Running a business can often feel like you are juggling too many things at once. It demands your constant energy, precision, and focus. For many entrepreneurs, the relentless grind of financial admin tasks becomes a drain on time and resources.

Hours are swallowed by late-night battles with spreadsheets, struggles to find a way through receipts, all the while the nagging fear of missing a crucial detail stays constant.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

You can lighten the load and reclaim your time by outsourcing key financial tasks to a virtual assistant (VA). Let’s take a look at the financial admin responsibilities that a VA can take off your plate and free you to pay attention to whatever demands it the most.

8 Financial admin tasks that you can outsource today

Go through this list to gather some idea of the financial tasks you can delegate today:

1. Budget monitoring

A well-monitored budget is the backbone of sustainable business. It offers real-time insight into your financial standing, enabling you to make informed decisions and allocate resources effectively. Yet, monitoring the budget often takes a back seat amid the chaos of daily operations.

When left unchecked, even minor budget discrepancies can snowball into significant challenges. Regular monitoring allows you to identify and address issues early, preventing unwelcome surprises.

An experienced VA can manage this process seamlessly. By tracking expenses, comparing them against your budget, and providing regular updates, they’ll help you maintain financial clarity. With a clear picture of your cash flow, you can confidently steer your business towards its goal without getting bogged down in numbers.

2. Invoicing and billing

Revenue is the lifeblood of your business, yet managing invoices and chasing payments can become very stressful. Studies show that 63% of small business owners experience anxiety or even depression due to the late payments. Beyond the emotional toll, the time cost is staggering. Some entrepreneurs spend up to 20 days per year tracking overdue invoices.

By delegating the financial admin task of invoicing and billing to a virtual assistant, you can ensure these processes are managed promptly and professionally. A skilled virtual assistant can prepare and send invoices, follow up with clients, and track payments, ensuring cash flow remains steady without the need for your constant intervention. The result? Less stress and more time to focus on strategic priorities.

3. Tax preparation and compliance

More and more businesses are outsourcing financial management because services like tax preparation and compliance involves meddling oneself with a complex labyrinth of ever-changing laws, deadlines, and regulations that can overwhelm even experts. Businesses are trying to introduce efficiency and remove the risks of handling these tasks in-house so that they can decrease the chances of costly mistakes and ensure full compliance.

For example, our financial management virtual assistants can proactively optimize financial processes for tax savings, identify potential tax credits, and advise on tax planning opportunities. To develop this level of expertise internally demands substantial investment. As a result, letting a VA handle not only just unburden you but also adds value to your business.

4. Expense tracking

Tracking expenses is one of the most essential financial admin tasks for maintaining a clear picture of your business’s financial health. It ensures compliance with tax laws and helps you plan for the future. However, it’s also a notoriously time consuming task.

According to a survey, 40% of small business owners spend over 80 hours annually on tax preparation alone. For many, it’s their least favourite part of running a business. Imagine the opportunities you could unlock by reclaiming those 80 hours, whether it’s developing innovative products, strengthening client relationships, or simply enjoying a well-earned break.

A financial virtual assistant can handle expense tracking with precision. They can log receipts, categorize expenditures, and generate detailed reports to keep your records in order. By the time tax season rolls around, everything will be organized and ready, sparing you the hassle and freeling your mind for what truly matters.

5. Vendor communication

Strong vendor relationships are critical for retail and e-commerce businesses, but managing them can be tedious. Coordinating deliveries, handling invoices, addressing queries, and resolving disputes all demand time and patience.

A virtual assistant can take reins on vendor communication and make sure that your relationships run smoothly. They can track shipments, organize returns, and keep your supply chain humming without requiring your constant oversight. With these logistics handled, you will have more bandwidth to focus on strategic partnerships and business development.

6. Research and compare products and services

From selecting the best software to finding cost-effective suppliers, researching products and services is a necessary part of running a business. But it’s also a significant time sink. On average, individuals spend up to 79 days researching major purchases, and even minor decisions can chip away at your productivity.

This is where an experienced virtual assistant becomes invaluable. With your criteria in hand, they can scour the market, compare options, and present you with the best solutions. Whether it’s finding the most affordable internet plan or vetting consultants, a virtual assistant ensures you make informed decisions without losing precious hours.

7. CFO services

A CFO or a Chief Financial Officer is someone responsible for bridging the gap between strategic business objectives and financial operations. As hiring a full-time CFO can be costly and difficult due to local talent shortage, businesses are outsourcing it.

Your VA, having worked across different sectors and with multiple businesses can bring a broad perspective and a wealth of experience, enabling them to offer valuable insights into capital allocation, risk management, fundraising, financial strategy, and mergers and acquisitions.

It would be extremely difficult to develop the depth and breadth of such expertise. Thus, outsourcing CFO services is not only a smart move but also a strategic step towards greater growth and transformation.

8. External audit support

The external audit is a critical process that businesses have to undergo to guarantee financial transparency and ensure compliance with regulatory standards. For most businesses it becomes hard to maintain the depth of expertise that is required to handle the specificity and complexity of audit procedures. Moreover, they also run the risk of biased audit due to in-house employees’ lack of objectivity.

By outsourcing this function you get access to experts who are up-to-date with the current auditing standards such as IFRS, GAAP, or anything else. They can also help you identify areas of concern with their pre-audit assessments so that you can make required adjustments before the audit process begins formally. Thus, it can give you a less stressful audit experience and give more effective results.

Final thoughts

No business can underestimate the intricacies of financial management in today’s rapid and dynamic business environment. Whether you are a startup struggling with the basics of payroll processing or a large corporation grappling with complex financial planning, reporting, and compliance, attaining excellence in financial admin tasks is both difficult and essential.

In this scenario, outsourcing presents a cost-effective and viable solution that alleviates pressure from your internal teams and bridges the skills gap or provides the necessary specialization and expertise to transform your financial operations that are perhaps just basic requirements into a new found strong point.