A bank feed with 400 uncategorized lines, receipts in an email folder, invoices nobody chased: bookkeeping is the work owners put off longest, and the work an accountant charges most to untangle. A bookkeeping virtual assistant takes it over: transactions recorded and categorized, accounts reconciled, invoices out and followed up, bills prepared for your approval, and a monthly report pack your accountant can work from.
Below: the tasks a bookkeeping VA takes on (and what stays with your accountant), custom reporting, software and certifications, what it costs, how to give access safely, and how to hire one through VA MASTERS.
Quick Answer
A bookkeeping virtual assistant (bookkeeping VA) is a remote team member who keeps your books current in your own accounting software: recording and categorizing transactions, reconciling bank and credit card accounts, invoicing and following up receivables, entering bills and preparing payment runs, filing receipts and building the monthly reports. Yes, a VA can help with bookkeeping tasks; tax filing, tax advice and sign-off stay with your accountant, and approving payments stays with you. Through VA MASTERS, a bookkeeping VA costs $7.50–$14/hr, about $1,200–$2,240 a month full-time. It costs nothing to start, and first candidates typically arrive in about 2 business days once the role is agreed.
What Is a Bookkeeping Virtual Assistant?
A bookkeeping virtual assistant (also called a virtual bookkeeping assistant, bookkeeping VA or remote bookkeeper assistant) is a remote finance professional who does the day-to-day bookkeeping of your business inside your own accounting software, on your hours, as part of your team. The work is the same work an in-house bookkeeper does: every transaction coded, every account reconciled, invoices sent and chased, bills entered and queued for approval, receipts filed, reports produced.
What a bookkeeping VA is not: your CPA. Tax returns, tax planning, audited or reviewed statements and sign-offs stay with your accountant, and the VA’s job is to hand that accountant clean, reconciled books. Money movement stays with you too: the VA prepares payment runs, you approve and release them.
Can a VA Help With Bookkeeping Tasks? Who Does What
Yes. The table shows where a bookkeeping VA fits next to a local bookkeeper, a bookkeeping subscription and your accountant:
| Who | What they do | What stays outside the role | Cost basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeping virtual assistant | Records and categorizes transactions, reconciles bank and card accounts, sends invoices and follows up receivables, enters bills and prepares payment runs, files receipts, builds the monthly report pack and any custom report you ask for, all inside your own software | Tax returns, tax advice, audits and sign-offs; approving and releasing payments; adding payees or changing bank details | Hourly: $7.50–$14/hr through VA MASTERS |
| In-house or local bookkeeper | The same recording and reconciliation work, often with paper documents handled on site | Same boundaries as above; tax work goes to the accountant | Salary: US median $24.36/hr, $50,670 a year (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025 median pay) before benefits and overhead |
| Bookkeeping subscription or outsourced firm | A team closes your books monthly from your bank feeds and documents, usually on a fixed package priced by transaction volume | Day-to-day admin around the books (chasing invoices, payroll data, vendor emails) is often not included; tax work is often a separate fee | Fixed monthly package |
| CPA or accountant | Tax returns and planning, reviewed or audited statements, adjusting entries and advice | Daily bookkeeping | Per return, hourly or retainer |
What a Bookkeeping VA Does
These are the bookkeeping tasks clients hand to a VA, with the part of each that stays with you or your accountant:
| Task | What your bookkeeping VA does | What stays with you or your accountant |
|---|---|---|
| Transaction recording and categorization | Codes bank and card transactions to your chart of accounts daily or weekly, attaches the receipt or invoice, and asks when a transaction is unclear instead of guessing | Changes to the chart of accounts; the answer to every “what was this?” |
| Bank and credit card reconciliation | Matches each statement to the books monthly (weekly for high-volume accounts) and lists every unexplained difference with a suggested fix | Deciding how to treat the differences |
| Accounts receivable | Creates and sends invoices from your approved quotes or orders, posts payments, sends reminders on the schedule you set, keeps an aging list current | Credit terms, write-offs, disputes |
| Accounts payable | Enters vendor bills, matches them to orders or contracts, prepares the payment run with due dates for your approval, files the paperwork | Approving and releasing every payment; adding payees |
| Expense and receipt management | Collects receipts through Dext, Hubdoc, Expensify or a shared folder, attaches them to transactions, chases missing ones, flags anything outside your policy | The expense policy itself |
| Payroll data preparation | Gathers the hours and changes each pay period, builds the summary your payroll provider needs, or runs the pay cycle inside your payroll software as a user you set up, then posts the payroll entries in the books | Payroll registrations, tax payments and filings: your payroll provider or accountant |
| Month-end close support | Prepares the profit and loss, balance sheet and cash-flow report, the open-items list and the questions your accountant will ask | Adjusting entries, accruals, depreciation, tax |
| Custom reporting | Builds the report you ask for in your accounting software or in Google Sheets or Excel: cash-flow forecast, AR aging, sales by channel, project profitability, budget vs actual | The decisions the report feeds |
| Catch-up bookkeeping | Works through a backlog month by month, reconciles as it goes and keeps a list of items that need your answer | Answering the list; agreeing the cut-off with your accountant |
| Admin alongside the books | Inbox triage, calendar, CRM updates and vendor emails when the role combines bookkeeping with administrative support | Priorities between the two halves of the role |
For a longer list of what else a VA can take off your desk, see tasks to delegate to a virtual assistant.
