How to Find the Best Virtual Bookkeeping Service for Your Business

Higher-tiered plans unlock more transactions and a more frequent service level. It’s possible to start a bookkeeping business from scratch, even if you don’t have a professional or educational background in accounting or bookkeeping. Having a degree or certification in either area could be an advantage, but it’s possible to acquire the skills you need to become a bookkeeper online.

With hundreds of options, however, it can be daunting to sort through them all and find the best service for your business. We’ve analyzed the best bookkeeping services to help you find the right solution quickly and easily. We selected these services based on their service options, pricing, customer service, reputation and more. Small businesses also manage their own accounts receivable to make sure they get paid on time for goods and services that have already been bought or rendered. The process involves sending estimates and invoices and keeping track of due dates.

Promotion is critical to the success of your business as well as the success of your strategy in general. The more people who see your company, the more like you are to sell. In this guide, we’ll be covering everything you need to know about starting an online bookkeeping services company and more. As an insider in the cloud accounting world, I can tell you that many virtual bookkeeping services don’t follow the best practices that have been listed above. If you don’t walk away from your initial interactions with your prospective virtual bookkeeping service feeling 100% confident that this company has your back, then just say no.

Best Free Accounting Software for Small Businesses

Opening a business bank account can make it easier to keep track of what funds go in and out. You can open a business bank account at a traditional bank, credit union, or online bank. You’ll need to provide your personal information, along with your business details, in order to open an account. Comparing fees, features, and accessibility can help you choose the best business bank account for your needs.

If you are behind on your bookkeeping, you can use Bench’s Catch Up and Retro bookkeeping services to bring your books up to date. Bench offers two different pricing plans, which depend on whether you want tax advice and filings included with your bookkeeping. Both junior and mid-level financial professionals can benefit from these courses. Alison offers both introductory courses and more advanced topics, so you can choose your preferred course based on your experience level. Finance and accounting students may also benefit from Alison’s introductory courses.

• Most don’t charge you to set up a profile, but will take a small fee once you book a gig and get paid.
• If you’re more serious, you can get additional study materials and earn a certification of achievement with the company’s paid coursework at a relatively low cost, ranging from $49 to $99.
• On top of that, you need the data used in bookkeeping to file your taxes accurately.

Outsourced bookkeepers like yourself can offer flexibility to adapt, see things from an outside perspective, and be more cost-effective for the company. Your client doesn’t have to pay for your time-off, health insurance, 401k, and share of payroll taxes. In a nutshell, when a company hires a virtual bookkeeper, they give the bookkeeper (you!) remote access to their bookkeeping software, and financial documents. There are few boundaries to who can become a great virtual bookkeeper. You don’t need a college degree, or a bunch of money or business experience to get started.

Common Bookkeeping Responsibilities

Professional associations also offer certifications so that you can hone your skills and market yourself as a professional bookkeeper. For instance, both the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers (AIPB) and the National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers (NACPB) offer certification programs. To discover guest posting possibilities, go to your favorite industry blogs, and see whether they have information about guest-posting. Or, you can type in accounting + “guest posts” or “contribute” into Google — and see what opportunities come up. Send an email or text to any past employer or clients and ask them to leave a genuine review about your freelance bookkeeping work. This helps you keep clients files organized, protected, and backed up on a cloud you can access from anywhere.

If your state imposes an income tax, you’ll also be responsible for making estimated tax payments to your state agency. Your marketing content should speak to the needs and pain points of the types of customers you’re most interested in attracting to your business. A business plan may be required if you plan to apply for business financing from banks or investors. Unlike the requirements to become an accountant, the training required to become a bookkeeper is less strenuous.

Who should manage small-business bookkeeping tasks?

The total cost of the program is $989, with options to pay the full amount upon registration, mail a monthly payment, or set up a monthly automatic payment. Penn Foster College Inc. offers one of the best courses to get started in the accounting field, with a comprehensive program that includes an overview of the tools used in the industry. When you finish you’ll be prepared to start your career as a bookkeeper. When you’re finished you should have a solid foundation in bookkeeping for small businesses, and you’ll have a completion certificate to show for it. Accounting Essentials begins with an explanation of balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements.

Best Online Bookkeeping Services for Small Businesses

Your company’s assets are what it owns and are usually broken down into two categories—current assets and fixed assets. Current assets include cash, accounts receivable, inventory, and prepaid expenses. Your accounting ledger serves as the hub for all your financial information. If you have accounting software, it will manage your ledger for you. You will likely want to establish a business banking account and credit card.

You may need to first complete a training program before you can launch. Cash basis accounting records transactions when money changes hands. This method doesn’t record invoices or your company’s outstanding bills until they’ve been paid. Before you take on any small-business bookkeeping tasks, you must decide whether a single- or double-entry accounting system is a better fit.

Making sure transactions are properly assigned to accounts gives you the best view of your business and helps you extract the most helpful reports from your bookkeeping software. Accounting software like Wave can also seamlessly connect with your bank accounts so you can automate tasks 7 157 outstanding checks like recording transactions and generating reports. This can help you save time and make financial decisions quickly. Some of the apps might be different, but if your prospective virtual bookkeeping service can cover these five bases, then there is a good chance you’re covered.

Bookkeeping basics every small business owner needs to know and use in 2023

Support hours exclude occasional downtime due to system and server maintenance, company events, observed U.S. holidays and events beyond our control. Terms, conditions, pricing, service, support options, and support team members are subject to change without notice. The program covers topics such as payroll, wholesale accounting, revenue, expenses, assets, liabilities, financial reports, tools used in the industry, and more. With this program, you’ll get eight courses which feature 14 exams and three submitted projects. The program also offers experience working with popular software tools such as Excel and Quickbooks.