Virtual Bookkeeping: What It Is & How to Get Started in 2024

Our complete list below includes why we selected each online bookkeeping service, monthly price details and features checklists to help you easily compare services. Outsourced, virtual bookkeeping can cost as little as $150 per month and as much as $900 (or more) per month. Some companies charge by the number of accounts you need them to manage, while other companies charge based on your company’s monthly expenses. Typically, the lower your expenses (and the fewer your accounting needs), the less you’ll be charged. Prices start at $500 a month for the Essential plan, which is geared towards startups that use cash-basis accounting.

So you can easily see all your transactions, track your cash flow, and check out visual financial reporting through your web browser or on your phone. Virtual bookkeeping is especially helpful if your business mostly deals with digital transactions rather than cash. While a virtual bookkeeper can handle cash transactions, it’s faster and easier for them to categorize digital transactions (like credit card, debit, Shopify, and Paypal transactions). Virtual bookkeeping and accounting services can take bookkeeping tasks off your hands for good.

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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.

Both are easy to navigate for bookkeepers and accountants alike but require some learning for the typical small business owner. When a virtual bookkeeper uses software you’re comfortable with, you have a smoother onboarding experience and can hit the ground running. Virtual, outsourced, and online are often used interchangeably when referring to bookkeeping and accounting. However, a virtual bookkeeper or virtual accountant can sometimes refer to accountants or CPAs who work out of their homes and contract out their services individually. In contrast, outsourced bookkeeping and accounting nearly always refers to accountants with an accounting firm who handle your books from their own office. Ignite Spot Accounting delivers heftier reports than many other cloud accounting providers we checked out for this piece.

1. And since your potential customers are no longer limited to your local area, you can focus on marketing to the types of business owners you most want to serve.
2. The service doesn’t include financial advisory services, tax advice, facilitating the filing of income or sales tax returns, creating or sending 1099s, or management of payroll.
3. To keep everything running smoothly, you’ll need to create an effective system for workflow and maintaining company culture.
4. For additional features, these were elements that fell into the “nice-to-have” category that not all software providers offered, either as part of their regular plan or as a paid add-on.
5. Online bookkeeping services typically range from around $200 per month to well over $500 per month if you opt for more frequent reports or back-office add-ons.

See Bench’s features in action

All of the time you spend doing menial tasks, like making journal entries in a general ledger, can be redirected towards growing your business. If you’ve been thinking about becoming a bookkeeper, now’s the time to start. There are minimal start-up costs, flexible working hours, room for growth, and pay ranges from $20 to $40/hour. And starting has never been easier with the Brilliant Bookkeeper course. This start-to-finish course is designed for beginners in mind, and will give you the confidence and skills required to launch your virtual bookkeeping business. The way a virtual bookkeeper works with their clients is by giving them online access to their financial accounts, documents, and server, in some instances.

How much does outsourced accounting cost?

Equivity is a good choice if you want an administrative assistant that goes beyond bookkeeping. It’s also best if you already have experience with software like QuickBooks—otherwise, you could face a learning curve. Whether you go with a freelancer or a service like Bench, choosing what’s right with you starts with your bookkeeping needs. If your books are behind, we can get you caught up for $299 per month. Learn more about Bench, our mission, and the dedicated team behind your financial success.

Best for Accounting Firms

In contrast, Merritt gives you more detailed reports like forecasting and quarterly comparisons. Every entrepreneur knows that their most stretched resource is the number of hours in a day. Keeping the books up to date is one of the easiest business tasks to delegate effectively. For startups that have a lot of customers or a lot of bills, virtual bookkeepers can save many hours every month. At my company, one of the specific things we teach accountants and bookkeepers who want to run a virtual bookkeeping service is that they should specialize in a few industries. This is true of any bookkeeper — in person or virtual — that you would hire.

But don’t worry, you can overcome these challenges and thrive in a virtual practice. Next, your bookkeeper will take regulation of the amount of starch in plant tissues by adp glucose pyrophosphorylase on the monthly management of your books. Get updates, set up video calls, or send questions via messages. First, a bookkeeper reviews your chart of accounts and past transactions to bring your books up to date. With QuickBooks Live Expert Full-Service Bookkeeping, a dedicated bookkeeper will get to know your business, bring your past books up to date, and do your book for you, start to finish.