What bookkeeping services do you offer in your basic package?

• Income and expense tracking

• Business bank account(s) reconciliation

• Business credit card(s) reconciliation

• Financial reporting (We send you a Balance Sheet and a Profit & Loss each month)

• Unlimited email support

• Coordination with your CPA or accountant

What services do you offer for an additional fee?

• Clean-up work

• Class tracking

• Payroll Setup (time tracking, health benefits administration, worker’s comp administration, PTO policies, & HR support included with any payroll subscription through our third party payroll partner + employee offers/onboarding, simple time tracking, time-off requests, employee directory & surveys, HR resource center, and certified HR pros depending on subscription level)

What’s the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant, and do I really need both?

A bookkeeper records and classifies financial transactions, and produces financial reports. An accountant reviews and analyzes the financial reports, helping you with financial decision making and filing taxes.

Depending on factors such as the size of your business and/or the industry, it is generally recommended that businesses have both a bookkeeper and an accountant. Having specialists handle what they know best allows you the time to focus on what you know best and to grow your business.

How do I know if I need a virtual bookkeeper?

Business growth is accompanied by increased income and expenses. Every minute you spend doing your own bookkeeping is one minute less that you can focus on revenue-generating activities.

Are your books hardly ever up-to-date? Are you spending hours trying to catch up right before tax season? Do you file extensions every year? Have you started a new business, but are unsure of how to properly track your income and expenses? Are you finding that your estimated quarterly tax payments are way off? Does your accountant typically reply to you with a plethora of questions after you send in messy or unfinished financial reports? Would you rather pay someone to handle bookkeeping virtually instead of hiring staff (and paying benefits, payroll tax, and other overhead on top of their normal salary)? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, you should hire a virtual bookkeeper!

What program(s) do you use, or require?

A Quickbooks Online Simple Start, Essentials, Plus, or Advanced subscription is required. We are partnered with a Quickbooks Solution Provider to offer you a 30-day free trial and 30% off MSRP for 12 months on new subscriptions only.

For payroll, we are partnered with Gusto. A subscription to Gusto is highly recommended and preferred, but not required. We can also help set you up with Quickbooks Payroll.

If I already have a Quickbooks subscription, do I need a new one to use your services?

If your subscription is for Quickbooks Online, then no! You just need to allow us access to your account. Login to your QBO account from a computer > select the “My Accountant” tab in the left navigation panel > enter our email address info@liraivirtualbookkeeping.com

If your books are severely messy (transactions classified incorrectly, etc), it is typically more efficient to cancel the account and start a new one from scratch.

If your subscription is for Quickbooks Desktop or Self-Employed, then yes! A Quickbooks Online subscription is required for us to be able to perform our services.

How often do you send reports?

A Balance Sheet and a Profit & Loss report are sent each month, as these are required for any tax planning. Additional reports may be requested, pending the inclusions of your Quickbooks Online subscription. We are happy to send financial reports directly to your CPA. Typically, reports are sent by the 10th of each month.

Do you file taxes on behalf of our company?

No. Your payroll provider should file your payroll taxes, and your CPA should file all other taxes. If your payroll is processed through our payroll partner, they do file payroll taxes for you.

Do I have to sign a contract?

No, we do not lock you into a contract. You will be required to sign an engagement letter and a bank draft authorization form. You may cancel our services in writing with at least a 30-day notice, however, there are no partial month refunds.

What information do you need from me?

It is best that we receive login access to your business bank and credit card accounts in order to complete your monthly financials. This allows us to work more efficiently, and keep our fees lower. Check with your bank to see if they allow accountant (read-only) access to your bank account(s). If login information is provided to us, it is securely stored in the Zoho Vault.

If login access is not provided, you will need to provide us the monthly statements for all business checking and savings accounts, credit cards, and loan accounts. Please note, should any of your accounts disconnect from QBO, we will not be able to complete any work until you log into QBO and reconnect them.

We will also need a list or spreadsheet of all business related income/expenses that are not transacted through business accounts (ex: paid from personal checking, petty cash, etc.)

Additionally, we require a copy of your last tax return. If you have employees on payroll, we will either need you to send payroll reports as you receive them, or need access to your payroll system to pull the reports ourselves.