A virtual bookkeeper does the same monthly work as one who visits: coding transactions, reconciling accounts, recording invoices and bills, producing the reports. What is virtual bookkeeping, then, is a question about the handover rather than the work. Statements arrive by bank feed or upload, receipts by phone camera, questions by email, and nobody comes to collect a shoebox. For a business whose records are already digital that is a saving; for one still on paper it is a set-up job first. This page explains what to check, and the hiring sheet on this site prices a virtual quote against a local one and against an employee.
What a virtual bookkeeper needs from you
A bank feed or monthly statement export for every account, a way to capture receipts as they happen, sales reports that export cleanly, and a named person who answers questions within a few days. The first three are technical and are set up once; the fourth is the one that decides whether virtual books stay current. A remote bookkeeper cannot walk over and ask, so a weekly list of open questions with an owner who answers it is the whole system.
Access, security and what to refuse
Read-only bank access, a separate login for the bookkeeper to your ledger, and no shared passwords are the normal controls. A virtual service should be able to explain how it stores your statements, who on its side can see them, and how access is removed when the engagement ends. Refuse a request for full bank access or for your own login credentials; nothing in bookkeeping needs either.
How a virtual quote compares
Virtual services often quote lower because they carry no travel and serve more clients per bookkeeper. That is a real saving, not a warning sign, provided the scope is the same. Put the virtual quote and any local quote into the pricing calculator on this site against your own counts, and put both into the hiring sheet against an employee. The comparison is then on the work, and the only remaining difference is whether you want a person in the building.
Where virtual bookkeeping does not fit
A business with a lot of cash, with paper records it cannot digitise, or with an owner who will not answer email is a poor fit, and a virtual bookkeeper will tell you so early if they are honest. Those businesses are better with a local bookkeeper who collects and asks in person, and the extra cost is the price of the handover, not of the bookkeeping.
Questions people ask about virtual bookkeeper
Is a virtual bookkeeper cheaper than a local one?
Often, because there is no travel and the service can carry more clients. Compare the two on the same scope with the pricing calculator on this site; if the virtual fee is lower for the same hours, the saving is real.
Do I need special software for virtual bookkeeping?
A ledger the bookkeeper can log into, a bank feed into it, and a receipt-capture app. Most services will work in the ledger you already use, and will say so in the quote.
Who does a virtual bookkeeper talk to at year end?
Your accountant, directly, if you agree it in advance. A year-end where the owner relays questions between two remote professionals is slow and expensive, so name who talks to whom before the first month.
What happens if the virtual service disappears?
If the ledger is yours and you keep a login, you have the books. If the ledger was theirs, you have a problem. Never sign a virtual engagement where the books live on the provider's account alone.