Virtual assistants have made small business owners’ lives easier. They simply make their everyday routines more convenient and productive by taking some tasks out of the busy entrepreneurs’ hands. By merely finding the right one and giving them proper instructions, they do the job for you. More importantly, VAs reduce the overhead cost of a business. Instead of hiring a full-time employee to do the menial tasks for the company, you pay an individual to do it for you on an hourly basis or until they are finished with their duties!
What VAs Can’t Do For You: Bookkeeping
However, you should know the limitations of tasks that you can give to your VA. No matter how trustworthy or excellent they are in their jobs, there are some tasks that you cannot let them take over. One such task that they simply can’t handle is your bookkeeping.
Bookkeeping is the process of keeping and organising all the business’ everyday transactions and is an integral part of accounting. It may sound like a pretty straightforward task, but one mistake on this part and the whole projection of your business performance could get affected. Furthermore, not all VAs know the basics of bookkeeping, which is crucial in any record-taking effort!
Should you settle with an inexperienced VA for your bookkeeping practices, here are some mistakes that you could expect to happen:
Inaccurate Data
Accuracy is vital in accounting and bookkeeping. With the right data, the team could properly track the expenditure of the company and its financial performance. With accurate results, it gives businesses many opportunities, such as fulfilling tax obligations fast, payment discounts, and avoidance of late fees and penalties. Understandably, mistakes and inaccuracies will incur the opposite!
Working for an eCommerce company is also another level of challenge. It requires a thorough understanding and careful bookkeeping, or else your chart of accounts might suffer, and so would your business!
Cause of Delay
When there are errors found in your data, you will spend more time correcting the data to find the accurate ones among your records. More time to do another round of work means more expenses on your end too!
Skip all these troubles by hiring someone knowledgeable from the start.
Fines and Late Fees
Along with the delays and additional expense comes fines and late fees. If you submit the wrong tax report, you will end up with another set of problems to deal with. Hiring the wrong person to do the job would always become costly in the end.
Taxes are also not easy subjects to handle. There are state taxes, local taxes, and federal taxes—and this part of the job relies heavily on the data gathered in bookkeeping. All the tasks are connected! That is why this part of the job does not leave any room for mistakes.
Fraud
Money is a sensitive topic for most companies. That is why you only hire the people you trust for the service. A VA is someone you hire on an hourly basis, and there is a chance a different VA is available at a particular moment you need them. Do not settle for this kind of setup if you do not want your contractors to take advantage of the company information they come across with.
Adding another level of security, such as ensuring that a second signature is needed before making purchases under the business name or someone else approving the bookkeeper’s work, would ensure that nothing bad happens to your critical information. Still, hiring a reliable and consistent employee would save you from all the potential troubles later.
Conclusion
While there is no denying that VAs help entrepreneurs experience some ease in their work and increase their level of productivity, it still is different from having a reliable and experienced bookkeeper to do the job for you.
Although a bookkeeper’s task looks simple to people, it is not always the case. This job requires specialised knowledge, skills, and experience to get the job done right. A good bookkeeper has a certification or degree in finance and accounting or has previous experience to ensure they can handle the job properly.
Do you need a bookkeeper for your eCommerce business? At The Ecommerce Accountant, We help our clients find more time to focus on and improve their online stores while keeping their bookkeeping under control. Connect with us today to find out more about how we can help you!
Comments