Custom Reporting From a Bookkeeping VA
Which bookkeeping services offer custom reporting? With a VA the answer is simple: you define the report, the VA builds and refreshes it. Fixed-package bookkeeping services usually deliver a standard monthly pack; a VA working inside your software can produce whatever the business needs to see each week:
| Custom report | Built from | Typical cadence |
|---|---|---|
| Cash position and 13-week cash-flow forecast | Bank balances, open invoices, bills due, recurring payments | Weekly |
| Accounts receivable aging with follow-up status | Invoice list in your accounting software, reminder log | Weekly |
| Accounts payable schedule | Bills entered, due dates, approval status | Weekly |
| Sales by channel, product or client | Platform payout reports, invoices, the books | Monthly |
| Job or project profitability | Time, bills and invoices tagged by job | Monthly |
| Budget vs actual | Your budget sheet and the monthly profit and loss | Monthly |
| KPI dashboard | Google Sheets or Excel fed from the reports above, or Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) | Monthly, refreshed weekly |
Put the two or three reports you want in the job description. Where the role needs it, the skills test includes building one of them from sample data, so you see the candidate’s Sheets or Excel work before you meet them.
Bookkeeping Plus Admin or CRM in One Role
Can a virtual assistant handle both bookkeeping and CRM management, or basic bookkeeping with expense tracking alongside admin? Yes, and for a small business it is often the right first hire: the books in the morning, the CRM, inbox, calendar and vendor emails in the afternoon. In VA MASTERS’ analysis of 323 VA roles opened between February and August 2026, only 26% covered a single type of work (see the report).
Two rules make the hybrid work. First, say in the job description which half comes first, because that decides the rate category and the skills test: bookkeeping as the main job is priced at Finance & Accounting rates ($7.50–$14/hr); light expense tracking added to an admin role is priced at Administrative rates ($6.50–$10/hr). Second, keep the finance access rules (below) the same whatever else the VA does. For CRM-heavy roles, see our CRM virtual assistant page.
Bookkeeping VAs by Industry
Bookkeeping looks different in every industry, and the job description should say which one yours is:
| Business | Bookkeeping work that piles up | What the VA takes over |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce (Shopify, Amazon, Etsy) | Payouts that don’t match orders, platform fees, refunds, sales tax collected by channel, inventory and cost of goods entries | Payout reconciliation by channel, fee and refund coding, monthly sales-by-channel report (see our e-commerce operations, Shopify and Amazon VA pages) |
| Real estate and property management | Rent received vs bank, owner statements, vendor bills by property, security deposits tracked separately | Rent and security deposit tracking, bills coded by property, owner statement drafts (see our real estate VA page) |
| Agencies and consultancies | Retainer and milestone invoicing, contractor bills, project profitability | Invoicing from signed proposals, contractor bill entry, profitability by client |
| Trades and contractors | Job costing, progress invoices, supplier bills, equipment and vehicle costs | Bills coded by job, progress invoices, job cost reports (see our construction admin VA page) |
| Healthcare and wellness practices | Patient and insurer payments, supplier bills, payroll data | General bookkeeping; patient billing and insurance follow-up is its own role (see medical billing VAs) |
| Accounting and bookkeeping firms | Client files that need daily categorization and reconciliation before the firm’s accountants review them | Works inside the firm’s client files under its review process (see outsourcing for accounting firms) |
See a Finance VA at Work, and How Candidates Are Tested
A finance VA with 8+ years keeping US and Australian small businesses financially organized explains her work: sending and tracking invoices, processing payments on time, reconciling accounts so the books stay accurate, running payroll, bills and reimbursements, and keeping QuickBooks or Xero clean, with Gusto, Asana and ClickUp alongside.
