Do you want financial experts to look after the company’s finances? Are you looking for guidance in financial aspects? Hire yourself a certified accountant. Or should you hire a bookkeeper? Or both? Ah, it doesn’t sound very clear! Well, we use the terms bookkeepers and accountants interchangeably, despite their differences in education, certifications, pay rates, and job responsibilities.
Precisely, bookkeeping is a starting point, a short-term career, where requirements are lesser and pay is lower but respectable. On the contrary, the accountant position demands formal certifications and offers a higher pay scale. It can be your rewarding long-term career choice as it is one of the most competitive fields. We can say bookkeepers assist accountants in creating financial statements. But don’t take bookkeeping as an easy task because they must be attentive to every detail to record the information correctly.
Bookkeeper vs Accountant
You must be thinking about which professional you need to resolve your economic problems. What is the bookkeeping vs accounting difference? Does bookkeeper vs accountant salary differ? Let’s dive into it!
What Do Bookkeepers Do?
Talking about the accountant vs bookkeeper job, bookkeepers are more suitable for SMEs to keep their day-to-day finances straight and records accurate. Generally, they play an essential part in numerous daily operations related to clerical and administrative departments by identifying even the tiniest hidden mistake. Bookkeepers are entitled to pen down supplementary information to keep your business in compliance with the IRS.
Responsibilities:
- Keeping track of each financial transaction, showing, credits, debits, and balances
- Generating and disbursing invoices
- Making payrolls
- Recording receipts
- Processing paycheques
- Creating budgeting/budget records
- Checking if financial records are meeting the criteria of federal documentation
- Tracking journal entries
- Completing bank reconciliations
- Identifying overdue expenses
- Responsible for calculating regular tax deductions
- Looking after the company’s general ledger
- Maintaining a balance sheet
Qualification/Eligibility:
How to become a bookkeeper? It might surprise you, but to become a bookkeeper, all you need is to be extra good in mathematics and calculations, along with the skill to give keen attention to minute details. Bookkeepers don’t require any formal education. If you intend to become an accountant, you can get some experience as a bookkeeper beforehand.
Companies usually prefer individuals with certifications, but it can be optional if the candidate is competent.
What Does an Accountant Do?
Unlike bookkeeping which is a detail-driven job, accountants are expected to look into a broader perspective while working on a different path in the financial management process. They are more acquitted with the representation of financial rules & laws. We can categorize bookkeepers as administrators, but accountants are titled “professional consultants” with the responsibility of helping the company investigate their business’s books.
They take up the data collected by a bookkeeper, deliver additional insight, and make financial decisions with their high-level analysis to lead the department.
Responsibilities:
- Looking after the big-picture company’s financial issues
- Shaping the business’s financial structure
- Minimizing tax liability by finding legal ways to save tax money
- Anticipating cash flow
- Generating financial statements
- Helping you apply for business loans
- Advising regarding the interest rates
- Studying overall day-to-day expenses and signifying points where
- money is wasted
- Filing error-free tax returns
- Preserving knowledge of tax law and procedures
- Business Consulting
- Financial management advice
Qualification/Eligibility:
When we talk about financial accounting vs bookkeeping services, the major difference lies in their qualifications. Where you can become a bookkeeper even after completing school, you need higher education such as a master’s and a universally accepted certificate to become an accountant. He must be a licensed professional who has passed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certification test and studied accounting in college or any other finance subject as a major.
Other Differences Between Accountants and Bookkeepers
| Accountant | Bookkeeper |
| They are only consulted when needed. | They work with other teams. |
| Have a lower pay rate. | Charge higher fees. |
| Must have a formal educational background with a CPA exam. | Needs no formal training to avail of the position. |
| Must have a better understanding of state-level tax and financial laws. | Demands no acquaintance with tax laws. |
| More focused on creating financial analysis & policy. | More focused on bookkeeping software & maintaining a general ledger. |
Hire Accountants and Bookkeepers for Full-Time, Part-Time, or On a Project Basis
Whether you need to hire a bookkeeper or an accountant remotely to cut down significantly on in-house hefty team expenses, Winnors can lead the way!
We help you hire remote accountants and bookkeeping staff to keep essential business financial operations streamlined, complete all your pending tasks, remove bottlenecks in the administrative procedures, establish a smooth workflow, and improve client-facing actions. Winnors BPO is a reliable bookkeeping and accountant staff provider who carries deep knowledge of their fields.
Contact us to find highly dedicated personnel with cross-sector expertise and restructure their administrative developments.
