Small businesses are regularly in a pinch to make everything work monthly and break even. As a result, the standard administrative functions middle-size and large companies enjoy by default don’t always exist due to cost. With every expense going towards trying to grow a business and general sales, small companies often cut back or try to wear two hats to cover the necessary personnel and accounting paperwork. This all comes to a head, however, when specific activities have to happen legally, such as formal hiring, payroll, and tax reporting. Contracting out administrative functions can help tremendously, both in making sure costs are for just what is needed at the time and taking advantage of a wide range of resources available remotely.
CPA Work Versus Daily Processing
A regular problem for new businesses involves daily bookkeeping versus end-of-the-year tax reporting. Filing taxes requires a CPA, but we can’t afford to have them handle daily bookkeeping too. So the owner or managers (who don’t have accounting training) end up managing the day-to-day finances. This leads to lots of preventable mistakes before tax time comes around. The result ends up being sloppy paperwork that makes the tax reporting far more difficult later on.
Instead, by having remote bookkeeping handling the daily or periodic transactions consistently, the small business can go into tax season with everything together and prepared properly. That in turn also reduces the cost of the CPAs’ work as well as downstream savings.
Whom to Choose?
Small businesses can definitely take advantage of reputation reports, referrals, and comparing notes with other companies on which providers work better for different situations. There is also the ability to easily try out different services and compare instead of locking down on one path that doesn’t work well. This flexibility becomes incredibly important to finding the right match with a provider who serves a small business best. It’s much harder to contract a service in person and then replace it, letting go of the service contract after untangling it legally.
Remote Matches Cloud Platforms
Additionally, small businesses today are predominantly digital and cloud-based to take advantage of the operating cost savings possible with those tools. Outsourced and well-equipped bookkeepers and accountants like Remote Quality Bookkeeping work seamlessly with these tools, providing and moving transaction workload easily between platforms and portals. As long as a small business focuses on retaining encryption and secure channels with a provider who already has a proven track record of accounting performance, there are a significant amount of operational advantages possible with remote accounting. “And it’s not going away anytime soon either,” says Joe Kisamore.
Benefits of Remote Bookkeeping
Remote bookkeeping offers several benefits, including cost savings, increased productivity, and flexibility. Remote bookkeepers can provide fresh perspectives, reduce stress, and offer up-to-date financial reporting.
- Access to Talent – With remote work, you aren’t limited by geographic location when hiring a bookkeeper. You can find qualified candidates from anywhere. This increases the talent pool and allows you to find someone with the ideal skillset.
- Lower Overhead – By having a remote bookkeeper, you avoid expenses like providing office space, equipment, utilities, etc. This can significantly reduce overhead costs.
- Flexible Schedule – Remote bookkeepers can often set their own schedules which allows them to work during the times they are most productive. This can lead to better work-life balance as well.
- Scalability – It’s easy to scale remote staff up or down as your business needs change. You can add or reduce hours as needed. With an in-house bookkeeper, your costs are fixed.
- Improved Focus – Since remote bookkeepers work in their own dedicated workspace, they may face fewer distractions leading to higher productivity and accuracy.
- Access to Technology – Remote bookkeepers are skilled in using various software, apps, and tools to streamline processes. This can improve efficiency.
- Disaster Recovery – In the event of an emergency that halts business operations, remote staff can often continue working to keep critical functions like accounting running.
Overall, remote bookkeeping is a cost-effective and efficient way to manage your finances and grow your business.
