You have many choices in online accounting solutions. It can be a challenge for SMB owners of growing businesses to make the right choice. Let’s explore some of the options available for businesses in different stages of growth. Armed with this knowledge, it may be easy to decide that a full-fledged online provider of accounting and bookkeeping services is the best choice for you.
Do-It-Yourself Online Accounting Solutions
Programs like QuickBooks are available in an easy-to-use, intuitive online format. All of your data is hosted remotely on the QuickBooks server, and you log in via a unique username and password. For very small businesses, this may be a solution to an expensive, on-staff professional bookkeeper.
But keep in mind, the basic program may not have the functionality you need for a larger or growing business, and you’ll pay extra for different templates. You’ll also pay an extra monthly fee for technical support if you need it.
Finally, if you don’t know accounting basics, the software isn’t as easy to follow as you may think. If you’re more interested in running your business than running spreadsheets (and if you’re reading this, you probably are!) you need online bookkeeping that won’t keep you bogged down in accounting.
Outsourced Online Accounting with a Private Individual
You can purchase bookkeeping software yourself and hire anyone from a Virtual Assistant to someone in a foreign country to keep your books. But when you pay an independent VA, you never know how many hours you’re really getting from her. How many times a day does your “professional bookkeeper” get up to answer the door, answer the phone, referee a fight between her kids, or get a snack?
We’re not saying all work-at-home professionals are like that. Not at all. But unless there’s someone actually overseeing work-at-home bookkeepers, who has set up stringent guidelines for working hours and availability, you just don’t know exactly what you’re getting.
That doesn’t mean we chain our bookkeepers to their desks when they work at AccountingDepartment.com, but we expect the same work ethic and work hours, including scheduled breaks, that a professional bookkeeper would have within an office environment. That also includes a secure work environment where no one else can access your private company information and software support when you need it.
Outsourced Online Accounting through a Foreign Country
If you’re searching for the absolute lowest prices in online bookkeeping, you may be tempted to “go overseas.” But many online bookkeeping agencies outside the U.S. use giant call centers that house hundreds of employees. There’s no guarantee that your information is secure in this type of environment.
At AccountingDepartment.com, we provide every bookkeeper with a computer and dual-screen monitor set up, with a secure internet connection, so your company information is always kept safe and confidential.
We understand that your business is your livelihood and your lifeline. Your accounting records are important. Why would you trust them with someone across the world just to save a few dollars?
AccountingDepartment.com: Reliable Online Accounting Solutions
We know you don’t want to spend a fortune on a professional bookkeeper. You’ll find online accounting solutions through AccountingDepartment.com to be much more reasonable than an in-house bookkeeping staff. You’ll save on overhead, benefits, PTO, and, because of our structure, we can even pay our bookkeepers a little bit less than you might have to. That makes us a very reasonable solution for a full-service accounting services firm.
Unlike other online accounting solutions, AccountingDepartment.com provides:
- A full bookkeeping staff: Your full-scale virtual accounting department includes a professional Quickbooks certified bookkeeper, an accounting controller, and a software specialist. We can tailor packages to a client’s needs based on the size of their business to provide daily, weekly, or monthly bookkeeping services.
- Support when you need it: Your software specialist and bookkeeper are available via phone, instant messenger, and email if you have any questions. Monthly consultations with your accounting controller will help you understand the information on complicated bookkeeping spreadsheets and apply that information to help grow your business.
- Confidentiality and security: Unlike overseas call centers or so-called businesses run out of an individual’s spare bedroom, AccountingDepartment.com makes sure all of our staff has a secure environment in their home where they can work, uninterrupted, during normal office hours. Your hosted online accounting software is kept secure using the same SSL-encryption used by top financial institutions, and our bookkeepers follow a code of ethics and vow to keep your information fully confidential.
- Reliable, professional bookkeepers: At AccountingDepartment.com, we often say we are about “the people, the processes, and the procedures.” That means we hire the best in the field and then train our bookkeepers to follow the same processes and procedures, which can be tailored to your company’s bookkeeping needs. These procedures ensure that you get the bookkeeping services you need, when you need them.
