I am a licensed accountant who spent four years at a mid-sized audit firm in Manila. The work was solid and the experience was invaluable, but the commute, the rigid hours, and the ceiling on what I could earn locally made me restless. I had a young family and I wanted to be present for them — physically present, not just home by 9pm after a two-hour bus ride.
I built my OnlineBestJobs.ph profile carefully, highlighting my Xero and QuickBooks certifications alongside my CPA credentials. I was upfront about my experience level and what I could genuinely deliver. My first client was an Irish small business owner who needed monthly bookkeeping and BAS-adjacent reporting. We worked together for six months before he referred me to two of his colleagues.
I now carry five bookkeeping clients — four in Australia and one in Canada — and manage their monthly close, reconciliations, payroll data preparation, and financial reporting. I work from home in Iloilo, school my daughter's pickup fits neatly into my schedule, and my monthly income has grown to nearly three times my audit firm salary. I upgraded to Pro after my first three months and it was worth every peso. The quality of enquiries improved noticeably and my profile now consistently appears to the clients I actually want to work with.
