAs can also use accounting software and other online tools. Unlike virtual accountants, a VA need not have a bachelor’s degree in accounting or hold a CPA license.
Even with lower accounting qualifications, experienced and trained VAs can still execute accounting tasks expertly. The common practice today is to hire accounting VAs to perform daily routine accounting tasks. You can then hire a freelance accountant whenever you need an expert for financial analysis, legal accounting, fact-checking accounting data, etc.
When Do I Need A VA For Accounting?
Below are the instances and reasons for hiring a virtual assistant to do your remote accounting jobs.
You don’t have an in-house accountant
If you recognize that having an accountant is crucial for your business but can’t afford their full-time pay yet, you might need an accounting VA. An accounting VA can help you obtain primary financial data and organize them for you or your freelance accountant. This way, your accountant saves time and you save money on basic accounting tasks.
You lack the accounting knowledge or interest
Starting and running your company requires some accounting knowledge or interest that you may lack. If you are an entrepreneur focused on scaling up your business, chances are accounting would be the last thing on your mind. A capable and experienced VA can assist you in taking care of the necessary, but often uninteresting, accounting jobs.
You want to lighten your workload
When you started your business, you have might have been okay with handling everything on your own. But for your company to stay competitive and thrive, you need to delegate your workload to other people. Having an accounting VA to take care of your remote accounting jobs will considerably lighten your workload.
When you lighten your workload, you have a healthier work-life balance, you can focus on growing your business, and you allow more capable people to handle your tasks. All these bring benefits for your company in the long run.
Remote Accounting Jobs To Assign
But before you start your job search for your accounting VA, you must first decide on what tasks to assign to them. You can assign all accounting-related tasks or only a portion of them. Remember that the more tasks you delegate, the more your VA will spend working by the hour, and the higher the salary you’ll have to pay them.
Below are the remote accounting jobs to assign a virtual accountant:
Monitor payments and collections
Paying your bills and collecting payments for your products and services are some of the easiest tasks to do. But as your company grows, the number of these business transactions can get overwhelming.
A virtual assistant can file and organize the transaction details of your bills and receipts. A VA can monitor which payments need to be collected, bills that need to be paid, etc. They provide reminders to ensure timely payment and prevent missed collections.
Manage payroll
You can also assign your VA to be your payroll assistant. They can help process employee timesheets and make the necessary salary computations. As a payroll administrator, your accounting VA can provide reports that give you insights into the salary and productivity of your employees.
Prepare balance sheets and profit/loss accounts
Preparing balance sheets and P/L accounts is one of the basic bookkeeping tasks that do not need CPA-level expertise. These tasks are necessary for accurate financial reports and smooth business management.
Your accounting VA can easily perform data entry into any accounting software or online tool you use. An accounting VA can give you timely and accessible information from any work location.
Reconcile bank statements and financial records
Using financial software may make you think that you’ve got your accounting finance covered. But you still need to reconcile your bank statements and financial records at the end of each month.
An accounting VA can help maintain the accuracy of your financial data and make sure that these match the data on your bank statements. No matter how careful you are, duplicate entries and missing details can still occur. You need a detail-oriented VA to pass a fine eye and maintain accuracy over your records.
Prepare records for tax filing
Admit it, filing taxes is never fun. And if you’re like most business owners, you are likely to put off preparing your tax files at the last minute. Early preparation lets you have time to review and double-check your records.
An accounting VA can fill out tax forms and prepare early all the necessary records for tax filing. They can look into any missed receipts, expenses, tax deductibles, accounts payable, etc. They can also assist you in reviewing all your transactions and even help you qualify for tax rebates.
Other remote accounting jobs
Unlike accountants who you hire for specific accounting duties, a virtual assistant is flexible. For example, when you hire a virtual accountant to deal with accounts payable or tax-related accounting, you can’t easily assign them other accounting jobs.
A virtual assistant can manage daily accounting tasks and are open to accepting other administrative duties if needed. As long as you have tasks you need to be done, you can trust a VA to do that for you. With a VA, you can assign other responsibilities on the off chance that you run out of remote accounting jobs to delegate.
Hiring A Virtual Assistant For Accounting
Virtual assistants who do accounting jobs are in demand for a reason. Employers choose them for their flexibility, cost savings, and valuable benefits. Let’s agree that hiring an accounting VA is the ultimate answer to your accounting finance, data entry, and bookkeeping needs.
Remote Raven can help find the perfect accounting VA for you. With our decades of experience in hiring professional VAs from the Philippines, we are experts in vetting job seekers and matching them with their ideal clients.
We begin with you letting us know what types of VA you require, and we do the rest. You don’t have to create job alert or postings. We simply pull the most qualified VAs from our large network and you’ll have a list of candidates for your consideration in no time. Remote Raven also trains and performs the necessary criminal background check for all the VAs we let you hire.
Don’t let your remote accounting jobs pile up. Call us and hire your perfect accounting VA now!
