
Bookkeepers in the United States are not legally required to obtain a license, but they can participate in several voluntary certification programs. No, a separate office isn’t necessary for a bookkeeping business. As your business grows and you hire employees, you can consider whether to rent office space or keep working remotely. Some popular options include QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks and Zoho Books, among others. You can read more about our ratings for various business accounting software here. You should be familiar with more than one software as some of your clients may have a preference in terms of the accounting software that they’d like you to use.
They ensure their team is fully trained and has the skills necessary to be your in-house virtual bookkeeper. So whatever you do, don’t rush the recruiting and hiring process. Having a bookkeeper that matches your needs will eliminate the stress and anxiety of doing this work yourself or having someone else do it who may not have the skills necessary. By providing accurate and up-to-date financial information to help steer your business, a dependable bookkeeper should make your life easier and less stressful. Many companies have a background check policy to run a criminal background check on all new hires.
- With a reliable bookkeeper, you can focus on your business instead of constantly worrying about cash flow and expenses.
- Intuit will also provide a webcam, headset, USB hub, Ethernet cable, backdrop, and VPN token.
- Business owners or accountants can then use these statements to gain insight into the business’s financial health.
- We use product data, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content and guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.
- Accountants and auditors are typically required to hold at least a bachelor’s degree (BLS, September 2022).
- 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.
Evaluate the candidate’s proficiency in accounting software, such as QuickBooks, Xero, or other relevant platforms. Check their knowledge of Microsoft Excel and other software tools commonly used in bookkeeping. Look for candidates with relevant educational backgrounds, such as a degree in Accounting, Finance, or https://accountingcoaching.online/ a related field. Pay attention to the candidate’s work experience, particularly if they have prior experience as a bookkeeper or in a similar financial role. Katherine Haan, MBA is a former financial advisor-turned-writer and business coach. For over a decade, she’s helped small business owners make money online.
Perform financial tasks
When selecting a bookkeeping style, business owners have several options. Learn how QuickBooks Live Assisted Bookkeeping can help you streamline your bookkeeping and free up time spent on finances. Having your accountant file your taxes should feel like a quick hand-off, not a prolonged arm wrestling match. When you fall behind on bookkeeping, your books stop reflecting the actual state of your finances. That makes it harder (sometimes impossible) to understand cash flow and accurately gauge the health of your business.

The Talent Acquisition team is dedicated to connecting people with exciting career opportunities and partnership within Intuit. Using your job board of choice, you can scan for bookkeepers in your area with the experience you seek. Most bookkeepers should have at least some experience with Microsoft Excel. Use our free Excel test to assess your candidates before hiring. Bookkeeping certifications are totally optional, unlike accounting, where a CPA designation is mandatory.
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Most accounting software allows you to automatically run common financial statements such as an income and expense statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement. Business owners or accountants can then use these statements to gain insight into the business’s financial health. To find a bookkeeper, you need to go where candidates are—job boards. I recommend posting to at least three different job boards so you get a good mix of applicants.
You can find services for as little as $20 per month while others run thousands per month. Remote bookkeeping services, like firms, have multiple employees. This lets them avoid the kinds of service gaps that may crop up with an individual freelancer.
These offices may have particular insights about companies and roles in their area. Aspiring bookkeepers don’t need work experience to apply for entry-level roles. However, bookkeepers need more work experience for CB certification than they do for CPB licensing. The AIPB requires candidates to have two years (or 3,000 hours) of work experience before they seek certification. If your prospective bookkeeper does, you should consider what you’d do if they’re sick or call out for other reasons—have a backup plan in case your bookkeeper is out of office. You can also ask friends or colleagues who have utilized bookkeepers for their businesses.
Bookkeeping Tools and Software
Read on to learn how to hire a bookkeeper, tips and questions to ask, and the benefits of handing over the work to the pros. When manually doing the bookkeeping, debits are found on the left side of the ledger, and credits are found on the right side. Debits and credits should always equal each other so that the books are in balance. The bookkeeper is generally responsible for overseeing the first six steps of the Accounting Cycle, while the last two are typically taken care of by an accountant.
In the process of doing so, they’re able to spot obvious deductible expenses such as mileage. According to a Gallup poll, 39% of small business owners work more than 60 hours a week. For pricing, we considered whether a service offers a free trial or a free version of its software as well as the affordability of its lowest and highest price tiers.
Our Salary Calculator provides real-world salaries by location and can help you determine what level of compensation bookkeepers in your city or state might expect to earn. An active membership in a professional group also helps a bookkeeper stay current with news, trends and best practices in the industry. Also, members sometimes carry professional indemnity insurance through these groups, which offers added peace of mind for you.
What are the signs that I need a bookkeeper?
If you opt to hire a bookkeeping employee and want more in-depth tips, check out our guide to hiring employees. With a reliable bookkeeper, you can focus on your business instead of constantly worrying about cash flow and expenses. Ultimately, a proficient bookkeeper gives you invaluable insight into your company’s finances, allowing investors use leverage ratios to gauge financial health you to make better decisions. To save time, use our free bookkeeper job description template, which you can tweak according to your business needs. And, continue reading for other considerations when you are looking for a bookkeeper. Botkeeper is best for accounting firms that want to scale by automating bookkeeping tasks.
You’ll get a dedicated accountant, year-round tax advice, tax prep, bookkeeping and financial reports. Kelly Main is staff writer at Forbes Advisor, specializing in testing and reviewing marketing software with a focus on CRM solutions, payment processing solutions, and web design software. Before joining the team, she was a content producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist covering small business marketing content. She is a former Google Tech Entrepreneur and holds an MSc in international marketing from Edinburgh Napier University.
However, you will likely need to complete a degree program and other certifications to be an accountant or move beyond a bookkeeping role. We offer a full guide on how to write a job description, but there are a few points we want to call out here specifically for bookkeeping. As stated, it’s dependent on your company’s needs and how you plan to grow your business. Even if you aren’t planning on growing any time soon, you need to have a sense of how much money is coming in vs. what is going out.