What is Bookkeeping?
Bookkeeping is the recording of financial transactions. Transactions include sales, purchases, income, and payments by an individual or organization. Bookkeeping is usually performed by a bookkeeper. A small business bookkeeping service like Virtualis organizes this financial information to report the profits and losses for any given period. Proper bookkeeping shows the nature and value of the assets and liabilities of your company, as well as its net worth at the close of that period.
What is Accounting?
Accounting is "the systematic reporting and analysis of financial transactions of a business. The person in charge of accounting is known as an accountant, and this individual is typically required to follow a set of rules and regulations. Accounting allows a company to analyze the financial performance of the business and look at statistics such as net profit."
What's the difference between a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and a Bookkeeper?
A bookkeeper handles the financial record keeping and reporting while a CPA specializes in tax planning strategies, tax law and the preparation and filing of taxes. Having a good bookkeeper is just as important to a growing business as having a good accountant. One cannot and should not replace the other.
Why hire a bookkeeper at all?
There are three people who can do your books: yourself, a staff member, or a skilled bookkeeper. If you're doing your own books, the time you spend maintaining them may be better used in exploring new business opportunities. Accurate bookkeeping methods are crucial to a healthy business, but so is having the freedom to concentrate on creative direction.
If a staff member is doing your books, it may be a secondary work function and not what you hired the person to do. The staff member may be distracted by other important tasks and may not even have any bookkeeping expertise. Consistent elementary mistakes can easily be made and just as easily overlooked for years, causing major bookkeeping and accounting problems down the line.
If a professional bookkeeper handles your books, you have a qualified expert who cares about accuracy, the experience to set up an efficient system, and the skill to post transactions correctly. Virtualis specialized in online small business bookkeeping and accounting services.
What services does Virtualis provide?
Virtualis can do any of your accounting and bookkeeping tasks that would normally be done by a bookkeeper or CPA. Please see our services page for more details.
How secure are your services?
We secure data in transit using industry-standard SSL technology and we protect your stored data with AES encryption. These are the same technologies that the major financial institutions use to protect their data from unauthorized users. Virtualis complies with ISO 27002, which describes the best practices in information security management systems.
How much cost savings can I expect?
Your cost savings depends on your current cost structure; however, you should be pleasantly surprised with our prices.
Do I need a long-term contract to use your services?
No. Our accounting and bookkeeping services are purchased on a month-to-month basis and you can cancel at any time.
Is there a minimum monthly fee?
No. You pay for what you use and agreed upon in your service agreement.
Do you work on a time basis or on a fixed price basis?
We prefer to work on a fixed-price basis. This ensures that your costs are predictable and we take the burden of any cost overruns.
What is your Privacy Policy?
We do not share your data with any outside agency unless compelled by a legal order from the proper authorities and within the limitations of any legal jurisdiction. We strive to keep your information private and will inform you of any legal obligations.
How do you pay my bills if I hire you to do my A/P?
We use online banking to pay bills. You create a new user within your bank's website that has limited access, (i.e., download activity, see statements, pay bills up to a certain amount, etc.) and we access your bank account and pay your bills. If you prefer not to give us access to your bank's website, we can still pay your bills through www.bill.com.
What if we need to audit our books or need to pay our taxes?
We have alliances with excellent CPAs in New York who can provide these services for you on behalf of Virtualis Bookkeeping.
What is the difference between a CPA and an EA tax strategist when you need your taxes done?
A Certified Public Accountant (CPA) has in-depth knowledge of accounting principles and practices, including applicable laws and regulations. A CPA helps you create accounting strategies for your business and ensures that you follow your state laws. Because many CPAs spend time preparing and filing tax returns, many people erroneously assume that filing taxes is their main job. But preparing tax returns is just a very small part of their job.
