It’s all fun and games until the numbers take forever to balance. Now, you’re screaming at your spreadsheet and can’t sleep because the pennies are not accounted for.
Supervising your finances can be really daunting, especially for you, since you hate doing it. C’mon, you barely understand what these numbers on your financial sheet represent.
So, if you ever think about alleviating your accounting and bookkeeping duties, you might as well hire an assistant.
Lucky for you, there’s a better way of outsourcing them. Enter a human virtual bookkeeping assistant…or perhaps an AI-powered robot? Despite the AI revolution in processing audits, humans are still the superior choice for many.
In this blog post, let’s find a solution between a human bookkeeping VA vs. an AI assistant. Who is the right assistant to handle your books?
Virtual Assistant (Human Bookkeeper)
A virtual assistant bookkeeping is a real person who handles admin work and bookkeeping tasks. They provide the necessary support you need to keep tabs on your business’s financial health without being physically there. They can do so using modern tools and software, enhancing collaboration, data security and accessibility.
In addition, these assistants bring total flexibility, allowing you to save costs and scale operations seamlessly.
A human remote professional can work independently as well, so there’s no need to micromanage them. You just tackle the core projects and lead the business forward.
Some of the core tasks of this remote professional include:
- Invoicing
- Generating financial reports
- Maintaining ledgers
- Payment tracking
- Sending reminders
- Reconciling accounts
- Managing vendor bills.
The role of a human virtual assistant is highly important for startups and many small companies that don’t have enough resources to hire in-office employees. With their assistance, you can fill the talent gap in your organisation and ensure timely financial management.
Read further: The Practicalities of Hiring a Virtual Assistant for Bookkeeping
Advantages of a Human Virtual Bookkeeping Assistant
Let’s run through the most important benefits of having humans as your remote assistants. Sure, AIs are in their own league, but humans…they’re simply an indisputable part of a successful enterprise.
Human Judgement
A real breathing human being has experiences, which allow them to understand complex emotions and situations. They can empathise and build genuine connections with everyone around them.
The human brain is wired to read between the lines and untangle intricate financial details. For instance, an AI spots a duplicate in your balance sheet. Most likely, they’ll remove it and leave it. Humans operate differently, though, because they would verify the details and find answers.
Personalised Client Interaction
Trust is where any successful relationship starts, and human assistants easily excel at it. They can nurture that connection with consistent interactions and build a deeper understanding of your needs and preferences.
For instance, a human virtual assistant can personalise communication to fit your client’s communication style. This way, you can stay connected with them at their places of interest, like social media.
In addition, real VAs are a lot more proficient in language than Siri or Alexa. They can grasp nuances in tone and manner of speaking, which is a critical thing to consider in developing long-term rapport.
Humans can effectively interact and make every exchange personal to each person. They can use this skill to pursue retention activities and keep a loyal following, which AIs can’t do.
Strategic Thinking
There is a reason why we are the superior beings on this planet. We can easily adapt and form complex societies and come up with a high level of reasoning. The way humans think is so out of the box and so forward that AIs can’t compete.
Experience is what fires up the human brain to create solutions to ambiguities that are unconventional. A human virtual assistant can provide valuable insights based on their experience and knowledge. This analytical way of thinking is simply unmatched, and the reason AIs can never take over your accounting activities completely.
Things to Consider:
Hourly/Project-Based Cost. Hiring a human virtual bookkeeping assistant may be cost-effective, but the price may still vary depending on a few factors, such as expertise and experience. In such cases, the charges may increase, requiring you to allocate more budget.
Human Error. Humans are susceptible to errors. This can be remedied by recruiting more experienced professionals with a higher level of expertise.
Supervision. Although you do not need to micromanage your human virtual assistant, you need to look after them to ensure optimal results. Check in with them regularly to talk about progress and address issues.
AI Accounting Assistant (Software)
Artificial intelligence virtual assistants are automated software tools powered by artificial intelligence to handle financial data and automate tasks. They are programmes that can interact with users close enough to a real human being.
Now, AI assistants can be integrated into mobile applications or your website to support your business processes.
