"Outsourced bookkeeping" can sound vague. Who's doing the work? What exactly do they do each month — and what do you get at the end of it?
This guide lays out what a remote bookkeeping team actually handles, from onboarding to year-end, so you know what to expect from a bookkeeping provider before you sign.
Getting started: onboarding
The first few weeks set up everything that follows. A good outsourced bookkeeping company will:
- Learn your business — what you sell, how you get paid, who you pay and what reports you need
- Get secure access to your accounting software, bank feeds and supporting apps, with permissions set by role
- Review your chart of accounts and recommend changes if categories are unclear or inconsistent
- Check opening balances against bank statements and prior financial statements
- Agree on a calendar — when transactions are processed, when the month closes and when reports arrive
If your books are behind, onboarding usually includes a clean-up of past periods first.
The day-to-day work
Transaction recording and categorization
Every sale, expense, transfer and loan payment is recorded and coded to the right account. Bank feeds and automation rules do much of the importing; the bookkeeping team checks and corrects what the rules get wrong.
Document management
Receipts, bills and invoices are matched to the transactions they support, so every entry has evidence behind it — important for deductions and for any questions from the IRS.
Accounts payable
The team enters vendor bills, tracks due dates, prepares payment runs for your approval and watches for duplicates. You stay in control of approving payments; the team makes sure nothing is missed.
Accounts receivable
Invoices are issued or recorded, payments are matched to them and overdue accounts are flagged. Depending on your arrangement, the team may also send reminders.
The monthly work
Reconciliations
Each bank, credit card, loan and payment-platform account is reconciled to its statement. Reconciliation is the core of bookkeeping: it proves the books match reality and surfaces errors early.
Payroll support
Payroll entries — wages, employer taxes, benefits and deductions — are recorded correctly, and payroll reports are reconciled to the bank. Some teams also run payroll itself.
Sales tax tracking
Sales tax collected is recorded by jurisdiction, so returns can be prepared accurately and on time. For businesses selling in several states, this tracking is essential. Our sales tax services handle registration and filing.
Month-end close
The month is closed: accruals and adjustments are posted, balances are reviewed and anything unusual is investigated or queried with you.
Reporting
You receive financial statements — typically a profit and loss statement and a balance sheet — plus any other reports you've agreed on, such as receivables aging, cash flow or KPI reports.
The year-end work
- Final reconciliations through year-end
- Fixed asset and inventory adjustments, if applicable
- Support for W-2s and 1099s
- An organized package of records and statements for your tax preparer
What a bookkeeping team doesn't do (unless you ask)
Bookkeeping is the foundation, not the whole building. Unless included in your scope, a bookkeeping team typically doesn't:
- Prepare and file your income tax returns
- Give tax planning or investment advice
- Act as your CFO or set your business strategy
Many providers offer these as additional services, so it's worth asking what's included and what's available.
How you work together
A typical month looks like this:
- You approve bills and answer a short list of questions about unclear transactions.
- The team processes, reconciles and closes the month.
- You receive your reports by an agreed date.
- You review them — ideally with a quick call — and make decisions.
The time you spend shrinks to a review and a few answers, rather than hours of data entry.
Bookkeeping team or accounting team?
If you need more than bookkeeping — say, full-cycle accounting, KPI reporting and tax preparation handled by the same dedicated people — an outsourced accounting team may suit you better. ADYZER offers both: a dedicated resource model billed hourly, monthly portfolio management and the option to outsource a single function such as payroll or bookkeeping.
Choosing your bookkeeping provider
ADYZER's bookkeeping services cover recording, reconciliations, month-end close and reporting for U.S. businesses, inside the software you already use — QuickBooks, Xero, Sage, Zoho Books and others. Your data is protected with encryption, role-based access and signed non-disclosure agreements.
Contact us to scope the work and get a quote.