Challenges that are faced by online accountants

The days when you were guaranteed steady employment anywhere are long gone, and increasing job cuts and losses have forced many people to consider alternative revenue sources. According to a 2015 research initiative by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for instance, the reveal was that close to 16 million Americans were self-employed – some either due to job losses or choosing to enter freelancing work early enough.

Regardless of the freelancing field you choose to enter and follow, there are some challenges that you will likely face and need to overcome. There are plenty of advantages that come with freelance accounting like allowing you to pursue your passion and skip annoying clients, but you cannot experience it without its accompanying problems. In this article, we will look at five of them.

Some client requests are unclear

Vague assignments are annoying, to say the least. They not only waste your time, but they also waste the time and money of your clients, and yet it still happens. You may come across some clients who may want you to do some record filing for them, for example, but you are unsure what the goal is and so do they – in fact, they expect you to do the clarification task for them.

When you become a freelance accountant, you can learn to save yourself and the client trouble and time by insisting to them that they make their intentions clear as early as possible. In addition, drafting a contract can help, because they know you will not do some tasks beyond a certain point.

Some clients taking a micromanaging approach

Any freelance accountant will likely want their clients to know what they are looking for before they hire you. With that said, it does not mean you want clients hovering over your shoulder monitoring your work until you are done.

Any client that takes this approach will easily leave you feeling frustrated and stressed, which does not provide you with the headspace you need to produce high-quality work. There are even cases when you may resort to completing the work of the client instead of being creative enough to explore other solutions, simply because you feel you are under a lot of pressure.

In order to prevent this from happening, it is essential to set clear expectations and guidelines, as well as regulating some habits like the time you answer emails.

Clients becoming unreliable

Among the challenges that comes with working on a freelance basis is having uncertain workloads, because your income stream is undefined. The money you make varies on the frequency of jobs, and it can change from week to week, month to month. What makes it more frustrating is working with a client who proves unreliable, regardless of whether they promise you work yet under deliver, or whether they back out of a project once you already set the terms with them.

Since you are aiming to succeed in the freelance realm, you need to set your own expectations with the client before you begin the online accounting jobs at dormzi or any other organization. Even though you cannot compel your client base to deliver work on a schedule, they should pay you extra if they are rushing through the job.

Communication issues

Being a freelancer is rewarding, as long as you avoid working with an annoying client that never communicates with you. Not knowing what the expectations are will set you up for a stressful experience, although the problem is more prevalent when you work with clients who are very new to the idea of working with a freelancer.

This is because they may forget at times that you have a life away from work, and you are not always present in an office to hear of new developments or meetings. Because of this, it is important to tell the client about your own communication preferences and the amount of feedback you want – and ensure you stick to your agreements with them.

Late payments

While some clients may end up paying you lower than your work’s worth, others will pay late – or not at all. The good news is that you have options of following up – keeping records of the clients who owe you and knowing who has a tendency of late payments and telling them to pay you before you commence the task.

While you may not control your clients’ behavior as a freelancer, it is possible to manage the expectations and challenges that come with the job.