Bookkeepers are hired to maintain accurate financial records, but a significant portion of the workday goes to tasks that aren't bookkeeping at all: sending document request reminders to clients who haven't uploaded their bank statements, formatting monthly reports to match each client's preferences, managing billing and invoicing for the practice itself, onboarding new clients, and responding to client questions that don't require bookkeeping expertise to answer. For solo bookkeepers and small bookkeeping firms, this practice management overhead either limits how many clients they can serve or reduces the quality and timeliness of their core bookkeeping work. A virtual assistant handles these practice administration functions, allowing bookkeepers to serve more clients and spend their time on actual bookkeeping.
Bookkeeper Tasks for VA Delegation
| Task | Description | VA Level | Rate Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Document collection | Send document request reminders, track receipts, follow up with clients | Entry–Mid | $10–$14/hr |
| Client communication | Answer routine client questions, schedule meetings, send reports | Entry–Mid | $10–$14/hr |
| Software administration | Manage QuickBooks Online/Xero client access, user permissions, settings | Mid | $12–$17/hr |
| Report formatting | Format monthly financial reports to client specifications | Entry–Mid | $10–$14/hr |
| Billing & invoicing | Generate bookkeeper's own invoices, track payment, send reminders | Mid | $12–$17/hr |
| New client onboarding | Collect business information, set up client files, configure access | Mid | $12–$17/hr |
| Deadline reminders | Send clients reminders for tax deadlines, payroll due dates, and filings | Entry–Mid | $10–$14/hr |
Document Collection and Client Communication
The monthly document collection cycle is the most time-consuming non-bookkeeping task for most bookkeepers. Before the books can be closed, clients need to upload bank statements, credit card statements, payroll reports, receipts for large transactions, and any other source documents the bookkeeper requires. Clients vary dramatically in how promptly they do this, and chasing documents is a frustrating distraction from actual bookkeeping work. A VA manages the entire document collection workflow: sending the monthly document request on schedule, following up with clients who haven't completed their upload by the due date, and tracking the status of every client's document submission in a simple dashboard.
Client communication for bookkeeping practices involves a steady flow of routine inquiries that don't require bookkeeper expertise: questions about when reports will be ready, requests to add a new user to the accounting software, questions about how to categorize a specific expense, and requests for copies of prior reports. A VA handles these routine communications using pre-approved responses and escalates only the questions that genuinely require bookkeeper judgment. This communication filtering alone can recover 5–8 hours per week for a bookkeeper with 20+ clients.
"I was spending two hours every week sending document request reminders and another hour answering emails that had nothing to do with actual bookkeeping. My VA handles all of that now. I've added four new clients since bringing her on because I have the bandwidth." — Bookkeeper, Online Bookkeeping Practice, Tampa, FL
Software Administration and Report Formatting
QuickBooks Online and Xero have ongoing administration tasks that bookkeepers often handle personally: adding and removing user access, adjusting permission levels when client staff changes, enabling bank feeds for new accounts, and troubleshooting access issues. A VA with bookkeeping software experience manages these administration tasks, freeing the bookkeeper from being the help desk for client software questions.
Report formatting is a function that varies significantly by client but is almost always delegable. Each client has preferences about how their Profit & Loss statement is formatted, which accounts to include in the executive summary, and how to present cash flow information. A VA learns each client's formatting preferences and handles the report production and distribution step, delivering formatted reports to clients on schedule after the bookkeeper has completed and reviewed the underlying work.
Billing and Practice Management
Bookkeepers are diligent about managing their clients' finances but sometimes neglect their own firm's billing. A VA manages the bookkeeping practice's own invoicing cycle: generating client invoices on the agreed billing schedule, sending them promptly, tracking payment status, and sending professional payment reminders. For practices with value-based pricing, a VA tracks client engagement scope and flags any clients whose workload has expanded beyond the contracted scope for the bookkeeper's review and potential repricing conversation.
New client onboarding for a bookkeeping practice involves a specific set of administrative tasks: collecting the new client's business information (EIN, entity type, fiscal year, banking institutions), setting up the client's file in the practice management system, configuring accounting software access, and sending the engagement letter for signature. A VA executes this onboarding checklist for every new client, ensuring each one is fully set up before their first month's work begins.
Getting Started with Bookkeeper VA Support
Bookkeeping practice VAs range from $10–$14/hr for document collection and report formatting to $13–$18/hr for software administration and client communication. Most bookkeepers find that one part-time VA allows them to add 4–6 additional client accounts within the first quarter.
Virtual Assistant VA provides virtual assistants with accounting software and bookkeeping practice experience. Contact us to discuss how VA support can help you grow your bookkeeping practice without sacrificing service quality.