Outsource Bookkeeping: Your Guide For Finding the Best Bookkeeping Service

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Man in blue Oxford shirt inputs numbers into a calculator for his outsource accounting client.

As your business grows, the numbers you crunch keep getting bigger. Soon you’re burning the midnight oil just to balance the books. You could use some help. When a business goes from small to medium, it often makes sense to start outsourcing your bookkeeping and accounting. 

An outsource bookkeeping service frees up lots of time and energy and allows you to put off hiring a full-time employee. Plus, there’s no need to sort out a new accounting software that won’t always catch all of your mistakes. 

The average salary for a bookkeeper in Australia is almost $70,000 per year, while you may be able to get outsourced bookkeeping for as little as $2,500 per month. If you only need someone part-time, buying services per hour or per project is often the financially savvy choice. Read on to learn more. 

Benefits of outsourcing your bookkeeping

An outsourced bookkeeper can become a part of your team, even though they’re not in-house. And in some cases you have access to a whole team of supportive experts instead of just one employee. The key benefits of outsourcing your bookkeeping as a medium-sized business include:

  • Lowering your overhead — You get the benefit of balance books without paying for office equipment or salary for an employee. 
  • Gaining access to your books at any time — You don’t want to wake your employee at 11pm to access a report, but a virtual bookkeeping service gives you 24/7 visibility into your report. 
  • Having an expert on your side — Companies like Visory can pair you with an expert in your industry, so there is no need to hunt one down on your own. 

What task can a virtual bookkeeper do for your business?

An experienced virtual bookkeeper will show up on Day 1 ready to get to work. In fact, one of the main benefits of hiring an outsourced bookkeeping service is that you don’t need to train a bookkeeper or find someone who understands confidentiality.  

Your virtual bookkeeper will be vetted for their professionalism and expertise. An outsourced bookkeeper can complete the following services (and often more!) based on your needs:

  • Get your books up to date if you’ve been without accounting services in the past and need a clean up. 
  • Maintain balance sheets, payroll, and other books going forward. 
  • Tracking bills and handling accounts payable and accounts receivable. 
  • Managing your payroll process and tracking expenses. 
  • Helping you prepare your taxes. 
  • Preparing reports for potential investors and analysing the health of your company’s finances. 
  • Keeping track of your cash flow. 

How does outsource bookkeeping work?

You might like the idea of more affordable bookkeeping, but where do you start? With a company like Visory, it couldn’t be more seamless. The onboarding process is fast and we get right to work straightening out your books. In addition to bookkeeping services, you’ll have access to an entire financial team if you want your financial reports on the weekend or require additional services as your business grows. Plus, with a whole team at your disposal, you don’t have to fear losing your bookkeeper and scrambling to balance the books until you find a replacement. 

Outsource bookkeeping from Visory pairs you with a specialist who is trained for your industry segment and allows you to scale up as your needs grow. You don’t have to fire and hire a new bookkeeper as you add on more payroll needs or decide to do monthly reporting instead of quarterly. A good virtual bookkeeper is focused on outcomes and strategy — not just doing the bare minimum. They can even offer insights about how to drive your business. 

How much does outsource bookkeeping cost?

As we mentioned above, an outsourced accounting service can offer rates competitive to a full-time staffer — with more services than you’d get from one employee. If you have unique needs, you can even get pricing based on a specific proposal or project. 

At the same time, Visory offers a fixed rate unless you add on additional services. So you can count on a consistent cost as opposed to experiencing fluctuating invoices each month from a contractor or potential overtime. No surprises here. 

Is outsource bookkeeping right for my business?

If you’re worried about your books, don’t have time to balance them yourself, and want to avoid hiring a full-time employee—outsource booking might be the solution you seek. It can also work if you have an accounting team but know you need more help to scale. 

Sign up with Visory today to learn more about our custom bookkeeping plans and pricing for businesses of all sizes. 

Seeing Double: Why You Need Double-Entry Bookkeeping

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Your business is growing, which is good for your bottom line. It may not be good for your limited accounting staff, however. Especially if they’re not keeping accurate, double-entry books. Thankfully there is a lot of help out there for medium-to-large businesses that need assistance scaling up while keeping their books straight. 

Online bookkeepers can save the day when it comes to the fundamentals of business accounting, such as double-entry bookkeeping. This style of accounting is necessary for any growing company with both accounts payable and accounts receivable. Basically: every transaction is recorded twice. We’ll explain the principles of double-entry bookkeeping, how it differs from single-entry accounting, and why knowing more about double-entry matters for your business. 

What is double-entry bookkeeping?

Double-entry bookkeeping is a system where you are recording transactions in terms of debits and credits. Need a simple double-entry bookkeeping system example? Glad you asked. Imagine a spreadsheet with two columns, one for expenses and one for credits. Each transaction is recorded twice, once in the expenses and once in the credits, hence the name “double-entry.” If the columns don’t balance, you can investigate why the error exists.

Let’s say you have a corporate credit card with a balance of $5,000 that you want to pay off. Your company’s cash account would be reduced by $5,000; this is a debit/expense. At the same time, you would subtract $5,000 from the current debt held by the company, which is considered a credit. The transaction is recorded once in subtraction and once in addition, balancing the line items.

When do accountants use double-entry bookkeeping? Medium to large businesses, and even some small businesses, require this method to keep an accurate balance sheet. This style of bookkeeping also keeps your general ledger clean — this is a book that categorizes your financial transactions by type. You can also use double-entry when you create a trial balance, which is a simple spreadsheet with credit/debit columns that covers a specific time period. This document is meant to detect accounting errors, and double-entry helps you find discrepancies.  

