Do you have a lot of medical bills that you pay on each month? Could those medical bills be deducted from your tax bill this year? I was helping my mother take care of all of her finances after my dad passed away. I didn't realize how many bills she had coming in each month for medical treatments that my dad had undergone months, even a year earlier. I started doing some research about medical bills and tax deductions. If you have medical bills, take a minute to read through this blog to gain some knowledge that can help you decide what you can do when tax time comes around.
Online bookkeeping is one alternative to dealing with accounting directly. The idea of using virtual bookkeeping might leave you wondering if it's right for you or your business. Here are three benefits of using a less traditional model.
Availability
A major argument in favor of online bookkeeping is availability. If you maintain unusual hours at business or have to deal with a job in addition to running a business, availability matters. You may need to keep weird hours, and knowing that someone will be available to field your questions at odd times can be a relief. Rather than working your schedule to fit the bookkeeper's hours, you can arrange sessions based on your schedule.
You will also have real-time access to a dashboard. If you just need to check something but don't need to ask a question, you can log in and look the issue up quickly. This is great if you just want to check last month's financial report, for example. You don't have to wait for the bookkeeper to open their office, look the numbers up, and then get back to you.
Cost
Generally, a virtual bookkeeping firm will have lower costs. A company operating in a virtual environment literally has less overhead. The firm doesn't need to pay for public-facing offices so it doesn't have costs like third-party liability and extra floor space for visitors. Such firms try to pass as much of the savings as possible on to clients because it's a big competitive edge versus in-person bookkeeping.
Automation
Typically, a virtual bookkeeping business will try to automate as many mundane tasks as possible. When you have a question the system can't address, then they'll make a bookkeeper available. Many tasks like entering weekly receipts are simple enough that you can usually scan them using the company's dashboard.
Notably, automation reduces human error. Machines handling boring tasks don't tire. If the system does encounter something it can't handle, human intervention is available.
Another advantage of automation is vigilance. The system will scan for errors or accounting flags. If something looks off, the system can notify you and a bookkeeper to review whether there's a problem. More importantly, it does this all the time. If someone enters a buggy number into the system over a busy holiday weekend, the system will check for issues. Consequently, you can expect everything to be as up-to-date and accurate as possible.
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