Virtual Bookkeeping: How to Hire the Best Bookkeeper Online Bench Accounting

Up-to-date financials allow business owners to make informed budgeting decisions, identify potential tax deductions, and have stress-free tax seasons. Bookkeeping creates financial statements, like your balance sheet and income statement, that hold key information about your cash flow, profitability, and business health. 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. It means that your virtual bookkeeping service has missed the biggest boat of all when it comes to being a “cloud-based” bookkeeping service.

1. However, Merritt can still recommend a solid payroll provider or tax consultant who meets your needs.
2. Virtual bookkeeping is especially helpful if your business mostly deals with digital transactions rather than cash.
3. Add-ons for job costing and project-based accounting may be especially useful for project-based businesses.
4. The two platforms work together seamlessly, allowing you to effortlessly bill and invoice with FreshBooks, and automatically see that income reflected in your bookkeeping.

Many small businesses enjoy having a dedicated team to handle all of their monthly bookkeeping, and using accounting software is a smart addition. Don’t miss the accounting software resources put together by Nav experts. There are several online bookkeeping services available, but we’ve identified the best in terms of pricing, features, and quality of service. The Wave suite of apps manages tasks like invoicing, payroll, and accounting/bookkeeping for small business owners. Virtual bookkeeping services can also save you money through tax preparation services and tax filing, providing peace of mind that you’re 100% compliant with all tax rules. At my company, one of the specific things we teach accountants and bookkeepers who want to run a virtual bookkeeping service is managerial accounting definition that they should specialize in a few industries.

Live Expert Full-Service Bookkeeping

Whether you need help with your bookkeeping, getting ready for tax time, or need coaching, our team of experts is here to help. We’ll work with you to connect accounts and pull the data we need to reconcile your books. We use Plaid, which lets you securely connect your financial accounts to Bench in seconds. This feature saves you the time and effort of manually uploading documents. If you’re several years behind on your bookkeeping and taxes, you can get caught up and filed with Catch Up Bookkeeping. We don’t sync your financial data from any other bookkeeping software.

Bookkeeper.com: Most versatile outsourced bookkeeping solution

Along with typical financial reporting (like profit and loss reports and balance sheets), you’ll get a KPI (key performance indicator) report and profitability analysis, among others. However, Ignite Spot doesn’t list its virtual accounting prices upfront. You have to enter more information about your needs to get a quote—which is useful if you want truly customized services but unhelpful if you’d rather choose a basic plan out of a lineup. With Bookkeeper360, you’ll get a dedicated virtual accountant who sends detailed reports on a monthly basis. When comparing services, ensure you’re pricing out all the features you need, including add-on services like tax prep, payroll and HR.

Bookkeeper360: Best for hourly bookkeeping

Don’t lead them by asking if they send out reports on a schedule. Simply ask them what the deliverables will be each week or month. Virtual and outsourced bookkeeping and accounting services are a happy medium between do-it-yourself software and pricey in-house bookkeeping. If that description fits what you’re looking for, one of the nine best virtual bookkeeping providers can save you time, money, and stress. It also starts at $190 a month, which is less than nearly every other provider on our list.

You can cancel your QuickBooks Live plan or upgrade from Live Expert Assisted to Live Expert Full-Service Bookkeeping at anytime. To downgrade from Expert Full-Service Bookkeeping, you may need to wait until the end of your current subscription billing period. Kelly Main is a Marketing Editor and Writer specializing in digital marketing, online advertising and web design and development. Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist covering small business marketing content.

With Live Expert Assisted, you’ll still be managing your own books. Connect one-on-one with experts so you can manage your books with ease. Answer a few questions about what’s important to your business and we’ll recommend the right fit.

We weighted each category equally to calculate our star ratings, and we also considered our accounting expert’s opinion and advice when ranking our top brands. You might benefit from Bookkeeper360’s hourly bookkeeping service. Proprietary bookkeeping software could make it difficult to switch to another provider in the future. 250+ small-business products reviewed and rated by our team of experts.

