If you have already worked as an accountant or bookkeeper for several years and want more flexibility in your career, freelance accounting might be a great fit. As long as you have accounting skills, a good internet connection, and excellent organizational skills, you can make a living doing freelance accounting for a variety of businesses. By focusing on a niche market, such as hospital management accounting, https://www.bookstime.com/ you can distinguish yourself from the competition. Internships are a great way to develop business experience before attempting to freelance as an accountant. When it comes to your main website, splurging for a quality design pays for itself in the long run. Make sure the site is sleek, simple, and easy to navigate since you’re likely to receive a lot of frustrated visitors who need help in a hurry.
Wave delivers an excellent double-entry accounting service for very small businesses that want to import transactions from online bank accounts, and most of its features are free. Many businesses specifically look for accountants who use online software. Start by listing on Xero’s advisor directory, which generates several thousand referrals a week for accountants and bookkeepers.
Synder & Stripe: Complete Automation for Accounting and Reporting
Also, remember that a lot of your working hours are going to be spent marketing and soliciting new clients, so those hours aren’t billable. You need to make up for that time by charging a sufficient freelance accountant rate for your billable hours. Crucially, your freelance accounting business needs a regular newsletter, which you can use to send updates, discounts, and blog snippets to clients.
But all things considered (especially its free status), it’s definitely worth your consideration. Intuit QuickBooks Self-Employed ($15 per month) is a good choice for a self-employed individual or freelancer who needs to separate business and personal expenses, send invoices, and track mileage. It also has useful mobile apps and helps you estimate your quarterly taxes based on your income and expenses. As I mentioned earlier, it can also track your mileage, using your phone’s location services. To ensure you’re reaching as wide an audience as possible, a strong online presence is essential. The core of this will be your website, including key information such as your qualifications, experience, client testimonials and contact details.
Increase your revenue per client
PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering lab-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services. Our expert industry analysis and practical solutions help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology. Working freelance usually means spending a lot of time on your own. Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, everyone needs to spend quality time with people they like.
- Use dedicated software to track your expenses and the time it takes to accomplish business tasks.
- You want to be competitive, but you also don’t want to set your prices extremely low in comparison to other accountants because you want clients to view you as being among the best.
- Freelance accountants may work with a large company with many employees or a small business with only a few people that just needs some financial help.
- Now you have the chance to fit your work around your life, not the other way around.
- During the busy tax season every accountant has their hands full, so that shouldn’t be discounted.
- Whether you’re an introvert or an extrovert, everyone needs to spend quality time with people they like.
If you want to build a reputation quickly, you can always offer free or cut-rate services for such projects to prove that you can do them. Once your freelance accounting business is up and running, it’s time to start thinking about your long-term game plan. How are you going to grow your business, retain clients, and streamline your workflow? Since you don’t have a boss, you’re in charge of your daily motivation and task structure. It’s crucial that you develop a tight work schedule to stay focused and a log of daily activity to keep your time allocation efficient. For many accountants, working on a freelance basis is a dream come true.
What if Your Business Is Too Big?
Keep in mind that many traditional clients may still prefer to send checks. To communicate with clients face-to-face, you can download a conferencing app such as Skype. Although many accounting apps, such as QuickBooks, feature cloud storage, you may still want a separate online cloud storage file for backing up information. In addition, it’s a good idea to sync your bank account with your payment processor and other apps to keep your cash flow as smooth as possible. Some of these apps offer interesting bonus features—see the Mileage Tracking section below for one example.
With software getting more sophisticated, you can really automate a large portion of your job as an accountant. Because if a program can do a task within seconds, why spend hours on it? Surround yourself with technological tools that’ll really boost your business and improve the quality of your time spent working.