Bookkeeping Jobs — Bookkeeping Careers Explained

If you are considering your accounting career options, you may be wondering, «what about bookkeeping careers?», or «what bookkeeping jobs are there?» or «what does a bookkeeper do?» Well, people with bookkeeping degrees or those who have worked their way up to this position from an entry level position in a company are responsible for recording financial transactions, which is an extremely important role that must be taken seriously. These transactions include sales, purchases, income and payments for an individual or organization, such as a commercial business or service providing agency. Although bookkeeping is considered an accounting career, having an accounting bookkeeping job is much different from being an accountant.

Bookkeeping Degrees

Bookkeeping degrees prepare individuals to go straight into bookkeeping jobs as soon as they are done with their schooling. The education programs will typically include common methods of bookkeeping such as the single-entry bookkeeping system and double-entry bookkeeping system. Anyone whose primary function is to record financial transactions is a bookkeeper, though, regardless of the system they use. Bookkeepers are the ones who are there to record the financial transactions of an organization on a daily basis in what is referred to as a daybook, which consists of purchases, sales, receipts and payments. They may also use a supplier’s ledger, customer ledger and general ledger. Without this crucial information, accountants would not be able to put together income statements and balance statements for a company.

Bookkeeper Job Description

Most traditional bookkeepers still use the single-entry bookkeeping, which is the cash book. It is like the transaction register for a checking account, but it allocates income and expenses to various income and expense accounts instead of just tracking deposits and withdrawals. Double-entry bookkeeping, on the other hand, adheres to a set of financial recording rules where every transaction or event impacts at least two different accounts. The system typically uses debits and credits as an error-detection system, because if the sum of debits does not equal the sum of credits, then a mistake has been made.

Hopefully this has helped explain the answer to «what does a bookkeeper do?» or «what bookkeeping jobs are there?» Anyone who is meticulous and good with numbers can consider a bookkeeper job with a good job outlook by obtaining one of the many bookkeeping degrees available.