There are many different tasks that a bookkeeper is required to carry out so having the right qualifications for the job is the place to start before pursuing it as a career. The most common main duties of a bookkeeper are;
- Account balancing (also known as double entry bookkeeping), meaning they must analyse the transactions for that period and ensure the credit side of the account is equal to that of the debit.
- Completing VAT returns, this basically shows the amount of VAT paid on your sales and then the amount deducted from the amount of VAT you pay on your purchases.
- Wages if working in payroll, with this instance they simply have to work out the amount the employee is to be paid dependant on how their wage is paid either a set salary, by the hour or products produced.
After they have the gross amount they are responsible for making sure the right amount for Tax and other expenditures such as National Insurance is paid before they receive the Net amount.
- Profit and loss charts, they usually complete one each year and it consists of them working out how much net profit they have made. They do this by taking the amount of expenses (wages, cost of products, tax, insurance etc) off the income amount once all expenses have been deducted they have the net profit.
Training for the position can be done in various ways you can take the route through college courses taking courses such as NVQ levels 2 through to 4 in Accounting. Or you could also take an AAT which is a qualification that can be taken from an intermediate level to a technician level, so because it can be taken from such a basic level the requirements to access the course won’t be as advanced as other courses. For further training bookkeepers can take an ICB Level 3 in bookkeeping (either computerised or manual).
Once you have gained a certain level of knowledge of the business and have enough qualifications it may even be possible for you to start your own bookkeeping business. Most people that have their own business tend to start with a small client base and gradually start to introduce other staff to aid them when their client base becomes too large for them to handle alone. Some people that have part time jobs can even do some of their bookkeeping work in their spare time so it’s a very flexible profession in that sense.
There are so many variations of bookkeeping work available and bookkeepers are generally needed in most lines of business. There are also many to be found online or if you have an accountant they may be able to advise you of a bookkeeper they think would be suitable for your needs.