What does a bookkeeper do?
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A bookkeeper is someone who keeps your books ranging from inputting transactions, making sure your bank account matches your balance sheet also known as one of your financial reports, all transactions are categorized in the correct category for example office supplies, gas, utilities and etc. We do the tedious work for the company to ensure reports are ready for the CPA for tax time or your tax preparer at the end of the year.
We categorize transactions, both online and offline:
We look at your books daily and make sure the transactions are correct and ensure there are no fraudulent transactions occurred on the accounts. We ensure all transactions are categorized from personal to business. We teach our clients to put all their information in a software so that all financials can be tracked electronically instead of having everything on paper. Electronic transactions are better in a software so that they cannot be lost and if a computer or electronic device crashes you can just purchase a new one and pick where you left off.
We help with business decisions:
We prepare your books to get any loan or make better business decisions because you will know exactly where your business stands financially.
Knowing If You Have Enough Cash Flow: Basically, we take out he guess work of trying to figure if you either have enough money to afford a purchase for the business or if you can really afford it financially to make a purchase for the business.
Analyzing the Success Of Your Business: Most important we care about the success of your business and it is very important to know where your business stands in the financial world. When you guess then your business is possibly headed the wrong directions.
Smooth Operations During a Pandemic: We want to ensure that you have enough funds in your account to be able to function in a time of a pandemic when business may slow down.
Planning for Seasonal Cash Flow Variations: We ensure that you know when your busiest time of the year where income is great and the times when it slows down. We sit down with you and compare what you did from year to year and in some cases how you are doing month to month compared to other months or years.
What is the difference between a bookkeeper and CPA?
A CPA does audits and ensure that the bookkeepers report and numbers are correct. They also ensure that the business is in compliant with IRS and most CPA’s can represent you with the IRS if you have an audit or may need other assistance with the IRS. They typically don’t like to do what the bookkeeper does however they do work hand in hand in helping each other. Most businesses think they need a CPA all year but typically they do not but I advise them to have one for tax season if your bookkeeper don’t have one for you to make sure you are in compliant with all the new laws and rules for that year. All businesses should build a great relationship and trust with their business so that they can trust them but be available when they need them. As a bookkeeper we should always educate our clients to ensure they understands the needs of their business in order to be successful and the importance of having a CPA as well.