Bookkeeping Salary, Certifications and Career Outlook

Bookkeeping still offers a stable career path that does not demand advanced degrees or extensive training. Some parts of the United States also expect to see above-average demand for qualified bookkeepers in their local labor markets. You might want to acquire additional funds for your business to feel more confident by securing extra cash for emergency purposes. Diligently processed financial statements over an extended period can be a kind of insurance for you to receive the needed investment. As the business grows, you might have to enlarge your bookkeeping and accounting team to help you with cash flow for more than just the tax season. Young businesses often get away with doing their accounting and bookkeeping responsibilities themselves.

• Both bookkeepers and accountants need to be comfortable working with numbers all day.
• Before joining the team, she was a Content Producer at Fit Small Business where she served as an editor and strategist covering small business marketing content.
• It’s a process that tells the financial story of your business, including if your business is profitable or if you’re suffering a loss.
• Bookkeepers may start working for a small business to gain experience and then go back to school for a degree in accounting or finance.
• Bookkeepers and accountants can learn specialized skills as they progress through their degree programs and gain on-the-job experience.
• From this viewpoint, bookkeeping offers an appealing path to an accounting career.

If you’re looking online for bookkeeping certifications, you’ve probably already run into information about accounting programs. While there are similarities between bookkeeping vs. accounting are similar, these two fields are not the same. A bookkeeping certification is an official demonstration of a person’s bookkeeping skills. It’s a way to show your skill set to potential employers and others in your professional network.

Advantages of an accountant

On the other hand, bookkeepers working for accounting and related services averaged $36,130 per year in 2012, a difference of almost $40,000. Bookkeepers and accountants both work with financial records, but accountants have a higher level https://www.bookstime.com/articles/cost-principle of responsibility. Bookkeepers focus on recording daily transactions, such as income and expenditures, and producing reports. Accountants oversee financial records and systems for best practices, efficiency and compliance with the law.

If you’re just starting out as a bookkeeper, earning a certification can help you stand out from the competition. Keep reading to discover what else a bookkeeping certification can offer. Bookkeepers still play important roles on accounting teams, especially in the small business world. This bookkeeper salary guide explores ways for emerging and established bookkeepers to improve their job prospects and earning power.

What Is Accounting?

Caryl Ramsey has years of experience assisting in different aspects of bookkeeping, taxes, and customer service. She uses a variety of accounting software for setting up client information, reconciling accounts, coding expenses, running financial reports, and preparing tax returns. She is also experienced in setting up corporations with the State Corporation Commission and the IRS. One possibility is to start out by hiring a bookkeeper to handle all of the books and financial reporting and then hire a CPA down the road to handle your taxes during tax season.

I  estimate that a bookkeeper’s salary will be less than half of an accountant’s salary. For example, an accountant with a year or two of experience might earn $60,000 per year while a bookkeeper will earn less than $30,000 per year. More experienced accountants will be able to earn higher salaries but bookkeepers will not see significant salary increases.

Differences between bookkeeper and staff accountant duties and responsibilities

The following analysis compares the education requirements, skills required, typical starting salaries, and job outlooks for accounting and bookkeepers. Staff accountants are employees who are part of the company’s accounting department. Previous accounting experiences play a huge advantage in their success. Staff accountants should have good communication skills, analytical skills, and decision-making skills.

• According to leading labor market analytics firm EMSI, the median annual salary for a bookkeeper is $42,411.
• Taking the next step in maintaining your company’s records can seem daunting, but there are plenty of options available that will make it easier for you to stay focused on growing your business.
• Bookkeepers and accountants generally need different degrees and training to begin their careers.
• Typically, professionals in bookkeeping and accounting spheres work together.
• However, master’s degrees in accounting are usually designed for professionals in more advanced or technical positions.

The rate an accountant or bookkeeper charges depends on several factors. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2021, the national average hourly rate for bookkeepers was $21.90 per hour and for accountants, $37.14 an hour. Accountants make more due to their educational background and if a CPA, their certification.

Again, education and certification play a role in the different salary amounts. The average salary for a CPA can be even higher if you decide to work for one of the Big 4 accounting firms. In order to avoid the confusion caused by the sometimes blurred lines between bookkeeping and accounting, one can see them as being a part of one accounting cycle. Recording of data is a part of the process, and both accountants and bookkeepers contribute to successful tax filing.

Additionally, Staff Accountant has a higher average salary of $54,216, compared to Bookkeeper pays an average of $40,337 annually. As pioneers in online higher education since 1989, University of Phoenix is an accredited online university for working adults. Our students are supported every step of the way, including career services for life. An accountant’s duties include verifying that financial records comply with relevant regulations and standards. In this career, you might also complete tax returns, assess budget performance and financial operations, and work on financial risk management. As a bookkeeper, you might create financial reports such as balance sheets for nonpublic companies.

Compared to other major employment sectors for bookkeepers, they host relatively few jobs. As such, candidates should expect a more competitive landscape if applying for available openings. These industries generally provide specialized services to clients that do not employ bookkeepers bookkeeper vs accountant salary internally. In 2020, they combined to account for more than 11.5% of all bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks working in the United States. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) groups bookkeepers with accounting and auditing clerks in its job-related data.

Knowing the differences between the two can help people find their niche in the industry and can give guidance to companies on who to hire for their needs. A bookkeeper can manage most of these tasks, but an accountant takes them further by using those financial statements to offer valuable financial advice. Since accountants use the information gathered by bookkeepers to prepare larger financial statements and reports, the accounting process wouldn’t be possible without the help of bookkeepers. The highest-paying industry for accountants is the securities and commodity business, where 70 workers averaged $96,260 annually in 2012, according to the BLS. An additional 23,650 highly paid accountants averaged $90,560 working for the federal government.