You may have discovered that by owning your own business you spend hours upon hours trying to keep track of the accounting paper trail instead of doing what you enjoy. Wouldn’t you rather use your strengths and skill set to build your business rather than having to worry about accounting issues?
Can you answer the following questions at any given time?
These questions reveal the fact that there is a lot more to keeping a proper set of books than just knowing how to write a check.
What is a bookkeeper?
A bookkeeper is usually employed by a small to mid-size company to record its transactions such as sales, purchases, payroll, collection of accounts receivable, payment of bills, etc. A very small company might use the services of a bookkeeping firm that employees bookkeepers.
Since bookkeepers typically do not have a four-year accounting degree, an accounting firm will review the financial statements prepared by a company's bookkeeper.
A bookkeeper does the day-to-day hands-on tasks: making sure new employees file all the right paperwork for the company's payroll, submitting invoices (promptly) and following up on them, and paying the bills. The bookkeeper also tracks company expenses and can assure that every cost has been entered -- and recorded correctly -- into software like Xero so that the business is ready for tax time along with filing any other reporting.
Can you answer the following questions at any given time?
- Who owes me?
- Who do I owe?
- Did I make enough money this month?
- When was that financial statement due anyway?
- Am I meeting my filing deadlines?
- How do I accurately process payroll?
- What about taxes (sales, property, income)?
- Am I keeping up with corporate record compliance?
These questions reveal the fact that there is a lot more to keeping a proper set of books than just knowing how to write a check.
What is a bookkeeper?
A bookkeeper is usually employed by a small to mid-size company to record its transactions such as sales, purchases, payroll, collection of accounts receivable, payment of bills, etc. A very small company might use the services of a bookkeeping firm that employees bookkeepers.
Since bookkeepers typically do not have a four-year accounting degree, an accounting firm will review the financial statements prepared by a company's bookkeeper.
A bookkeeper does the day-to-day hands-on tasks: making sure new employees file all the right paperwork for the company's payroll, submitting invoices (promptly) and following up on them, and paying the bills. The bookkeeper also tracks company expenses and can assure that every cost has been entered -- and recorded correctly -- into software like Xero so that the business is ready for tax time along with filing any other reporting.