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Bookkeepers oversee a company’s financial data and compliance by maintaining accurate books on accounts payable and receivable, payroll, and daily financial entries and reconciliations. They perform daily accounting tasks such as monthly financial reporting, general ledger entries, and record payments and adjustments. More often than not, a financial analyst is an outside consultant hired by a business to come in and take a magnifying glass to the company’s financials. Many financial analysts work for banks and other financial institutions, helping decide whether to lend companies money.
Becoming a controller or comptroller requires deep accounting knowledge, so the person in this role usually has a lengthy job history of prior accounting roles. The controller manages the full scope of the company’s accounting records, dictating bookkeeper synonym how they’re kept and where they’re stored. They assemble the organization’s budget, ensuring line items align with the year’s revenue projections. Most employers prefer hiring new bookkeepers who will learn from more senior professionals.
Vice President of Accounting/Finance
If you’re a person who loves data and crunching numbers, a job as a financial analyst might be for you. To become a CFO, you’ll need to have a background that gives you a firm grasp on various areas of finance, from budgeting to compliance. Most CFOs have held a number of the other roles we’ll discuss in this article, oftentimes jumping from company to company as they climb the ladder.
As such, our advice may not apply directly to your individual situation. We are not financial advisors and we recommend you consult with a financial professional before making any serious financial decisions. Otherwise, if you are looking for a more advanced bookkeeper, you will want to go with someone who has more experience, like a Certified Bookkeeper. They will have a lot more knowledge, expertise, and skills under their belt. If you are just starting out, you might look into hiring a less educated and less expensive bookkeeper/accountant. In fact, you should expect to pay anywhere from $300 – $2,000 a month or more for having a bookkeeper on retainer.
Bookkeeper Skills
Before we dive deeper into the question at hand—What does a bookkeeper do? Typically, your company will not need to hire one outside of situations of an employee committing financial fraud against you. However, the Director and the CFO are essentially the same in some companies. Some companies lack a VP; others have a VP sitting between the C-level and the Director. Directors of Accounting or Finance are often more in touch with specific policies and techniques than top-level strategic vision. Essentially, their job is to be ruthless in pursuit of profit and have their plans tempered by other C-levels whose interests lie in preventing the damage the unchecked CRO can do.
An accountant, on the other hand, takes those recordings one step further and provides subjective insights drawn from them. An accountant may work internally for a company, focusing only on that organization’s financials. Or, they might work for an accounting firm that handles the books for many different organizations.
Synonyms of bookkeeper
Like a CFO, the VP of finance has a heavy hand in the company’s financial activities. Generally speaking, a CFO takes a broader, deeply strategic approach to steering the financial ship. At the same time, a VP of finance deals more closely with the company’s day-to-day financial operations. Bookkeepers must keep thorough, up-to-date records of organizational financial transactions.
They typically work for a company, managing that company’s finances, or they own and operate their own independent practice. They might perform a variety of tasks, including managing a company’s payroll, taxes, and various other payments. Bookkeeping is the recording of financial events that take place in a company. Any process of recording financial data is considered bookkeeping and is the first step of data entry into the accounting system. Standard methods of bookkeeping are the double-entry bookkeeping system and the single-entry bookkeeping system. Good bookkeeping practices are essential for a business to succeed, especially when it comes to the tax-paying season.
However, it helps to have a two- or four-year degree in accounting, finance or related discipline. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), https://www.bookstime.com/ accountants earn a median annual salary of $73,560. The BLS projects that jobs in this field will grow by 4% from 2019 to 2029.
Bookkeeping requirements also cover reconciliation, the process of comparing internal records with bank records to ensure there are no discrepancies. Some bookkeepers pursue certified bookkeeper certifications offered by two national bookkeeping associations. The NACPB offers a certified bookkeeping professional (CPB) designation, and AIPB confers a certified bookkeeper (CB) license.
Unlike accountants, bookkeepers mainly keep track of financial data, rather than analyzing it to make decisions. Some bookkeepers, especially those with bachelor’s degrees in accounting, may decide to become certified public accountants (CPAs). CPAs have similar job responsibilities to bookkeepers, but must also analyze data, suggest best practices, and make predictions. As an alternative to accounting, bookkeeping is an appealing field for professionals who want to work with financial statements and computers. This profession has fewer entry-level requirements than accounting, meaning that individuals may be able to become bookkeepers more quickly than they would accountants.