What is a Bookkeeper?

In the first installment of the Finance Department series, we overviewed most of the positions you would find in a small business Finance Department. Now, we will take a deeper look at the Bookkeeper role. If you haven’t read What are all these Finance Positions Anyway, you can do that here.

Let’s start off by saying, a majority of the time, if you have a Bookkeeper on staff or are looking to hire one, this article will be for you. However, if you already have a functioning Finance Department, no matter how large or small, this one might be worth skipping. Keep your eye out for the next article in the series, to shed some light on your existing Finance Department.

What is a Bookkeeper? 

We spent some time talking in the previous article about what a Bookkeeper or Accounting Specialist is, so let’s review. The Bookkeeper will be responsible for all daily accounting, from paying bills to sending out invoices and collections. For a lot of early phase businesses Bookkeepers will be the one and only person in your accounting department.

A Bookkeeper should not be doing your reconciliations (if you don’t know what reconciliations are, you should give us a call). Why? The short answer is controls. A company should never have one person doing all of the accounting and reconciliations, this allows for the possibility of embezzlement and just really bad accounting practices. Ensuring that there are at least two people looking at the books ensures that entries are done accurately and there is oversight. A Bookkeeper will work in conjunction with the owner or managing partner to ensure that the in’s and out’s of your business are being captured.

When do I need a Bookkeeper?

You need a Bookkeeper when the daily entries are taking up too much of your time as the business owner or you are not comfortable doing things correctly (are you googling what to do too often?). It can be when you are ready to take your expertise and grow your business and pass the work off to someone else. There are part-time Bookkeepers and Bookkeeping Services you can hire if you aren’t ready to commit or don’t have enough work for a full-time employee. But it is always a good idea to consider hiring someone to take over if you spend 3-5 hours/week entering transactions yourself.

What are the pros and cons of getting a Bookkeeper?

Let’s start with the con of getting a Bookkeeper and the big elephant in the room, COST. Let’s be honest, as a small business owner, it can be hard to justify additional costs. When it comes to your accounting, you can get by for quite some time doing it yourself. But just like in any other position, you want to surround yourself with people who are experts in their field because it allows you to put your expertise where it belongs.

Pros. Taking the work off your plate. Time is something that you can’t get back. Hiring someone to come in and take over the bookkeeping will give you your time back. Having someone come in who knows what they are doing will reduce your stress exponentially. 

When is a Bookkeeper not enough?

You might not know when it’s time to hire someone more skilled than a Bookkeeper, so give us a call or shoot us an email. We love to help figure this stuff with you.

Next up, we will be taking a closer look at the Staff Accountant. Stay tuned!