Virtual Assistant Forums | Work from Home

Executive Online Solutions · #1 (**permalink**) 06-18-2010

I was talking to a business acquaintance today (in person), and she really could use a bookkeeper, but would like someone to come to the office to do it. She said what with many receipts, and paper trails, there was no way to do it virtually. (She has previously used a VA for admin work, so is quite familiar with the whole concept). I am still a newbie, and was unsure of what exactly to tell her.

How do you manage all the paper "bits and pieces" that usually goes with accounting? It seems to me that boxing it all up and shipping it back and forth would really get to be cumbersome. I could totally see her point.

For those of you who offer basic bookkeeping - invoices, bill payments, statement reconciliation etc. - what strategies do you use for this problem?

Thank you.

reneeshupe · #2 (**permalink**) 06-18-2010

Well I don't offer bookkeeping simply because it's not a task I enjoy, but I know there's many programs out there to make the management of all the bits and pieces easier.

One such program is Shoeboxed - you send them the receipts they scan them to be used and inputed

There's many online accounting systems so of which would integrate with Shoeboxed. There's also Expensify which allows you to manage expenses simply.

Hope this might give some insight.

Tomekia Lloyd · #3 (**permalink**) 06-19-2010

Hi,
I am a Business Management Specialist in the Atlanta, GA area and full charge bookkeeping and QuickBooks setup is my specialty.

I've found that a quick trip to pick up what's needed to bring back to your office can work. Of course, the time to do this can be billed, and it usually totals to much more than the cost of gas money.

DianaEnnen · #4 (**permalink**) 06-20-2010

Hi

I used to do bookkeeping for a couple of clients. In one case, what I did was just drive over and pick up a package of receipts and then import the updated quickbooks that I had been working on. I did all the work at my home office and it only took me about 15 minutes there. They knew it had to be a quick trip. (Kind-of set that up at the beginning so that I didn't end up being there all day talking.)

In the other case she had Quickbooks online so we could both log in and see the latest. (That really worked the best. My other client just didn't want the expense.) And then every 2 weeks she just mailed me the receipts. I gave her the Priority envelopes. We never had any problems with them going missing. She was worried at first, but once she saw that it was okay, it worked really well. I think the first two times she actually made copies to feel better and then she just said go for it!

Hope this helps!
Diana Ennen / www.virtualwordpublishing.com

Executive Online Solutions · #5 (**permalink**) 06-20-2010

Thanks for all your responses. I see how it could easily work. I will talk to her again, and see if she'd be interested in giving it a try. She doesn't live that far from me, so the back-and-forth wouldn't be too much of a problem.

Office Goddess · #6 (**permalink**) 06-21-2010

I am a virtual bookkeeper and have a combination of a) receipts being faxed, b) receipts being scanned and emailed, and c) their invoices coming straight to my po box as a 'care of.' I described the process of being a virtual bookkeeper in the October issue of TVE Magazine (page 28) here.

bluewaterbusiness · #7 (**permalink**) 06-22-2010

I am a virtual bookkeeper with clients across the country that are 100% virtual using QB Online, project managment software and banking log in info. I also have a virtual client that is local (within 7 miles of my office) but he prefers to do everything virtually (scans his receipts etc and emails them to me. We then exchange portable QB files monthly so he always has a copy and so do I.) I also have a few local clients that I either go to their office for a morning...or I stop by to pick up their documents, and complete their books by logging in remotely to their QB file.