What Does A Bookkeeper/Accountant Do
The Government of Canada describes the job of a bookkeeper/accountant as follows:
“Accounting technicians and bookkeepers maintain complete sets of books, keep records of accounts, verify the procedures used for recording financial transactions, and provide personal bookkeeping services. They are employed throughout the private and public sectors, or they may be self-employed.”
Sounds simple enough, right? The real questions are, what do those duties entail? What can they do for your business? What is their work like? Keep on reading if you’d like those questions answered!
The Duties of a Bookkeeper/Accountant
The job of a bookkeeper/accountant encompasses many different tasks and skills. Some of those include:
Keeping track of your company’s cash balance
Creating, issuing, and following up on invoices
Preparing cheques for payroll, bills, taxes, and anything else your business might need to write cheques for
Preparing various reports, such as balance sheets and cash flow statements
Tracking and filing taxes
And so much more!
Bookkeepers/accountants do a lot of the tedious but necessary monetary business of your company. They’re the duties that take a lot of time and require a good amount of knowledge to do well and efficiently. They make sure that nothing goes unnoticed, which is very important considering your business’s finances have to also fulfill government requirements.
The Difference Between a Bookkeeper and Accountant
Although from the sound of this blog, the role of a bookkeeper and accountant seem very similar, there are still some differences between the two roles.
To begin with, one of the most simple differences is their training. While a bookkeeper is required to have the proper training to perform their required tasks, such as recording and categorizing financial statements, an accountant generally has a bachelor's degree in accounting and is well-trained in interpreting financial records so that they have the ability to make useful suggestions to your business.
“Bookkeepers generally prepare the financial records using accurate data and the accountants make thorough analyses of these records and the business finances. Accountants can also give you useful suggestions on ways to conserve costs and boost profit margins and help you better understand the financial impact of business decisions.” - Accounting Mississauga
What a Bookkeeper/Accountant can do for your Business
A bookkeeper/accountant can benefit you and your business in many different ways. Other than the obvious way--saving you a ton of time--they can do things such as help you to make better budgeting decisions by keeping track of exactly where your money is going. They’ll have all the information to make things simple in case of an audit. You don’t have to be stressed about keeping your books in order or worrying about payroll because they’ve got that covered.
“Let’s be honest, keeping your books organized is hard! When running an entire business, keeping on top of your bookkeeping seems impossible. Keeping your books all neat and organized is the last thing on your mind. Even so, you need to keep it organized.” - Signal Operations
There is so much a bookkeeper/accounting can do for your business--that’s why most businesses have one! Bookkeeping and accounting take a certain amount of training that lots of people don’t have and might not have time to learn on top of the rest of their work. Plus, no matter how much you know about bookkeeping and accounting, you don’t always have the time.
Focus on where you matter in your company and allow a bookkeeper/accountant to do the rest!
Do you use a bookkeeper/accountant? Let us know in the comments below!
If you need some more help figuring this all out or need any other bookkeeping/accounting help, book a discovery call.