Bookkeeper vs. Accountant / Which Is Right for You?
Updated: Jun 20, 2022
“I have an accountant/CPA; why do I need a bookkeeper🧐?”
Us bookkeepers hear this quite a lot. So today, I will take some time to break down the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant and why you need BOTH!
Bookkeepers
We are your day-to-day support pillar. We help you manage your transactions in real-time to have an up-to-date understanding of your financials. Some bookkeepers work daily; this is pretty common for industries with high transaction volumes like: restaurants, barbershops, laundromats, car washes, etc. Others work weekly, monthly, or quarterly; this is determined based on your business needs.
We also:
📑Collect financial Documentation
✍🏽Record Transactions
📋Organize Chart of Accounts
🔍Classify Transactions
Having all this work done actively makes it so that when tax season comes around, with only a few strokes of our keyboards, we hand off your financial statements to your tax preparer to review and file. Our biggest client only did 15 minutes of work for his tax filing…. All it took was an email introducing me to his CPA, and we took care of the rest!
Accountants
Accountants/CPAs/EAs are the ones who come in at the end of the fiscal year and review our work. They go through your categories and make adjustments based on previous years’ bad debts, adjust categories to complement a tax strategy you have in place, and ask any clarifying questions they may have. They are typically the people you sit down with to talk about long-term business goals and the tax ramifications. They advise you on tax statuses and any changes you may need to make to your legal structure.
Imagine having a two-step verification system that you leverage to scale your business:
Step One: Organize and tracks everything
Step Two: Sees the bigger picture and legally sets you up for success. (AND helps prevent paying out too much in unnecessary taxes)
Let’s Get Your Team Setup
Most people have the accountant part down, but they haven’t onboarded a bookkeeper yet. And now I’m here to ask you: Are you ready to get your two-step team setup?
We offer our $99 QuickBooks Diagnostic service. This service is a great way to start our relationship. By having us go through your current setup, we provide you with a detailed report of what needs improvement. From there, you can either decide to use our services to get organized or use our report to begin navigating the cleanup process solo. We make the report pretty detailed, so if you choose, you still have a great resource to help you move forward.
I hope this breakdown was helpful for you. And as always, I love feedback and interactions. So comment below, and hit me up on Instagram; I’m here for you.
See you next time!