By Ana Lee Malongayon, CPA | Entrepreneur
To hire a bookkeeper in the Philippines for a US small business, start with the work you need completed, then assess relevant experience, communication, account access and review responsibility. A provider’s location is one part of the decision. Your agreement should make clear who handles the books, what you receive and how questions are resolved.
Whether you need overdue QuickBooks records cleaned up or someone to maintain the books each month, use the hiring process to test how the relationship will work in practice.
Decide what you want to delegate
Prepare a short brief before comparing providers. Explain your industry, software, number of entities, approximate transaction volume and accounts involved. Identify your immediate problem: missing months, unreliable reports, limited time or a need for consistent monthly support.
For cleanup, specify the historical period and known issues. For recurring bookkeeping, describe the tasks and reports you want each month. Ask for separate scopes when you need both. This makes quotes and responsibilities easier to compare.
Look for experience that resembles your business
Ask candidates to describe comparable work without disclosing another client’s private information. Useful questions include:
- Have you supported US businesses using our accounting software?
- What kinds of accounts and payment processors have you reconciled?
- How do you investigate a balance that does not match its supporting records?
- What does your monthly handoff include?
- Which questions would you refer back to us or our tax professional?
A software certificate can support your assessment, but also ask how the provider applies that knowledge. A clear explanation of an unfamiliar transaction is more useful than a promise that every situation is easy.
Confirm who performs and reviews the work
Ask who your day-to-day contact will be, who makes entries and who reviews significant corrections. If a firm uses a team, clarify how responsibilities are assigned and how changes in personnel are communicated. If you hire an individual, ask what happens during an absence.
Neither arrangement is automatically superior. For a closer comparison, read our article on choosing a firm or freelancer, then assess the actual provider’s capabilities and process.
Agree on communication before the first deadline
Discuss working-hour overlap in your own US time zone, how quickly routine questions should receive a response, and what to do with an urgent issue. Confirm meeting times when seasonal clock changes affect your schedule.
You may not need someone online for your entire workday. You do need an agreed method for raising questions, sharing documents and confirming that the month is complete. A regular written update can be more useful than an informal promise to be “always available.”
Keep control of your accounts and access
Ask for an access plan before sharing business records. Use named accounts and appropriate permissions, retain your own administrative access and agree how access will be removed when the engagement ends. Do not send your primary login details in a public inquiry.
QuickBooks Online supports inviting accountant users. Discuss the appropriate access method for the work rather than assuming shared credentials are necessary.
Ask where documents will be stored, who may access them and whether any work will be delegated. Bookkeeping access should not silently expand into authority to approve payments or move money; define those responsibilities separately if they are needed.
Separate bookkeeping from US tax decisions
Ask what “accounting services” means in the proposed engagement. Transaction records, reconciliations and management reports are different deliverables from preparing returns or advising on tax positions.
For BA’s cleanup engagement, US tax preparation and filing are outside the scope. Coordinate questions requiring tax judgment with your US CPA or Enrolled Agent. When credentials matter to your decision, verify the exact credential, issuing jurisdiction and relevance to the work rather than relying on a general professional title.
Use a clear first engagement
Before a large commitment, agree on a defined starting scope. Depending on the provider and your records, this could be an initial assessment, a specified cleanup period or the first month of recurring work. Confirm any fee and what the completed work will demonstrate.
Evaluate the result against the agreed deliverables: were questions raised clearly, were corrections explained, did reports arrive when agreed, and were unresolved items disclosed? Do not evaluate only the number of transactions entered.
What should be in the written scope?
- The business entities, accounts and periods covered.
- The tasks, reports and delivery schedule.
- The fee, billing arrangements and approval process for extra work.
- Your responsibilities for supplying information and answering questions.
- The point of contact and review responsibilities.
- Access, document-sharing and confidentiality arrangements.
- Exclusions, handoff arrangements and how the engagement can end.
For an existing backlog, BA can assess a separately scoped cleanup and catch-up engagement. You can consider monthly support afterward without assuming it is part of the cleanup price.
Common questions about hiring remotely
Can a Philippine-based bookkeeper work with my US CPA?
That can be part of an agreed workflow. Confirm who will communicate, what records will be shared, your authorization and whether coordination time is included in the scope.
Should I choose the lowest hourly rate?
Compare the expected total cost and deliverables, not the hourly rate alone. A quote needs enough detail to show what review, reporting and communication are included.
Do I need to commit to monthly bookkeeping immediately?
Not for BA’s standalone cleanup service. Historical cleanup can be scoped separately, with ongoing support considered afterward.
Talk through your bookkeeping needs with BA
Bookkeeping Accountant supports US small businesses remotely. Book a free 30-minute discovery call to discuss your software, current records and priorities. We will explain the information needed to assess fit and propose the next step.