In this Behind The Hire episode, one of our recruiters evaluates a real skills test submitted for an administrative support role and explains what separates the top candidates from the rest. Bookkeeping candidates are scored the same way where a role needs a test, before you meet the top 2–3.
Software a Bookkeeping VA Works In
A bookkeeping VA works in the software you already use. In VA MASTERS’ review of 322 VA job requirements (February to August 2026), 68% of finance roles named QuickBooks, and finance and accounting roles named AI skills in only 5.3% of cases (software report; AI skills report). Name your stack in the job description so we can screen for it:
| Area | Common tools (examples) |
|---|---|
| Accounting | QuickBooks Online, Xero, FreshBooks, Wave, Zoho Books, Sage (see our QuickBooks and Xero VA page for platform specifics) |
| Receipts and documents | Dext, Hubdoc, Expensify, a shared Google Drive or SharePoint folder |
| Invoicing and payments | Your accounting software’s invoicing, Stripe, PayPal and Square exports, Bill.com, Melio |
| Payroll (as a user you set up) | Gusto, ADP, QuickBooks Payroll, Xero Payroll |
| E-commerce connectors | A2X, Link My Books, platform payout and settlement reports |
| Reporting | Google Sheets, Excel, Data Studio (formerly Looker Studio) |
| Communication and tasks | Slack, Microsoft Teams, Asana, ClickUp, Trello |
Prices for these tools change often, so check the vendor’s own pricing page; the VA’s login is a user you create, in a role you control.
Certifications to Look For in a Bookkeeping VA
Three credentials come up in bookkeeping job descriptions. All three are verifiable, and none replaces a skills test in your own software:
| Credential | What it is (issuer’s site, checked November 2026) | How we use it |
|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor certification (Intuit) | Intuit’s ProAdvisor Program offers QuickBooks Online Certification Level 1 and Level 2 for accounting professionals; the program is free to sign up for, and certified ProAdvisors pass a shorter recertification exam every year | If your role needs it, we recruit for it among our applicants and ask for the current certificate |
| Xero certification | Three levels (Xero’s current framework): Level 1 Xero associate certification, Level 2 Xero professional certification, Level 3 Xero specialist certification; free; valid 12 months from the day it is earned, with an annual recertification assessment for the highest level held | Same: named in the job description, checked at screening |
| TESDA Bookkeeping NC III (Philippines) | A Philippine national certificate whose core competencies are journalizing transactions, posting, preparing a trial balance, preparing financial reports and reviewing the internal control system (TESDA’s qualification standard) | A useful signal for candidates without a degree in accounting; we can recruit for it |
We say “we can recruit for” these credentials rather than promising them: the job description names them, screening checks them, and you see the certificate before the interview. A CPA licence is a different thing: it belongs to the accountant who signs your tax work, not to the bookkeeping role.
How Much Does a Bookkeeping Virtual Assistant Cost?
