According to a study cited by Forbes, productivity is estimated to drop as much as 40% when you force your brain to analyse simultaneous streams of information. This means that multitasking may result in poor overall performance.

As an entrepreneur or manager, it’s common for your day to go in multiple directions. Between analysing expenses, paying bills, and managing your team, there’s not enough time in a day to handle everything involved in keeping your operations running smoothly.

If you aim to grow your company without breaking your pace, it’s a good idea to outsource to a remote bookkeeper. Using a third-party helps in ways small and big, hidden and obvious. The key is assessing which candidate suits the needs of your organisation.

Outsourcing Bookkeeping: Why It’s a Good Idea

1. It saves you money

Outsourcing bookkeeping to the Philippines saves you money on paying part-time or full-time benefits and wages to a CPA. Additionally, you save on lost productivity costs related to the lengthy recruitment process. Outsourcing means you only pay for what you need and none beyond that.

2. It lets you focus

When you eliminate the distractions of administration by outsourcing bookkeeping, you will be able to concentrate on what you do best—sales and development. Spend more time working on your products and/or services rather than in organising financial documents and the like.

3. It provides the latest tools

More often than not, a virtual bookkeeper pays for their subscriptions to accounting software and tools on their own. They’re aware of industry trends and study the newest apps so they may use them. They’ll take care of the systems so you won’t have to.

4. It offers greater privacy

Few things are more guarded in your business than your financial records. It’s hard to find someone to maintain confidentiality when you only search locally. Outsourcing bookkeeping gives you peace of mind as it reduces the chances of the community knowing your full financial status.

5. It gives you more time

By arranging bookkeeping in the Philippines, you redirect time towards improving your team and your organisation. Back-end office functions like accounting are distracting from your day-to-day operations. Delegate them to a virtual professional to boost your productivity and efficiency.

6. It comes with solid skills

Outsourcing bookkeeping gives you an opportunity to have an expert on your team. They understand the process and the industry inside out, so you won’t have to study them yourself. They bring their professional knowledge and skills to the table as part of your contract.

7. It enables business scalability

SMEs start with smaller needs but eventually require a full suite of bookkeeping services as they grow. Hiring a remote bookkeeper with a wide skill-set allows their service to scale according to your needs. Thus, you won’t need to hire or train additional staff to handle the added tasks.

8. It offers better stability

Not just with bookkeeping in the Philippines but whenever you outsource anything a team will handle the recruitment. There’s going to be a talent pool to choose from, so there’s a backup if you aren’t satisfied with the candidate you have. There’s no need for you to recruit from scratch.

9. It skips the training

You likely aren’t in a position to train or manage a virtual bookkeeper—primarily because they know more about accounting than you. The upside is that you won’t have to consume time and effort in training them to do their job. You’ll still have to brief them about the unique traits of your company though.

10. It readies for tax and audits

Using a virtual accountant means your records will be prepared according to the guidelines set by banking and other financial institutions. They know what kind of financial statements to present, how to satisfy investors with data, and when to file with the relevant authorities.

Hiring a Bookkeeper: Things to Consider

Now that you’re aware of the benefits of hiring a virtual accountant, learn to carefully assess which applicant is most suitable for your needs. Here are some tips as we’ve shared in a previous blog post:

• Evaluate their skills by giving them an exam
• Assess their attitude during the video interviews
• Consider the size of your company to know your exact needs
• Check the average market price and compare with their demands
• Think about the schedule of your target audience and the rest of the team
• See if they have professional experience in your industry or niche
• Know how they process financial records and use bookkeeping tools
• Ask about any relevant memberships or certifications they might have

Determine the kinds of tasks you want to outsource before you begin with hiring. We have another article about the 16 tasks to outsource to an accounting virtual assistant for your perusal.

Outsourcing Bookkeeping: Who to Contact

Once you decide to outsource, the next step is choosing an agency who knows who will be a great fit with your business objectives. We at Remote Workmate may be of service in this aspect as we are an offshore staffing firm.

Rely on us when outsourcing bookkeeping in the Philippines. We will handle the initial screening stages, including publishing the job listing. Allow us to perform the first stage of the interview to check if candidates meet your requirements too.