How to Become a Bookkeeper A Complete Guide

When you’re already working 60+ hour weeks and you’re exhausted, it can be easy for things to fall through the cracks. Not to mention the fact that overwork can lead to burnout, which means time away from your business and clients. If you’re not billing client hours, you might not lose direct dollars by doing your own bookkeeping, but you could still miss out on growing your business indirectly.

Client-Facing Expert Bookkeeper (Remote/ Year Round)

• According to ZipRecruiter data, Palo Alto, CA, has the highest typical bookkeeper salary at $65,010 – 28.5% above the national average of $50,573.
• These firms specialize in bookkeeping and accounting, so their specialists will likely be more experienced and provide greater expertise than hiring an in-house bookkeeper.
• You’ll also have to consider the cost of benefits if you hire a full-time employee to do your bookkeeping.
• We looked at all-in-one tools, such as QuickBooks, as well as specific tools for mileage tracking and expense management.
• Marketing the services that add value to your clients outside of your typical responsibilities is a great way to increase revenue.

…Wondering how much I should be paying a bookkeeper to handle my company’s books each month. For this client, I do some tallying of their hourly employee amounts and then note how much is deducted for their health insurance and retirement savings. All I need to do is fill out the spreadsheet, and then I send it off to the payroll department. To illustrate what a medium client looks like, I’ll be using a law firm I do bookkeeping for that generates about $800k in revenue a year.

Price Your Services

There is a number of key advantages to outsourcing your bookkeeping, including lesser costs, greater value for every dollar spent, and other tangible business-related factors. Full-time employees also tend to be more involved with the company for which they work, and you should receive greater long-term benefit from working with someone who knows your business bookkeeping price packages thoroughly. However, there are slightly more sophisticated ways to package your bookkeeping services that encourage repeat clients, and maximize profits. In an ideal world, all your clients would be ongoing at a fixed or value-based billing structure. They would know what services to expect from you, and you could charge an automatic, monthly fee.

• (Based on data from Bureau of Labor Statistics, Salary, Payscale, Glassdoor, and Indeed.) This comes out to $3,200 – $3,520 per month, or an average hourly wage of $20 – $22.
• Block Advisors offers full-service packages with a dedicated accountant who does your bookkeeping for you.
• The final rate that is shown is the result of a combination of concrete and intangible elements.
• Your accountant will need to fill in the gaps in your records — which means they’ll ask you to collect all your proof of purchases from the last year.
• For medium to large-size business owners, full-charge bookkeepers can also manage payroll.

Merritt Bookkeeping: Best for businesses on a budget

Some tasks QuickBooks Live bookkeepers perform include providing assistance in setting up charts of accounts, categorizing transactions, reconciling accounts, preparing financial reports, and more. Unlike certified public accountants, bookkeepers don’t file tax returns or audit financial statements. Unless they are a certified public accountant (CPA), bookkeepers should not prepare tax returns or sign the returns as a paid preparer.

ways Intuit helped me start a successful tax career

Accurate and timely bookkeeping allows you to make sound financial decisions. Ignite Spot Accounting is best for businesses that want bookkeepers who are certified in popular bookkeeping programs. To illustrate the cost efficiency of a part-time bookkeeper, consider the following example.

Earn bookkeeping certifications.

Manage payroll.