Through VA MASTERS, a bookkeeping VA costs $7.50–$14/hr: about $600–$1,120 a month half-time (80 hours) or $1,200–$2,240 a month full-time (160 hours). Where your VA lands in the range depends on experience and the complexity of the role: single-entity books in QuickBooks Online with a few hundred transactions sit toward the lower end; multi-entity or multi-currency books, e-commerce payout reconciliation across channels and month-end ownership move the rate toward $14/hr. Related roles use their own categories:
| Role | Rate category | Hourly | 40 h/month | 80 h/month | 160 h/month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeping VA: transactions, reconciliations, AR and AP, receipts, monthly and custom reports | Finance & Accounting | $7.50–$14 | $300–$560 | $600–$1,120 | $1,200–$2,240 |
| QuickBooks or Xero specialist (see our QuickBooks and Xero VA page) | Finance & Accounting | $7.50–$14 | $300–$560 | $600–$1,120 | $1,200–$2,240 |
| Controller-level finance VA: owns the month-end close and cash reporting (see financial controller VAs) | Finance & Accounting, toward the top of the range | $7.50–$14 | $300–$560 | $600–$1,120 | $1,200–$2,240 |
| Administrative VA who also tracks expenses and receipts, with the books closed by your accountant (see administrative VAs) | Administrative & Operations Support | $6.50–$10 | $260–$400 | $520–$800 | $1,040–$1,600 |
How that compares with other ways to get the books done:
| Option | Typical cost | Source / note |
|---|---|---|
| Bookkeeping clerk (US, in-house) | $24.36/hr median, $50,670 a year | US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Bookkeeping, Accounting, and Auditing Clerks, 2025 median pay (page updated August 2026); before benefits and overhead |
| Bookkeeping subscription or outsourced firm | Fixed monthly package, priced by transaction volume; tax work often a separate fee | Varies by provider; compare the hours of attention you get, not only the package price |
| VA MASTERS bookkeeping VA, half-time (80 h/month) | $600–$1,120/month ($7.50–$14/hr) | Finance & Accounting rates; no upfront fees, no setup fees |
| VA MASTERS bookkeeping VA, full-time (160 h/month) | $1,200–$2,240/month ($7.50–$14/hr) | Finance & Accounting rates |
Per hour, a bookkeeping VA at $7.50–$14 compares with the $24.36 median for a US bookkeeping clerk (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025 median pay), before benefits and overhead on the in-house side; counted with benefits and overhead and across all roles, the saving reaches up to 80% against local hiring. One honest note: if your books need only a few hours a month, an hourly bookkeeping service or a small monthly package can cost less in total than a half-time VA; a VA pays off when there is recurring work every week. Lighter setups of about 40 hours a month are possible with us too: see our pricing page.
Half-Time or Full-Time?
We suggest starting a bookkeeping role at our recommended minimum of 80 hours a month and growing it as receivables, payroll data or a second entity move over. In VA MASTERS’ analysis of 323 VA roles opened between February and August 2026, 72% were part-time and 46% were opened at exactly 80 hours a month (see the report). Daily invoicing, several entities or payroll for a larger team point to full-time.
The business world is moving away from rigid, full-time costs. Part-time virtual assistant setups give business owners the freedom to buy the exact help they need, test new work routines without big financial risks, and add more team hours as company revenue grows.— Alon Pearl, Founder & CEO, VA MASTERS
Bank Access and Data Security for a Bookkeeping VA
How do you protect your financial data with a remote bookkeeper? With access designed so the VA can do the work without being able to move money:
- Start with read-only access. A view-only bank user sees balances and transactions and cannot pay anyone. Ask your bank for a view-only user and whether it allows one for a person based abroad: some banks run an ID check on every added user, and some include extra users only on certain account plans. Better still, connect the bank feed to your accounting software yourself, so the VA reconciles inside QuickBooks or Xero and never needs a bank login at all.
- Give the VA their own accounting-software user with a restricted role: enter, categorize and reconcile, not pay bills or edit vendor bank details. Separate users can be switched off in a minute and show who did what.
- Payments stay with you. The VA prepares the payment run with due dates and documents; you approve and release. Payees and bank-detail changes are added by you, and any change request is verified by phone on a number you already have on file.
- Two-factor authentication on every login. For tools that can’t give the VA their own user, share access only through a team password manager, never by chat or email; never share your own bank login. Revoke access when the role ends.
- Confidentiality. Every VA is required to sign written confidentiality undertakings, and if you have your own NDA, we require your VA to sign it. See our security page.
- Review cadence. Weekly in the first month, then monthly: the reconciliation report, the AR aging and the list of unexplained differences.
The full access model, step by step, is in our guide to delegating financial tasks to a virtual assistant. This is general guidance, not legal or financial advice.
How to Hire a Bookkeeping Virtual Assistant
In September 2026, CPA Practice Advisor listed a bookkeeping assistant among five behind-the-scenes roles small businesses may be missing before the holiday rush. Alon Pearl told CPA Practice Advisor:
A small business does not necessarily need five new people. The owner needs to find the point where work is already starting to pile up.— Alon Pearl, Founder & CEO, VA MASTERS, in CPA Practice Advisor (September 2026)
Step 1: Count the Bookkeeping Work
Transactions a month, accounts to reconcile, invoices and bills a month, payroll headcount, entities, and the reports your accountant asks for. That list is most of the job description.
