What does a bookkeeper do?
What is the difference between a bookkeeper and an accountant? Curious why an accountant can’t handle the same tasks? 
Bookkeeping is a transactional and administrative role that handles the day-to-day task of recording financial transactions, including purchases, receipts, sales, and payments. Tax accounting is more subjective, providing business owners with financial insights based on information taken from their bookkeeping data.
Bookkeepers excel at day-to-day tasks, ensuring precise records and providing expert guidance on PAYG, Super, Income Tax, and more. Open Bookkeeping Australia can assist you with these crucial obligations, allowing you to focus on growing your business.
Bookkeeping, in the traditional sense, has been around as long as there has been commerce – since around 2600 B.C. A bookkeeper’s job is to maintain complete records of all money that has come in and gone out of the business. Bookkeepers record daily transactions in a consistent, easy-to-read way, and their records enable the accountants to do their jobs.
These are some typical bookkeeping tasks:
- Recording financial transactions
- Posting debits and credits
- Producing invoices
- Managing payroll
- Maintaining and balancing ledgers, accounts, and subsidiaries
The bookkeeping industry has transformed over the past 10 years. No longer are bookkeepers considered the “poor cousin” of tax accountants. They are certified in the accounting software, such as QuickBooks Online or Xero, members of professional associations and have professional indemnity insurance. They have a deep understanding of how the numbers work and many have now expanded their service offerings into advisory. Going well beyond “just bookkeeping”, they are providing their clients with accurate and reliable information and advice so that clients make informed decisions for growth and profitability.
There are two things that bookkeepers are not trained, or qualified to do:
- Offer tax advice.
- Offer financial advice.
Tax advice is the job of the Tax accountant and financial advice is the job of a Financial Planner.
What does an Accountant do?
A Tax accountant’s primary role is to give the business owner tax advice and file tax returns. They can also analyse the financial data, prepared by the bookkeeper, to provides business owners with important business insights based on that information.
These are some typical tax accountancy tasks:
- Verifying and analysing data
- Generating reports, performing audits, and preparing financial reporting records like tax returns, income statements, and balance sheets
- Providing information for forecasts, business trends and opportunities for growth
- Helping the business owner understand the impact of financial decisions
A proactive Tax accountant may also offer insights into the overall financial health of your business, offer tax saving advice, and help you make strategic decisions based on industry benchmarks and forecasting.
