A bookkeeper is a professional accountant who prepares company accounts and documents daily financial transactions. A Bookkeeper is responsible for maintaining detailed records of purchases, sales and other financial transactions, such as purchases, expenses, invoices, and payments. The general ledgers, which are used to create the balance sheet and income statement, will be utilized to record the financial information. The recording of a company’s financial transactions may vary depending on different institutions’ or individuals’ preferences and practices. A bookkeeper oversees and reconciles hundreds of financial transactions at the corporate industry level. With the help of accounting software systems, the work of a bookkeeper can be more efficient.
Any business needs bookkeepers. A bookkeeper plays a crucial part in the data input and data collection phases of the accounting cycle for a business. Accounting software can avoid financial bookkeeping problems such as skimming fraud. HashMicro provides the best accounting software that can help your company in completing the company’s financial books. You can also view the pricing scheme calculations for the HashMicro accounting software to facilitate your business.
Table of Content
Bookkeeper Responsibilities
Bookkeeping requires careful analysis and just enough legal knowledge; it goes beyond just entering numbers into a spreadsheet. In small businesses, the two key activities are bookkeeping, data entry and bank reconciliation. All other bookkeeping tasks fail without them. The bookkeeper’s monthly reports are another duty.
Every company must have a bookkeeper. Because bookkeepers play an important role in inputting and collecting company financial data, a bookkeeper has important responsibilities. Broadly speaking, the responsibility of a bookkeeper is to record all transactions of the company’s financial data. Here’s a breakdown of bookkeeping responsibilities:
- Recording of debits and credits
- Monitor any variances from the projected budget
- Maintain an accurate, up-to-date record of financial transactions
- Update and maintain the general ledger
- Maintain the trial balance by a reconciliation of general ledgers
- Some bookkeepers are involved in strategy development because their reports go to business owners and managers to help them make decisions.
- Preparing annual financial reports and tax returns.
- Producing invoices and managing payroll
Also read: The Importance of Accounting Software for Fintech Industry
Bookkeeper Skills
Although licensing is available, bookkeepers are not obliged to be certified to manage the books for their clients or employers. Bookkeepers can get accredited and licensed through the American Institute of Professional Bookkeepers (AIPB) and the National Association of Certified Public Bookkeepers (NACPB). A bookkeeper who has earned professional certification demonstrates their dedication to the field, proficiency in it, and willingness to keep learning new approaches and strategies. Here are some skills that an experienced bookkeeper must have:
- Basic accounting knowledge
- Data entry skill
- Understanding accounting best practices
- Knowledge of IFRS, U.S GAAP, or another accounting framework
- Proficiency in Microsoft Excel
- Produce work with a high level of accuracy
- Professionalism and organization skills
- Associates degree or at least one year of experience
- Knowledge of accounting applications
Difference Between Bookkeepers and Accountants
The task of entering transactions into the system is the responsibility of a bookkeeper, who is engaged in the broader and more public practice of accounting. The trial balance, a consolidation of all the public ledger accounts, is typically given by a bookkeeper to an accountant, who then uses it to create the balance sheet, the income statement, and ultimately the statement of cash flows.
To put it another way, bookkeepers establish the foundation for accountants to gather data, evaluate it, and create financial statements. Bookkeepers use software to aid in the recording of transactions, and they typically make use of built-in data processing tools to assist in the creation of financial statements as well as predefined transaction categorisation to increase the efficiency of transaction recording.
A bookkeeper can be seen as an accountant, but a bookkeeper cannot be an accountant without the appropriate accreditation.
Also read: 4 Financial Reporting Components You Need to Know
Conclusion
As you can see, a bookkeeper is an important part of the company in charge of recording the company’s financial transactions. Every company must have a bookkeeper because bookkeepers play an important role in inputting and collecting company financial data. A bookkeeper oversees and reconciles hundreds of financial transactions at the corporate industry level. With the help of accounting software systems, the work of a bookkeeper can be more efficient.
HashMicro provides the best accounting software that can help your company in completing the company’s financial books. By using accounting software from HashMicro, your work in recording company finances becomes more efficient. You can also view the pricing scheme calculations for the HashMicro accounting software to facilitate your business.