Step 2: Write the Access Rules and the Review Cadence
Decide what the VA may do alone (categorize, reconcile, send invoices, prepare payment runs) and what needs you (approve and pay, add payees, change the chart of accounts). Put it in writing before the search starts.
Step 3: Sign the Agreement and Start the Search
On a discovery call we go through the role, the hours, the software and the credentials; the role is final once the agreement is signed, and the search starts the same day. It costs nothing to start.
The search is our 6-stage process, and it is selective: about 1 in 508 applicants is placed (166,350 applications, January 2025 to July 2026; see the statistics report).
Detailed Job Posting
Your job description is built around your books: the software, monthly transaction volume, AR and AP scope, payroll data, the reports you want, the hours and any credentials worth asking for.
Candidate Collection
Every search is custom-built for the role, powered by our database of 400,000+ pre-assessed Filipino applicants, filtered here for bookkeeping, accounts payable and receivable experience in your software.
Initial Screening
Recruiters, helped by AI-assisted screening, confirm bookkeeping experience, your software, written and spoken English and a reliable internet connection.
Custom Skills Test
If your role needs one, candidates get a real bookkeeping task: a bank reconciliation with planted differences, 40 transactions to code, or an aging report from an invoice list.
In-Depth Interview
Recruiters probe how a candidate deals with a bank difference nobody can explain, a customer 45 days overdue and a question that needs your answer before any entry is made.
Client Interview
You interview the top 2–3 candidates (first candidates typically in about 2 business days once the agreement is signed) and pick who joins your team.
Step 4: Interview the Top 2–3
Put three situations to every candidate: a bank difference nobody can explain, an invoice 45 days overdue, and a receipt that doesn’t match the card charge. The pick is yours.
Step 5: Hand Over the Chart of Accounts, Access Rules and Last Three Months
Before day one, give the VA your chart of accounts, the access rules, your invoice and reminder templates and the last three months of books; the 30-day plan below covers the rest.
Bookkeeping VA Job Description Template
Bookkeeping virtual assistant job description template
- Role: Bookkeeping Virtual Assistant, 80 hours a month (half-time) or 160 hours a month (full-time)
- Schedule: set to your business hours and written into the agreement before the search starts
- Responsibilities: daily transaction categorization; weekly or monthly bank and card reconciliations; invoicing and receivable follow-ups; bill entry and payment runs prepared for approval; receipt collection; payroll data for the payroll provider; month-end report pack; one custom report (name it)
- Tools: QuickBooks Online or Xero (name yours), Dext or Hubdoc, Google Sheets or Excel, Slack or email
- Must-haves: two or more years of bookkeeping in the software you use; careful with numbers and documents; clear written English; asks before guessing; works inside approval limits
- Nice to have: QuickBooks ProAdvisor or Xero certification; experience in your industry (e-commerce payouts, property, job costing)
- How success is measured: books reconciled by the 5th working day; invoices out within 24 hours of approval; no unexplained differences older than a week; report pack delivered on the agreed day
Skills-Test Ideas for Bookkeeping Candidates
- Reconcile a one-month bank statement against a ledger that has two planted differences and one duplicate.
- Categorize 40 transactions against a given chart of accounts, and list the ones that need a question.
- Build an accounts receivable aging from an invoice list, then write the reminder email for the oldest item.
- Prepare a simple profit and loss from a trial balance in Google Sheets or Excel.
The First 30 Days With a Bookkeeping VA
| Week | Focus |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Own logins set up: an accounting-software user with a restricted role, the bank feed connected by you, the receipt tool, a shared finance inbox. The VA reads your chart of accounts and the last three months of books; first task: reconcile last month and list every open question |
| Week 2 | Takes over daily categorization, receivable reminders and bill entry; you review each reconciliation and payment run before approval and note what to change |
| Week 3 | First month-end pack drafted (profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, open items); first custom report built |
| Week 4 | The process written into an SOP (cut-off dates, approval limits, who answers what); review cadence set: weekly for the next month, then monthly |
Not Sure How Many Hours Your Books Need?
Send us your software, your monthly transaction volume and what your accountant expects from you each month; we’ll size the role with you, 80 or 160 hours a month.
Get in Touch →Common Mistakes When Hiring a Bookkeeping VA
Mistake #1: Full Banking Access on Day One
Start with read-only access or the bank feed inside your accounting software, keep payments with you, and widen access only once the work has been consistently clean.
