A remote bookkeeper manages a company’s financial records, transactions, and reports from outside the office, working locally or internationally through virtual channels. Here is a guide on how to find one for your company.
A remote bookkeeper, also known as a virtual or online bookkeeper, is a full-time or part-time employee who manages a company’s financial records, transactions, and reports while working from a location outside the company’s physical office. They may be hired locally or internationally and typically operate through virtual channels.
Their tasks include overseeing accounts payable and receivable, keeping the general ledger up to date, and managing budgeting and financial forecasting.
Remote bookkeepers provide an accurate and clear overview of your business's financial health, empowering you to make data-driven decisions that advance your company. By entrusting them with your bookkeeping duties, you can dedicate more time to your primary focus—leading and growing your business.
While some remote bookkeepers are freelancers, many are in-house employees formally employed by companies and often work exclusively for their organization. Increasingly, businesses are hiring remote bookkeepers internationally to take advantage of the flexibility of remote work and the cost savings of accessing global talent.
Despite working remotely, these bookkeepers are fully integrated into the company’s operations as part of the remote team, adhering to the same standards, expectations, and workflows as local staff.
Setting up a remote bookkeeper requires selecting the right software for your business’s needs. Programs like QuickBooks, Xero, and FreshBooks are specifically designed to help manage bookkeeping from a distance and provide various features such as invoicing, expense tracking, payroll management, and financial reporting.
When onboarding a remote bookkeeper, make sure to share access and set-up specific permissions to digital platforms so they can access and update data in real-time.
Ensuring data security is paramount in accounting teams as most data breaches are financially motivated. Basic security measures include using safe passwords, two-factor authentication, and regularly updating software to protect against cyberthreats.
On of the most common challenges while working with a remote team is measuring work. Establish clear roles and responsibilities from the start. Define the scope of work, deadlines, and the specific financial tasks the remote bookkeeper will handle, such as accounts payable/receivable, payroll, tax preparation, or financial reporting.
Communicating through digital channels comes with its challenges, especially when the remote bookkeeper is located in a different city or country. In such cases, addressing potential language barriers is essential, but managing different time zones and working cultures can also pose difficulties, even when language is not an issue.
To overcome these challenges, establish routine check-ins and use dedicated collaboration platforms to centralize all communication. Define a clear schedule for regular video calls, emails, and chat interactions to ensure everyone stays aligned and connected.
Give the remote bookkeeper time to adapt to your company’s systems and processes. Trust their expertise and allow them to manage the tasks effectively, providing guidance when necessary.
While it's important to have clear structures in place, remote work often requires flexibility. Be open to adjusting timelines or methods if needed, especially as your remote bookkeeper becomes more familiar with your business.
If you're spending too much time managing invoices, tracking expenses, and reconciling accounts, it's a sign you need professional help. A bookkeeper can free up your time to focus on growing your business.
As your business grows, so does the complexity of managing your finances. A remote bookkeeper helps keep your financial records well-organized, ensuring you stay on top of cash flow, taxes, and budgeting during periods of rapid expansion.
For financial and accounting firms struggling to meet the increasing demands of the market, remote bookkeepers offer a scalable solution. They enable firms to expand their capacity while maintaining cost efficiency, ensuring clients receive high-quality service without overextending budgets.
Tax season brings a lot of extra work for accounting firms, with tight deadlines and more clients needing help. Hiring more employees during this busy time helps the firm keep up with the workload, avoid mistakes, and meet deadlines. It also makes sure the current team doesn’t get overwhelmed and keeps clients happy with fast, accurate service.
Hiring a remote bookkeeper is often more cost-effective than employing an on-site staff member. If you are hiring contractors, you pay only for the services you need, and you avoid expenses like office space, benefits, or training.
If you are hiring an in-house, full-time remote bookkeeper, partnering with a staffing agency may help you find skilled professionals outside US borders and leverage more cost-effective wages, while also avoiding office space and commuting expenses.
Operating in new regions or industries often brings additional financial complexities. An international remote bookkeeper familiar with diverse markets can help you navigate these changes smoothly.
By recognizing these moments, you can bring in a remote bookkeeper at the right time to maintain control over your finances while allowing your business to thrive.
