Deciding whether to hire a bookkeeper or an accountant is often a dilemma for new startups and small business owners. You want someone to stay on top of your finances, handle your records, and help you maintain positive cash flow, but don't know if an accountant or a bookkeeper is the best fit. Although the functions of Accountants and bookkeepers may overlap, there are differences between the roles of the two professionals. To decide which one is best for your business, you need to understand the differences between an accountant and a bookkeeper.
Bookkeeping is the recording of all your business financial transactions. A bookkeeper will create ledgers and journals, and help you record how money comes and goes out of your business. Bookkeepers can work in your office or carry out their functions remotely through online software like QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage.
Bookkeeping is essential for your business financial stability and overall success. The duties of a bookkeeper include:
Depending on your type of business, a bookkeeper may carry out more duties than those listed above.
The accounting process starts where the bookkeeping function ends. Accounting involves the interpretation, classification, analysis, report, and summarization of the data prepared by the bookkeeper. In simple terms, an accountant helps you understand the financial condition and performance of your business by analysing the financial data prepared by a bookkeeper.
Although an accountant can perform some of the duties of a bookkeeper, the role of an accountant is more of analysing your financial data and giving you financial advice. Some of the duties of an accountant include:
Big businesses will be fine with both an accountant and a bookkeeper. However, if you are a startup or a small business, hiring both professionals may not be cost-effective, and it is okay to choose one.
You should know that hiring an accountant is more expensive than a bookkeeper. If all you need is to stay on top of your finances, keep accurate financial records, process payroll, tax filing, maintain positive cash flow, and more, a bookkeeper may be all that you need. However, if your business requires more complex functions like corporate reporting, auditing, and more, you should go for an accountant.
If you are on a budget, you can outsource your bookkeeping and accounting needs rather than employing an in-house professional. Outsourcing this function will cost you a fraction of the cost of keeping the professional in your office.
Lukro Ltd is a bookkeeping company based in Peterborough. We offer online bookkeeping services to help startups and small businesses stay on top of their finances. What more, we work together with accountants to provide the best bookkeeping services in the UK and help our clients grow their businesses.
Want to ask questions or make an inquiry? Please, contact us now. We'll be happy to help.
Written on 09-04-2020
This article was written by Agnieszka - a professional bookkeeper with several years of experience in the financial service industry. Agnieszka works with Lukro Ltd, the accounting and bookkeeping company provides professional and friendly bookkeeping and business support services to individuals, sole-traders, partnerships, and small businesses. We help welders, plumbers, engineers, electricians, hairstylists, beauty therapists and many more.
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