A bookkeeping virtual assistant for Melbourne practices.
The inner-Melbourne professional and clinic belt, the practices clustered through Richmond, Cremorne, Carlton, South Yarra and the CBD, runs on monthly and quarterly rhythm: month-end reconciliation, the BAS cycle, end of financial year. Underneath all of it is a steady load of inbox, uploads and data entry that does not need a registration and never stops. A bookkeeping VA takes that processing off your qualified people so their hours go to review and the BAS-agent work, for a fraction of a local accounts hire.
Book a free discovery callThe processing a Melbourne bookkeeper should not be doing
A bookkeeping practice earns on a single ratio: how many client files each qualified bookkeeper can carry. That number is capped by the processing load, not by their skill at the registered work. Here is what shifts to a VA, and where the line holds:
The VA carries the processing
$25-35/hr AUD
- Inbox filing and sorting, so client correspondence stops piling up unactioned
- Source documents uploaded and filed through Dext, Hubdoc or your Dropbox folders
- Data entry into Xero and MYOB: invoices, receipts and light coding
- Bank-reconciliation prep and clearing the unreconciled items before review
- Onboarding and document chasing: getting the paperwork clients never send on time
- Deadline and lodgement-reminder admin across the quarterly BAS cycle
The registered work stays with your agent
~$35-45/hr local hire
- BAS lodgement and tax advice stay with your registered BAS or tax agent (Tax Practitioners Board)
- A local accounts hire base is only part of it: + 12% super guarantee from hour one
- + WorkCover through WorkSafe Victoria, lighter for office work but still a real premium
- + leave, recruitment, and the idle hours between the month-end and BAS peaks
- + VIC payroll tax at 4.85% above the $1M wage-bill threshold, which most practices never cross
- Admin-only support sits lower again at $12-17/hr for the inbox, uploads and chasing
Rates are indicative and built from current Melbourne pay levels, the 12% super guarantee, WorkSafe Victoria WorkCover guidance and State Revenue Office Victoria payroll-tax thresholds, with the BAS-service boundary set by the Tax Practitioners Board. Your own numbers will land somewhere in the range; the shape holds.
Where this fits across the inner-Melbourne practice belt
The Richmond, Cremorne and Carlton bookkeeping cluster
Bookkeeping and accounts practices are thick on the ground through the inner-east warehouses of Richmond and Cremorne and the professional blocks around Carlton. Small teams there carry a full client book with no spare body for the processing. The VA takes the inbox, the uploads and the data entry so your bookkeepers stay on the files that need their judgement.
Bank-rec prep and document chasing
Coding the feeds and chasing the receipts, invoices and statements clients are always slow to send is the load that quietly caps how many files one bookkeeper can hold. The VA preps the bank reconciliation, clears the obvious items and runs the chasing through Dext, Hubdoc or Dropbox, so the file is review-ready when your agent picks it up.
The South Yarra and CBD professional-services firms
The accounting and advisory firms along the CBD and through South Yarra run client onboarding constantly: chart-of-accounts setup, feed connection, historical catch-up, always mid-quarter when there is no slack. The VA absorbs the onboarding admin and the lodgement-reminder tracking so a new file does not stall the existing book.
One Melbourne contact, the work done in Manila
You deal with a Melbourne business for onboarding, billing and any issue on AEST, while the processing is delivered remotely from Manila two to three hours behind your day. Australian accountability on the relationship, offshore rates on the work, and a file that stays current without an onshore salary behind it.
Melbourne bookkeeping questions, answered straight
Can a virtual assistant lodge BAS for our Melbourne clients?
No, and the line on this is firm. Preparing, lodging or advising on a Business Activity Statement for a fee is reserved for agents registered with the Tax Practitioners Board under the Tax Agent Services Act. The VA stays underneath that boundary: sorting the inbox, uploading receipts to Dext or Hubdoc, entering invoices into Xero and MYOB, prepping the bank rec and chasing the documents you are waiting on. Your registered BAS or tax agent reviews, signs and lodges. The data work moves to the VA; the lodgement and the advice stay with the agent who carries the registration.
Does a Manila-based VA actually overlap our Melbourne workday?
Yes. Manila sits two hours behind Melbourne in standard time and three through daylight saving, so a Richmond or Cremorne practice has someone working the file through the local morning and into the afternoon. You set the hours during onboarding around your own diary and the deadlines you work to. DotVA itself is run from Melbourne, so the relationship, the billing and any issue is handled on AEST by people in your city, even though the processing is delivered remotely.
What does a bookkeeping VA cost next to a Melbourne hire?
Bookkeeping-capable VAs run at $25-35/hr AUD, and lighter admin support, the inbox sorting, uploads and document chasing, sits at $12-17/hr, billed only for the hours you book. A local bookkeeper or accounts assistant in inner Melbourne lands at roughly $35-45/hr effective once you add the 12% super guarantee, WorkCover through WorkSafe Victoria, leave and the idle hours between jobs. These are estimates for comparison, not a quote. None of the on-costs sit on the VA arrangement.
Which tools will the VA work inside for a Melbourne practice?
The ledgers, Xero and MYOB, for light data entry and bank-reconciliation prep; Dext and Hubdoc, or your Dropbox folders, for uploading and filing source documents; and Karbon for keeping the practice workflow and client jobs current. We match a VA with prior accounts or bookkeeping exposure where possible, and onboarding covers your chart-of-accounts conventions and your file standards before they touch a live client ledger. They work to your standards under your agent oversight, not their own interpretation.
Will I owe Victorian payroll tax or super on a VA?
No. Because DotVA places the VA as a managed remote contractor rather than a staff member you employ, the arrangement attracts no superannuation, no WorkCover premium and no Victorian payroll tax. For context, the VIC payroll-tax rate is 4.85% and applies only once your wage bill passes the $1 million threshold, which most inner-Melbourne bookkeeping practices sit under, while super and WorkCover land on a genuine hire from the first hour. With the VA you pay one hourly rate and nothing underneath it.
Is our clients financial data safe with a VA?
Yes. Every placement gets a 1Password Teams seat for credentials, and access is role-scoped to the files and functions the VA needs, with the practice owner keeping the master controls. A confidentiality agreement is signed on day one, on both sides. For a Melbourne bookkeeping practice holding client financial records, the same care you apply to a local accounts hire applies here, with the added control that access is granted and revoked centrally rather than walking out the door with a person.
Book a free discovery call
Thirty minutes with Jenn, DotVA's founder. Walk her through your client book, the tools you run and where the processing piles up, be that bank-rec prep across a Richmond practice or onboarding for a CBD firm, and she will give you a straight read on whether a bookkeeping VA or lighter admin support fits, and where the cost lands. You match in 7-10 days, there is a 30-day guarantee, and the deposit is a refundable $500. No obligation.
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