A remote bookkeeper is a professional who manages financial records, transactions, and reports for businesses or individuals from a location outside of the company's office. Instead of working in-house, remote bookkeepers use cloud-based tools, accounting software, and digital communication platforms to perform their duties.
A remote bookkeeper ensures all financial transactions—like sales, expenses, and purchases—are logged accurately into the company's accounting system. This process involves entering data from receipts, invoices, and bank statements to create a clear and organized financial record.
This includes:
Accurate transaction recording is essential for tracking the company’s financial health and ensuring compliance with tax laws.
This responsibility involves handling both accounts payable (money the company owes) and accounts receivable (money the company is owed). The bookkeeper tracks incoming payments from clients, sends invoices, and manages outgoing payments to suppliers, ensuring everything is paid on time and accurately recorded.
This responsibility also involves identifying any discrepancies between expected and actual amounts received or paid.
A remote bookkeeper compares the company’s financial records with its bank statements to ensure consistency. They identify and resolve any discrepancies, ensuring that the company’s financial balance matches what is reported by the bank.
This process helps:
Reconciliation ensures the company’s books reflect the true financial position.
The general ledger is the central record of a company’s financial transactions. The bookkeeper is responsible for keeping this ledger updated by accurately posting daily transactions, journal entries, and adjustments. A well-maintained general ledger is essential for accurate financial reporting.
The general ledger is a master record where all financial transactions are summarized. A remote bookkeeper:
A clean general ledger forms the foundation for generating accurate financial statements.
Bookkeepers compile and generate financial statements such as the income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement. These reports give a snapshot of the company’s financial health, enabling stakeholders to track performance, make informed decisions, and plan for the future.
Remote bookkeepers often create financial statements, such as:
These reports help business owners and stakeholders understand performance, make informed decisions, and prepare for tax filings.
Remote bookkeepers ensure that the company's financial records are organized and ready for tax filing. They may prepare documents for accountants and make sure the business is compliant with tax laws. This reduces the risk of errors during tax season and ensures all deductions are captured.
This includes:
This reduces the risk of penalties and makes audits less stressful.
In some cases, the bookkeeper may also be responsible for processing payroll. This involves calculating employees’ wages, managing tax withholdings, and ensuring timely payments. Accurate payroll processing is crucial for compliance with labor laws and for maintaining employee satisfaction.
While not always part of a bookkeeper’s role, some remote bookkeepers handle payroll tasks, such as:
The bookkeeper tracks actual spending versus the company’s budget. This responsibility helps the business stay on top of its financial goals, ensuring there are no major variances and providing insight into areas where costs can be reduced or budgets adjusted.
This allows the business to:
A remote bookkeeper often communicates with business owners, accountants, and auditors to provide updates or answer questions. They ensure that all parties involved have the necessary financial information for decision-making and reporting.
Bookkeepers can serve as a bridge between business owners, accountants, and auditors. They:
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Hiring a remote accountant offers numerous valuable advantages. From having specialized knowledge to the ability to reduce costs, here are five key benefits of working with these professionals remotely.
When hiring a remote accountant, geographical limitations are no longer an obstacle. This allows you to access the best talent from anywhere in the world, potentially leading to higher-quality services and innovative perspectives.
It’s also possible to save significantly on other expenses when hiring a remote accountant. By avoiding overhead costs such as office rent or additional equipment, you can better allocate your resources.
If you choose to hire an accountant on a contract basis or through a remote accounting agency, you’ll also reduce the costs associated with full-time salaries and benefits that you would need to pay internal employees.
Moreover, you can hire accountants in regions with a lower cost of living, which will allow you to save even more on salaries. For example, the average salary of an accountant in Latin America is $42,000, much lower than in the U.S.
One of the main benefits of having a remote accountant is their expertise in the field. Their knowledge ensures accuracy in compliance and financial tasks, eliminating the need to allocate internal resources to these functions.
Additionally, as they are familiar with online accounting, they are often ready to start quickly, which helps you save on training and recruitment costs.
A remote accountant can offer a fresh and helpful perspective on your financial matters, helping you identify opportunities or issues you may have missed. This can minimize the risk of overlooking important financial aspects and ensure your business moves forward toward its goals.