Double-entry operates from the fundamental accounting equation: Assets = Liabilities + Equity. Once you add what you own against what you owe, you can understand whether you are in a surplus or deficit.

Man reviews a balance sheet on his laptop

Untitled by Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

How is double-entry bookkeeping different than single-entry bookkeeping?

Single-entry bookkeeping only works for very small, very simple businesses. If you are bringing in cash with few expenses, such as with a sole proprietorship, this type of accounting may cover you. 

Single-entry methods are like keeping a chequing account. You only keep track of deductions or credits, creating a single entry for each transaction. Even if you had a credit/debit double-column spreadsheet, there would not be an entry in both columns for each transaction — with double-entry, there is. 

Should I use double-entry bookkeeping?

There are many advantages of a double-entry bookkeeping system. Here are some of the reasons we recommend switching to this type of accounting as a medium to large company:

  • A more complete view of finances. Creating two entries for each transaction makes it easier to see where exactly the money that is going out as a payable ended up. A simple single-entry cash system isn’t complex enough for most businesses. 
  • Finding errors is faster. Doubling down on entries also makes faster work of locating where a credit came in that was not properly debited, and vice versa. You will thank yourself later if you detect missing money.
  • There is total transparency. By expecting a double-entry system from your accounting staff or partners, you keep everyone clear on where the money is coming and going. 

Conclusion

Bookkeeping can be a complicated business, and even double-entry bookkeeping isn’t foolproof. While double-entry accounting adds transparency and increased accuracy to the process — you may still need some help by way of a bookkeeping service. 

Visory has a team of financial experts that can lend their expertise whenever you need help balancing the books or preparing a trial balance brief. We’re better than an in-house accountant for growing businesses because you get access to a whole team and you can check your records around the clock. If it’s time to upgrade from single-entry to double-entry bookkeeping techniques, it’s definitely time to give us a call or create an account online today.

Understanding a Balance Sheet

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Think you have a grasp on the health of your business? If your balance sheet is a mess, you might be lying to yourself. A balance sheet represents your company’s assets, liabilities, and stakeholder equity (the money that’s been invested) at a given point. In other words, it tells you a lot more than the pile of Post-Its and invoices you keep on the corner of your desk. 

Balance sheets are often prepared quarterly, but you can generate one any time you need to see how your company is performing. Of course, understanding a balance sheet is as important as creating one. If the columns look like Greek, you can’t make educated investments or have smart spending habits. A company like Visory can help you prepare and understand an accurate balance sheet on a regular basis to track the growth and financial challenges of your organization. What is a balance sheet?

Most balance sheets use the same standard equation. This formula balances what the company owns (its assets) against what it owes (its liabilities) plus what stakeholders have invested. 

Assets = Liabilities + Shareholders’ Equity 

However, as Harvard points out, there are a few other (less common) formulas that can help you take the pulse on your business’ health as well.  These equations are aimed at figuring out what the stakeholder’s investments are worth and what the current liabilities are, assuming no overhead. 

Owners’ Equity = Assets – Liabilities 

Liabilities = Assets – Owners’ Equity

A balance sheet will have a column for assets and a column for liabilities and investments that should — you guessed it — balance each other out. If you take out a loan for $10,000, your assets will increase by that amount because you now have $10,000 available to spend. However, your debts will also increase by $10,000 because you have to pay it back. Thus, the two columns are balanced. However, understanding a balance sheet also requires a more detailed understanding of what constitutes an asset and what is considered a liability. More on that right ahead. 

Man reviews a balance sheet on his laptop

Untitled by Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

How a balance sheet is structured

One of the things a balance sheet determines is your company’s debt ratio. Lenders and potential investors may specifically seek out this data to determine if your company is in the black or the red. They are sure to comb over your financial documents, which makes understanding your company’s balance sheet and profit and loss statement crucial. . 

Now, what is the proper way to structure a balance sheet? Understanding a balance sheet also means knowing how to organize it. If you leave off an essential line item, the entire document could become inaccurate. 

First, let’s discuss the assets. These include current assets and non-current (also called long-term) assets. These items will typically be written as individual line items on the left side of your balance sheet. 

  • Current assets
    • Cash and cash equivalents (including short-term CDs)
    • Accounts receivable
    • Inventory
    • Prepaid expenses
  • Non-current assets
    • Property and equipment
    • Intangible assets (patents, licenses, proprietary technology)
    • Long-term securities investments

On the right side of your balance sheet, you will write down your liabilities and equity stakes. These line items include anything your company owes to lenders,

  • Current liabilities
    • Accounts payable
    • Wages payable
    • Current bank debt
    • Long-term debt
    • Deferred revenue
  • Shareholder equity
    • Share capital
    • Retained earnings
    • Common stock
    • Preferred stock

Why are balance sheets important?

If you need a course on understanding balance sheets for beginners, you’re not alone. Even medium to enterprise companies who have grown swiftly may still need aid ironing out the best way to balance the books. Trust us, it’s worth the effort. A balance sheet makes a difference in day-to-day business (can you afford to process payroll on time?) and in your long-term growth (will you be approved for a new business loan?). 

Learn More: Outsource Your Payroll Processing with Visory

A real professional that understands the specifics of book balancing and the ins and outs of accounting can make a huge difference in your business’s financial health. Accurate reports not only allow you to see red flags as they arise but prepare you to be ready to go when an investor shows interest. Someone who is already experienced in understanding balance sheets and income statement documents is a major game-changer. 

Need some help understanding a balance sheet? Get started with Visory today. Signing up is straightforward and gives you access to the experts you need to keep you out of the red.