Virtual Bookkeeping: How to Hire the Best Bookkeeper Online Bench Accounting

QuickBooks Live is best for business owners who want to get their bookkeeping in order but don’t have the time or resources to do it. The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content and guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.

Check out our list of the year’s best accounting software for small businesses to get started. Bookkeeper.com is an all-around solid pick for small to midsize businesses payroll expenses definition that might want additional payroll and tax help down the road. The virtual bookkeeping providers above might be our favorite—but if they don’t quite fit your needs, we understand completely. Here are three other online accounting service providers worth looking at. Online services may offer one-on-one meetings, but you might have to pay more.

Best Online Bookkeeping Services (

Once you do the math, you’ll get an idea of how much you really spend on bookkeeping every month—even if you’re not cutting yourself a check for those services. If you’re a freelancer, try applying your hourly rate to the time you spend on bookkeeping. For pricing, $210 a month gets you 5 hours of an administrative assistant to handle your books. For bigger businesses, the price increases as more hours of work are required. Wave bookkeeping is a good choice if you already use apps from the Wave suite of tools. However, if you stick to a strict budget for your business, Wave may not be for you—it’s hard to predict how much it will cost per month unless you speak with one of their salespeople.

1. FinancePal is best for small businesses that need bookkeeping assistance, including catch-up bookkeeping, entity formation and tax filing.
2. Connect one-on-one with experts so you can manage your books with ease.
3. Want to learn more about bookkeeping before you sign up for a virtual provider?
4. When deciding whether to use online bookkeeping services, it’s best to consider the amount of time (and therefore, the amount of money) that you’ll save with accounting software and a dedicated bookkeeper.
5. If your monthly average is $50,001 or more, the monthly price for QuickBooks Live Expert Full-Service Bookkeeping is $700.
6. If you want your business to save time and money, then you should consider hiring a bookkeeping service.

Best for On-demand Reports

Communications that are available any time include document sharing and live chat with a member of your bookkeeper’s extended team. Traditionally, local bookkeepers have been the first choice for small businesses. In the past, you’d hire a bookkeeper in your community—either an individual working for themselves or someone at a bookkeeping firm.

Compare the top outsourced accounting service features

Lots of bookkeeping services are built to run on QuickBooks, an industry leader in accounting and bookkeeping software. Some services also support Xero, another popular cloud-based accounting software. If you’re comfortable with your current software, ensure your bookkeeping service supports it.

Can a bookkeeper do tax returns?

However, with hundreds of options, it can be daunting to sort through them all and find the best service for your business. Forbes Advisor 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. The Business plan starts at $125/month for tax planning and advice but to get business or personal tax preparation you’ll need a Corporation plan at $225/month.

If a virtual bookkeeper has no website, no online profile, and no social media, that may be a sign they’re inexperienced or unreliable. Look at their LinkedIn to see if their past experience suits your business needs. Virtual services are more sophisticated than individual freelancers. They usually have full teams, so you don’t have to worry about your bookkeeper going on vacation or getting sick. But virtual bookkeeping (also known as remote bookkeeping) comes with drawbacks as well as benefits. Let’s look at how virtual bookkeeping works, then figure out whether it’s a good fit for your business.

Most services touch base monthly, but in some cases, you can pay extra to receive weekly reports. Depending on the company, you can speak with your bookkeeper (or team of bookkeepers) as often as you’d like or at least a few times per month. QuickBooks Live Bookkeeping offers online bookkeeping services that connect small businesses with trusted, QuickBooks-certified virtual bookkeepers. Depending on the service you choose, a bookkeeper can give you guidance or take the lead on your bookkeeping. It’s common for owners of small businesses to attempt bookkeeping on their own, but it’s easy for bookkeeping to become an afterthought until tax time approaches. Choosing the right bookkeeping services for your small business will also free up time for you to focus on your company, easing a lot of stress.