Mistake #2: No Chart of Accounts and No Review Cadence
A VA inherits the structure you give them. Agree the chart of accounts with your accountant first, and review reconciliations weekly in the first month, then monthly.
Mistake #3: Expecting the VA to Replace Your Accountant
Tax, adjusting entries and sign-off stay with your accountant. Hire the VA to make the accountant’s work faster, and tell the accountant what the VA will prepare each month.
Mistake #4: Hiring Without a Skills Test in Your Software
A certificate and a good interview do not show how a candidate handles a messy reconciliation. Where the role needs it, test one real task in your software before you decide.
Mistake #5: Choosing on Hourly Rate Alone
A miscategorized year costs more in accountant hours and bad decisions than the difference between two hourly rates. Compare the hours of attention, the review process and who stays accountable after placement.
Real Messages from Real Clients
Hear From Our VAs
Working as a bookkeeping VA yourself? Open roles are on our careers page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a bookkeeping virtual assistant do?
A bookkeeping virtual assistant keeps your books current in your own accounting software: recording and categorizing transactions, reconciling bank and credit card accounts, creating and sending invoices and following up receivables, entering bills and preparing payment runs for your approval, filing receipts, preparing payroll data for your payroll provider, and building the monthly report pack and any custom report you ask for. Tax filing, tax advice and sign-off stay with your accountant; approving payments stays with you.
Can a VA help with bookkeeping tasks?
Yes. A virtual assistant with bookkeeping experience can take over the recurring work: categorization, reconciliations, invoicing and collections follow-up, bill entry, receipts and reports. The limits are the ones any bookkeeper has: tax returns, tax advice and audited statements need an accountant, and payments should be approved and released by you. In VA MASTERS’ analysis of 323 VA roles opened between February and August 2026, only 26% covered a single type of work, so combining bookkeeping with administrative support in one role is a common setup.
How much does a bookkeeping virtual assistant cost per month?
Through VA MASTERS, a bookkeeping VA costs $7.50–$14/hr (Finance & Accounting rates): about $600–$1,120 a month half-time (80 hours) or $1,200–$2,240 a month full-time (160 hours). For comparison, the US median for an in-house bookkeeping clerk is $24.36/hr, or $50,670 a year (US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025 median pay), before benefits and overhead. It costs nothing to start. See our pricing page for the full terms.
Which virtual assistant bookkeeping services offer custom reporting?
A bookkeeping VA recruited through VA MASTERS builds the reports you define, in your accounting software or in Google Sheets or Excel: a 13-week cash-flow forecast, an accounts receivable aging with follow-up status, sales by channel or client, job or project profitability, budget vs actual, or a KPI dashboard refreshed weekly. Put the reports you want in the job description so we can test for them where the role needs it. Fixed-package bookkeeping services usually deliver a standard monthly pack; custom reports may cost extra.
Can a bookkeeping virtual assistant handle payroll?
A bookkeeping VA can prepare the payroll data (hours, changes, reimbursements), hand it to your payroll provider, or run the pay cycle inside your payroll software as a user you set up, and post the payroll entries in the books. Payroll registrations, tax payments and filings stay with your payroll provider or accountant. If payroll is the main job, see our payroll VA page.
Can a virtual assistant handle both bookkeeping and CRM management?
Yes, and small businesses often set the role up this way: the books in the morning, the CRM, inbox and vendor emails in the afternoon. Say in the job description which half comes first, because that decides the rate category and the skills test. If bookkeeping is the main job, the role is priced at Finance & Accounting rates ($7.50–$14/hr); if the books are a light add-on to admin and expense tracking, Administrative rates ($6.50–$10/hr) apply. For CRM-heavy roles see our CRM virtual assistant page.
Is it safe to give a virtual bookkeeper access to my financial data?
It is, with the right setup: read-only bank access or, better, the bank feed inside your accounting software so the VA never needs a bank login; a separate accounting-software user with a restricted role (enter and reconcile, not pay or edit vendor bank details); payments approved and released by you; payee changes verified by phone on a number already on file; two-factor authentication on every login; shared credentials only through a team password manager. Every VA is required to sign written confidentiality undertakings, and if you have your own NDA, we require your VA to sign it. See our security page and our guide to delegating financial tasks.
