How to Hire the Right Bookkeeper for Your Small Business Bench Accounting

Specializing in a career field can help to set you apart and lead to career stability and longevity. You may also be expected to take on more advisory and analytical roles as bookkeeping becomes more automated. There are many bookkeeping businesses, so you’ll have plenty of choice. You could contact one directly, or you could ask if your business partners or clients have any recommendations. The team works with Intuit’s Tax and Bookkeeping experts, recruiters, and thought leaders. It provides valuable resources, insights, and opportunities to help people achieve their career goals and business ambitions.

Get free guides, articles, tools and calculators to help you navigate the financial side of your business with ease. The amount bookkeepers charge will depend on where they’re located, experience, industry type, and other services needed. Accountants are usually more skilled and in a more advanced position than bookkeepers. Being an accountant usually involves a higher level of interpreting and forecasting numbers than bookkeepers, who mainly just keep the records. If the prospective bookkeeper operates in a firm with multiple employees, there will be more hands on the day-to-day processes.

Process

1. Looking for a job can be intimidating, but there are numerous resources at your fingertips.
2. Calculating it is tough if your bookkeeping is out of date or you don’t have financial statements on hand.
3. Take advantage of books that are 100% accurate from bookkeepers with over 10 years of experience for confidence and peace of mind.
4. Bookkeeping is a great place to start if you’re hoping for a way to break into the finance industry.
5. With a proper bookkeeping solution in place, you can get updates on your cash flow every month.

Depending on the organization’s size, keeping track of business expenses and reconciling business statements may be your responsibility. A proper financial data management system can provide valuable, actionable insights and prevent problems, such as skimming fraud. As a bookkeeper, you oversee the first steps of the accounting cycle, while an accountant typically handles the last two. The size and scope of a business will determine whether the company needs a part-time bookkeeper, full-time specialist bookkeeper, or an entire accounting department. Financial institutions, investors, and the government need accurate bookkeeping accounting to make better lending and investing decisions.

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A good bookkeeper who understands your business’s needs can help you out during the rest of the year. Because a firm coordinates the work of multiple employees, it’s unlikely you’ll encounter the same service gaps you might expect from a single freelance bookkeeper. You don’t need to worry about your bookkeeper getting sick or leaving on vacation, since your books can be picked up by other other bookkeepers at the firm. With the growing popularity of cloud-based services, many firms work remotely with clients. In this case, you’ll need to become acquainted with and use the same bookkeeping services your firm does.

You’ll also explore how to become one and find suggested cost-effective courses that can help you gain job-relevant skills today. A few employers offer on-the-job training for bookkeepers by providing internships and placement programs. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), most bookkeepers can learn the profession’s basics in about six months 3. Once you become a qualified bookkeeper, you can work as a permanent employee or freelancer. As we’ve covered in this guide, a bookkeeper is highly valuable to a small business and can provide more services than just financial recording and compliance.

A virtual bookkeeper must meet the same educational requirements as an in-house or in-person bookkeeper. Therefore, you should consider the education opportunities discussed above. You may be able to get on-the-job training through a bookkeeping job that only requires a high school diploma, such as an internship or training placement. You may also pursue certification programs or use online courses to become a self-taught bookkeeper. The average salary for a bookkeeper in the United States is about $43,000 per year. To be an accountant, you generally need education requirements like a bachelor’s degree in accounting.

Prepare bank deposits.

A firm may employ a range of bookkeepers, from beginners to experts. It’s important to ask if they guarantee a certain level of quality, so the accuracy doesn’t change from person to person. There are lots of places online to find what is a joint cost definition meaning example a quality freelance bookkeeper, but Upwork.com is a good place to start. Just look for a bookkeeper with high reviews from other customers like you. The time a bookkeeper puts into your business is determined by how many transactions you process per month, whether you have employees, and how complex your industry is.

Bookkeeper salary

Two of the most common are single-entry bookkeeping and double-entry bookkeeping. If you’re ready to build job-ready skills in bookkeeping, consider enrolling in the Intuit Academy Bookkeeping Professional Certificate. Learn more about what bookkeepers do and how to get started in this career. This content has been made available for informational purposes only. Learners are advised to conduct additional research to ensure that courses and other credentials pursued meet their personal, professional, and financial goals. The expected job decline is primarily due to cloud computing and other software innovations automating bookkeeping tasks that a person would normally do.

Look into the industry-specific expertise they have to get a better idea. You may also want to see if they’ve handled bookkeeping for other businesses that are around the same size and structure as yours. Become familiar with the prospective bookkeeper’s qualifications and credentials. Since nearly anyone can call themselves a bookkeeper, you’ll want to ask about their background. Many bookkeepers will have a degree in accounting, be a CPA, or even be registered with the Tax Practitioners Board.