Are there few things which are keeping you from clearing your doubts in a candid way when you are all set to hire virtual bookkeeping services?!!
Why to hesitate when you are the one who is going to invest and avail the services? There are aspects you need to know and should never feel ashamed of asking the service provider because it is you who is going to deal with the virtual bookkeeper in the long-run and you cannot afford to have misunderstandings down the line.
5 questions you must never fail to ask when it comes to Virtual Bookkeeping Services:
1.Can you please tell me about your certifications?
Never shy away to ask this when you are intending to fire a service provider as your virtual bookkeeper. If he/she is a freelance bookkeeper you must enquire about the university he/she has qualified from; and in case you are looking forward to hire a full-fledged bookkeeping firm there is nothing wrong in ensuring about the number of certified professionals the firm holds; also about the kind of certifications the experts have.
For instance certifications like:
Qualified Intuit Pro-Advisors, Certified Intuit Point of Sale Pro-Advisor, Xero Certified, Wave Certified, FreeBooks Certified Accountant
2.For how long have you been in the industry?
Wouldn’t you want to know how experienced is your prospective virtual bookkeeping service? Ask them openly regarding the number of years they have been operating in the market; what kind of customers do they deal with; which kind of clients have they majorly worked with; what their strengths are and with the same track try finding out where and why do they lie weak. If they possess experience in accounting software’s, then what is their experience with each software? They more you pose questions, the more you tend to get a clear idea about their profile and contour.
3.What is your pattern?
Here you should be asking questions which are a bit more technical and related to your core work. You need to ask about the pattern of work they follow and why so; i.e. whether they believe in monthly contracts and renewing it every month or are they inclined towards signing a long-term contract. During this discussion, you can also try getting a further clarification on the rates they charge. We know that nobody would miss out on asking the money matter but many a times people falter at digging deeper into it. You must ask them whether they charge hourly, monthly or as per volume of work; what if they are unable to meet deadlines; how they compensate for the same. You can also ask them to cite few examples of such situations.
4.Which software’s of yours make sure that my work is safe, secure and at one place?
As an entrepreneur, data security and availability would obviously be a matter of concern for you. You will always want that your data is kept confidential and is promptly retrievable as and when you want. For this purpose, you must ask questions about the security software’s they have equipped within their organization; are those software’s dependable enough, what is the level of security they offer, who all can access them etc.
5.How do you communicate?
It has often been observed that after hiring the virtual bookkeeper, the entrepreneur faces a lot of misapprehensions just because of inappropriate communication. It is seen that the service provider is not able to explain things in plain English and there the problem arises. Hence, in order to avoid such a scenario you should never forget to examine the mode of communication and the exact language they are going to leverage on after they are hired. Now, this question may be a little out of the league but believe us, it is worth it!!