Here are some accounting and bookkeeping tasks that AI can do on your behalf:
- Responding to basic customer questions
- Processing large volumes of data
- Flagging inconsistencies
- Data entry
- Detecting fraudulent transactions
- Delivering tailored recommendations based on the client’s preferences and goals
- Processing documents
- Monitoring network traffic
Advantages of an AI Bookkeeping Assistant
AI assistants are perhaps one of the most incredible inventions of the human mind. They can do a lot of things that a human bookkeeping assistant can do—only faster and sharper.
Efficiency & Speed
AIs are quick on their feet. They can process large financial data and respond to clients more efficiently than any human. This saves you a significant amount of time while boosting customer satisfaction.
Accuracy
Your AI bookkeeping assistant can analyse data and spot deficiencies right away. By flagging inconsistencies, you can reduce errors and improve accuracy.
AIs play a role in streamlining the audit process, a task that is handled by meticulous humans, which is now going through a transformation with AI deployment.
Predictive Analytics
AI can watch over your financial transactions without tiring. Beyond that, they can also read past and current data to forecast future outcomes using machine learning. This ability makes them vital for strategic planning, reducing financial risks and helping you gain an advantage over competitors.
Things to Consider:
Cost. AI adoption has a huge upfront investment attached to it. Think about the hardware, the costs of training employees and the maintenance fees to keep them in optimal condition.
Clearly, there is a strong financial barrier that’ll be hard to breach, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. Although there are inexpensive tools, you need to pay more to access advanced features and faster performance.
Complexity. Embracing AI means embedding it into your existing system, which can be difficult. This might entail fine-tuning your AI application to seamlessly work with your current system.
The integration demands personnel training and expert advice so you can fully maximise the capabilities of your AI technology.
Upskilling is one of the pain points that needs to be dealt with to successfully incorporate an AI assistant. But even with total AI integration, your robot still struggles with the highly complex financial situations.
Oversight. The hard truth is that your AI accounting assistant can’t work on their own. They need the human touch to ensure accuracy and correct misinterpretations. They might be speedy and precise, but they need vigilant human supervision.
At the end of the day, you may not be able to have a free Friday night after all.
Which to Choose?
Is a virtual assistant better than an AI assistant?
In truth, the debate on who’s better between an AI assistant vs. a human bookkeeping assistant depends on you. What do you need? What’s the best option for your company?
If automating the routine financial tasks is your utmost priority, you can benefit from the speed and accuracy of an AI assistant. They can handle routine financial scenarios and provide tailored support.
However, if strategic financial intelligence is what you seek, choose a human virtual bookkeeping assistant.
Or you can do it both ways with a hybrid approach. You can follow the path of many business owners and leverage the power of AI + human assistants. Their joined forces allow you to handle repetitive processes and gain human oversight for complex strategic tasks.
Topic you might be interested in: Virtual Assistant for Bookkeeping Saves in Australia
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a Virtual Assistant an Accountant?
Yes, a virtual assistant can be an accountant. They can take on many accounting and bookkeeping tasks on your behalf so you can focus on pressing matters.
Are Bookkeeping and Accounting the Same?
No, there is a clear distinction between the two. Bookkeeping is the systematic recording of financial transactions so you can produce accurate financial reports.
Meanwhile, accounting is a much broader process that deals with analysing financial records so you can make better financial decisions.
Is a Virtual Assistant an Application of AI?
Yes, some virtual assistants are software tools designed with artificial intelligence, like Siri or Google Assistant. These bots can do many things a human personal assistant can do, like managing calendars or sending reminders.
Grow Your Business with the Right Bookkeeping Assistant!
In a connected and developing world, the best way to stay ahead of the curve is to enhance your processes. Human virtual bookkeeping assistants handle the tedious, nitty-gritty business of your finances. In effect, you can save resources and keep your financial health in robust condition.
At VAV, we hate wasting your time. Thus, we offer virtual assistant solutions with our efficient 3-step strategy. This allows you to meet and start collaborating with your human virtual bookkeeping assistant in just 3 to 5 days.
Here’s how it works:
- Project Analysis. Understanding your needs and requirements.
- Interview. Carefully vetting and finding the right virtual assistant.
- Onboarding and training. Introducing and connecting you to an efficient virtual bookkeeping assistant who can deliver measurable results.
If you want to know more about what we can offer to grow your business, book a consultation today!