A remote accountant is often more flexible than an in-house one, especially if hired as a freelancer or for specific projects.
They can adjust their services based on your business’s changing needs, which is highly beneficial for companies with variable accounting requirements or those in an expansion phase.
If you're looking to hire a remote bookkeeper, there are several methods you can use through staffing agencies, hiring platforms, and other specialized services. Here’s what each option entails:
These agencies focus on sourcing and vetting accounting and bookkeeping professionals. They typically offer both temporary and permanent staffing solutions.
When you work with a staffing agency, they take care of the recruitment process, ensuring that candidates meet the necessary qualifications and experience. Some agencies specialize in remote placements, allowing you to find a bookkeeper who works from anywhere. This option can be particularly useful if you're looking for a pre-vetted candidate and don’t want to spend time on the hiring process yourself.
Online platforms allow you to post job listings and search for freelance or contract bookkeepers. These platforms have large pools of professionals, so you can filter applicants based on factors like expertise, experience, and hourly rates. Hiring platforms give you the flexibility to choose from a global talent pool, often providing profiles, client reviews, and portfolios to help you assess potential candidates. Communication and project management tools are often built into these platforms, making it easier to collaborate with remote bookkeepers.
LinkedIn allows you to search for and directly contact bookkeepers who are looking for remote opportunities. You can browse profiles, check recommendations, and even see their professional background in detail. These networks also allow you to post job ads, which can attract applicants who are actively seeking new roles.
This method gives you a more hands-on approach, allowing you to directly engage with candidates, but it also means you may need to spend more time reviewing applications and conducting interviews.
Argentina is becoming an increasingly popular destination for businesses due to its large pool of English-speaking, college-educated professionals with expertise in accounting and bookkeeping. Most of these professionals have received training from the top universities in South America and can provide high-quality services at a competitive price.
This country also boasts a highly developed technology sector, with a growing fintech and startup scene. This means that many bookkeepers are familiar with the latest accounting software and technologies and well-adjusted to remote work. This can help businesses streamline their bookkeeping processes and improve efficiency.
Although its candidates are somewhat better valued with a wage rate from $8,000 to $12,500 USD per year, the upper side is the favorable time zone. With only a 2-hour difference to New York, businesses can easily communicate with their offshore bookkeepers in Argentina during normal business hours. This can help to facilitate collaboration and ensure that tasks are completed on time.
Brazil has a well-established regulatory framework for professions such as accounting, law, and finance. This framework ensures that bookkeepers in Brazil adhere to strict guidelines and professional standards, providing businesses with confidence in the quality and reliability of their services. Also, the country has a large and dynamic economy with a thriving startup scene, which has helped to cultivate a highly skilled and educated workforce.
Just like Argentina, Brazil only has from 2 to 5-hour difference from the US depending on the region the company is set up.
Colombia is a rising star in the offshore bookkeeping industry. In addition to the quality of their work, bookkeepers are also more cost-effective compared to their counterparts in other countries. Colombia has a lower cost of living than many other South American countries, and this translates into some of the lowest wage rates for bookkeeping services in the region.
This cost savings can be a significant advantage for small and medium-sized businesses looking to improve their financial management processes without breaking the bank while still taking advantage of a similar time zone.
On the downside, as a country that recently entered the talent export market, its professionals often don’t have strong personal profiles on freelance platforms, which can make it difficult to find a good candidate on your own. That is why it is important to have a reliable partner to find, select and match the right candidate with an accounting firm, like an outsourced staffing company.
When it comes to hiring offshore bookkeepers, the Philippines is a popular choice for small to medium-sized businesses due to its abundant supply of highly skilled professionals with strong English language proficiency. With a population of over 100 million, the country has a large pool of potential candidates.
Many international companies have recognized the potential of the Filipino workforce and have set up operations in the country. They are also known for their competitive labor costs, which allow businesses to save on operational expenses without sacrificing quality. In the Philippines, you can find bookkeepers for around PHP 360,000 to PHP 820,000 per year (approximately $7,200 to $15,000 USD).
If we had to name one downside, it would be the time difference. The Philippines is approximately 12 hours ahead of the United States which can be a challenge not only to offshore team/inhouse team sync but also to manage some legal operations that need to be carried out during normal business hours.
