Virtual Assistants For Bookkeeping: Why Should You Hire One?

Accounting is a tricky and time-consuming part of business management, and a virtual bookkeeping assistant provides much-needed support. From data entry to financial reporting, a virtual assistant can take over many tedious tasks that would otherwise bog down your schedule.

With their unique talents and expertise, bookkeeping assistants know how to handle these tasks in ways that might normally be overlooked. They’re well-versed in QuickBooks, financial reports, and balance sheets, and they have years of experience managing accounts and making financial statements for decision-makers like you.

What Are Virtual Assistants For Bookkeeping?

Bookkeeping is an excellent example of a responsibility you can offload to a virtual assistant service. It doesn’t require interaction with the rest of the business, so a full-time employee isn’t necessary. And accounting is time-consuming and distracting to take care of yourself. 

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Instead, let someone who knows the ins and outs of accounting software take this on. A virtual assistant helps your bookkeeping practices by writing and fulfilling invoices, entering financial data, and managing your accounting software. Virtual bookkeeping assistants do all this for a fraction of the cost of a full-time accounting team. 

Virtual Assistants For Bookkeeping: Main Tasks

Bookkeeping becomes more complex as your business grows. This role starts with simple payroll and tax management, but eventually, you need to manage financial reports, projections, and multiple accounts. 

Hiring a virtual assistant early on means you can hand off the following tasks to someone who can scale them effectively:

• Financial reporting: Capturing metrics that measure everything from profits and losses to tax liabilities.
• Administrative tasks: Managing your accounting software, entering data points, and tracking accounting tasks.
• Invoice management: Taking in and fulfilling invoices for expenses like outsourcing contracts or materials.
• Payroll processing: Automating payroll processes and handling all the financial data necessary.
• Order management: Making and tracking orders for the materials and services your business needs.
• Account management: Keeping up with the cash flow between your business accounts and finding ways to stretch your money further.
• Software management and data entry: Using accounting software to maintain an updated database of financial data.
• Tax management: Completing taxes on time and correctly while identifying opportunities for tax incentives.

5 Benefits Of Hiring A Virtual Assistant For Bookkeeping

Here are five ways hiring a virtual bookkeeping assistant can improve your business:

1. Enhanced financial clarity: A virtual bookkeeper keeps precise, up-to-date financial records. With this information, you’ll always know where your business stands and can make well-informed business decisions quickly.
2. More financial support from experts: A great bookkeeper communicates well with other financial experts, so they’ll spend less time researching tax incentives and managing accounts.
3. Better understanding of expenses and costs: A skilled bookkeeper knows how to explain financial information in a way that’s accessible and actionable.
4. Improved cash flow: Your virtual assistant will find the best ways to make your money work for you.
5. Unlocked free time: Data entry, financial reporting, and payroll management are all labor-intensive activities. Offloading them to a virtual assistant service gives you time to reinvest elsewhere.

Should You Hire A Virtual Assistant To Do The Bookkeeping?

Yes, businesses large and small can greatly benefit from hiring a virtual bookkeeping service. And the sooner you do it, the more the investment will make sense. As your business grows, so will your VA's responsibilities, and they’ll have the talents and expertise needed to scale your accounting practices accordingly. A virtual assistant will provide much-needed support even if you just need someone to manage your QuickBooks account or process invoices. 

Get Started With An Athena Assistant

Even if you’re an expert financier, hiring a virtual bookkeeper is a clear win for your business. They’ll get financial tasks done quickly, and you’ll gain peace of mind knowing you have an expert assistant on your side. 

Athena’s assistants undergo a rigorous interview and training process, so you’ll always get the best. We assess candidates’ communication skills and technical know-how so you don’t have to. And after this in-depth review, we send them to a four-week bootcamp so they learn the most current industry techniques.

When you’re ready to add an EA to your team, schedule a fit call so we can find the best virtual assistant for you.

FAQs

Can A Virtual Assistant Do Bookkeeping? 

Yes, there are several virtual assistants who specialize in bookkeeping. Often, these professionals have degrees in accounting or business administration. They help with several tasks, including managing payroll, sending invoices, and assembling financial reports. 

What Programs Do Virtual Bookkeeping Assistants Use? 

This depends on your business’s needs, but generally, a bookkeeping assistant should be well-versed in the following tools: 

• QuickBooks
• Xero
• Zoho Books
• Excel

And Athena assistants are also experts in the latest AI tools, such as ChatGPT, OtterAI, and Zapier. We train them on these programs during our bootcamp so you get the highest-tech help possible. 

What Does A Financial Virtual Assistant Do? 

These assistants can help with a huge range of tasks, depending on their expertise. This includes: 

• Tracking bills and payments
• Recording transactions
• Creating and sending invoices
• Handling payroll
• Preparing financial reports
• Managing budgets
• Filing taxes

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