Small Business Accounting | The Virtual Accounting Office

When you started your business, you didn’t anticipate spending your time on reconciling your bank account and working with your general ledger - you wanted to pursue what you do best and generate profits.

The Virtual Accounting Office understands that it is more important for you to focus on business success than on accounting, and that’s why we offer small business accounting services. We take care of the bookkeeping so that you don’t have to.

Whether you prefer that the work is done on a monthly or quarterly basis, we’ll reconcile your bank account, generate an income statement, clean up your general ledger, and generate a balance sheet. Maybe most important of all, when you use our services we will be there to answer all of the questions you have, making sure that your business has a solid foundation and accurate accounting system in place. If you have special areas or services that you want us to provide, whether payroll, tax preparation or planning or anything else, we can customize your package of services and add them on as you wish.

Bank Reconciliation: Bank reconciliation ensures that all of your important records are up-to-date and in sync with each other. By carefully reviewing your business checking account and comparing it to your accounting and tax information, we’re able to help you:

Identify missing checks and deposits and discover unauthorized wire transactions.
Spot bank charges which may be unjustified or excessive and prevent them from happening in the future.
Make sure transactions are posted correctly.
Protect yourself from the risk of funds being embezzled as well as unauthorized or forged checks or other fraudulent activity. Constant analysis and oversight can transfer responsibility and risk to the bank.
Have a clear picture of the health of your business.
Provide you with more effective cash management.
Have the piece of mind of knowing that all of your financial paperwork is in order.

Income Statement: An income statement is a valuable business toll that itemizes all of your revenues and expenses in order to show you your profit or loss during a given period. Having an accurate and current income statement gives you the ability to:

See at a glance where you are spending too much or staying within your budget.
See exactly where you are making money and where you are spending money in order to assess business performance.
See where expenses are running higher than anticipated, allowing you to make corrections.
Identify other unanticipated activities, such as product returns or sudden increases in the cost of goods.
Calculate income tax owed.

Balance Sheet: Having an accurate balance sheet available provides you with a quick way to determine the health of your business at any given moment. By reviewing balance sheet information you can:

See where your business’ strengths and weaknesses lie
Spot trends, determine their cause and come up with solutions, especially those involving accounts payables and accounts receivable.
Make informed decisions regarding the possibility of expansion.
Make informed decisions regarding your ability to remain flexible in the face of expansion and contraction of business.
Determine whether you need to increase your cash reserves.
See whether your payables are being made in a timely way.

Having an up-to-date, accurate balance sheet and income sheet is essential for businesses that are considering applying for credit or who are responsible for providing financial reporting to creditors. These are the documents that they will rely upon in making decisions that are important to your business’ future.

Keeping a Clean General Ledger

One of the most important services that we provide to small business is a regular review of your general ledger system. The reason that this is so essential is that the general ledger is where the most essential information about your company’s finances is recorded. If something within the ledger is incorrect, the problem will flow through the rest of the company’s financial information, so having us double check for accuracy and discover any discrepancies will ensure that bigger problems don’t develop along the way.