It takes time, effort, finances and dedication to start and manage a small business. During the nascent stage, it is easy to manage by yourself various functions such as accounts, payroll, tax, etc. But as the business expands and you concentrate all your efforts on building the brand and increasing the market share, it becomes increasingly difficult for you to manage your books of accounts.

However, you do need up-to-date financial information to conduct your business smoothly and so you will need to hire the services of a virtual accountant who will take care of that aspect thoroughly. Hiring, training and managing a full-time accountant/bookkeeper is usually unaffordable and also time-consuming for these small businesses. Hence, increasingly small businesses are looking at outsourced accounting and are exploring the possibility of hiring virtual accountants.

Let us look at the various benefits a virtual accountant provides to small businesses:

• They help save time:
  
  For any business, time is money. So, going by this adage, it proves to be immensely beneficial to outsource accounting work to a virtual accountant and devote your time to business expansion and strategic planning. By outsourcing accounting to a virtual accountant, you are freeing yourself from the shackles of meticulously looking at each and every financial aspect of the business and can utilize this time to plan and manage company productivity, other business plans, etc.
  
  By hiring a virtual accountant or virtual bookkeeper, your time spent on recruiting an internal bookkeeper, training and managing them is also eliminated.
   
• They help save money:
  
  The difference comes between the two because of the salary and the benefits provided. To your virtual accountant, you pay just the agreed amount that is mentioned in the agreement. Whereas to your in-house accountant, you have to pay his/her salary, insurance, social security benefits, etc. Apart from this, you also have to consider the vacation time, additional office space cost, cost of buying the software which runs into hundreds of pounds, etc.
  
  All these unnecessary expenditures can be saved by hiring a virtual accountant or a virtual bookkeeper. They work remotely and on a contract basis, thereby eliminating the need to hire an in-house accountant.
   
• They offer accounting services on the go:
  
  With the help of virtual accounting services, you are able to access your book of accounts whenever you want and wherever you go. With the convenience of cloud accounting, you can easily access your financial records from anywhere on your mobile, laptop or computer. Virtual accounting services are delivered by experienced professional accountants who know their job well.
  
  This contrasts with traditional in-house accounting services where the accountants are available only during nine-to-five office hours. And may not even be available then; due to sickness or illness, holidays or vacations. Virtual accountants have very flexible schedules, belong to large teams, and are available to satisfy your requirements and address your questions most of the time.
   
• They have a team of experts from diverse backgrounds:
  
  Virtual accountants belong to a team of professionals with vast experience and also which consist of experts from varied backgrounds viz. Tax, VAT, Payroll, bookkeeping, etc. Your business can benefit immensely by getting their counsel in all these functions.
  
  Your business will get dedicated attention every time from the virtual accountants and they will set your business on the stable path of success.
   
• They leverage technology:
  
  - Virtual accountants assist you leverage technology for your business.
  
  - They provide 24×7 record access to you via a secure internet connection.
  
  - They employ the best and latest software to assist you to get the foremost out of your services.
  
  - Also, you don’t need to be tech-savvy to use or understand the software because the virtual accountants are there to explain and hold your hand at every step.
  
  Contemporary virtual accounting services firms are very serious when it comes to customer’s data privacy. For e.g., we at Doshi Outsourcing are GDPR compliant. Your business can completely trust us with your data. Your data is always accessible to you through secure logins and always timely and accurate.
   
• They provide top-notch customer service:
  
  When you perform your tasks well then, the quality will speak for itself. This is the mantra that we follow at Doshi Outsourcing. The quality service provided by the virtual accounting services firms is of top-grade, as they have certified professionals with them. They are well-trained in handling customers’ queries via calls, emails and chats.
   

As a business, when you have parted with them the most important internal function i.e. managing your book of accounts, then rest assured, you can expect a high level of services from them and also, they are always answerable to you, they have an entire team of outsourced accountants to answer your queries.

In contrast, the in-house bookkeepers are answerable to you only in their work shift timings. And if you require any information on an urgent basis then it might get delayed until the next day they arrive.