What does a bookkeeper do?
Simply put, bookkeepers help businesses keep their finances organised by keeping an eye on everyday accounts, transactions, and reports. They organize, collect, and store the business’s financial records, including bank reconciliations, and Profit and loss statements. Bookkeepers make it possible for business owners and accountants to budgets, identify trends, and plan for the future.
As a business owner, one of your primary responsibilities could be keeping tabs on your product. Your bookkeeper collects the receipt, enters the transaction into the general ledger, and files the record into your financial database.
As a dedicated business owner, you may want to oversee daily operations. For this reason, many business owners decide to take on bookkeeping tasks. If you are good with numbers and organization, this option might work for you. However, if you decide to do your own bookkeeping, it’s important to consider the time-consuming tasks and how they might take away time from other responsibilities.
What is the difference between bookkeepers and accountants?
Someone can say that bookkeepers and accountants are the same. People often talk about these two professions interchangeably. But there are key differences between them that you’ll want to note before hiring a bookkeeper or other financial professional.
Good bookkeepers help business owners manage their finances by documenting transactions, paying and issuing invoices, generating reports, and recording accurate financial data. Bookkeepers can also present your business’s financial standing. But what do all of these figures really mean, and where do you go from there? That’s where an accountant comes in.
Accountants use the records a bookkeeper provides and their own expertise to help build budgets, assess finances, and make business decisions. Additionally, an accountant may oversee a bookkeeper’s work.
When comparing accountants and bookkeepers, know that an accountant may also be a bookkeeper. But entry-level bookkeepers are not accountants. Familiarizing yourself with what a bookkeeper does and what accounting clerks do can help you narrow down your financial needs. Reach out today to see how a virtual assistant can help you organise your accounts.