FAQs
1. Does Main Street Virtual file my taxes?
While we don’t offer tax filing services, we do work hand-in-hand with many highly respectable CPAs and tax firms. In addition, we ensure that your books are completely ready for hand-off prior to tax time. Should your CPA have any additional questions, we’re happy to work alongside them through the whole tax filing process. Main Street Virtual will review and file your 1099s every year. During the 4th quarter of the tax year, we will provide you with a list of vendors that need W9s on file prior to the deadline.
2. When & why should I hire a bookkeeper?
Hiring a bookkeeper can be a great benefit to your business! A key component is that by outsourcing your bookkeeping, you free up more time to focus ON your business. A bookkeeper ensures that your books are up to date, receiving accurate financial information, and are regularly prepared for tax time. In addition, our team comes with high-level experience, expertise, and knowledge that guarantees accuracy and quality information.
3. What is my business’ legal entity?
Your legal entity is determined based on business purposes and tax advantages. Likely, you’ve already made the determination as to your business structure, but if you haven’t, or you’d like more information, we’re happy to discuss with you! If you’re ever unsure, you’re welcome to check in with your local or state offices where the record is filed and kept.
4. Will I still have control over my books?
Of course! Main Street Virtual is here to assist, advise, and provide up to date financial information. Our goal is to keep your business growing and gaining profit, but the business decisions are always up to you.
5. When is the work performed, on a schedule?
Yes! During our kickoff meeting, we’ll go through the expected timeline and outline your specific client schedule. Based on your industry and business size, we’ll determine the regularity of transaction review and reconciliations. You will receive all your financial reports between the 5th & 7th of each month, once all reconciliations have been completed.
6. Do you assist with sales tax?
While most of our clients are service based only and therefore don’t require sales tax assistance, we are familiar. We do have clients who have expanded their services to include product sales and we work hand-in-hand with them to track sales, inventory, and file sales tax.
7. Do you run payroll?
Absolutely, on whichever platform you prefer. Currently our clients use: Quickbooks Payroll, ADP, Gusto, Paper Trails, and Paychex. Our top recommendation is Gusto, and is the software we typically advise new clients to utilize if they’ve never run payroll before.
8. What other small business tools do you work with?
We work with a variety of other softwares in order to ensure your business is functioning at its highest capacity. These softwares include those specific to your financials, as well as others related to your industry/business needs. They include: Quickbooks Online & Desktop, Freshbooks, Bill.com, Expensify, Jobber, JobNimbus, Housecall Pro, Level, Build, CoConstruct, Stripe, Square, PayPal, Monday, Asana, ClickUp, Trello, gSuite, Dropbox
9. Do you work with businesses under $100k annual revenue?
Absolutely! We recognize that businesses of all sizes need bookkeeping assistance. Each package is designed to fit your needs and your industry. We’ll make recommendations for you and we always take your budget into consideration.
10. What types of businesses do you serve?
We serve any service-based business! Our top industries include:
Home Services: Electricians, Builders, Interior Designers, Contractors, HVAC
Creative Services: Marketing, Wedding and Event Planning, Creative, IT, Photographers
Health & Wellness Services: Nutritionists, Therapy Practices, Gyms & Yoga Studios Professional Services: Realtors, Investment & Financial Firms, Law Offices, Consulting
11. What does it cost?
Our base packages start at $250. Your monthly service cost is determined by your industry, business needs, and budget. We work together to find a package that fits you!
12. Should my bookkeeper be local?
It is not necessary for your bookkeeper to be local. We’re fortunate to have the ability to work remotely, which allows us to assist a variety of clients. While we’re based on the East Coast, we’re flexible to our client’s needs and timezones. With technology available now, we’re given the opportunity to manage your finances remotely while maintaining consistent contact through calls, texts, emails, and Zoom calls.
13. Is a clean-up needed before handing off my books?
Not at all! We realize that things get busy and your books may have fallen behind. We’re happy to review your account and include a clean-up price in your proposal. Don’t feel any pressure to get things up to date before handing them off to us. We’ll work with you to get you caught up.
14. What accounting softwares are you familiar with?
We’re familiar with several different softwares: Quickbooks Online, Quickbooks Desktop, WaveApps, Freshbooks, Xero, and Zoho. However, we recommend all our clients use Quickbooks Online and offer assistance in making the transition if they haven’t switched over yet.
15. I have multiple businesses, can you help?
Of course! We have several clients with multiple entities. Sometimes these businesses work in conjunction with one another and we’ve set up their accounting to manage that. Other times it’s a single owner who has several businesses and we’re happy to manage that for them too. We realize that it’s not uncommon to have multiple entities working together, and we’ve educated ourselves in the best practices to manage that.
16. Do you take care of bill pay? Invoicing?
If you need it done, we take care of it. Both features can be included in your package – all dependent on what you need. We have specific systems and processes we utilize to track your bills and ensure payment. In addition, we regularly invoice for our clients as well – especially those in the home service based industries. This often includes progress billing specific to the client’s procedures.
17. What is a Certified Quickbooks ProAdvisor? What do they provide?
Intuit Quickbooks provides a ProAdvisor training program that offers financial professionals the opportunity to gain additional knowledge in the utilization of Quickbooks. Every year, ProAdvisors are required to pass a test ensuring that they’re up to date in the software’s latest version. In using the professional version of Quickbooks, ProAdvisors are able to provide better quality service and support to their clients, while also receiving quick and efficient assistance from the Quickbooks team. Our Main Street Virtual team are Quickbooks Certified ProAdvisors at an Elite level status.
18. How do I send information to Main Street Virtual?
We operate in several capacities, all designed to fit each client and their needs. Clients regularly send us information via email, but they’re welcome to mail it directly as well. We use Dubsado as our information management platform, which is where your forms/signed documents will be housed. A client specific folder is created in Google Drive to keep everything organized.
19. What type of records do I need to keep?
We always recommend keeping receipts! You don’t need to supply them to us directly, but it’s important to have them. We can recommend several cloud-based receipt softwares for you to upload to. By using a cloud-based bookkeeping service, such as Quickbooks, you’re able to keep track of many business components without having to have a hard copy of everything (i.e invoices, reports, etc). Another key record we advise small business owners to keep are any documents related to assets and/or loans. If you’re ever questioning the need for something, just give us a call!
20. Do I need a bookkeeper if I have an accountant? What’s the difference?
We always recommend having both an accountant and a bookkeeper. While there are some instances where their roles could overlap, they do provide two distinct separate services. A key difference is that your bookkeeper is focused on your daily operations, while your accountant reviews your bookkeeper’s statements and completes your tax returns.