Can a remote Job in bookkeeping become your new side hustle?

• Published date: 15 March 2024
• Author: AVI STERN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Almost everywhere you look online, you'll see job sites, videos, and social media posts promoting virtual bookkeeping jobs. While the specifics vary, most promise high hourly wages, flexible hours, and relatively simple work. But is any of that true? Here's an in-depth look at whether you can turn a remote bookkeeping job into a valuable side hustle. Plus, we'll go over what you need to know before attempting to do it

What Can You Earn as a Remote Bookkeeper?

To figure out if a remote bookkeeping job is a good side hustle for you, you'll first need to decide if it pays well enough to meet your needs. According to publicly available data from Glassdoor, the average hourly wage for remote bookkeepers is between around $25 and $35 if you're working for a US-based company. That agrees with most job openings posted on sites like Indeed and ZipRecruiter, too. However, on-staff bookkeeping jobs are only one of your available options.

On freelance sites like Upwork, bookkeepers charge as much as $175 per hour for their work and up to $300 for specialty bookkeeping projects. As a result, freelance remote bookkeeping jobs have more potential as a side hustle. For one thing, if you already have a job with benefits, there's little incentive to take a lower-paying staff bookkeeping position. Plus, there's a great deal more time flexibility in freelance work, making it ideal as a side hustle.

How To Start a Remote Bookkeeping Side Hustle

Of course, just because it's possible to earn a high hourly wage as a remote bookkeeper doesn't guarantee you success. Obviously, the odds of turning a remote bookkeeping job into a lucrative side hustle improve if you already have experience doing the work. That makes finding reliable clients simpler and gives you a justification for charging a high hourly rate. However, it's also possible to start a remote bookkeeping side hustle even if you have little experience in the field. Here's a brief step-by-step on how to start a bookkeeping business as a side hustle.

Learn the Ropes

Believe it or not, bookkeeping isn't a difficult job to master. That's because bookkeepers don't have to worry about offering financial advice or aiding businesses with tax filings and the like. A bookkeeper's job is to record a client's financial transactions, including purchases, sales, employee overhead, and other costs. The job does require a reasonable aptitude for mathematics, but anyone who's organized can master it.

The simplest place to start is by...