An Enrolled Agent (EA) has technical expertise ONLY in taxation matters and is authorized by the U.S. Department of the Treasury to represent individuals and businesses before the Internal Revenue Service for audits, collections, and appeals. EAs prepare tax returns for individuals, partnerships, corporations, estates, trusts, etc. They have extensive training in tax filing and must adhere to continuing education requirements to keep their knowledge up-to-date. Technically, since EAs are solely focused on taxes and nothing else, they are the best choice for completing your taxes.
How do you enter invoices if we hire you to do accounts/receivable?
You provide us with a PDF file of the invoice, put it in our shared Dropbox in a folder specifically for that purpose, and we will enter the data into QuickBooks.
What does "we will manage your payroll" mean?
When you have a third party like PayChex or ADP doing your payroll, we use their reports to enter the information into QuickBooks. Suppose you give someone a bonus, or suddenly an entire department has to work overtime? In this case, we perform monthly after-the-fact payroll, meaning that we will make sure any payroll additions or irregularities are posted in QuickBooks so that your financial records will always be up-to-date.
Why is it better to have a virtual bookkeeping and accounting department?
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You save money by avoiding the costs of an employee (salary, payroll taxes, social security, vacation and sick pay, etc.)
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You keep your information private.
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You can spend your valuable time growing your company rather than worrying about troublesome accounting and bookkeeping tasks.
Who will be able to access my account?
That is up to you. You will select a password for your account. You can authorize whoever you wish to access the account.
What do I do if I already have a bookkeeper, but want to use your services?
That depends on what your business needs. Technically, with the services that Virtualis provides, you no longer need accounting and bookkeeping personnel. However, if you feel that retaining your employee(s) AND using our services creates a better business environment for you, that's fine. And you may find out after your free business evaluation that you may only need certain services from Virtualis.
Will I lose control of making my own financial decisions?
Absolutely not! Virtualis is only organizing your finances for you...in order for you to make better and more informed financial decisions.
We prefer to work on a fixed-price basis. This ensures that your costs are predictable and we take the burden of any cost overruns.
What is your Privacy Policy?
We do not share your data with any outside agency unless compelled by a legal order from the proper authorities and within the limitations of any legal jurisdiction. We strive to keep your information private and will inform you of any legal obligations.
We use online banking to pay bills. You create a new user within your bank's website that has limited access, (i.e., download activity, see statements, pay bills up to a certain amount, etc.) and we access your bank account and pay your bills. If you prefer not to give us access to your bank's website, we can still pay your bills through www.bill.com.
What if we need to audit our books or need to pay our taxes?
We have alliances with excellent CPAs in New York who can provide these services for you on behalf of Virtualis Bookkeeping.
A Certified Public Accountant (CPA) has in-depth knowledge of accounting principles and practices, including applicable laws and regulations. A CPA helps you create accounting strategies for your business and ensures that you follow your state laws. Because many CPAs spend time preparing and filing tax returns, many people erroneously assume that filing taxes is their main job. But preparing tax returns is just a very small part of their job.
You provide us with a PDF file of the invoice, put it in our shared Dropbox in a folder specifically for that purpose, and we will enter the data into QuickBooks.
When you have a third party like PayChex or ADP doing your payroll, we use their reports to enter the information into QuickBooks. Suppose you give someone a bonus, or suddenly an entire department has to work overtime? In this case, we perform monthly after-the-fact payroll, meaning that we will make sure any payroll additions or irregularities are posted in QuickBooks so that your financial records will always be up-to-date.
You save money by avoiding the costs of an employee (salary, payroll taxes, social security, vacation and sick pay, etc.)
You keep your information private.
You can spend your valuable time growing your company rather than worrying about troublesome accounting and bookkeeping tasks.
That is up to you. You will select a password for your account. You can authorize whoever you wish to access the account.
That depends on what your business needs. Technically, with the services that Virtualis provides, you no longer need accounting and bookkeeping personnel. However, if you feel that retaining your employee(s) AND using our services creates a better business environment for you, that's fine. And you may find out after your free business evaluation that you may only need certain services from Virtualis.
Absolutely not! Virtualis is only organizing your finances for you...in order for you to make better and more informed financial decisions.