India has been a hub for outsourcing services for many years, and bookkeeping is no exception. With a population of over 1.3 billion people, India has a massive workforce that is well-versed in offshoring services. The country is home to some of the world's most prestigious business schools, which means that the country's workforce has a strong foundation in accounting and finance principles.
Labor costs are a little bit more competitive than in the Philippines, as you can find employees for INR 500,000 to INR 800,000 per year (approximately $5,800 to $9,500 USD), but the time difference can be a complication as India is almost 9 hours ahead of the US.
Offshore bookkeepers are becoming a popular choice for accounting firms of all sizes because they help reduce costs while still delivering high-quality work. However, finding the right person in another country can be challenging, especially if you're not experienced in hiring abroad. This is where a trusted staffing company can help.
Outsourcing staffing companies have the skills and resources to find the best candidates, conduct initial interviews, and even handle all the hiring paperwork in just two weeks. This lets you focus on running your business while leaving the hiring process to the experts.
By working with a reliable staffing company, you can be sure you're hiring the right people for your needs, and you’ll have peace of mind knowing the hiring process will go smoothly and without stress.
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We become your full-service remote staffing partner specializing in scouting, hiring, payroll, retention, and ensuring compliance in talent acquisition.
Secure top-tier global talent in 21 days. As a remote staffing agency, we source, vet, and onboard English-speaking professionals who align with your culture and time zone.
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Seamless global scaling. We handle the complexities of international expansion, offering comprehensive support from location scouting to full operational setup.
Seamless setup, anywhere. The remote staffing agency sill handle all logistics and equipment needs for your global expansion, ensuring your team is fully operational from day one.
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Here are some common questions about our remote staffing agency services for startups across various industries.
Vintti is a remote staffing agency empowering US companies and SBMs with top remote talent from South America across various roles and industries.
Vintti helps you build a remote team 100% aligned to your time zone that feels like on-site staff. We provide the perfect fit for your business—professionals who seamlessly integrate into the U.S. business culture.
- 60% Average Savings: Reduce your staffing expenses significantly while maintaining top-tier talent.
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From Finance and Legal to Customer Support, Tech, and Operations, we can staff virtually every role across all industries. Be sure to explore the most sought-after roles on our Talent tab, where you’ll find detailed role descriptions, responsibilities, and suggested qualifications.
Our recruiting experts will understand your needs and your culture to ensure a perfect match. This is what you can expect when you work with us:
$10M+ Saved in overhead costs: Our clients saved 70% in overhead costs, in 2 years.
120+ Happy US Clients: Unlocking companies’ potential with strategic outsourcing services.
200+ Elite Talents Placed: Flexible and scalable remote teams working for every US state.
90% Returning Customers: We have become the primary staffing partner for 9 out of 10 of our clients.
At Vintti, we go beyond assessing just technical skills with a thorough interview process. Before starting any search, we conduct a deep dive call with the client to understand the specific requirements and key qualities needed for the role. This allows us to tailor our search and ensure we find the best fit for each position.
Once the search begins, we evaluate candidates' English proficiency and carefully review their work history to identify any potential red flags. Additionally, we maintain a database of candidates who have performed well in interviews with other clients, giving us a reliable pool of proven talent.
While it's possible to hire talent for short-term projects, it can be more challenging to find professionals interested in short-term engagements. We generally recommend longer-term commitments for the best results. If you do need short-term talent, we suggest not making it an exclusive job role.
Our process is simple and transparent.
During the initial call, we will address all your questions and set the foundation for a successful collaboration. Our recruiting experts will take the time to understand your needs and company culture to ensure a perfect match.
Within 7-10 days, we will shortlist candidates, arrange interviews, and manage all administrative tasks. And finally, we will support your process and time, ensuring a smooth hiring process.
Our end-to-end management plan. We become your full-service staffing provider, covering sourcing, recruiting, contracts, payroll, and more, for a fixed monthly fee starting upon hiring.
With a one-time payment plan, we scout, select, and conduct first-round interviews to secure the perfect match faster than any other recruiting team. We then hand the candidate over to you for hiring on your own.
You can secure high-quality South American talent in just 20 days and for around $9,000 USD per year.
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