Do you sometimes feel as if your business is a runaway train, and it’s going so fast you don’t know how you’ll regain control? The answer is in your financial statements, and, for many business owners, the only way to get control of those important documents is with virtual accounting services.
Virtual accounting moves important accounting processes and procedures out of your office, where employees who may not be qualified to perform standards-based bookkeeping on a daily or weekly basis have been taking care of the books, and into the offices of a well-qualified, trained and certified team of online accountants.
Let’s look at a few of the best accounting for rapidly growing small-to-medium-size businesses with revenue between $2 and $25 million.
1. Adherence to time lines and deadlines. – When you sign on with a reputable virtual accounting firm, your virtual accountant and financial controller should create a Client Procedures Manual that outlines the bookkeeper’s tasks and sets deadlines for deliverables. Having timely and accurate bookkeeping is a big step toward gaining control of your business.
2. Accrual accounting makes it easier to analyze profitability. – If you’re making the transition from “small business” to fast-growing mid-size organization, it’s probably also time to make the transition to accrual accounting.
Your office manager, administrative assistant or whoever else may have been doing your books may not know the standards for accrual accounting. Your virtual accounting team can help convert your books from cash-based to accrual accounting and make the process painless for you.
Accrual accounting logs revenue when it is earned (not received), and it logs expenses when they are incurred (not necessarily paid). This paints a clear picture of your organization’s profits during any accounting period so you and your financial controller can more easily spot opportunities to increase profitability.
3. Your Virtual Accounting Team Is Trained In GAAP Standards – Accrual accounting is one important aspect of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). Some businesss owners don't realize that GAAP-compliant accounting opens new doors for your business. If you’re at the point where a cash infusion from outside investors could help your business reach the next stage of growth, your books must be GAAP-compliant to apply for funding.
Your virtual accounting team is trained in GAAP standards, something not every small business bookkeeper can say.
4. Current accounting best practices involve leveraging technology for greater financial control. - Virtual accounting puts your financial information in the cloud and at your fingertips.
The virtual office place is here, and more business owners and C-Level executives work remotely at various times. Your accounting files should not be tied to your desktop computer in your office. A quality virtual accountant and software specialist provides you with 24/7 access to all of your financial statements, reports and more from any secure, Internet-enabled device. With virtual accounting, not only will you have more control of your business, you’ll also feel more in control, because you can find out your company’s financial state at any second.
5. Knowledge is power, and a virtual accounting team that includes a financial controller offers you greater insight and knowledge so you can make the best decisions for your organization and regain control of that runaway train. – Having true control of your company means having all the information available to make the best decisions, and also having someone around to help you understand the wealth of information at your fingertips.
More and more business owners and CEOs are looking to online accountants within a virtual accounting service to help steer their business toward greater incremental growth.