Are there bookkeeping virtual assistants who specialize in e-commerce?
Yes. E-commerce bookkeeping has its own work: reconciling Shopify, Amazon or Etsy payouts to orders, coding platform fees and refunds, tracking sales tax collected by channel and posting inventory and cost of goods entries, often through A2X or Link My Books. Name your platforms in the job description and we recruit for candidates who have reconciled them before. See also our e-commerce operations VA page.
What certifications should a bookkeeping VA have?
The useful ones are the platform certifications: QuickBooks Online ProAdvisor certification (Level 1 and Level 2, renewed annually through Intuit’s ProAdvisor Program) and Xero certification (Levels 1 to 3, valid 12 months), plus, in the Philippines, TESDA’s Bookkeeping NC III. We can recruit for any of them where your role needs it and ask for the current certificate; a skills test in your software tells you more than any certificate. QuickBooks is named in 68% of finance roles in VA MASTERS’ review of 322 VA job requirements (February to August 2026). Platform details are on our QuickBooks and Xero VA page.
Will a bookkeeping VA replace my CPA or accountant?
No. A bookkeeping VA does the recording, reconciling, invoicing and reporting; your accountant does the tax returns, tax planning, adjusting entries and any review or audit. Current, reconciled books mean your accountant spends their time on advice and tax instead of clean-up, and the two work best when the VA prepares the month-end pack the accountant asks for.
Do I need a full-time bookkeeping VA, or is part-time enough?
Books with up to a few hundred transactions a month often fit in 80 hours a month, our recommended minimum; about 40 hours a month is possible too, and daily invoicing, several entities or payroll for a larger team point to full-time. In VA MASTERS’ analysis of 323 VA roles opened between February and August 2026, 72% were part-time and 46% were opened at exactly 80 hours a month. See our pricing page for hours and plans.
What if my books are months behind?
Scope the catch-up as its own project: how many months, which accounts, and the cut-off your accountant needs. The VA works month by month, reconciling as it goes and keeping a list of transactions that need your answer, while the current month is kept up to date in parallel. How long it takes depends on the volume and on how quickly the open questions get answered; agree a weekly check-in until the backlog is cleared.
How quickly can I hire a bookkeeping VA?
Once your role is agreed, first candidates typically arrive in about 2 business days. You interview the top 2–3 candidates and choose. Every search runs through our 6-stage process, which places about 1 in 508 applicants (166,350 applications, January 2025 to July 2026). Plan the first two to four weeks for access, your chart of accounts and your review cadence.
How can I find virtual bookkeeping or admin help?
Four routes: a recruitment agency that screens candidates for your role and stays on as account manager (what VA MASTERS does), freelance marketplaces where you screen and manage yourself, job boards for a direct hire, or a bookkeeping firm on a monthly package. Whichever route you take, test candidates in your own software, start with read-only access and agree the review cadence before day one. Our comparison of virtual bookkeeping services covers the firm route; this page covers the VA route.
Are there any upfront fees?
No. There are no upfront fees, no setup fees and no recruitment fees: it costs nothing to start. You sign the agreement and we run the search at no cost.
What if the bookkeeping VA isn’t the right fit?
If you’re not satisfied with your VA, you get a replacement, free of charge. Because your account manager keeps checking in with you after placement, a fit problem is usually raised early, before the books suffer.
Ready to Get Your Books Current and Keep Them That Way?
A bookkeeping VA from VA MASTERS keeps your transactions coded, your accounts reconciled, your invoices followed up and your monthly reports ready for your accountant, inside the access limits you set.
- It costs nothing to start: no upfront fees, no setup fees
- First candidates in about 2 business days once the role is agreed
- Custom skills test for bookkeeping work, where the role needs it
- Ongoing account management and a free replacement guarantee
Anne is the Operations Manager at VA MASTERS, a recruitment agency specializing in Filipino virtual assistants for global businesses. She leads the end-to-end recruitment process — from custom job briefs and skills testing to candidate delivery and ongoing VA management — and has personally overseen the placement of 1,000+ virtual assistants across industries including e-commerce, real estate, healthcare, fintech, digital marketing, and legal services.
With deep expertise in Philippine work culture, remote team integration, and business process optimization, Anne helps clients achieve up to 80% cost savings compared to local hiring while maintaining top-tier quality and performance.
Email: [email protected]
Telephone: +13127660301
