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Balancing the books is vital for any company’s success but it can also be a real headache for a small-business owner. Without a dedicated accountant or a bookkeeper makes the entire process more time consuming and thus costlier. On the other hand, hiring a specialist full-time might be outside the budget of a plucky startup. Quite a pickle, but there is a solution for the entrepreneur, one way to avoid being at wit’s end: Hiring a Virtual Assistant Bookkeeper.  

VA: Vital Asset

Every business needs to stay on top of the cash flow in order to square its profits with its expenses. In the beginning, a startup owner may be able to handle this, but as the company grows he or she will have more roles to fulfill and less time for back office number crunching. Nonetheless, neglecting bookkeeping can spell disaster for businesses great or small. And delegating it to someone who isn’t up to the task will also have dubious results. With a Virtual Assistant, you will be entrusting bookkeeping to someone with the skills needed to implement an efficient and transparent bookkeeping process. This is necessary so that the company can track its finance, properly fulfill transactions, avoid monetary missteps and have the data the owner needs to lead the enterprise forward. The Virtual Bookkeeper will handle this critical role diligently and consistently, being there every step of the process, in constant communication with the owner and other key personnel. All while having an affordable rate compared to hiring a local accountant.  

Meet the Pros

This won’t be your VA’s first rodeo. He or she will have experience handling similar responsibilities for other startups and big companies. There will be a brief adaptation period, for the VA to familiarize with the company’s process. Afterwards, when he or she is settled in, things will proceed smoothly – an experienced Virtual Bookkeeper might even suggest processes that can help make things more efficient. Most importantly, your VA will be ensuring these fundamentals are met:  

Organizing Receipts and Invoices

If business is booming then the receipts and invoices will be piling up like nobody’s business. It can be easy for a smaller outfit to be overwhelmed by this. So it’s critical for the VA to track these and the individual account each receipt or invoice belongs to. So nothing get’s lost or forgotten, left to become overdue, etc. For this, you will want a VA who is handy with accounting programs that can track transactions.  

Staying On Top of Payments

You’ll need to pay suppliers to keep your business running. And the creditors will want regular remuneration. Missing a transaction will more than inconvenience your operations. Having a Virtual Bookkeeper dedicated to keeping abreast of these, with some access to check your accounts’ balances, and handle these transactions, can streamline the process.  

Monitoring Your Financial Standing

Cash disbursement schedules, cash flow statements, income statements, these are essential to business owners who want to follow the development of their company and know what to do next. The numbers don’t lie, so not knowing them will put the entire enterprise in peril. On the other hand, having a VA stay on top of this and keep things organized will be a step in the right direction for your business’ operations and its growth.  

Your Company’s Cornerstone

Your Virtual Bookkeeper will help your business by strengthening its financial foundations. He or she will be the cornerstone that will help stabilize what you have built so that it can grow. This is what you need before taking that next step, so that your plans to develop and expand your startup will come to fruition.   -John Li