Kimberly Thomas-Catanzaro is a Virtual Assistant with an area of expertise that most people never even considered could be done from a distance —full charge bookkeeping.  You are about to discover how this is a far superior way to manage your business finances.  Here is a much closer look at how she manages the entire bookkeeping process for organizations that are, in some cases, thousands of miles away.

Kimberley, of www.on-linesecretary.com, has been a VA for two years. She is an exacting Virtual Assistant who has solid skills and over 15 years of bookkeeping experience including: keeping current financial records pristine, managing successful record recovery following a records disaster, and organizing accounts for internal and external audits.

MI: Kimberley, what can you do for Real Estate Agents?

KTC: I can assist with Property Management chores such as receiving rental payments, tracking and paying rental sales taxes, maintaining accounts payable accounts, paying subcontractors for any necessary repairs, providing monthly collection reports, make necessary collection calls, filing and mailing eviction notices, tracking security deposits and advance rent payments as well as sending and receiving 1099s.

For the individual Agents, I can provide complete itemized reports for monthly reimbursements and can provide monthly reports for independent agents to file with their taxes. I can organize agents’ business records for taxes, provide financial reports for loan applications and offer short and long-term financial forecasts.

MI: Do you file taxes?

KTC: No. I do everything up to taxes – I will run reports for the agent’s accountant and keep the agent aware and informed of where they are financially, and whether or not they are reaching their financial goals.

Whenever I build a relationship with a client, I will discuss financial matters and answer their questions, but not in an official capacity. I encourage them to hire a financial planner, a CPA and other specialists to meet those needs.

MI: Do you work primarily for local or regional clients? How far does your client base extend, geographically speaking?

KTC: I have served US clients in California, Massachusetts, and in other areas of Florida. A couple of my clients are local, but I have served clients in and outside the US, even in Paris.

MI: What do you do to build trust for something as sensitive as people’s financial records and bookkeeping?

KTC: I have a work for hire agreement with a confidentiality clause. I always offer professional references from current and past clients. Most of my new clients come word of mouth, so there is a degree of trust already there in most cases. Other VAs recommend their clients to me and other clients recommend me to their professional peers.

MI: Tell me about your most interesting current client.

KTC: I have a client in Southern Florida that was originally located in Paris, France. He sold his company to a company here in Florida -- an investment company that buys other companies. The investment company contracts with me to set up the books on the incoming companies as they buy them. They offered me a full time position, but I turned them down.

MI: Why did you turn them down?

KTC: I like being a VA, setting my own hours, working for myself and I like being my own boss. I like the variety of working with different clients, so I’m not doing the same thing everyday. Bookkeeping can become monotonous if you do the same thing for the same company day in and day out.

Now, I can work when I work best – whether that’s 10 a.m., 10 p.m., or 2 a.m. My personal life and my work and my business all co-exist peacefully. My work goes with me, I just pack up my laptop. As a VA, I can even take my work on the boat if I want -- but I don’t really recommend that for VAs (she laughs) because if the laptop falls in the water, you are in trouble!

MI: Speaking of data problems, how do you protect client data?

KTC: I have a flash drive that I use every time I close out a project. Additionally, I have two sets of books for each client -- one on my desktop, one on my laptop -- and the most current backup is maintained on an external drive for redundancy. I use QuickBooks Online for some clients, and that provides another automatic web-based backup.

MI: Who writes the checks when you work for virtual clients?

KTC: That depends on the client. I can cut a check to pay their bills via electronic check online, if they set it up for me to have access to their accounts. I don’t encourage clients to do that if they aren’t completely comfortable with the process. I can also write the checks and send them to the client by overnight mail, insured with the preaddressed envelopes. All they have to do is sign and seal and send. I have clients that use both methods.

MI: How do you address security concerns when working virtually?

KTC: I maintain a firewall on my own system, I keep my anti-virus software up to date and scan everything automatically and I encourage my clients to keep their own security systems in place. I password protect all client files on my computers and the backups. I only work with online vendors that have secure sites with up-to-date certificates when purchasing or paying bills for my clients.

MI: Do you recommend Quick Books Online for clients?

KTC: Yes! With QB Online, more than one person can work on books simultaneously. This means that if a client needs to do payroll for his employees while I’m working on a project in my office I don’t have to re-enter anything when I upload the file. What he did in the program while I had the project underway was recorded.

I like the automatic backup and the fact that there is always a current version. I like the 24 hour support, whenever you have a question with an issue, they are quick to respond and quite helpful.

And, accountants and CPAs love it too. You get three individual user accounts plus one for your accountant for the same monthly price as a single account.

MI: Kimberley, how can you provide these financial services to Real Estate Agents long-distance?

KTC: Using QBOnline would be the best approach for real estate agents so they could have access to their books and various accounts at any time. I also use fax, federal express and e-mail as needed.

Technology is advanced enough now that I’m able to communicate as easily with clients across the globe as I once communicated with them across the room.

MI: Thank you for taking the time to tell us about working virtually in the area of bookkeeping.

KTC: Thank you for asking!

EDITOR’S NOTE: I have two companies that use QuickBooks Online with a bookkeeper in Kansas and love the fact that I have access to all my financials 24/7 from any Web-browser in the world!

To learn more about Kimberley and her bookkeeping and secretarial services just go to www.On-LineSecretary.com. You can contact her via e-mail at kthomas@on-linesecretary.com or call her at 561-741-2139. Always remember to do a thorough due-diligence before hiring any kind of assistant. This interview is part of an ongoing series of VA profiles designed to help you find the perfect VA or VA team to keep you organized, profitable, and in control of your business.