What is a Virtual Accountant? Simply put, a virtual accountant is an accountant who works online. A virtual accountant is available through online communications rather than working in your office or being outsourced locally. Virtual accountants work online to provide complete, boutique accounting services on demand. What Services Can a Virtual Accountant/Bookkeeper Provide? A virtual accountant can do everything that a traditional accountant can do for you as a business owner. A virtual accountant assists you in setting up your books, keeping your records accurate and up to date, and performing A/R and A/P tasks. Accounts receivable: Collect and process incoming payments on time to ensure the company's cash flow. Accounts payable: Ensure that bills are paid on time, maintain vendor relationships, and avoid cash flow issues. Reporting: Provide income/expense reports and general ledger reports to ensure that business owners understand their financial situation. Check that bank accounts are reconciled within accounting software and that the accounting software is accurate. Even better, virtual bookkeeping services can provide small business owners with general accounting services at a fraction of the cost of traditional bookkeeping services. Rather than hiring an internal bookkeeper, a business owner can supplement their operations with a virtual bookkeeper. Virtual bookkeepers are much more affordable and accessible to business owners and can be hired at a much lower rate. Traditional Accounting vs. Virtual Bookkeeping Working online is what distinguishes virtual bookkeeping from traditional accounting. A virtual bookkeeper will provide the same services and have the same credentials in every other way. Virtual accountants can provide accounting services to clients at a lower cost than traditional accounting firms because they do not have to pay for overhead, such as large brick-and-mortar offices. A virtual bookkeeper should be able to perform virtual bookkeeping to the same or higher standards as an in-person accountant. Meetings with your virtual bookkeeper will most likely take place via video conferencing software such as Zoom. What Do You Need to Begin? How do small business owners begin offering bookkeeping services? To get started with any accounting services, you should have the following items on hand: Your most recent year's tax returns, as well as any payments you've made. To manage it, you'll need access to your accounting software. Any other financial management software you use. Statements from your bank and credit cards Data on hiring or other business decisions. Any asset accounts? (such as retirement accounts). Any debt accounts? (such as credit cards and loans).

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Work Methodology for Accounts
Outsourcing Process:
Here is a methodology which we follow for virtual accounting for clients.
Step 1: Document Requisition:
 We have designed a checklist of documents which would be required from the client's end for
Accounting function.
 Client needs to follow the checklist and give all the required document.
Step 2: Document Handling (Document Imaging)
Physical Documents:
 These documents comprises of physical invoices and all the physical paper which you would
receive from them by paper. Client would make a bunch of the documents and send you the
documents.
 You can employ someone to just file the documents and scan each of them in a folder.
 The scanned documents would be received by us through File transfer Protocol or via dropbox.
Online Documents:
 There are many documents which would come through the client by web such as bank statements
and invoices which are received in email.
 You can give us the documents through File transfer Protocol or via dropbox.
Step 3 : Document Processing
 In India we would sort the documents in relevant folders and have a naming convention for the
documents in order to easily identify the documents. Like we can have
BS_01.01.2013_to_30.01.2013 for bank statement
Step 4 : Data Entry of Documents:
The documents would be entered into MYOB or Xero Accounting Platform
We can store the scanned copy of the source document along with the entry to make it easily
accessible and it leaves an audit trail for the entry.

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Step 5 : Review of Entries:
All the entries would be cross checked and reviewed with the source documents
Step 6: Review of Accounts:
I would personally review all the information and have a look at the entries in case any of them
appears to be of abnormal nature.
Step 7: Reporting:
 We can have following reports for the clients and mail them in order to help them appreciate
where their business is performing.
 Some of the reports which we can provide are:
1. Timely receivables report with ageing analysis
2. Management information reports as required by you at timely intervals.
3. Monthly analysis of accounts to help you judge where your business goes.
4. Monthly Financial Statements including Profit and Loss Account and Balance Sheet
5. Timely updates and suggestions for effective management of working capital.
 We can have customized reports based on client's needs and requirements.
 We can have a standard Service Level Agreement with client in order to understand exactly what
their reporting needs are.
Step 8: Finalization:
We would receive list of queries from your side and the tax consultant and resolve them.