Invoicing and payables and receivables. Oh, my!
We’re going to go out on a limb here and saying that there aren’t many small business owners who actually enjoy doing their own bookkeeping. If you do, CONGRATULATIONS! But sadly, this post may not be for you.
If, however, you bear the bookkeeping brunt out of necessity and would rather be doing literally anything else, this article is definitely for you.
Because unless your business is, in fact, an accounting business, you’re probably passionate about whatever product or service your business provides – and decidedly not because you enjoy reconciling, reporting, and categorizing.
According to AccountingToday.com, 74 percent of the nearly 33.2 million small businesses in the U.S. don’t employ full-time or part-time accounting help. Why? Because having a full- or part-time resource is often viewed as a luxury, so instead they choose to manage it themselves for ‘peace of mind.’
But when the financial vitality of your business is at stake, can there really be anything ‘peaceful’ about doing it yourself – and praying you get it all exactly right?
Outsourcing Bookkeeping to Virtual Assistants
Recall with us, if you will, a time not so long ago wherein outsourcing administrative business tasks would have been impractical – maybe even impossible – for many small business owners. But thanks to the advent of the internet, nearly everything you could ever want or need is literally at your fingertips.
You guys, the future is now.
And one of such amazing internet-enabled sorceries is that you can outsource your bookkeeping to highly qualified virtual assistants anywhere in the world – and at affordable rates to boot.
So which bookkeeping tasks, exactly, can you safely outsource?
The Benefits of Handing Off Your Bookkeeping to a Virtual Assistant
There are barely enough hours in the day of a busy entrepreneur to remember even the simplest of things — including keeping up with daily water intake.
When business owners do their own bookkeeping to save money, they run the risk of exhausting valuable time and energy that could be better used growing the business which, no matter how you slice it, costs them in the long run regardless.
When you can hand off your financials and bookkeeping to-do’s to a virtual assistant, you open yourself up to more time and scalability.
Gone are the days of you carrying all the weight. Now, you have someone else maintaining your financial records, helping you prepare for tax season, and keeping all invoices and receipts organized and ready for your year-end accounting needs.
Virtual Bookkeeping Tasks
Many virtual assistants are ready, willing and able to manage the following bookkeeping tasks for you:
- Ensuring your bills are paid on time
- Preparing balance sheets or P&L accounts
- Reconciling bank and credit card statements
- Preparing invoices and general ledgers
- Preparing and mailing invoices to customers
- Mailing payment reminders and following up with customers by phone
- Maintaining financial data in your chosen software application
- Entering payables and receivables
- Sales tax reporting and submission
- Helping to create year-end reports
- Helping to interpret financial statements
- Dealing with delinquent accounts
The Bottom Line: Pun Intended
We get it: In business, especially in early growth stages, it makes sense to nickel-and-dime every single expenditure. But whether you are a multi-million dollar tycoon or a mechanic working from your home garage, managing your own business’s finances can be the difference between success and failure. And with all the time, treasures and talents you’ve poured into getting your dream off the ground, you really can’t afford to not have your books in order.
So if you’re ready to pass the baton to a US based virtual assistant who actually enjoys bookkeeping – because yes, we can confirm that such people really do exist – let the experienced professionals at BELAY give you the most valuable asset a business owner can have: peace of mind.